How to Change Font Size in Illustrator
Looking for how to change font size in illustrator? We will tell you all about it in a while. First, let us start from the basics.
What is Adobe Illustrator?
Adobe Illustrator is an application from Adobe Inc. which lets you create illustrations. It is a vector graphics application in which you can create logos, icons, infographics and other kinds of illustrations.
Difference between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator?
Both applications from Adobe Inc. are used by people of similar occupations, most of all by graphic designers. And so, to the average layman, difference in their functionality can be perplexing.
While Adobe Photoshop is used to create raster graphics (two-dimensional images as a grid of square pixels), Adobe Illustrator is used to create vector graphics (two-dimensional or three-dimensional images created using mathematical formulas).
While you would most likely use Adobe Illustrator for freehand drawing, it would be better to use Adobe Photoshop for photo editing.
What exactly is Font Size?
Seems a silly question, doesn’t it? It is simply the size of the text in a document. But what exactly is font size measured in? After all, no unit is mentioned when we choose font size from the menu.
For those who don’t know, font size in computers is measured in terms of points (pts). A centimeter (cm) is 28.35 points. Likewise, an inch is approximately 72 points. So when you print text size of 72 on a paper, the text height should be approximately an inch. But it isn’t, though. It is lesser than that actually.
What you select as ‘font size’ in an application is really the height of the ‘Em-box’ also called the ‘bounding box’. And so, the actual height of the text is less than the font size you select.
Why to Change font size?
Now that we have a good idea of what exactly font size is, let us ask ourselves why change font size at all.
Font size conveys the form and tone of your message. If we are not careful with the font size, we can end up conveying something entirely different to what we intended, or at the very least confuse the reader. Varying font sizes help to differentiate the importance of the text. Larger text size attracts the attention of the reader towards that specific text, while smaller text size might be used for descriptive purposes.
What are the easiest methods on how to change font size in Illustrator?
Method 1: From the overhead menu
Step 1: Use the Type tool to write something.
Step 2: Go to the ‘Type’ menu in the overhead menu.
Step 3: Click on ‘Size’ from the menu.
Step 4: Select the size you want for your text.
Method 2: From the Character Panel
Step 1: Use the Type tool to write something.
Step 2: Click on ‘Window’ in the overhead menu.
Step 3: Go to Type -> Character to open the Character Panel.
Step 4: Here you can see the Font Size drop-down menu right below the Font Style menu.
Step 5: As you hover over a particular font size, you can see how it looks at the same time.
Step 6: Select the size you want for your text.
Method 3: Click and Drag
Step 1: Click on the selection arrow on the side of your screen.
Step 2: Click using the arrow on the object containing the text.
Step 3: A bounding box shows up with drag handles at the corners as well at the top and bottom of the object.
Step 4: Click on any of the handles, and drag to resize the object. Keep in mind that this method only works if you simply want to enlarge or reduce the size of the text, without any specific text size in mind.
How to Change Font Size for Multiple Text Elements at the same time in Adobe Illustrator?
So we have learned how to change font size in illustrator. But that was for a single text element.
Sometimes, that is not what we need. We might need to have 5 text elements of similar type in a single font size, and 10 text elements of another type in a different font size.
Changing all of them individually might be a time-consuming task. And so, it helps if we know how to change font size for multiple text elements at the same time.
Below are 2 methods of how to change and/or align font sizes of multiple text elements in one go:
Method 1: Click and Drag
Step 1: Click on the selection arrow on the side of your screen.
Step 2: Click anywhere, and drag the dotted marquee until it covers all the text elements we want.
Step 3: All the text elements will be selected in this way.
Step 4: Go to the Control Panel above the screen.
Step 5: Change the font size to the desired specification.
Method 2: Click and Shift Key
Step 1: Click on the selection arrow on the side of your screen.
Step 2: Click on any one of the elements whose size you wish to change.
Step 3: Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard.
Step 4: Click on the remaining text elements. In this way, all the text elements you click while holding the Shift key will be selected.
Step 5: Go to the Control Panel above the screen.
Step 6: Change the font size to the desired specification.
How to Change Font Size for All Text Elements at the same time in Adobe Illustrator?
Suppose you want to change the font sizes of all the elements in a single go. You can use the above method of changing font size for multiple elements. But sometimes, there are simply too many text elements for you to click on individually, or to drag the dotted marquee over.
In this case, it is easier for you to use the below steps to change the font sizes of all the elements at once.
Step 1: Go to the ‘Select’ menu in the overhead menu.
Step 2: Select Object -> All Text Objects.
Step 3: This way, all the text objects will be selected. Please note that here Ctrl + A should not be used, as it would select all the objects instead of only the text elements.
Step 4: Go to the Control Panel above the screen.
Step 5: Change the font size to the desired specification.
How to Change Font Size using the new Text Height feature in Adobe Illustrator?
As we already know from our section on ‘What exactly is Font Size’, font size is actually the height of the ‘Em-box’. So how do we change the character height to a desired specific height.
The obvious option is to choose a font size slightly bigger, and hope for the best. Adobe Illustrator has now come up with an option which ensures that the above won’t be necessary.
The new option allows you to fix the exact height of either the Em-box, the capital letters or even the small letters in the text selection.
Steps to fix/change Height of Capital Letters
Step 1: Select the text box whose text height you want to change.
Step 2: Click on the ‘Character’ panel in the menu above.
Step 3: Open the fly-out menu from the Character panel.
Step 4: Enable ‘Show Font Height Options’, and a new box will appear.
Step 5: From the drop-down box that appears, select ‘Cap-height’ instead of ‘Em-box’ which is the default option.
Step 6: Type the required size in the font size option.
Step 7: The selected text will now have height of capital letters as the size (2 cm, for example) you have entered, and the text will be suitably re-sized.
Steps to fix/change Height of Small Letters
Step 1: Follow the first 4 steps same as how we did for fixing height of capital letters.
Step 2: From the drop-down box that appears, select ‘x-height’ instead of ‘Em-box’ which is the default option.
Step 3: Type the required size in the font size option.
Step 4: The selected text will now have height of small letters as the size (0.5 inch, for example) you have entered, and the text will be suitably re-sized.
The fourth option from the drop-down menu here, the ‘ICF box’ option, is concerned with Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters.
Conclusion
As we promised, this article comprehensively covers how to change font size in illustrator, and much more. And by now, you are probably an expert in re-sizing the font in illustrator every way possible. Whether it be changing the font of a single text element, or of multiple elements, or of all objects, you have learned it all. Changing the height of actual letters, yes you learned it too.
Adobe Illustrator is to a graphic designer what a fishing net is to a fisherman. You can do without it too, but it simply wouldn’t be the same. Learning how to change text size is a small step. A series of such small steps will eventually make you a master in Illustrator. Remember, small steps add up to great things very often.
