Converting Type to Paths in Illustrator

The type possibilities in Illustrator are nigh infinite. To make them truly infinite, you need take only one step — convert the type to paths. You gain absolute control over every point of every letter of every word of type.

Edit carefully and spell-check the text before you convert it. After you convert text to a path, you can’t edit it as type. You also can’t highlight it with the Type tool and retype it, change the font, or anything editorial like that.

You may want to make this conversion for the following reasons:
-->To manipulate type like you do any other object in Illustrator: Type stops being type and becomes just another Illustrator path, at which point you can do absolutely anything to it that you can do to other paths.
-->To bypass the need for the font files associated with the type: If you give someone a graphic file containing a type that isn’t installed on the recipient’s computer, the graphic won’t display or print properly if opened in Illustrator or placed into a page-layout program. Converting the type to paths creates a file that displays and prints exactly as you created it, regardless of the fonts installed on the recipient’s computer.

This action is also a good way to make sure that the text can’t be retyped. You should always convert text to paths for any logo that you send to other people, which helps guarantee that the logo will always look how you created it.

To convert type to paths, follow these steps:
1. Use the Selection tool to select the type that you want to convert to a path.
Okay, you’re altering type, so you should be able to do this by using the Type tool — but you can’t. This is just one of those little frustrations that have been around for years in Illustrator.
2. Choose Type➪Create Outlines.
All the points that make up the type suddenly appear, enabling you to edit the Type while you edit any other object in Illustrator. Why the name Create Outlines? Only some long-gone Adobe programmer knows for sure. A better name might be Create Paths from Text, which is what this command really does.

Using Type as a Mask in Illustrator

Illustrator enables you to do a remarkable number of things to your type, but some modifications seem forbidden. For example, if you try to fill type with a gradient, the type just turns black. And what if you want to get really fancy and fill text with another piece of artwork that you create in Illustrator? There’s just no way you can do that!

Or is there?

By using the Clipping Mask feature, you can create the appearance that text is being filled with a gradient, artwork, or anything that you can put the text in front of. And what can’t you put text in front of? Absolutely . . . nothing! (Say it again, y’all. . . .)

A clipping mask is a special feature of Illustrator: It uses the front-most object (called the clipping object) to hide the objects behind it in a unique way. Everything outside the clipping object is hidden, and the fill and the stroke of the clipping object become transparent, enabling you to see whatever’s behind and apparently filling the clipping object. A type mask is what you get when you use type as your clipping object. This may sound strange but will make a lot more sense after you create a type mask of your own.
Creating a type mask is simple. Here’s how:

1. Create the artwork you want to fill your type with.
This can be absolutely anything. The only catch is that it must be bigger than the type that you want to use as fill.
For example, if you want to fill your text with a gradient, you create a rectangle (or any other object provided that it’s larger than your type) and fill it with a gradient, or create the artwork that you want to fill the type with. You can even use a pixel-based image, such as a scanned photograph of your loved one. The only stipulation is that whatever you fill the text with must be larger than the text. Think of the text as a cookie cutter and the object you’re filling the text with as cookie dough. You cut away everything outside the text.
2. Create type in front of whatever you want to fill the text with.
Create your type by using the ordinary Type tool. Using the Character palette, choose a font size large enough so that the type is almost (but not quite) as large as the artwork behind it. If you already created your type, select it with any selection tool and choose Object➪Arrange➪Bring to Front and drag it in front of your object.
3. Use any selection tool to select the text and the object or objects behind the text and then choose Object➪Clipping Mask➪Make.
To select multiple objects, just hold down the Shift key while clicking each of them with any selection tool.
After you choose Object➪Clipping Mask➪Make, the fill and stroke of the text disappear and are replaced by the contents of whatever is behind the text. Anything outside the area of the text becomes invisible, or masked-out.

With type masks, the text is still ordinary text. You can highlight the text, change the font, type in different words, and so on, while retaining the masking properties.

Any time that you want to make the text stop masking out what’s behind it, select the text and choose Object➪Clipping Mask➪Release.

Flowing Type from Path to Path in Illustrator

Any text that’s within a shape (area type or rectangle type) can be linked to other paths so that the text flows from one path to another. For instance, a story about a pesky fruit fly can start in a path in the shape of a banana and then continue automatically into normal rectangular columns of text. Whenever changes occur in the text within the banana shape, the text in the rectangle moves accordingly.

This process works by selecting the path that currently has text in it along with another path (or paths). You then choose Type➪Blocks➪Link. The text flows from shape to shape in the chronological order that they were created.

If you don’t see any change when you choose Link, your first text box probably doesn’t have enough text in it to overflow into the linked box. Just type more in the first text box, and flowing will prevail. To undo the link, choose Type➪Block➪Unlink.

Adjusting the Path (Not the Type)
After you create path type, area type, wrapped type, or linked blocks of type, you may discover situations in which you want to change only the path and not the type. By default, if you select the path and the type together, you change only the type. So how can you change the path?

The secret to changing the path is to use the Direct Selection tool to select the path and then make your changes to the fill and stroke.

Typing Around a Path in Illustrator

Typing around paths is sort of the opposite of typing within an area; type flows around the outside of a shape (or shapes) rather than within a shape. This technique is referred to as a text wrap or a type wrap. You don’t have a special tool for flowing type around paths, but you do have to choose a command with both the type and the path selected.

To flow text around the outside of a shape, follow these steps:
1. Create a text box by clicking and dragging with the Type tool.
2. Type text into the box until it’s full.
3. Create a path by using any of the Illustrator tools and place the path in front of the text.
You get the best results by using a closed path rather than an open one. You can use as many paths and text boxes as you want. All text wraps around all paths.
4. Choose the regular Selection tool from the Toolbox.
5. Select the text and the path by holding the Shift key while clicking each of them.
6. Choose Type➪Wrap➪Make.
The text flows around the shape.

The most important thing to do when you wrap text around a path is to make sure that the path is in front of the text. Typically, if you try to make text wrap around a path and the procedure doesn’t work, the shape is probably behind the text. If this happens, click the path with the Selection tool and choose Object➪Arrange➪Bring to Front, which moves the object in front of the text. Select the path and the text again and then choose Type➪Wrap➪Make. To undo the wrap, choose Type➪Wrap➪Release.

You can use several shapes for the text to wrap around, or you can add a shape later by selecting the new shape with the Selection tool, along with the existing text and/or shape objects, and choosing Type➪Wrap➪Make.

Typing Inside a Path in Illustrator

An interesting feature in Illustrator is the typographical capability to flow text within any shape. The shape acts as a container for the text, and the text fills the shape — matching it as closely as possible. For example, you can have a listing of the members of the California House of Representatives flow within a shape of the state of California.

To get text to flow within a specific shape, follow these steps:
1. Create a path by using the Pen, Pencil, or any of the basic shapes tools.
This works best with a closed path, but the one shape you shouldn’t flow text into is a rectangle because that’s identical to creating a text box, which defeats the purpose.
2. Select the Area Type tool from the Toolbox.
3. Click the path through which you want type to flow.
4. Start typing.
While you type, text flows within the object.

For best results with text, make sure that you activate (click) Justify All Lines in the Paragraph palette. This feature spreads lines of type evenly to the left and right edges of the path. In addition, use fairly small type because large letters usually can’t fill in the details of the path.

You can adjust the path of area type just as you do any other path by clicking and dragging a point with the Direct Selection tool or by using the Pencil tool to edit the path.

Solving the Age-Old Type-on-a-Circle Mystery in Illustrator

To place type on a circle, you simply click a circle (path) with the Path Type tool and begin typing. Putting text on both the top and the bottom of a circle (without half the text turning upside-down), however, isn’t as easy. All the type on a path must have the same orientation, which can be right-side up or upside down but not a mix of the two.

Read through the following steps to discover how to place type on the top of a circle. Then read through the next set of steps to discover how to put type on the bottom of the same circle.

Here’s how to put type on the top of a circle:
1. Select the Ellipse tool (which looks like an oval) from the Toolbox to draw a circle. Press the Shift key while you draw to change the oval into a perfect circle.
2. Select the Path Type tool from the Toolbox and click the top of the circle.
A blinking insertion point appears on the top of the circle.
3. Type your text.
Notice that the type starts to run down the right side of the circle. Don’t worry; it’s all part of the plan.
4. In the Paragraph palette, click the Align Center button.
You can find the Paragraph palette by choosing Window➪Type➪Paragraph. The Align Center button is the second button from the left along the top row of buttons in the Paragraph palette. After you click the Align Center button, the text centers itself on the top of the circle.

Here’s how to put type in the bottom of a circle:
1. Select the regular Selection tool from the Toolbox and then click the circle text that you created in the previous step list.
An I-beam cursor appears at the point where you click.
2. Press the Alt key (Option on a Mac), hold down the mouse button, and with the Selection tool drag the I-beam to the bottom of the circle.
Don’t releases the mouse button until you move the cursor up into the circle just a bit.
Holding the Alt key (Option on a Mac) duplicates the text while you drag it. Doing so also duplicates the circle that the text is on — but because that circle is invisible, you won’t see it. Moving the cursor into the circle flips the type so that you can read it right-side up on the bottom and at the top of the circle.
3. In the Character palette, click the down triangle of the Baseline Shift field until the type appears outside (below) the circle.
The Baseline Shift field is at the bottom left of the Character palette. If it isn’t visible, choose Show Options from the Character palette’s pop-up menu.
4. Select the Type tool from the Toolbox and then select the type at the bottom of the circle.
5. Type the text that you want to appear at the bottom of the circle.

In this set of steps, you actually create two separate circles with type on them. Because the circles overlap precisely, however, you get the illusion that the type is on just one circle. If you click and drag the circle with the Selection tool, you drag away the circle with the text in the bottom, thus destroying the illusion.

How to Getting Type to Stick to a Slippery Slope in Illustrator

To place type on a path, follow these steps:
1. Select the Pen or Pencil tool from the Toolbox. Using the Pen or Pencil tool, create the path on which you want to place your type.
Don’t be concerned with the fill and stroke of the path; they become invisible as soon as you type on the path.
2. Select the Path Type tool from the Toolbox.
The Path Type tool is hidden in the Type toolslot.
3. Click the path at the place where you want the text to begin.
A blinking insertion point appears at that juncture.
4. Start typing.
The text runs along the path while you type. When you’re done typing, select the regular Selection tool.

After the type appears, you can edit it just as you would edit regular type with the exception that the type is stuck to your path. However, with the type attached to the path, you can move the type along the path in either direction. Just follow these steps:

1. Using an arrow Selection tool, click the path that contains the path type.
An I-beam cursor appears at the left edge of the type.
2. Click the I-beam and drag it along the path.
The type moves while you drag.
3. Release the mouse button when the type is where you want it.
Be careful when you drag the I-beam cursor along the path. If you accidentally move the tip of your cursor below the path, the type flips upside down on the path. (As industry wags say of weird stuff that consistently happens onscreen, “That’s a feature, not a bug!” In this case, it is a feature, believe it or not.) Don’t panic; just move the cursor back above the path and watch while the type rights itself.

Press the Alt key (Option on a Mac) to duplicate text while you drag it along a path. Doing so duplicates both the type and the path. (Even though you don’t actually see the duplicated path, it’s there.)
In the next section, you find out how to use this technique to create type on both the top and bottom of a circle.

Studying Advanced Typography

In this opening post, we describe how to get the most out of type and how to turn Illustrator from a glorified word-processor into an astounding type modifying tool that can do just about anything to type, such as put it on irregularly shaped paths, wrap it around objects, give it an irregular shape, and put objects in it — and that’s just for openers.

Typing on a Path
Many people think that Illustrator is paths. A path is a series of anchor points and straight and curved line segments that define shapes. And putting type on a path has long been one of the greatest capabilities of Illustrator. That said, you’re up against a bizarre learning curve when using type in Illustrator. Initially, getting the type onto the path is pretty straightforward — but manipulating the type after that is a bit harder, and the effort required, such as for putting type on both sides of a circle, is downright silly.