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Fonts and typography

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      3. Add your own fonts
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    1. Drawing
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      12. Design a flower in 5 easy steps
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      1. Add text and work with type objects
      2. Create bulleted and numbered lists
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      4. Fonts and typography
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      15. Arabic and Hebrew type
      16. Fonts | FAQ and troubleshooting tips
      17. Create 3D text effect
      18. Creative typography designs
      19. Scale and rotate type
      20. Line and character spacing
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      22. Spelling and language dictionaries
      23. Format Asian characters
      24. Composers for Asian scripts
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  9. Automate tasks
    1. Data merge using the Variables panel
    2. Automation with scripts
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  10. Troubleshooting 
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    3. File issues
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    5. GPU device driver issues
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    7. DLL file issues
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    12. Share crash report with Adobe
    13. Improve Illustrator performance

Looking for the right font for your artwork? Learn how to access, activate, and edit a font that's perfect for your typographic design.

Illustrator automatically imports and loads all fonts that are installed on your Windows or macOS. To use a new font, you must download that font on your computer. For more details, see Add a new font.

Get in-app help, tips, and learn-resources within the Discover panel.

Explore font resources
Discover Panel with the word font in the search field

Access fonts

 Before you start, type your text using the Type tool. For more details, see Create text.

To view and browse through a wide variety of font families and font types:

  • Open the Character panel. Do one of the following:
    • Choose Windows > Type > Character.
    • Select the text to view Character settings in the Control panel or Properties panel.
    • Press Command+T (macOS) or Ctrl+T (Windows).
  • Click the Set Font Family drop-down. 

 To look for a font, you can type the font name (if you know it already) in the Font family drop-down in the Character panel or Control panel.

View the font list

Preview fonts in real time

  1. Select a text on your artboard or choose a sample text from the drop-down.
  2. Hover the pointer over a font name in the font list available in the Control panel or Character panel.

To turn off the preview, deselect Preferences > Type > Enable in-menu font previews.

Change the text size while previewing by clicking Sample Size small, Sample Size medium, and Sample Size large icons.

Preview in real-time
Preview fonts

Auto-activate missing fonts

When an Illustrator document contains any missing Adobe Fonts, they are automatically activated if all the fonts are available in Adobe Fonts. This task runs in the background without displaying the Missing Fonts dialog. 

auto activate missing fonts
When Auto-activate Adobe Fonts is enabled

By default, this Auto-activate Adobe Fonts is disabled in Illustrator. To enable, select Auto-activate Adobe Fonts from Edit > Preferences > File Handling.

When Auto-activate Adobe Fonts is enabled

If there are missing fonts in your document, then Illustrator checks and automatically activates fonts from Adobe Fonts site as per the below scenarios:

  • If all the missing fonts are available in Adobe Fonts, they are activated in the background. You can continue to work with documents.
  • If only some of the missing fonts are available in Adobe Fonts, they are activated in the background. A Missing Fonts dialog appears with a list of missing fonts. 
    • Click Replace Fonts and get the missing fonts from other sources or
    • Close the dialog. The missing fonts will be replaced with default fonts.  
  • If none of the missing fonts are available in Adobe Fonts, a Missing Fonts dialog appears with a list of missing fonts.

You can also check the progress of activation of missing fonts in Background Tasks panel. To view the background tasks, use one of the below two options: 

  • Click Window > Utilities > Background Tasks.
  • Click the blue spinner icon in the upper-right corner of Illustrator application header.

Activate Adobe Fonts

Not found that right font? Activate more fonts from Adobe fonts.

You can choose a font from the Adobe's subscription-based online fonts library (Adobe Fonts) that offers unlimited high-quality fonts from hundreds of type foundries. Browse and activate these fonts instantly from within Illustrator or go to fonts.adobe.com. Activated fonts become available for use in all Creative Cloud applications.
  1. In the Character panel, click the Find More tab.
  2. Browse the font list and select a font. To preview the font on the selected text, hover over the font name.
  3. Click the Activate icon displayed next to the font. The Activate icon shows a check mark after the font is activated and available for use.
Activate Adobe Fonts
View and activate Adobe fonts

Know more about Adobe Font icons

Activate Adobe Fonts icons

A. Activated fonts filter B. Activated family font C. Font to be activated D. Activated font E. Deactivated font F. Activate font G. Font activation in progress H. Font family drop-down I. Number of font family styles J. More details about this font 

Looking for a Japanese font?

In the Find More tab, you can browse and preview all Japanese fonts available on fonts.adobe.com. 

To set the preference to enable the preview of Japanese fonts:

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Type.
  2. Select Enable Japanese Font Preview in 'Find More'.

The changes are applied only when you relaunch Illustrator.

More resources

 Watch this video to quickly get started with Adobe Fonts.

Organize and filter fonts

You can quickly find fonts that you use frequently and filter them in the Fonts tab of the Character panel or Properties panel.

Filter options for fonts

A. Classification filter B. Favorites C. Show recently added D. Activated font E. Sample text options F. Sample text size options G. Font type H. Add to favorites I. View similar 

In the Classification Filter drop-down list, select your preferred font classes to narrow down the font list. By default, all font classes are displayed. Only Roman fonts can be filtered using this filter.

 Click Clear All to remove the filter.

Font classification filter
Apply Classification filter

To set frequently used fonts as favorites, hover over a font and then click the Favorite icon displayed next to the font name. To filter all your favorite fonts, click the Show only Favorites filter.

Apply favorites filter
Apply Show only Favorites filter

To filter all the fonts that you added and activated in the last 30 days, click the Show Recently Added icon.

Note: Recently used and starred fonts are preserved across Illustrator sessions.

To filter fonts that are visually similar, hover over a font and click the View Similar icon. Fonts closest in visual appearance to the selected font appear on top in the search results.

Find similar fonts
View similar fonts

Use variable fonts

The variable font is an OpenType font for which you can customize the attributes, such as weight, width, slant, optical size. These fonts provide flexibility and customization of font attributes to create responsive web lettering and typography. 

Vary width

Vary width

Vary slant

To adjust the weight, width, and slant for variable fonts using slider controls:

  • Search for variable in the font list or look for the  icon next to the font name.
  • Click Variable Font icon () in the Control panel, Character panel, Character Styles panel, and Paragraph Styles panel.
Variable fonts
Adjust the weight, width, and slant for a variable font

See also: Variable fonts, a new kind of font for flexible design

Edit fonts

You can modify the font size, font family, font style, and typeface to match your requirements.

 You can also change the default font (Myriad Pro) in Illustrator. For more details, see How to change the default font in Illustrator?

Change the font size

Select a text and do one of the following:

  • Choose a size from Type > Size. 
  • Set a font size in Font Size drop-down the Character or Control panel.
Change the font size
Change the font size

By default, font size is measured in points (a point equals 1/72 of an inch). 

 You can change the unit of measurement for type in the Preferences dialog box.

Change the font family and style

Select the text you want to change. If you do not select a text, the font applies to new text you create. Do the following to select a font type or a style:

  • In the Control or Character panel, choose a font and a font style from the Font Family and Font Style drop-down list.
  • Choose Type > Font / Recent Fonts and select a font name. 
  • Click the current font name and type the first few characters of the font you want.

 To change the number of fonts in the Recent Fonts, choose Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Type (macOS), and set the Number of Recent Fonts option.

Find and replace fonts

find fonts
Find and replace fonts in a document

To find and replace fonts in a document:

  • Choose Type > Find Fonts. 
  • Select the name of a font. The first occurrence of the font is highlighted in the document window.
  • Select a replacement font in the Replace With Font From drop-down. 
    • Choose Document to list only the fonts that are used in the document
    • Choose System to list all fonts installed on your computer.Click Change to change just one occurrence of the selected font.
  • Click Change All to change all occurrences of the selected font.
    Font name is removed from the list when it's all occurrences are removed from the document.

Know the type of fonts supported in Illustrator

Font Types

Icons

OpenType

Variable fonts

SVG

  • Provides multiple colors and gradients in a single glyph.
  • Covers Emoji fonts – smileys, flags, street signs, animals, people, food, landmarks, and so on.

 

Adobe Fonts

TrueType 

Multiple Master

Composite


What's next

This article got you started with adding, activating, and editing a font in Illustrator. Now, use the power of fonts to design your typographic artwork. If you still have any questions, check out the Fonts | FAQ and troubleshooting tips.

Want to create your own font? Check out this page.

Have a question or an idea?

Ask the community

If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Adobe Illustrator Community. We'd love to hear from you!

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