Illustrator - Type Tool

Within a previous Lecture I spent time looking at different type tools. I have decided that seen as the type tool is such a big part of both the Photoshop and Illustrator elements of my assignment I will look into these further and spend more time getting my head around different aspects. The first aspect I am going to look at is the terminology used within text. The image below shows a piece of text with the correct terminology for each aspect.

One of the most important aspects of this to note are 'Serifs'. These are the added flicks on the end of fonts. This can be seen perfectly above, the opposite to this are Sans Serif. These are fonts without these flicks and the best example of this is the font Aerial. This is the font I am using now. In illustrator nearly all of these features can be changed and adapted which is why it is so important to understand what they are and look at ways they effect the font. On a personal level I prefer Sans Serif fonts as these seem softer and more pleasing on the eye.

The main different between the type tool in illustrator and Photoshop is that Photoshop use Bitemap type. This is type which has pixels. This works in the same way that images does in a sense that if it is blown up too large the type becomes pixelated and hence the size is normally limited. Illustrator however uses PostScript Type. This has a series of points and each point is instructions on how to use draw the letter. This eliminates the need for pixels and hence looks a lot tidier at a wider range of sizes. The image below shows this.



So now we know about the Serif and Sans Serifs fonts we can look at other font elements. Some fonts can be Monospaced. This means that each character has the same width and height. This is often use in programming and working in columns.

There are 3 main font styles. The most common is regular. This is simply the font as you see it in the font bar. Then there is italic. This is used for quotations and finally Bold. Although these three seem very simple concepts its vital to chose the right combination to create the right feel when working with type in designs.

The final issue to consider when using type in design work is tracking and kerning. Tracking is simply the separate between each letter. This can be found in both Illustrator and Photoshop. Kerning refers to the separation between just two letters. It is most commonly used on the first two letters of a word. You can decide how close you want the second letter to be to the first letter for example. They could effectively sit under each other or be separated with some distance to create different effects. This is also an option which can be found in both Illustrator and Photoshop.

When using the Type tool in my assignment it is vital that I look into all of these options in order to produce the best effective. In a later blog post I will look at Digital Font Formats and how these could effect my final design.