text fill/highlight

[benmc4130]

i want a highlight that will follow my text like this:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y212/benmc4130/texthighlight.jpg

is there an easy way to recreate this in illustrator?

thanks

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

There is a really cool way to do it in InDesign but I cannot find underlining in Illustrator. I think someone will be able to help you though on this.

Any takers?

[benmc4130]

How do you do it in indesign?

Im sure there must be a way in illustrator!

In Microsoft word theres even a highlight option, but obviously i don't wanna be using that.

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

One way in InDesign is to Select the text and Go to Character Panel>Underline Options. There you set Underline on, set the desired color weight of line and offset (negative so it covers the text) and alter down the tint. You can even do the usual dashed, dotted lines etc. You can preview it to get it the way you like.

Just found out you can apply gradients to the highlighting too. There is so much more that InDesign can do that Illustrator cannot to and some "artistic" flare to text. [BUT, Can you carry it back to Illustrator?]

[kazbear]

So far, I can figure out a way to do it in Illustrator...yet...

[kazbear]

The clostest thing I can find is to create a graphic style. But the text needs to be separate lines. It won't work on a text box or even point text with multiple lines. You can select your Text box or point text and choose Object> Flatten transparency to break up the text to separate lines though. Then it must be ungrouped...

Anyway....

Select your text, go to your Appearance Panel and choose Add New Fill. Then add another new fill.

Select the top fill and make it white (Or whatever). Select the bottom fill and choose Effect>Convert to shape>Rectangle...

Adjust the Relative options until you get the look you are after...

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Yes, Kazbear has got it! But...wait... there is more? You can do the ungrouping or not and you can do it when Kazbear says or after you have done the other steps. When flattening make sure to include the check for select outlines.

After ungrouping you can the select individual lines and make different colors via Appearance panel selection as seen in my example. Shows the power of the method and the incredible power of the Appearance panel. Glad the question was posted and Kazbear was awake on this one.

But still InDesign (if you have it is the way to go. Jeff Witchel says you can carry it back to Illustrator (as a high res PDF). I note some editability is present if you just copy paste back over but you cannot edit the text itself.

[kazbear]

Need to look at it some more. No need to choose to outline the text. At least not in my testing...

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

You may be right about the text outlines. When you have looked more let us know your thoughts.

This is actually quite powerful stuff. You can try it with rounded and probably ellipses and moving things around in Appearance - adding even more strokes and fills can get some neat Headline type text. I think you could play with this for hours but it is fun and a lot of potential I think.

Thanks.

[kazbear]

Yes, the appearance palette is amazing. I have several graphics styles I use for reverse type, Text in a star burst, chrome, name plaques etc... All with editable text.

Cool stuff

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Kazbear,

If you don't Convert all text to outlines in the Flattener preset you cannot apply those extra fills (or strokes for that matter) in the Appearance panel. So text is not editable.

However, if you select the rounded rectangle for the "underlining" you can do a 3D extrude and save out cool "bricks" as Graphic styles then apply to any new text. Try it with gradient filled text for some neat building blocks.

WOW!

[kazbear]

When you select text, the appearance palette shows it as Type, with no fill and stroke attributes. Ignore that, and pull down from the appearance menu to Add new fill.

[alcbevtesting@alltel.net]

Yes - Bingo. It does work for editable text. Thanks for this final note of the method and for your nice examples.

I think that gives the final answer to the original question. Go forth and do likewise.