Adobe Illustrator is not only an excellent tool for creating graphics and images but great for playing with text and typography design. There are different tools you can use to add text and edit text.
Using the Type tool in Adobe Illustrator is the simplest method for editing text. From the Tools menu, select the Type tool. After that, the text can be freely modified by adding a line or a paragraph, formatting it, moving it along a route, or altering its appearance.
My name is Aly, I am a graphic designer and use Adobe Illustrator daily. In this article, I will be showing you how you can easily add and edit your text in Illustrator. You will discover how to format text, put text on a path, resize text, and edit or add a line of text or a paragraph in this article.
Appearance Panel
Follow the steps below to learn to add and edit the text using the Appearance panel.
Note: You can open all the panels I mention in the tutorial from the Window menu on top of your Illustrator document. Simply click Window and choose the panel you want to open.
Step 1: Click on the artboard, choose the Type Tool (keyboard shortcut T), and type your text there. In the character panel to the right, choose the font you want to use and change the size.
Step 2: Choose a color from the Color panel, the Color Guide panel, or the Swatches panel to alter the fill color of the text. You could even use a gradient to fill the words.
Step 3: The same as changing the fill color, you can change the stroke color as well. For this example, I am choosing to use a blue color for my stroke. To make the color thicker, increase the stroke size to the right.
Paragraph Panels
Text will remain a text object when edited using the Paragraph and Character panels.
Step 1: To access the paragraph panel, select Window > Type > Paragraph.
Step 2: You can change the text alignment, indent options, and space before/after a paragraph in the paragraph panel. By selecting the word Paragraph in the Control panel’s top-left corner, you may also reach the Paragraph panel there.
Character Panel
To access the Character panel, select Window > Type > Character. You can alter the following choices in the Character panel:
- Font
- Font design (bold, italic, etc.)
- Script size
- Kerning (Is the space between letter pairings)
- Leading (Refers to the distance between lines)
- Tracking (Distance between each letter)
Creating Outlines
You also may access and edit each letter and its anchor points separately by making outlines of the text. Go to Type > Create Outlines (Ctrl/Command + Shift + O) with the text object selected.
You may also select Create Outlines from the context menu when you right-click on a text item.
Each of these ways works great, it’s up to you to figure out what you prefer best. Make sure your text is selected before trying to edit it.
Final Thoughts
Use Illustrator’s selection tool whenever you are modifying text (black arrow). You can click and drag to choose any quantity of text when using the Selection tool.
The Character and Paragraph panels are located on the right side of the workspace, and once your text has been selected, you can modify its font, color, size, and other features there.
Overall figuring out how to add and edit text is very simple and if you are thinking about using Adobe Illustrator continually or professionally this is something that you will absolutely need to know off the top of your head.
I can’t tell you the number of times I have worked with text in Illustrator and needed to know quickly how to edit some parts of the text. Luckily I have practiced these ways and can tell you that it takes not much time to figure all the settings out and in the end, it will only help you.
Any questions about how to add or edit the text in Adobe Illustrator? Leave a comment and let me know.
