What Adobe Illustrator can do with text

Adobe Illustrator has several type creation tools and options. You can type straight text, text along a curved line or shape, confine text to a pre-drawn shape, link text from one place to another, and change text into objects which can be distorted, filled, etc.

You often see text wrapped around a shape. Here is an overview of the various options Illustrator has to offer you.

Clipping Mask: a crop tool for Illustrator CS5

Looking for a crop tool in Illustrator CS5? Try a clipping mask instead! This way all your outside canvas drawings won’t be lost.

  1. Draw a rectangle above the area to be ‘cropped’
  2. Select all layers that need ‘cropping’
  3. Select Object > Clipping mask > Make

Still looking for cropping ways? Here are two examples:

Print directly from Adobe Illustrator (CS4+)

I’ve used these settings on a Lexmark X4650, but it will do fine on other printers too, if you want to make sure all measurements resemble on paper.

Lexmark print dialog

  • Check off ‘print last page first’ (when using artboards things can get tricky)
  • Choose print quality

Illustrator print dialog

  • Media size: A4 borderless (do not use borderless printing in the Lexmark print dialog, it uses a slight resize)
  • Do not scale (make sure you use correct size on design, artboards can be resized easily with the artboard tool Shift + O)