Adobe Community: Resize Text Bounding Box

Currently Being Moderated

1. Kurt Gold,

Aug 19, 2011 12:40 PM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Which version of Illustrator are you using? What's your current method?

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

2. Brian2025,

Aug 19, 2011 12:50 PM in reply to Kurt Gold

Report

I have CS5.

I googled it sometime back and could not find a great answer. What I currently do is use the direct select tool to shift pick two corners. Then I drag the box, with the **** option. This has be done separately for the vertical and horizontal.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

3. Kurt Gold,

Aug 19, 2011 12:57 PM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Sounds like you're going to use numeric input.

Go to the menu Type > Area Type options

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

4. Brian2025,

Aug 19, 2011 1:58 PM in reply to Kurt Gold

Report

Kurt, thanks. That is definately an improvement!

Do you know if there is a way to fit the box to the text? That is really all I need and could be done in one shot as opposed to going through each element. I probably have hundreds/thousands of these to contend with.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

5. Kurt Gold,

Aug 19, 2011 2:10 PM in reply to Brian2025

Report

That self-evident command you're looking for has not been there in Illustrator for about 25 years.

You could write a script or you could use one of them that have already been written. But don't be too surprised to explore their stumbling blocks.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

6. Brian2025,

Aug 19, 2011 2:18 PM in reply to Kurt Gold

Report

Any idea where such a script might exist? I can do a record, but that does not give you much control. I will start looking into scripts to see if it had more control. Thanks.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

7. Larry G. Schneider,

Aug 19, 2011 2:20 PM in reply to Brian2025

Report

You might explore making a graphic style which adds a new fill with relative extents which could be applied to the text boxes. The only problem I had with this is that it turns the character level fill blank and has to be reapplied. I've also just used the eyedropper to transfer the same kinds of settings from one block of styled text to many others which doesn't require reapplying the base character fill.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

8. Brian2025,

Aug 19, 2011 4:31 PM in reply to Larry G. Schneider

Report

Well, I found this script, which seems to work:

http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=316

Is there an easy way to call the script? Right now, I choose "file/scripts/other scripts" then select the script. I was hoping there might be a panel for it, but don't see anything.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

9. grtgrfx,

Mar 15, 2012 11:01 AM in reply to Kurt Gold

Report

That's a stupid reply. I could resize a text box by dragging its handles in CS3, just a few years ago. Now it doesn't behave that way. Though why Adobe would force users to enter text box dimensions in a modal dialog box instead of intuitively grabbing a box handle and stretching is beyond me. Obviously there must be a tool that does this without modifying the text itself.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

10. emil emil,

Mar 15, 2012 11:55 AM in reply to grtgrfx

Report

Works fine here with SC5. Scaling and rotating a text box with the selection tool (black arrow) doesn't affect the text, just the box. Make sure it is a text box and not just text.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

11. steve fairbairn,

Mar 17, 2012 4:04 AM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Turn off bounding boxes when working with text.

Use Direct Selection tool to drag text box edges.

Or Direct Select text box ony with Option held down (to select the whole box), then use Scale tool.

Just be careful to select the text box only, not the type. Turning off the preview can make this easier.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

12. Jacob Bugge,

Mar 17, 2012 5:00 AM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Brian,

You may consider this option:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3604219#3604219

You can read the rest of the thread for further considerations.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

13. iamcougar,

Apr 21, 2012 10:58 AM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Brian,

If you didn't figure it out yet... go to View and click Show bounding box.

The bounding box shows the editable outline of the text object trying to enlarge or scale.

its a simple case of not having the right view option turned on.

now you can use the selection tool (black arrow) to drag any corner point of your text bounding box.

easier than inputting numbers all day long.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

14. steve fairbairn,

Apr 21, 2012 2:48 PM in reply to iamcougar

Report

No. This is complete disinformation.

Using a bounding box will scale/distort the type.

Instead, direct select the text box as per post #11.

The OP specifically said that he did not want to scale the type.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

15. iamcougar,

Apr 21, 2012 3:10 PM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Sorry Steve,

Not sure what settings you have set in your illustrator prefs, but i'm rockin cs5.1 and for me showing the bounding box enables me to grab the corner handles of the text box with the selection tool (black arrow). and... this does NOT scale the type, it just opends the box up so you can see the rest of the words you are typing.

Here are some screens showing bounding box ON. and the 2nd showing the selection tool resizing the text box without scaling.

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

16. deivisali,

Aug 8, 2012 1:11 AM in reply to iamcougar

Report

Yes, Bounding box ON, and then is possible to resize the text box with selection tool.

The text isn't scaled.

Thanks a lot

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

17. Jens650,

Oct 4, 2012 2:02 PM in reply to deivisali

Report

I think there's still some misunderstanding. What you're experiencing is the difference between "point type"(text scales w/ the bounding box) and "area type" (text does not scale with the bounding box). Point type and area type have slightly different bounding boxes.

See http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2007/08/technique-scaling-area-text. html

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

18. juniorspecial,

Mar 11, 2013 6:32 AM in reply to Jens650

Report

Is it possible to get the bounding box to shrink to the edges of the type, without changing its size? So that I can center the type over an object more easily?

I find it really frustrating that I'll be working on a word, like on a logo, and the box will be wider than the type. Then, of course, if I use any of the alignment buttons to align the text to an object, the alignment is wrong. I've never found a way to shrink the box to the size of the type...

|

Mark as:

Currently Being Moderated

19. MrsJohnV,

Apr 27, 2013 8:51 AM in reply to Brian2025

Report

Using Type > Area Type Options works for me. I can turn on the preview mode and adjust the width without changing the type size.

|

Mark as:

Illustrator

Resize Text Bounding Box

Aug 19, 2011 12:36 PM

More Like This

Bookmarked By (0)

Answers + Points = Status