Outlining Text?

[Winglets747]

Hi all,
In reference to this image: http://www.flatface.net/~johnmiles/vbscolordesignpreview.jpg
How can I get text (like "Under God's Big Top") to have two colors? The font by default is black with white parts.

I tried plugging color in, but it just shows up as color in one part and then white in the other parts.

In the InDesign forums one member suggested that this was done in Illustrator using the outline option. Can anyone explain that to me?

Any help would be great.

-Will

[AdobeAce]

Hi Winglets747,

It IS a good idea to do this in Illustrator. With InDesign, you can outline type but it's not all that easy to do much with it afterwards.

To outline your type in Illustrator, select your type with the Selection tool, and press Command + Shift + O.

You will probably still have difficulty changing the insides of the letters to two different colors. If so, try Ungrouging the lettering. Select the lettering with the Selection tool and press Shift + Command + G (Object menu > Ungroup). Try selecting some of the inside red shapes of the letters with the Group Selection tool (white arrow with + sign) and see if you can change their color without changing unselected shapes.

If this doesn't do the trick, they might be part of a Compound path.

Try selecting your inside Red shapes with the Group Selection tool. Copy them (Command + C), Delete them, and Paste them in Front (Command + F). This should make them separate objects positioned exactly as they were before deleting, and you should be able to change the color with no problem.

Hope this helps!

[AdobeAce]

If this doesn't do the trick, they might be part of a Compound path.

Hope this helps!

Hi Winglets747,

I finally had a chance to play with some type using Zebrawood -- the font from the poster. And as I suspected, all the shapes in this lettering are part of a compound path -- multiple paths that have been made into one. Usually this is done to knock out holes in the center of a letter (like in the letters O, B, R, A) so a background color can be seen through them.

Because you're dealing with compound paths (which are really ONE path), if you change the color of any shape in a letter, the whole letter becomes that color.

The easiest way to change the color of any inside shape without changing the color of the whole letter, is to select ONE letter at a time and Release its Compound Path. Object menu > Compound Paths > Release. (I tried to release Compound Paths in several letter at the same time and Illustrator CS2 quit. BE CAREFUL!)

This will make all shapes within the letter the same color as the outside color, because they are no longer holes. Now you can easily change the color of any of the inside shapes with no problem.

Hope this helps!

[scottie]

Does selecting the outlined text and then expanding it help?

[AdobeAce]

Hi Scottie,

A good thought, but a Compound Path is still a Compound Path even after Expanding. So when I changed the color of one part of the letter, the whole letter changed.

[davecross]

Here's another thought:
Rasterize the type at high resolution
Use Live Trace to trace it
Use Live Paint to change colors

(it's not as crazy as it sounds...)

[GuyB]

Not at all crazy Dave, but I think it is much faster and easier the way described before. I've tried it with the font "Rosewood" (wich comes with OSX) :
- outline the type;
- ungroup;
- select one letter and release the compound path.

Then you have a massive black letter. To facilitate the work, I put all the letter white and put a .25 black stroke, temporarilly, to see the paths when they are not selected. Just click inside a path and color.

[The Repro Kid]

Howdy all, its me, the repro kid.

Remember me?!

:D

Ace and everyone are being super helpfull, but once again, I'm afraid you boys are barking up the wrong tree, but then again, that's why I hang out here.

If you have the full sets of adobe wood type (mesquite, rosewood, birch, etc) you'll notice that some of them are two part fonts. Meaning, there are more than one font for the same face and they are meant to "layer" over each other to achieve the fill effects. This is the same way it was done with real wood fonts and the type faces mimic this. There should be a seperate font called something like "rosewood fill" that is meant to layered under the main one called something like "rosewood face." Give each a seperate color and make sure they overlap properly and you're in business.

Winglets747, I haven't even looked at the fonts to reference the names etc, but I remember that this is how they work and you should be able to figure it out with this bit of info. If you can't, post, and I'll look into it further. I remember it was pretty straightforward.

Good to see everyone again!

[The Repro Kid]

okay, I got bored because part two of the Bob Dylan Documentary is not on tonite like I thought it was going to be, so I loaded up some woodtype fonts and it's just like I remembered. Use "rosewood fill" for the bottom layer and "rosewood reg" for the top layer. You sould get something like this.
http://www.dmendoza.net/misc/WoodType.jpg

>>the following is an edit to my original post:

;) :D :p

[The Repro Kid]

But now you're probably saying "hey that still doesn't like my sample!"

No problem. make yourself something like this in illustrator:

http://dmendo.fatcow.com/misc/WoodType_b4.gif

then export to photoshop. make a contiguous selection of the black followed by decontiguous de-selctions (option-magic wand click) of the the areas you want to stay black. then fill your remaining selection with some other color and throw in some warp to get something like this:

http://dmendo.fatcow.com/misc/WoodType_2.gif

I hope that helps !!!

[GuyB]

It sure helps, Repro Kid (and welcome back) but let me bark a little more at the wrong tree !

Releasing the compound path on the lone Rosewook regular (the procedure I described in my last post) gives you more possibilities to colorize the outlined font. For an example, you can put another color on each individual dots in the bottom part of the font... wich you can't with your method.

[The Repro Kid]

Yes there are always other posibilities which is what makes us artists.

However, you can hardly call my examples "my method" when the type faces are _designed_ to be used in the manner I described.

It is the type designers intention to build this look into the font. Look at the actual fonts files and names again. They are built from the ground up to be used in the manner I described.

Although uncompounding is rather ovious, no one has hit on the more obvious fact that the fonts are desinged to be layered over each other for maximum effeciency and ease of use. A good artist will always go one step further ex: releasing compounds to achieve more color variation. You're right but you're reinventing the wheel, which is not always cost effective.

Knowing your tools will always makes your work easier.

[AdobeAce]

Hmm!
I guess there's more than one way to whittle a wood type font.
There's always something new to learn.
Two-part fonts in layers. Interesting!
I always wondered what those dull, filled-in versions of the wood type fonts were for.
Ace

[The Repro Kid]

It really comes down to my being an enthusiastic reader of any manuals provided with my programs.

I believe I received a full set of wood type with one of my older illustrator versions. Back then printed manuals were provided and I believe the use of these fill-fonts was explained. I'm sure I didn't figure it out on my own.

Boy do I miss thoroughly detailed printed manuals!

(but I sure dig this built in spellchecker in Tiger)