Type vs lettering
Type is reusable: install a font and reuse it forever. Lettering is bespoke: every glyph drawn for one specific layout. Illustrator handles both — pair high-quality OpenType fonts with hand-tuned letterforms for headlines.
Character and Paragraph panels
Window → Type → Character. Tracking, kerning, leading and baseline shift live here. Press Alt+Left/Right to nudge kerning between two letters by 20/1000 em — the unit pro typesetters work in.
OpenType features
Window → Type → OpenType. Toggle ligatures, alternate stylistic sets, contextual alternates and old-style figures. Modern fonts like Cormorant Garamond ship with hundreds of variants — use them to make text feel handcrafted.
Type on a path
Draw a curve with the Pen. Switch to Type on a Path tool (under T). Click the path and start typing. Drag the bracket markers to shift start, end and baseline. Perfect for badge layouts and circular logos.
Glyphs panel
Window → Type → Glyphs. Browse every character a font contains, including hidden ornaments. Double-click to insert at the cursor — discoverable typography that menus never reveal.
Converting to outlines
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+O converts editable type into vector paths. Do this only when the design is final or you need to deliver artwork to someone without the font. Always keep a non-outlined copy in a hidden layer.
Custom lettering pipeline
Sketch the wordmark on paper, scan, place on a layer at 30% opacity, trace with the Pen. Build each letter as a closed compound path. Adjust optical sidebearings — vertical strokes need slightly more space than horizontal.
Color and texture
Apply gradient meshes for soft shading, or use the Appearance panel to stack multiple strokes and fills on one path. Add a subtle inner shadow for depth without rasterising — keeps the artwork vector forever.