Leo Martínez
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful tool for creating and designing fonts, offering a range of features to help users bring their typefaces to life. Illustrator automatically imports all fonts installed on your computer, but you can also add fonts from Adobe Fonts, which offers thousands of options from various foundries. Illustrator's Live Paint feature is particularly useful for font creation, allowing users to treat paths as a flat surface, making it easier to fill in colours without worrying about layers or stacking orders. This guide will explore the steps to set up fonts for Live Paint in Illustrator, covering everything from accessing and selecting fonts to using the Live Paint tools for font design.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Default font | Myriad Pro |
| Accessing fonts | Illustrator imports all fonts installed on your computer. Fonts can also be added from Adobe Fonts. |
| Previewing fonts | Navigate to Window > Type > Character. Hover over a font name to preview it. |
| Selecting fonts | Select the text on the canvas, then select the font from the Font Family menu. |
| Modifying font size | Navigate to the Character panel and set the font size. |
| Live Paint tool | Use the Live Paint Bucket tool to fill shapes with swatches. |
| Live Paint groups | Live Paint groups allow you to edit paths within a drawing without affecting the colours of other areas. |
| Live Paint gap options | Choose Object > Live Paint > Gap Options to specify how gaps in Live Paint paths are handled. |
| Live Paint and brushes | Brushes can be applied to a Live Paint group by adding a new stroke using the Appearance panel. |
| Live Paint and fills | Convert artwork into a Live Paint Group to apply different colours to different edges within an object. |
| Creating fonts | Plan out a letter set, refine the font design, and prepare files for use in a font-making program. |
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What You'll Learn
Using Adobe Fonts
Adobe Illustrator is one of the industry standards for vector art and graphic design. Adobe Fonts, with its collection of over 20,000 different typefaces, is an incredible resource for artists in any field. Adobe Fonts is free with your subscription to Creative Cloud, and you can also subscribe separately to access this collection.
Adobe Illustrator automatically imports and loads all the fonts installed on your computer system. You can also add fonts from Adobe Fonts to Illustrator. To do this, first, select the text on the canvas. If you don't select the text, the new font will only apply to the text you select afterward. Next, navigate to Window > Type > Character. The Character panel will open up. In the Set the font family dropdown, hover over a font name to preview it. If you know the name of the font, type it in the Set the font family field. You can also access Set the font family from the Contextual Task Bar, Character section of the Properties panel, or Control panel. To view the fonts in categories, navigate to Type > Font. To preview the font on a sample text, in the Set the font family dropdown, choose a sample text from the Select from the sample text options dropdown.
You can browse and add these fonts from Illustrator or the Adobe Fonts website. The fonts you add from Adobe Fonts are available across all Creative Cloud apps. Navigate to Window > Type > Character. The Character panel opens up. In the Set the font family dropdown, switch to the Find More tab. Select Add next to the font you want to add. A checkmark appears in Add when the font is added and ready to use. In the Find More tab, you can find and preview all the Japanese fonts available in Adobe Fonts.
To change the number of fonts in Recent Fonts, select Illustrator > Settings > Type (macOS) or Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows), and set the Number of Recent Fonts. Double-click the text on the canvas to activate the Type tool. In the text box, press and drag the mouse to select the portion of the text to which you want to apply the style. If you don't select the text, the new font style will apply only to any text you select afterward. Use one of the following shortcuts based on the required style: The keyboard shortcuts for bold and italic styles won't work if the font family doesn't have them or if they aren't installed on your computer. If you try to switch from bold or italic to the regular style but the font family lacks the regular style, Illustrator applies a style in that font family that is closest to Myriad Pro Regular. You can also customize these keyboard shortcuts.
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Selecting text on the canvas
There are multiple ways to select text on the canvas. You can select text by clicking or dragging over the text with the Selection Tool. You can also select text within a group, a single group within multiple groups, or a set of groups within the artwork. Each additional click adds all objects from the next group in the hierarchy. You can also select text that lies underneath other objects using Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (macOS).
To select all deselected objects, and deselect all selected objects, choose Select > Inverse. With Save Selection, you can select multiple objects and save the selection for later use. You can then use this saved selection to move the objects together or change their appearance just like you'll do with a group object. You can access your saved selection from the Select menu or from Layers panel > Save Selection.
To change the font of the selected text, open the Character Panel by navigating to Window > Type > Character or pressing Control + T on Windows or Command + T on Mac. In the Character Panel, you can then choose the font family, font style, font size, and more.
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Previewing fonts
To preview fonts in Illustrator, follow these steps:
- Select the text on the canvas. If you don't select the text, the new font will only apply to any text you select afterward.
- Navigate to Window > Type > Character. The Character panel will open.
- In the Set the font family dropdown, hover over a font name to preview it. If you know the font name, type it in the Set the font family field.
- To view the fonts in categories, navigate to Type > Font.
- To preview the font on sample text, in the Set the font family dropdown, choose a sample text option.
You can also preview fonts in the Character panel by navigating to Window > Type > Character. The dropdown list of fonts will show the font names in their actual font.
Additionally, if you're using a PC, you can use the up and down arrows to scroll through the fonts and preview them. On a Mac, you may need to click on each font to preview it.
If you're having issues with font preview not working, try updating Illustrator to the latest version. If the problem persists, you can reach out to Adobe's customer support for further assistance.
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Turning off font preview
To turn off font preview in Illustrator, you need to deselect certain options in the settings. The specific steps depend on your operating system.
If you are using a Mac, go to Illustrator > Settings > Type > Enable In-menu font previews and deselect this option. You can also press and hold the Command key and click the eyeball icon of the selected layer. To enable font preview, simply select this option in the settings.
For Windows, go to Edit > Preferences > Type > Enable In-menu font previews and deselect this option. To enable font preview, simply select this option in the settings.
Once you have made your changes, close and reopen Illustrator for the settings to take effect.
It is worth noting that the font preview feature in Illustrator is a powerful tool that allows designers to view their artwork in various formats. This feature helps streamline the process of selecting the perfect font for your artwork, as you can preview different fonts directly on your artwork without making changes in real-time.
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Creating your own font
To get started, open a new document in Adobe Illustrator and import or paste your letterform group. Ungroup the letters to have complete control over each object. You can add grid lines to your Artboard to define the highest and lowest points of uppercase and lowercase letters. Place your first letter object on the Artboard, ensuring that it is placed at the baseline indicated by your gridline if it does not have any descenders. Scale and adjust your letterform within your gridlines and Artboard.
You can use the Shape Tool, Pencil Tool, or Blob Brush Tool to create your font. The Blob Brush Tool will create font objects for each letterform, while the Brush Tool will create paths that can be changed with various brushes. The Blob Brush Tool can also be used to merge paths created by other tools. To merge paths, ensure that the existing artwork does not have a stroke, set the Blob Brush Tool to the same fill colour, and draw a new path that intersects with the paths you want to merge.
Once you have created your letterforms, you can use Live Paint to fill them with colour. Live Paint treats all paths as though they are on the same flat surface, allowing you to colour any area, regardless of whether it is bounded by a single path or segments of multiple paths. To use Live Paint, first set up the Live Paint Bucket tool to get the swatches preview onscreen. Then, select the shapes and paths that you want to fill and click into one of the areas with the live paint tool to create the first fill and turn the object into a live paint group.
You can also create a colour font with Illustrator and Fontself. To do this, you will need to draw your letter and make a copy of it, as editing is easier when the brush is still live. Then, expand the brush stroke using Object > Expand Appearances, and apply the pathfinder Merge to have full control over what gets into the font. Make sure to set the stroke colour to None before expanding the live paint objects.
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Frequently asked questions
All the fonts installed on your computer will automatically be imported and loaded into Illustrator. You can also add fonts from Adobe Fonts. To set up a font, select the text on the canvas, navigate to Window > Type > Character, and select a font from the dropdown menu.
You can create your own font in Illustrator by planning a letter set, refining the font design, and preparing files for use in a font-making program. You can use the Shape Tool, Pencil Tool, or Blob Brush Tool to design your font. Once you have created all the characters, you can use a font creator plugin to move from vector to font.
You can use Live Paint to create a colour font in Illustrator. First, select the shapes and paths that you want to fill. Then, press Cmd (or Ctrl on Windows) to select the Live Paint tool and create the first fill. You can also use swatches to fill in shapes.
