- Selecting type
- Find and replace text
- Change the color and appearance of characters
- Character panel overview
- Underline or strike through text
- Apply all caps and small caps
- Change capitalization styles
- Specify curly or straight quotes
- Set anti-aliasing options for type
- Creating superscripts or subscripts
- Convert type to outlines
- Choose a number style in OpenType fonts
- Format fractions and ordinals in OpenType fonts
- Use smart punctuation
Selecting type
Selecting characters lets you edit them, format them using the Character panel, apply fill and stroke attributes to them, and change their transparency. You can apply these changes to one character, a range of characters, or all characters in a type object. When characters are selected, they are highlighted in the document window and the word “Characters” appears in the Appearance panel.
Selecting a type object lets you apply global formatting options to all the characters in the object, including options from the Character and Paragraph panels, fill and stroke attributes, and transparency settings. In addition, you can apply effects, multiple fills and strokes, and opacity masks to a selected type object. (This is not possible for individually selected characters.) When a type object is selected, a bounding box appears around it in the document window and the word “Type” appears in the Appearance panel.
Selecting a type path lets you adjust its shape and apply fill and stroke attributes to it. This level of selection is not available for point type. When a type path is selected, the word “Path” appears in the Appearance panel.
Select characters
Select
any type tool, and do one of the following:Drag to select one or more characters. Shift-drag to extend or reduce the selection.
Position the pointer in a word, and double-click to select that word.
Position the pointer in a paragraph, and triple-click to select the entire paragraph.
Select one or more characters, and choose Select > All to select all the characters in the type object.
Select type objects
Selecting a type object lets you apply global formatting options to all the characters in the object, including options from the Character and Paragraph panels, fill and stroke attributes, and transparency settings. In addition, you can apply effects, multiple fills and strokes, and opacity masks to a selected type object. (This is not possible for individually selected characters.) When a type object is selected, a bounding box appears around it in the document window and the word “Type” appears in the Appearance panel.
Do
any of the following:In the document window, click the type with the Selection tool
or
the Direct Selection tool 
. Shift-click
to select additional type objects. In the Layers panel, locate the type object you want to select and then click its right edge, between the target button and the scroll bar. Shift-click at the right edge of items in the Layers panel to add or remove objects to the existing selection.
To select all type objects in a document, choose Select > Object > Text Objects.
Select a type path
Selecting a type path lets you adjust its shape and apply fill and stroke attributes to it. This level of selection is not available for point type. When a type path is selected, the word “Path” appears in the Appearance panel.
Selecting
a type path is easiest when you’re in Outline view.- Select
the Direct Selection tool or
the Group Selection tool
. - If the type object is selected, click outside the object’s bounding box to deselect it.
- Click the type path, being careful not to click the characters. (If you do click a character, you will select the type object instead of the type path.)
Find and replace text
- Click Done to close the dialog box. To
find the next instance of a text string when the Find And Replace
dialog box is closed, choose Edit > Find Next.
Change the color and appearance of characters
You can change the color and appearance of type objects by applying fills, strokes, transparency settings, effects, and graphic styles. The text remains editable as long as you don’t rasterize it.
- Apply fills, strokes, transparency settings, effects,
and graphic styles as desired.
When you change the color of a type object, Illustrator overwrites the attributes of individual characters in the type object.
Use the Control panel to quickly change the color
of selected type.
See also
Character panel overview
You use the Character panel (Window > Type > Character) to apply options for formatting individual characters in your documents. When type is selected or when the Type tool is active, you can also use options in the Control panel to format characters.
For a video on working with character and paragraph styles, see www.adobe.com/go/vid0047.
- A.
- Font
- B.
- Font Style
- C.
- Font Size
- D.
- Kerning
- E.
- Horizontal Scale
- F.
- Baseline Shift
- G.
- Leading
- H.
- Tracking
- I.
- Vertical Scale
- J.
- Character Rotation
- K.
- Language
- A.
- Font
- B.
- Font Style
- C.
- Font Size
- D.
- Align left
- E.
- Align center
- F.
- Align right
By default, only the most commonly used options are visible in the Character panel. To show all options, choose Show Options from the options menu. Alternatively, click the double triangle on the panel’s tab to cycle through the display sizes.
Underline or strike through text
- Select the type you want to underline or strike through. If you don’t select any text, the setting applies to new text you create.
- Do one of the following:
To underline type, click the Underline button
in
the Character panel.To strike through type, click the Strikethrough button
in
the Character panel.
The default weight of an underline and strikethrough depends on the size of the type.
Apply all caps and small caps
When you format text as small caps, Illustrator automatically uses the small-cap characters designed as part of the font, if available. Otherwise, Illustrator synthesizes the small caps using scaled-down versions of the regular capital letters.
- Select the characters or type objects you want to change. If you don’t select any text, the setting applies to new text you create.
- Choose All Caps or Small Caps from the Character panel menu.
To specify the size for synthesized small caps, choose File > Document Setup. For Small Caps, type a percentage of the original font size for text to be formatted as small caps. (The default value is 70%.)
To change the capitalization style of text to uppercase,
lowercase, title case, or sentence case, use the Type >
Change Case command. Change capitalization styles
- Choose one of the following in the Type >
Change Case submenu:
- UPPERCASE
- to change all characters to uppercase.Note: The UPPERCASE command causes discretionary ligatures to revert to normal text. This also occurs with the Title Case and Sentence Case commands when a discretionary ligature appears at the beginning of a word.
- lowercase
- to change all characters to lowercase.
- Title Case
- to capitalize the first letter of each word.
- Sentence Case
- to capitalize the first letter of each sentence.Note: The Sentence Case command assumes that the period (.), exclamation point (!), and question mark (?) characters mark the ends of sentences. Applying Sentence Case may cause unexpected case changes when these characters are used in other ways, as in abbreviations, filenames, or URLs. In addition, proper names may become lowercase.If
you’re using an OpenType font, you may want to take advantage of
All Caps formatting to create more elegant type.
Specify curly or straight quotes
Typographer’s quotes, often referred to as curly quotes, blend in with the curves of the font. Typographer’s quotes are traditionally used for quotation marks and apostrophes. Straight quotes are traditionally used as abbreviations for feet and inches.
Choose File > Document
Setup, and do one of the following; then click OK:To use straight quotes, deselect Use Typographer’s Quotes.
To use typographer’s quotes, select Use Typographer’s Quotes, choose the language for which you want to set quotes, and choose options for Double Quotes and Single Quotes.
Note: You can set quote options for multiple languages. These quotes are applied to text based on the language you assign using the Character panel or Default Language preference.You can
use the Smart Punctuation command to replace straight quotes with typographer’s
quotes.
Set anti-aliasing options for type
When you save artwork in a bitmap format—such as JPEG, GIF, or PNG—Illustrator rasterizes all objects at 72 pixels per inch and applies anti-aliasing to them. However, if your artwork contains type, the default anti-aliasing settings may not produce the desired results. Illustrator provides several options specifically for rasterizing type. To take advantage of these options, you must rasterize type objects before you save the artwork.
Creating superscripts or subscripts
Superscript and subscript text (also called superior and inferior text) is reduced-size text that is raised or lowered in relation to a font’s baseline.
When you create superscript or subscript type, Illustrator applies a predefined baseline shift value and typeface size. The values applied are percentages of the current font size and leading, and are based on settings in the Type section of the Document Setup dialog box.
Create superscripts or subscripts in regular fonts
- Choose Superscript or Subscript from the Character panel
menu. You can access the Character panel from the Control panel.
Superscript and Subscript options in the Character panel menu- A.
- CALLOUT_DEFINITION
- B.
- CALLOUT_DEFINITION
- C.
- CALLOUT_DEFINITION
Create superscripts or subscripts in OpenType fonts
- Make sure that an OpenType font is selected. One way
to determine if a font is an OpenType font is to look in the Type >
Font menu; OpenType fonts display the
icon.
Change the size and position of superscripts or subscripts
Choose File > Document
Setup, specify the following values for Superscript and
Subscript, and then click OK:For Size, type a percentage of the font size for superscripted and subscripted text.
For Position, type a percentage of the regular leading to specify how much the superscript and subscript text will move.
Convert type to outlines
You can turn type into a set of compound paths, or outlines, that you can edit and manipulate as you would any other graphic object. Type as outlines are useful for changing the look of large display type, but they are rarely useful for body text or other type at small sizes.
Font outline information comes from the actual font files installed on your system. When you create outlines from type, characters are converted in their current positions; they retain all graphics formatting such as their stroke and fill.
- A.
- Original type object
- B.
- Type converted to outlines, ungrouped, and modified
When you convert type to outlines, the type loses its hints—instructions built into fonts to adjust their shape so that your system displays or prints them optimally at a wide range of sizes. If you plan to scale the type, adjust its point size before converting.
You must convert all the type in a selection; you cannot convert a single letter within a string of type. To convert a single letter into an outline, create a separate type object containing only that letter.
- Select the type object.
- Choose Type > Create Outlines.
Format fractions and ordinals in OpenType fonts
When using an OpenType font, you can
automatically format ordinal numbers with superscript characters
(for example, 
). Characters
such as the superscript “a” and “o” in the Spanish words segunda (
) and segundo (
) are
also typeset properly. You can also convert numbers separated by
a slash (such as 1/2) to a shilling fraction (such as 
).
- Select the characters or type objects to which you want to apply the setting. If you don’t select any text, the setting applies to new text you create.
- Make sure that an OpenType font is selected.
- In the OpenType panel, click the Ordinals button to enable or disable ordinals or the Fractions button to enable or disable fractions. These buttons have an effect only if ordinals and fractions are available in the font.
Use smart punctuation
The Smart Punctuation command searches for keyboard punctuation characters and replaces them with their typographic equivalents. In addition, you can use the Smart Punctuation command to globally insert ligatures and fractions, if the font includes these characters.
If you’re using an OpenType font, use the OpenType
panel instead of the Smart Punctuation dialog box to typeset ligatures
and fractions. 