Chapter 8: Create and Edit Text

Overview

Illustrator provides an elaborate set of features that give you incredible control over the appearance of type. You can shape text along a path , package it inside an object, align text vertically (instead of the usual left to right), and generally cast text like molten metal to flow into your illustration.

Illustrator CS integrates several helpful new features for managing type. Most dramatic is the ability to easily access thousands of characters from a single set of extended fonts called OpenType fonts. In addition, Illustrator CS supports type and paragraph styles (explored in Chapter 9) that allow you to save and apply sets of formatting features to selected text or paragraphs.

Other Illustrator tools allow it to function as a scaled-down word processing utility, letting you perform basic editing, formatting, and even spell checking on your text.

On the downside, the folks at Adobe have been careful not to copy and paste too many text formatting features from their InDesign desktop publishing program. If you want to design and lay out a multipage brochure, or access relatively basic features such as easy drop-cap formatting, you ll bump up against the limits of Illustrator.