12 Replies Latest reply: Dec 4, 2009 6:32 PM by Doug Katz RSS

    Same old text question, but...

    Michael Brown12 Community Member

      ...I still don't get it.

      I try to avoid text in Illustrator becaue of its mind-numbingly poor ability to handle type. So it has been a while. I thought I had this one figured out, but I've forgotten: How do you keep text from deforming in AICS3 when you adjust the box it is in using the Transform palette? Please understand that I am 1.) using the area type tool and 2.) am not interested in fooling around with the handles. I want a 6" x 6" box with text in it. The only sane way to do that is to dial it in. I really don't want the text to not strecth like it is written on a rubber band. To have to have a work around for something so basic is maddening. I mean, who wants his text deformed all the time? Is it fixed in CS4 by any chance? Thanks in advance for any tips...and I'll write it down and stick it on my wall this time (just like the Byzantine series of steps to make clipping paths in Photoshop.)

       

      MBrown

        • 1. Re: Same old text question, but...
          Larry G. Schneider CommunityMVP

          Use the Direct Select tool (White Arrow). Click and hold on any edge of the box and drag to adjust the size. Make sure that the type is not highlighted (underlined) and the type will only reflow, not resize.

          • 2. Re: Same old text question, but...
            Harron K. Appleman Community Member

            I'm not convinced that your way is the only "sane" way of working with type, but the answer to your question...

            How do you keep text from deforming in AICS3 when you adjust the box it is in using the Transform palette?

            ...is that you don't use the transform palette. If you don't want to deal with handles or dragging edges, open the Area Type Options dialog (Type | Area Type Options), which will be available to you if you have your area type object selected. There you can resize the container numerically (without scaling the type) and muck around to your heart's content.

            • 3. Re: Same old text question, but...
              Michael Brown12 Community Member

              OK, I appreciate the help, but I specifically said I wanted to dial in the values--no dragging. I also made sure I said I used the Area Type Tool so that I could drag the box size if I wanted to using either selection tool. I want to dial in the values in the Transform Palette. Please. I know this is an informal forum and everyone is trying to help, but please read the questions a little more carefully. I'm pretty sure there is a work-around for this.

               

              MBrown

              • 4. Re: Same old text question, but...
                Harron K. Appleman Community Member

                Please read the replies a little more carefully.

                • 5. Re: Same old text question, but...
                  Larry G. Schneider CommunityMVP

                  Use the Rectangle tool and Option(Alt) Click to get a dialog. Set the size you want. Select the Type tool and click on the upper left edge of the rectangle. You now have Area text the size you want.

                  • 6. Re: Same old text question, but...
                    Harron K. Appleman Community Member

                    I think he still wants to transform it numerically (what he calls "dialing in") after the fact, Larry.

                    • 7. Re: Same old text question, but...
                      Doug Katz Community Member

                      The only ways to transform an area text box without causing glyph distortion force you to do it by percentages, not absolute values. These include the scale dialog, the transform each dialog and the transform effect dialog.

                       

                      (I hope someone will prove me wrong because the request is so legitimate....)

                      • 8. Re: Same old text question, but...
                        Michael Brown12 Community Member

                        Apparently our posts crossed. When I asked for my post to be read more carefully I was responding to Larry's post which was the only one there at the time. It gave good instructions about how to drag a text box without deforming the letters, but that was not what I was looking for. Sorry for the confusion. It looks like I got some good advice that I'll try to remember. Am I the only person who likes to have exact sizes on things? I've never wanted to just drag things around in some sort of approximate way. Perhaps it's because I spend a great deal of my time in a CAD system (architecture) where precision is a must. Thanks for the help!

                         

                        MBrown

                        • 9. Re: Same old text question, but...
                          Harron K. Appleman Community Member

                          Doug, do you mean enter a percentage (e.g., "120%") in, for example, the W or H field of the transform palette?

                           

                          If so, that doesn't work in AI 12, 10, nor 8. Perhaps it does in newer versions.

                           

                          (By "doesn't work" I mean the type gets scaled along with the area text object.)

                          • 10. Re: Same old text question, but...
                            Harron K. Appleman Community Member

                            Your point isn't lost on me, Michael. Illustrator can certainly stand improvement in text handling (and many other areas).

                             

                            I think that for many of us who came up the DTP route, dragging out a box for text or image placement and making adjustments afterwards (using guides and what have you for alignment precision) is almost second-nature. In some types of design exercises, moreover, numeric entry -- whether in absolute or relative values -- is a more tedious way to get things to look "right." A lot of us would be extremely upset were numeric entry the only method to perform spatial transformations.

                             

                            That said, the numeric fields in Illustrator palettes and dialogs are highly useful at times. I do understand how frustrating it can be to encounter unexpected behavior.

                            • 11. Re: Same old text question, but...
                              JETalmage Community Member

                              The only ways to transform an area text box without causing glyph distortion force you to do it by percentages

                              Not so.

                               

                              White Pointer: AltClick the edge of the textframe. Enter values in the dimension fields. The text reflows appropriately.

                               

                              Michael,

                              Think of a normally-selected areaType object as if it's a group. In most programs, if you disproportionately scale a group in which text objects are contained, you would disproportionately scale the text as well, because the text is considered part of "the artwork." Direct-selecting the edge of the textframe, you just select that: the textFRAME, which you can then size by dimension.

                               

                              (I utterly despise Illustrator's hideous interface that makes you say stupid things like "direct-selected" and "normally-selected" and "AreaType" and "PointType". The very necessity of such awkward language is dead-giveaway evidence of the horrible design of its interface scheme.)

                               

                              Note how stupid this pointer interface is: By pressing Alt while selecting the textframe with the white pointer, strictly speaking you are momentarily invoking the so-called Group Selection Tool (the one with the little plus sign.) So by switching to the so-called Group Selection tool, you are actually selecting inside what behaves like a Group (the text content and its frame, treated as a single object).

                               

                              Better to think of this infuriatingly cumbersome selection interface as "selecting up" within the object heirarchy, than to think of it as "group selection." In Illustrator, if you're going to limit yourself to one of its two pointers, it will have to be the white one. But unlike anything that has ever been called intuitive in an object-oriented graphics program, Illustrator's hideous design is that the primary selection tool by default digs down to the most fundamental particle of anything that can be selected. It's backward; upside-down. It's like trying to eat spagetti with a single chopstick. It's like not being able to push your bicycle without first having to grab one of its spokes (and accidently bending it in the process).

                               

                              White Pointer and Black Pointer. Can't do what better-designed programs do with one pointer.

                               

                              AreaText and PointText. Can't do what better-designed programs do with one kind of text object.

                               

                              Polygon and Star Tools. Can't do what better-designed programs do with a single polygon tool.

                               

                              Rectangle and Rounded Rectangle Tools. Can't do with better-designed programs do with a single rectangle tool.

                               

                              Ellipse and Arc Tools.  Can't do with better-designed programs do with a single ellipse tool.

                               

                              Do you note a pattern here? If not, I could go on.

                               

                              Worst-of-class interface design. Always has been.

                               

                              JET

                              • 12. Re: Same old text question, but...
                                Doug Katz Community Member

                                The only ways to transform an area text box without causing glyph distortion force you to do it by percentages

                                Not so.

                                 

                                White Pointer: AltClick the edge of the textframe. Enter values in the dimension fields. The text reflows appropriately.

                                 

                                 

                                Ahh. Misunderstood Michael's request. I thought he wanted to scale the textframe AND text without distortion, not just the frame so that existing text at its existing size would reflow.

                                 

                                Yes, Michael, JET's absolutely right. If ALL you want to "dial in" is the size of the frame without affecting the type size but just it's reflow, option-direct-select (oy) the textframe and dial away.