With the rising amount of designers turning to tools like Adobe Illustrator, those who are at the novice level may not be as familiar with the many typography features Illustrator has to offer.  Part 1 of our series on Adobe Illustrator Typography introduces the user to the six Type Tools in the Illustrator Toolbox (sometimes known as functions).  Below you’ll find a description and example of how each Type Tool works.

Type Tool

By using this tool, the user can click anywhere on the canvas or artboard and type out text.  The text will type in the direction native to the language selected.  In the United States, the text will be typed from left to right.

Area Type Tool

The Area Type Tool allows a user to select a closed path and be able to type within the path’s boundaries.  For example, a rectangle or ellipse could be drawn and the user would be able to type text within the boundaries of the rectangle by using the Area Type Tool.

Type on a Path Tool

Draw a line or curve object anywhere on the canvas and use this tool to write along that line.  This tool comes in handy when creating diagonal text for a design.

Vertical Type Tool

This tool has the same properties as the Type Tool, except from a vertical point of view.

Vertical Area Type Tool

Much like the Area Type Tool, the Vertical Area Type Tool allows for a user to write text within the boundaries of objects like rectangles and ellipses. Again, the vertical flow of text is implemented in this tool.

Vertical Type on a Path Tool

Adding a vertical flow of text on a line or curvy path is what this tool was designed for!

Tomorrow, we will be investigating some of the Panels in Illustrator, such as the Glyph and Character to name a few.

EDIT- Here are the rest of the posts on the Adobe Illustrator Typography 101 series:

• Adobe Illustrator Typography 101 – Part 2: The Character Panel
• Adobe Illustrator Typography 101 – Part 3: The Paragraph Panel

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