Get Your Words Moving: Text on a Path

CATEGORIES: Subscriber, Tutorials, illustrator tech | Meghan Murphy | January 05, 2007

Why only create text on a straight line? It’s boring. With Illustrator’s Text on a Path ability, you can draw any sort of curvy, squiggly, wiggly line you like and have your words follow right along it. Brilliant!

1Using the tool of your choice (Pen, Brush, or Pencil) draw the path to which you’d like your text to conform.

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2Select the Type tool. Click on your path, and you will get a blinking text insertion icon at the point on which you initially clicked. You can now type your text.

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3Click on your new text with the Selection tool. You will notice there are three thin lines on your text: one in the front, one in the middle, and one at the end. Click-and-drag the line in the front to move your text back or forward along your path. Click-and-drag the line in the middle to change the mid-point of your text. Click-and-drag the line at the end to control the stopping point of your text.

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4There are several more options for positioning the text on the path other than just adjusting where it begins or ends. With the text selected with the Selection tool, go to Type>Type on a Path>Type on a Path Options. In the Type on a Path Options menu, select Effect. You will be given five choices:

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Rainbow (This is the default orientation of your text.)
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Skew:
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3D Ribbon:
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Stair Step:
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Gravity:
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5You can also choose how your text is aligned along the path. In the Type on a Path Options menu, select Align to Path and you will get four choices:

Note: Once you expand the object you will no longer be able to distort the shape unless you place it inside another envelope object. When you are ready to expand the object, make a copy of that object and then expand. This way, you have a spare if you need to go back and change the distortion.

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Ascender:
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Descender:
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Center:
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Baseline (This is the default alignment of your text.)
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6So far we’ve explored how to manipulate text on an open path, but you can apply these same principles to a closed path, like a circle. Start by selecting the Ellipse tool and drawing a circle.

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7Now this step is slightly different than what you did for the open path. Instead of selecting the plain Type tool like in Step Two, you need to select the Type on a Path tool (it looks like the letter “T” on a declining slope), then click on your circle and enter your text. Where on the circle you click will decide where the beginning and end points of your text will be.

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8You can use the Type on a Path menu options for text on a closed path just as you could for text on an open path.

Rainbow (This is the default orientation of your text.)
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Skew:
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3D Ribbon:
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Stair Step:
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Gravity:
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Ascender:
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Descender:
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Center:
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Baseline (This is the default alignment of your text.)
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Until next time. Enjoy!