How to make Fake Bold/Italic work in Illustrator CS2?

[_Jay_J__Lin_]

I just learned that, unlike MS Word and most typical tools, Illustrator CS2 does not do 'Fake' Bold/Italic for text objects. Unless I have actual font enhancement typefaces family files, Bold/Italic will not work in AI CS2.

Here are my issues:
- I have quite a few 3rd party fonts which have only 'Normal' font typeface TTF files.
- I also have some 'Normal' Japanese font TTF (approx. 4MB each) files.
- The vendors do not offer separate Bold/Italic TTF font family files.

In Illustrator CS2, is there any way I can make 'Fake' Bold/Italic work for these 'Normal' only fonts?

I would appreciate any help.

Jay

[Jacob Bugge]

Jay,

Object>Transform>Shear.

[Kurt Gold]

For the bold part, look at the Offset Path effect for example.

[_clifford_hager_]

> For the bold part, look at the Offset Path effect for example.

Or just try an outline stroke in the same color as the fill...

[Jacob Bugge]

I am glad you are still awake, Kurt. I managed to overlook the bold part.

[Guest]

Simple, yet not-often-enough way is add a stroke.

The reason you can't 'fake' bold or italic is because print shops can't use text that has been tweaked in a way the font itself does not include or support and it wreeks havoc in their systems (not to mention destroys layouts when corrected).

Ask a print shop if they accept Publisher files. When they say no, the font thing will be at the top or very near the top of their long list as to why. Most of them call it forcing (or at least most of the ones I've talked to).

It's like using a can opener to dig a ditch: You can use it yourself to your heart's content but if you want a professional ditch digger to do it for you, you better give him a shovel.

[_clifford_hager_]

> The reason you can't 'fake' bold or italic is because print shops can't
> use text that has been tweaked in a way the font itself does not include
> or support and it wreaks havoc in their systems (not to mention destroys
> layouts when corrected).

As long as you convert to outlines you can do whatever you want with text
and it will cause no problems at all with the printer. This however should
only be used for headlines and small areas of type. It will cause no end of
problems if you convert paragraph text to outlines, and then find out that
you have to edit the content. That's when you start all over.

[Guest]

> That's when you start all over.

That's when you're happy you always keep a copy-intact version of your files.

The convert to outlines goes without saying; they aren't text anymore but just a string of graphic elements which happen to uncannily resemble letters forming words.

[Harron_K_Appleman]

Neither the shear transform nor adding a stroke require the text to be converted to outlines. If the same font is available to the printer, output should not be an issue. Still, 'faux' bold and italic effects should be avoided for typographic reasons.

[sam.rhys]

an interesting bug (where bug might just translate to a feature I don't
like) is if you have added an outline stroke to a regular object, or
text that has been outlined (ie, not text anymore) and then align the
stroke to either the inside or outside of the object, and then you
outline that stroke, it will default to aligned to the center.

[_Jay_J__Lin_]

Thank you guys for hopping in with ample information.

I am actually dealing with automated document conversion processes using AI CS2 as parser. The input are SVG files and our interface does allow users to set Bold/Italic texts when generating SVG files. A 3rd party background Windows Service actually does AI parsing jobs for me using Javascript/VBScript. In summary, I don't really manually interact with AI CS2. Therefore, I can not do the Shear or Outline storke you guys suggested.

However, my output files do require professional press quaility. So, I think 'Faking' Bold/Italic is not an option I can take. It looks like my only choice is not to use fonts without complete font family. That is doable for English fonts for there are many to choose from the market. But, for Japanese fonts, I do have big headache because almost none of them offer Bold/Italic font family files. Am I dead in the water with Bold/Italic Japanese text?

Jay

[sam.rhys]

Could you use two (or three with italics) separate Japanese fonts, one
for regular, one for bold, and one for italics?

[Harron_K_Appleman]

Yes, if you don't mind giving readers headaches. Using different typestyles to achieve font variations is as bad a design practice in Japanese as it is in Roman languages.

I might make an exception if the "different" typestyles are in fact the same or very close to being the same, such as Helvetica and Swiss.

>...for Japanese fonts, I do have big headache because almost none of them offer Bold/Italic font family files. Am I dead in the water with Bold/Italic Japanese text?

Spring for some professional fonts. Every Japanese font that ships with the Creative Suite (Kozuka Mincho and Gothic, and Ryo families), for example, are supplied in multiple weights.

The Japanese do not use italics in their typesetting as a general rule. Thus, you'll find italic font variations very difficult to find.

[Jacob Bugge]

>The Japanese do not use italics in their typesetting as a general rule. Thus, you'll find italic font variations very difficult to find.

The same applies to runes, and to some others.

[_Jay_J__Lin_]

I think I got clear picture of my Japanese Bold/Italic issue. I simply need to find the right fonts.

Thank you guys for your generous and prompt help.

Jay