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July 16, 2013 By Cartagram Leave a Comment

A Touch of Type

Illustrator CC’s June 2013 edition brings several enhancements to the software that can make your maps more creative. The new Touch Type tool lets you turn a plain map title into a stylistically unique image.

The Touch Type tool lets you edit the size, position, and angle of individual letters in a word while keeping the type editable. An update to the The Adobe Illustrator CS6 WOW! Book includes a detailed a step-by-step tutorial about using the Touch Type tool. But while you’re here, here’s a quick teaser.

custom map title using Illustrator CC's Touch Type tool

We started the title by clicking the artboard with the Type tool and typing “Boquete.” Then we changed each letter’s font to give the title an eclectic, playful look.

To distort the letters, we selected Illustrator CC’s Touch Type tool. It’s located under the Type tool icon in the Tools panel. If the Character panel is open, you can enable the Touch Type tool button from the Character panel or press Shift-T.

To modify a letter, click to select it with the Touch Type tool. Illustrator displays your selection as a box with five control points surrounding the selected letter. With these control points, you can resize a letter horizontally, vertically, or uniformly. You can rotate a letter. You can also move a letter left or right by dragging it.

We finished this title in the Appearance panel where we added a stroke to the word and applied effects like Warp > Twist, Distort & Transform > Roughen, and Stylize > Outer Glow.

For more depth about the Touch Type tool, order The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Booklet for June 2013 CC Release from http://bit.ly/12F5SMU.

You can also order The Adobe Illustrator CS6 WOW! Book from http://bit.ly/18YBUav.

Wow! Save 35% on your Booklet order from WOWArtist at http://www.wowartist.com.

Filed Under: Graphics Tagged With: custom maps, illustrator, type

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Steve Gordon /  Cartagram, LLC
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Madison, AL 35758

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We're professional cartographers and graphic artists. We've been making custom maps, graphics, and web images since 1997. Wow...that's a long time!

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