- Types of Type
- Working with Threaded Text
- Wrapping Area Type Around Objects
- Formatting Text
- Converting Type to Outlines
- Using the Eyedropper with Type
- Using the Appearance Panel with Type
- The Glyphs Panel
- Working with Legacy Text
- Advanced Features of Multiple Artboards
- New Type Features in Illustrator CC
- Graphic Novel Cover Design
- Create an Identity
From the book
Using the Appearance Panel with Type
When you work with type, you work with the letter characters or with the container that holds the characters—or both. Understanding the difference between characters and their container (the “type object”) will help you access and edit the right one when you style type. To help understand the difference, you’ll need to watch the Appearance panel as you work. (See the previous chapter for more details about working with the Appearance panel.)
The appearance of stroked text
To stroke type without distorting the characters, select the type using a Selection tool (not a Type tool), select Add New Stroke in the Appearance panel, then move this new stroke below the Characters.
Type characters
By default, Type characters entered with the Type tool are styled with a Black Fill and No Stroke. To edit a character’s fill and stroke, drag across the text with the Type tool or double-click “Characters” in the Appearance panel.
You can’t do the following to type characters (although in the section “Type Objects” following you will be able to do these things to a type object): move the stroke under the fill or fill above the stroke; apply a live effect to the fill or stroke; apply a gradient fill; add multiple fills or strokes.
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Figure 8 The Appearance panel showing the green fill applied to the type at the Character level
Type objects
The Type object contains all the text in a Point, Area, or Path type object. You are working with the type “object” when you select the text with the Selection tool and then move the object around on your page.
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Figure 9 The Appearance panel showing the pattern Mezzotint Irregular (from the Decorative_Ornaments pattern library) with a Fill at the Type object level
With the text object you can add another fill (click on the Add New Fill icon in the Appearance panel). Now there is another listing of Stroke and Fill, in the Appearance panel, but this time they are positioned above the Characters line in the panel. If you reveal the Stroke and Fill for the type by double-clicking the Characters line in the panel, you return to character editing; reselect the type object with the Selection tool to return to editing the type object rather than its characters.
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Figure 10 A graphic style created using the Appearance panel with multiple fills and strokes applied to live type—for more details see Ryan Putnam's "Frosty" Gallery later in this chapter
When you add a new Stroke or Fill to the type object, its color and effects interact with the color of the characters. All the strokes and fills applied to type are layered on top of those listed below (including on top of the stroke and fill you see listed when you double-click Characters in the panel). So if you add a new fill to the type object and apply white to it, the type appears white (the white fill of the type object is stacked above the black default fill of the characters).