Learnings: The Type Tool

The Type Tool

The power of words is unparalleled. Words can speak of courage, empowerment, love, hatred, anger, and a lot more. Words can be inspiring. But without the Type Tool, this words will never be . . . . well, typed.

Words can also be used as a design aesthetic, you can either put it with a picture or manipulate it so it can be as interesting as a photograph.

"Are there pictures?"

Reading can be such a burden. Whenever people are handed a book the first thing they would do is look for photos. Words are never interesting - until the type tool came.

To access the type tool, left-click the T icon in the toolbox near the canvas. You can also easily access it by clicking the same letter on your keyboard. T for Type Tool, easy, right? Right-clicking the icon will give you more options such as the Vertical Type Tool, which instantly allows you to type vertically. You can change the typeface, as well as the size of the font by accessing the drop-down menus. Beside the sizes, you'll see another drop-down menu which determines the quality of the font. You can change the color of the font too. And an interesting feature awaits after click the icon that shows a T above an arc, you'll be offered a variety of choice to arc/bend the text in different ways.

More features

More features to toggle with are available in the Character menu, found parallel to the toolbox. To access the menu click the icon that shows an A with a vertical line beside it, if you can't seem to find what I'm describing to you, enable the Character menu by going to Windows>Character.

(A) Font (B) Leading - the space between lines of text (C) Tracking - uniform space between the letters (D) Stretches the letters vertically (E) Stretches the letters horizantally (F) A number of options to style the font such as [from left to right] Bold, Italic, Uppercase, Small Caps, Superscript, Subscript, Underline, and Strikethrough.

**left side of B: Font size

***left side of C: Kerning - space between two letters

****below D: Baseline shift - allows to move the letters above and/or below the baseline

IN SUMMATION

Typography is not as easy as brushes. And it is far more technical than colors. Words need to be understandable. They are not just there to be an aesthetic to the design. Of course they are there to add beauty, but not JUST beauty. It has to have a purpose. Whatever you want to say, make sure it has a purpose, or else just shut up. :)

signing out . . . . . . . .