[AI] Working with the text tool.

In today's lesson you'll learn the basics (and more) about Illustrator's text tool.
Note that I've used Illustrator CS3 in this tutorials.

We'll focus on two things: text layout and text font.

Text Layout!

Type Tool (T)

There are two ways of creating text using the text tool: simply clicking on the artboard or by click&draging on the artboard to create a text-area.

The "simply clicking" method it's usually used if you're going to write only 1 text line (this is good for logos, name-signatures,titles,etc...)

The text-area method is good to use when you have to write multiple text lines that have to fit in a specific rectangular region.

Having this text-area makes very easy to change it's width&height which makes this method very useful in brochure designs,website templates,fliers,magazine's covers, etc...

Now some tips in editing the text layer:

• To easily change the text size (or any other type of layer size) hold CTRL so that the layer's Bounding Box will appear (click&drag the small squares that appear in the corners to resize). Remember to also hold SHIFT if you want to maintain the proportions.

• To make a text wider select the text with the Type Tool (T) , hold ALT and press RIGHT ARROW to make it wider, or LEFT ARROW to make it tighter. (this works great if you want to stretch a logo's tagline).

• Same as above, if you have multiple text lines and want to increase the space between lines press ALT+DOWN ARROW , or , if you want to decrease the gap ALT+UP ARROW.

Area Type Tool.
This tool allows you to type text inside a shape layer. For example, I've drawn a circle, selected the Area Type Tool and begun to type inside the shape. Here is the result:

Type on a Path Tool.
Same as before, create a circle and click the path...

The last three tools are the same three tools as before, the only diffrence that this ones type vertical (up->down) instead of horizontal (left->right).

Text Font!
In this part we'll talk more about fonts used for logos.
Most fonts used for logos are divided into 2 big categories: Serifs and Sans-Serifs. Here's a picture that will make you understand what is each of these words referring to:

If you want to read more about this "serif" stuff please read this wikipedia article.
Here is a great list of fonts that are used for popular internet logos.

Dafont.com is a great site that offers free fonts for download.
I'll continue this "working with the text tool" tutorial in the future, showing you how to easily stylize the font.

Stay Tuned! :)