Illustrator & Type Tips Worth Knowing
Posted on 17'10 Feb
Improve your skills and workflow by exploring these five oft-overlooked aspects of Illustrator and typography; the differences between optical and metric kerning, how to use the Glyphs panel, the use of Roman hanging punctuation, the correct use of dashes and how to edit the preferences to display large font previews… all tips worth knowing about.
1. Optical vs Metric Kerning
Throughout the Adobe CS, by using the Character panel, you can automatically kern type using metric kerning or optical kerning. Knowing which one to use and when is usually based on what font you are using and how many built-in kerning pairs it has within the font. For text, metric or auto kerning is usually recommended though if you are combining different fonts or type sizes, you might consider Optical settings as Illustrator will adjust the letter fit for you. Optical settings can often yield better results for display type.
2. Glyph Panel
The Glyphs panel, found in Illustrator and InDesign allows you to access a font’s full character set. You can find the Glyphs panel by going to Window > Type > Glyphs. Once open, create a text field and then double click on the glyph you wish to use. Another tip here is to explore the full family of a particular font as you will find that some glyphs only appear in Italics. Three families with beautiful glyphs include Minion Pro, Burgues Script and Bickham Script Pro.
You may also be interested in a tutorial I wrote for Layers Magazine: How to use the glyphs panel in Illustrator to create a font monster.
3. Roman Hanging Punctuation
Roman hanging punctuation is an oft-overlooked area of typography, though, in more cases than not, applying it will give the edge of your body copy a much cleaner line. By default this option is turned off, however, you can turn it on in the Paragraph tool panel. In the Paragraph tool panel, click the small arrow facing downwards (see pic below) to find the extra options and then click Roman Hanging Punctuation. You will find other extra options here, all worth exploring.
5. Large Font Previews
Choosing the right typeface for your particular project is not always going to be an easy task so why not make it a bit easier on yourself and bump up the sizing of your font previews. To do this, go to Edit > Preferences > Font Preview > Large. While you’re here you may want to explore the other options available in the preferences panel, something many designers overlook. It may just improve your workflow.
Hyphens Are Not Dashes
There are three types of dashes and they should be used for their appropriate purposes (admittedly I am pretty lazy with this). Below are the definitions and the ASCII codes needed to use each dash, along with examples.
The Hyphen – (-)
A hyphen is used to separate the words in a compound adjective, verb, or adverb.
eg. “Re-read the subhead above.”
The En Dash – (–)
The En Dash is used to express a range of values or a distance.
eg. “My guess is 5–20 people will actually listen to this advice.”
The Em Dash — (—)
The Em Dash is used to give a sudden break in thought.
eg. “I was thinking about writing—what issue did you say this was being published in?
Update: 18.2.2010
“The MAC shortcut for an en dash is Alt + – and the shortcut for an em dash is Alt + Shift + -. For the PC it seems there aren’t any but some people set up ctrl + – for en and ctrl + shift + – for em in the required program. I find it has made my converting of dashes much easier and worth doing.” Thanks for the tip Mitchell Harris.
Computer Arts
This article was originally written for Computer Arts Magazine (Issue 170). Below are a few snap shots of the article in print.
More Typography Tips & Resources
- 30 Fonts That All Designers Must Know & Should Own
- The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time
- 27 Classic & Elegant Fonts
- 10 Commerical Fonts Every Print Designer Should Own
- Top 7 Fonts Used By Professionals In Design
- 20 Typefaces To Start A Designer’s Career
- Free 27 Page Type Classification eBook
- Designer’s Favourite Fonts & Why
- Top 5 Typography Resources
Have any more Illustrator / typography tips to share?
Passion Illustration by MaximusBill
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38 JUST™ Creative Comments
I don’t claim to be an expert on typography and reading these posts is why. I never thought there was so much to something that I often take for granted. Thanks for enlightening us!
Hi Jacob,
Another good article! I learn many things from here..
Thanks for your good writing.
Wow – thanks for this! Especially the tip about font preview. I often go to my font book to preview fonts instead of using the preview panel in Illustrator because the font preview was set on medium. These little changes make a huge impact on work flow.
Hanging quotes, love them. I agree that they always look better in print, when they indent it really breaks the flow. That said, it’s always overly complicated to replicate that in CSS. Most of my work is web based, so I’m often trapped with normal quotes, especially if that text needs to be edited via CMS.
Nice tips… Some good things to keep at top of mind!
This has been very educational! Great stuff! Thanks.
As much as I find text extremely boring, some good points to know my friend…:)
Great and useful stuff… thanks Jacob
oh jacob cass… where have you been all of my life!
awesome and beautiful set of resources! thank you for sharing this and doing the research for us all to discover. i will definitely be referencing this time to time.
i just want to add, another excellent resource / place for typography is http://www.pilo.me – it by far is the most complete and solid font forum i have visited. you can definitely find similar resources as you have mentioned here at pilo. anyhow, give it a look if you are a type lover. i think it is invite only or it usually is at least, so good luck getting in. if you do get in, be sure to participate as i know they remove deadbeat users time to time.
thanks again for the excellent links!
Very useful article. These small tips and tricks make a difference in the long-run. Typography is always a WIP. Great attention to detail always makes ones work more professional.
Looks like you’ve changed a lot based on your article pic Jacob!
Thank you for explaining the fundamental difference between the dash and the hyphen. People always get it wrong and it drives me crazy. Kinda like the difference between they’re, there and their! Thanks for the post Jacob.
Great tips. But wouldn’t every professional graphic designer know this anyway?
Hi Jacob, I’m your avid fan and just also started my freelance designing. I learned so many things from you. How about the kerning and the tracking. Are there also some tips and rules there?
Thanks in Advanced! More Power!
My firm always uses space-ndash-space for a sudden break in thought instead of an mdash. The reasoning is that it looks cleaner but still reads as a break. Does anyone else do this?
Some great information there. Thanks for the share Jacob.
Great tips, Jacob :). Always looking forward to some illustrator tips, as I’m more of a photoshop guy.
Thanks Jacob, for your article.
Regards,
Rupam
Nice tips, I found the Roman Hanging Punctuation tool very useful, thanks!!!
There are shortcuts for Windows…
– (alt + 0150)
— (alt + 0151)
On a Mac, we call it the Option key. ::rolleyes::
ha ha.. Love it! I love that no matter how long you have worked with this blasted software you keep on learning new tricks. Thank you again… stuff like this get’s me all crazy excited!
Great, great tips man. Thanks a lot :)
Thanks for the great insight on Illustrator typography techniques…
Even if it were stuff that I already knew, it’s always good to get a refresher course sometimes.
Thanks, for the tips. I have been working with Illustrator for a long time and some of the tips you’ve shared will definitely help. Especially the 1st one about kenning.
Very great tips , thanks ..
Great, tips man, ..thanks for share
Very useful article. These small tips and tricks make a difference in the long-run. Very handsam to known this knowledge
Great tips! But wouldn’t every professional graphic designer know this anyway
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