How to bend
Text In Adobe Illustrator
How to Curve & Warp Text | Illustrator Tutorial
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hey guys this is Spencer from pixel &
bracket in this tutorial I'm gonna show
you how to curve text and what I have on
screen here you can see one here and one
here
they look nearly identical but two
completely different ways of getting
there so I'm going to show you how to do
text on a path I'm also gonna show you
how to sort of warp text into an arc
shape also gonna show you something I
just found out which is this cool little
envelope warp thing pretty nifty and
maybe you guys can use any of this stuff
in any way I'm gonna show you a bunch
here we go let's go right now alright
let's start a new document and not do
that
okay file new command in for short or
ctrl and if you're on a PC Windows 1920
by 1080 will just create something like
that okay so here's our little artboard
we need to create some text so let's
grab the type tool over here in our tool
bar it's the T shortcut key is T I'm
gonna click anywhere on my canvas and
let's let's go ahead and typed curved
text or something like that I'm gonna
use all caps so I'm just holding shift
curved text okay real small we're gonna
just go back to that selection tool I've
got this selected I can go ahead and up
the font size to like something we can
read 80 something like that and let's do
just like a bold font I've got this good
good headline font it's literally called
good headline font I'm gonna do the
black version so it's nice and bold and
I'm gonna adjust the spacing just a
touch so you guys can follow along if
you want or not but that's okay we just
need some text on the screen like that
there it is there's our curved text I'm
gonna increase the size to 100 so we're
a little bit larger okay so the first
way I'm going to show you is type on a
path so what we need is a path right so
if I want to make an arc shape I need a
path that's sort of in an arc shape easy
way to get there is to select the
ellipse tool the shortcut key for that
is L I like to click and drag and now
you're kind of skewing this thing I want
a perfect circle so I'm gonna hold shift
I'm also gonna hold option or alt and
it's gonna scale out from the center if
you can see that now I want a pretty
pretty sort of shallow arc so I'm gonna
make a very big circle like that I'm
going to zoom out a little bit that's
command
or control - and we have this big circle
currently it's got a fill I'm gonna
change the appearance to have no fill
this doesn't matter this is more for
like the visual of it I'm going to
change the stroke to have one point so I
can just see that path we're gonna bring
this down right here good enough and
what I'm just gonna do is split it and I
can split it really anywhere but if I
want to make sure I'm splitting it in
the same exact spot I could actually
find the two edges of the circle here
notice how the circle is made up of four
anchor points if I hit C that is my
little little scissors tool over here
that's like the cut to what I like to
think of cut because of C is the
shortcut and I can just hover over this
anchor click hover over this anchor
click with this circle selected and now
if I go back to the selection tool I
have two pieces of the circle so I have
like two arcs I can just delete the
lower one you could use it if you're
doing something above and below and then
I'm just going to bring this guy down
here and what I can actually do is
probably not even use this curve to text
piece here because what you can do this
is called type on a path and if you go
up to the type tool and click and hold
you'll see a bunch of options and one of
those options is type on a path we
actually don't have to click that you
can just select the type tool
illustrator is smart enough to know that
when you hover over a path it's gonna
say hey you probably want to type on
that path since you have the type tool
opened up so I can just click on this
path and I'm glad this actually made it
upside down because I can show you a
little bit more but it's allowing us to
type on that path now and we could just
type out that same structure they're
curved text but this is nowhere near
like what the finished product is right
so there's a couple things we want to do
to get this situated correctly the first
thing we want to do is flip this to the
top so I'm going to click on this path
and actually go up to type and if you
look there's a type on path segment
where there's some options and we can go
to type on a path options that's gonna
pop up a little window and I'm gonna go
ahead and check mark
preview see then we can checkmark this
guy called flip and that's gonna flip it
to the other side of the path and text
always is going from left to right so
it's going left to right and then we can
align it to different parts of our text
whether we want it aligned on the center
see now the text is in the center of the
path I kind of like this one
it's easier for for placement I think
you know you can you can adjust the
space and if you want you can adjust the
effect and let's go ahead and look at
that effect after we Center this piece
out so in order to Center our text it's
the same as if we were centering text
normally so we find our paragraph
options if you don't see them go up to
window down to type and then there's
paragraph right there and it'll pull out
the paragraph panel I'm gonna dock this
over here but our paragraph options
remember I just need to align Center to
Center that up doesn't look like it's
centered it up and here's why you see
when you have this selected there's two
big white squares one here and one over
here to the left these squares are your
start and your end points so in order
for this text to be centered up here I
need this to start at this anchor and
end this anchor so if I just kind of
hover over this with my selection tool
there's a little line here and if I find
it I'm gonna see a little icon pop up
that has an aligned with an arrow
underneath my pointer if I click and
drag I can move this endpoint all the
way over to this anchor and I can make
sure over here that the start point is
exactly on this anchor and now I know
this text is centered perfectly on that
so the other thing that you might
consider doing is clicking on this again
going up to type type on a path pull up
those options hit preview so you see
what's going on and the effect you might
change that you might change it to skew
which is gonna adjust how the type on a
path warps the letters a little bit 3d
ribbon which is just like I don't know
these are all just funky little things
you can see if if it works for you
stair-step means it's not gonna like
rotate the letters it's just gonna stair
step them above each other gravity will
that it sort of pulls it down to the
center but a lot of times you're looking
at rainbow if you're looking at like a
logo with text on the top and bottom
you're looking at like a rainbow effect
okay so that is that is like type on a
path how to curved text there we are
gonna use this piece up here and let's
just kind of pull this guy and we're
gonna bring him over there and maybe
right down here so we don't accidentally
click on him so this little text here
let's let's show you how to curve this
guy and like warp him to get the same
effect we're gonna select him we're
gonna go up to object down to envelope
distort there's a couple of options here
I'll show you these two just for fun but
this one is make with warp we click on
it and look it already warped our text a
little bit probably with whatever my
last parameters were if I click on style
there's tons of different styles so you
can arc just the upper portion of the
text notice that it warps the text the
bottom stays even and the top has a
little arc to it lots of different
options here bulge just kind of bulges
out from the center you can adjust how
much that Bend is on that bulge you can
adjust the distortion from a horizontal
standpoint or a vertical standpoint you
can adjust all of this stuff right in
here and it's just warping your text so
if we go back to that arc you can adjust
the arc you know how much it is one
thing I noticed with this is it does
warp and skew your text more than type
on a path type on a path will really
keep your text intact but this
definitely breaks out of the integrity
of them and it's starting to skew
letters depending on how much you really
warp it if you keep it minimal it's not
gonna be as noticeable you know if you
keep it with just like a little arc
you're not gonna really notice that and
this is kind of a really easy way to
architects it very quickly without
dealing with a bunch of paths
overlapping and and such I didn't want
to say and such but I just did anyway we
can click OK and there's our curved text
very similar to the one down here you'll
notice some slight differences because
it does warp that text a little bit
alright let me show you one more sort of
fun
saying actually no before we get to that
rumor you can double click on these guys
and adjust their type so the difference
here is that if I start to adjust this
and let's say I'm typing pixel notice
how when I just have one letter
it doesn't really know to keep the
integrity of that letter so it's gonna
stretch it over the whole segment so if
I'm doing pixel now it's kind of
stretched out and as I type like and
bracket it's skewing it more and more in
there so now I have some really skinny
letters so it's whatever you start with
is gonna look the best you can edit the
type but it does it does sort of skew it
a little bit more and more based on the
first set of letters you had whereas
this type on a path down here that's
just gonna type on that path so if I do
the same thing pixel & bracket notice
how it really keeps the the proper
spacing and sizing of those letters
however it is harder to change the angle
of your path now if this was wrapping
around too much and you wanted to bring
it down a little bit it's easier on the
warp side of things to adjust the arc
alright enough enough blabbering on
about that I hope I gave you enough
information there there's another cool
thing here I'm gonna do curved text the
little bubble thing I showed you it's
actually really cool you might be able
to do like different shapes so like if
you wanted if you wanted a car shape and
you wanted to text this a car in the
shape of a car this is how you would do
that I'm just going to show you with
like a an oval so we're gonna grab this
ellipse tool here I'm just gonna make
like an oval shape that covers up the
text and we're gonna kind of slide them
on top of the text there I'm gonna drag
and select both the text underneath and
the shape on top go up to object down to
I think it's envelope to store again and
we're gonna do make with top object this
is pretty cool look at this it curves
the text around that circle shape and
what's even cooler is I can go in here
and edit the text to be like I'll type
in circle and notice how it it like live
previews
the shape in it and it goes ahead and
spreads out the letters so that they're
all in that circle shape and type hello
you can type anything here and and it's
gonna do that for you so let's type in
pixel & bracket same thing now obviously
it just takes that circle shape and so
it's kind of squished in there but it's
kind of a kind of a neat way to to do
text into this like warp shape and still
have it editable you know I like my
non-destructive stuff last one I'm going
to show you since we just skipped over
the option curved text maybe any of
these will help any of you in any way
I don't issue a perform right go up to
object down to envelope the store again
make with mesh and you can adjust how
much mesh there is and if you click
preview can see all the mesh this is
kind of like puppet warp or distort a
little bit so I'm just having four by
four so four rows four columns and I can
click on this and you see I have all
these little points if I select the
direct selection tool which is the white
arrow shortcut key is a I can click on
one of these points and adjust it and
that's gonna start to curve my text and
I've got this like mesh warp here where
if I start to adjust these it's gonna
start to adjust how that text warps and
meshes together so now I have like this
little bubbly effect in the middle of my
curved text pretty cool pretty pretty
interesting way of adjusting text
they're very manually almost like a
puppet warp alright you guys I just went
through a bunch of stuff probably the
first ones what people really want is
just that arc on a path type of text I
would say this one the the warp is also
pretty useful and then these are very
specific but if you're looking for
something like that something fun there
you go I hope you enjoyed this tutorial
hope you learned something if you have
any questions or comments make sure you
post them below subscribe for more tips
and tutorials thanks for watching and
I'll see you next time
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