The Digital Eye

How a word looks in print can communicate as much or more to a viewer than the actual word itself. The features in both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop virtually control every aspect of the generation and placement of type in a design field — and with a few tricks, both programs potentially can produce dazzling typographical effects that communicate an idea with clarity and impact.

The typefaceⁱ tools in both programs generate fully editable type, directly on the image. You can specify all the basic characteristics, including weather the type is horizontal or vertical, its fontⁱ, style, size, anti-aliasingⁱ, alignment, leading, kerningⁱ and color. So the question is, why choose one software program over the other? In fact, most of the effects that can be achieved in Illustrator also can be produced in Photoshop and vice versa, but I think the most important considerations are: First, what does the final type look like? And, second, how easily can these effects be achieved?

EDITABLE VECTORⁱ TYPE
Adobe Photoshop is primarily a raster-based software program. In other words, its operations are designed to manipulate pixels. There are, however, several tools in Photoshop that generate and edit vector objects, including the Pen tools, the Direct Selection and Path Selection tools, the Shape tools and, of course, the Type tool. Illustrator depends on similar tools to create vector objects and also has a few components that generate and edit pixels, including a series of effects that modify Bezier curves by adding pixel effects and a group of filters that can be directly applied to placed raster images.

Both programs generate fully editable, vector-based type that is resolutionⁱ independent. Vector-based type can be sized or otherwise transformed with no loss of quality because its output depends not on the resolution of the document but the print resolution of the destination printer. When the type is processed at the printer’s RIP (raster image processorⁱ) the vector data is used to calculate the edges of the characters to subdue pixelizationⁱ and assure clean, crisp edges.

MODIFY FONTS
Although you can achieve almost any type effect in Photoshop through a series of layer techniques, Layer Styles and other digital acrobatics, there are a few techniques in Adobe Illustrator that will produce a similar, if not better, outcome with much less effort. One such example is the ability to modify the shape of type characters. Because type in Illustrator can be converted to basic vector outlines, the intrinsic shapes of characters easily can be manipulated.

Start by generating some type in Illustrator. Next choose Create Outlines from the Type menu. Be sure to proofread the type prior to converting because, once you’ve created outlines, the type no longer can be edited. The conversion changes the text characters into to a group of Bezier curves that can be altered by dragging their anchor points, segments of direction handles with the Direct Selection tool or adding additional paths, as in Figure 1.

MULTIPLE OUTLINES
Illustrator also beats Photoshop, hands down, in creating characters with multiple-colored outlines, like the one pictured in Figure 2. In Photoshop this process would require multiple selections, layers, fillsⁱ, layer styles, strokes and quite a bit of time. In Illustrator the effect only requires a few simple steps.

Figure 2: Illustrator can add multiple-colored outlines with the Offset Path feature.

First, choose the Horizontal Type tool and create one or more characters. Apply a colored fill to the characters. Next, convert the type to outlines. From the Object menu, select Path > Offset Path and type a valueⁱ (in points) in the dialog box, then Click OK. The width of the type will appear to increase, but what actually happens is that the Offset Path command automatically duplicates and enlarges the selected character by the specified value. The new path is positioned behind the original path. With the new offset path still selected, choose a color fill from the Swatches or Color Panelⁱ to color the new path’s offset edge. Repeat the process for each new outline you want to create.

Figure 3:

The overlapping type, converted to outlines.

After dividing the text into shapes with the Pathfinder, fill the areas with the color of the underlying shape.

The interlocking characters.

INTERLOCKING CHARACTERS
Here, again, is another technique that’s easy to perform in Illustrator. With a few well-choreographed steps, Illustrator can create what appears to be interlocking characters. Start by generating two overlapping characters on two separate type paths. Convert them to outlines and use the multiple outlines technique I described previously to create a colored outline around each of the characters. Select everything with the Selection tool. Now, here’s the secret method that performs instant magic and creates the illusion of interlocking characters. Display the Pathfinder and click the Divide icon to divide all of the overlapping parts into separate paths. Individually select the overlapping areas with the Direct Selection tool. With the Color Sampler tool (the eyedropper), sample the color from the adjacent non-overlapping area to fill the region with similar color (see Figure 3).

Illustrator also is the software to use for threading text when you want to flow text from one shape to another or for wrapping type around a shape. You also can use illustrator to create multiple columns or rows of text, whereas Photoshop doesn’t offer any of these features. So, if you have the whole CS4 Creative suite, you probably are wondering at this point what Photoshop’s text generating strengths are. Of course, Photoshop, like Illustrator, has a full set of type features that can perform all of the basic operations of placement and character creation. But there, indeed, are several areas where for final output and efficiency you may want to choose Photoshop to generate type.

IMAGES IN TEXT
Photoshop has two systems for generating type. It can generate type as a layer that produces fully editable, vector-based text. It also can generate type as a type mask that essentially creates a selection marqueeⁱ in the shape of a type character. Both have their uses, but to create type characters that contain an image, we’ll use the Type Mask tool.

Figure 4: Type the text with the Type Mask tool.

Open an image in Photoshop. Choose Select > Select All and then Edit > Copy to copy the image to the computer’s memory cache called the Clipboard. Choose the Type Mask tool. In the Options bar, select a typeface (bold faces work better) and a type size big enough to reveal a good portion of your image. Click on the image and you’ll see a blinking insertion point on red translucentⁱ mask. Type the text as in Figure 4.

To reposition the text press, click the Your Command (Mac) Cntrl (Win) key and drag the text into position. And to resizeⁱ the text, drag one of the corner points. When satisfied with the text, click the checkmark in the Options bar. The mask converts to a selection outline.

Figure 5: When you paste into the selection outline you automatically create a layer mask.

Figure 6: The type can be greatly enhanced with Layer Styles.

From the Edit Menu, choose Paste Into, and the image you copied to the clipboard will be pasted into the text. Note: If the original layer is visible, you won’t see any change unless you click the visibility icon in the Layers panel as in Figure 5. This technique produces a layer with a layer mask in the shape of the type that can be scaled and positioned with the move tool. The contentⁱ can be greatly enhanced with the application of Layer Styles as in Figure 6.

Photoshop also is the program of choice for efficiently producing headline text with drop shadows, glowing text, bevelⁱ and embossed effects, and innumerable effects created with combinations layer styles, blend modes and the warp type feature. Filters cannot be applied to type layers unless they are rasterized (converted to pixels) first. I wouldn’t recommend either Photoshop or Illustrator for producing body copy and definitely not for multiple pageⁱ documents. For those applications, use InDesign, which comes with the CS4 suite and has numerous dedicated features for the creation and editing of large amounts of text.

Both members of the Adobe CS4 creative suite offer much in the way of typography. Spend the time exploring the techniques and features in both software programs described in this article to get started in producing type that has impact.