Adjust character spacing around sharp turns, Scaling and rotating type, Selecting type for transformations – Adobe Illustrator CS4 User Manual
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USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Type
Note: Characters without ascenders or descenders (such as a letter e) or a baseline (such as an apostrophe) are vertically
aligned with characters that have ascenders, descenders, and baselines. These font dimensions are permanently specified
by the font designer.
For more control over vertical alignment, use the Baseline Shift option in the Character panel. For example, type a
negative value in the Baseline Shift box to lower the type.
See also
Adjust character spacing around sharp turns
When characters flow around a sharp curve or acute angle, they fan out in such a way that there may appear to be extra
space between them. You can tighten the spacing of characters on curves using the Spacing option in the Type On A
Path Options dialog box.
1
Select the type object.
2
Choose Type > Type On A Path
> Type On A Path Options.
3
For Spacing, type a value in points. Higher values remove the extra space from between characters positioned on
sharp curves or angles.
Type without spacing adjustment (left) compared to type with spacing adjustment (right)
Note: The Spacing value has no effect on characters positioned on straight segments. To change spacing of characters
anywhere along the path, select them, and then apply kerning or tracking.
Scaling and rotating type
Selecting type for transformations
You can rotate, reflect, scale, and shear type just as you do other objects. However, how you select the type affects the
transformation results:
•
To transform the type along with its bounding path, select the type object and use the Rotate tool to rotate the object
and text.
•
To transform just the bounding path, but not the type it contains, select the type object and drag with the Selection tool.