Removing characters from a font

[Louis]

Hey there, I'm wondering if anyone can help me here. Before I ramble on, I'll show you this picture:

http://www.davidairey.com/images/portfolio/berthier-gotham.gif

Basically, that's what I want to achieve with a font I'm working with in illustrator (for a college project) but I can't, for the life of me, work out how to do it. I've tried using the direct selection tool, but I cannot' get it to look as neat as the above example.

I'm not very experienced with illustrator, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[TORCH511]

You would have to convert the text to outlines (Type>Create Outlines) from the menu, and then edit the characters individually. There are many ways to go about doing it. You can edit the paths directly with various tools like the pen, scissors and selection tool(s). The other method is to create a shape that can later be used to "subtract" from the characters via the pathfinder palette.

Neither is all that difficult but you really would have to have a firm grasp of illustrators basic tools, especially the pen tool.

I would start there and scour the help section on the pen tool.

[Louis]

Thanks. I've been using that technique but find it quite difficult. It’s really fiddly and there’s always something out of place. Guess I just have to keep practicing.

Do you know of any similar fonts that are free?

[Lukas Engqvist]

Yes it is fiddly. If you want to find the perfect shape. remember that you can also select a segment by clicking at it and also use the arroekeys to fine tune a shape, you may want to set the keyboard incriment to a fraction of what it is in the preferences.

There are plenty of good fonts out there. There are similarities to a bauhaus but there are differences even there.

[TORCH511]

It takes lots of practice but after you have a really good understanding of Illustrator and it's tools, then it gets easier. Using guides and smart guides can help a great deal. The curves are the trickiest part., for that you just need some skill and a really good eye.

[Husker]

Try making some guides and then use the snap to guide option. Draw new "subtraction" shapes on a different layer with the original locked. Once you get all your shapes drawn you can use them to do a pathfinder subtract.

I usually work in outline mode for this so I can see the exacly outlines.

From the screenshot it looks like all of them will be simple subtractions except for the lower case T. That can be fixed by adding a couple of points and converting the end points to corners. Remember you can select multiple points and average them to align horizontally and vertically.