Work with type and fonts

From advertisements to street art and from a book cover to a logo, you can create amazing typography in Illustrator on the iPad. A rich font set and advanced typographic features help you quickly create unique typography designs. For greater precision and a smoother experience, you can connect your keyboard or use Apple Pencil.

• To create a text object in the horizontal direction, on the left toolbar, tap the Type tool ().

• To create a text object in the vertical direction, on the left toolbar, double-tap or long press the type tool to view the Vertical Type tool () in the tool options.
  

Create point and area text

• Point text is a line of text that begins where you tap and expands as you type characters. The line expands or shrinks as you edit it, but doesn’t wrap to the next line. To create a point text, tap the Type tool. A point text frame is created.
• Area text (also called paragraph text) uses the boundaries of an object to control the flow of characters, either horizontally or vertically. When the text reaches a boundary, it automatically wraps to fit inside the defined area.
  To create an area text, drag the Type tool to draw a text frame on the canvas. 
  

Edit text using contextual widget

After the text object is created, select the text frame to view the contextual widget that has some handy text controls that you use to modify text.

• Keyboard: Tap to use the virtual keyboard on the screen. You can open the keyboard when you actually need to type your text. You can use the cut, copy, and paste icons visible on the virtual keyboard to copy and paste the text.
• Letter spacing: Type the spacing you want to have between letters in your text or use slider to set the value.
• Line spacing: Type the spacing you want to have between lines in your text or use slider to set the value.

View and edit text properties

You can format the text and the font using the text properties available in the Text section of the Properties panel. 

• Font scale: Tap to change the horizontal and vertical scaling of font using sliders.
• Font size: Specify the size of the font.
  
• Line spacing: Specify the spacing between two lines of text.
• Letter spacing: Specify the spacing between letters in the text.
• All caps: Tap to convert the all letters in the text to uppercase. Tap again to go back to the previous casing.
• Small caps: Tap to convert all letters in the text to lowercase. Tap again to go back to the previous casing.
• Underline text and Strikethrough

See also: Format type.

Change the text frame

With a point or area text selected, you can change the text frame from point to area or vice versa. In the Properties panel, under text options, choose the text frame in the Text Container section.

Align text in a paragraph

Under Paragraph, you can select a suitable option to align and justify your text.

Activate and use Adobe Fonts

Illustrator on the iPad provides a comprehensive typography feature set that helps you find the right font for your artwork. You can access thousands of fonts as well as add your own fonts directly from the Illustrator on the iPad app. The fonts are added to your Creative Cloud library and become available across Creative Cloud apps.

Resolve missing fonts

If a font used in your document is not available on your iPad, Illustrator automatically substitutes the missing font with the nearest matching font available on your iPad. When you open a cloud document that contains fonts not currently available on your device, Illustrator on the iPad automatically activates Adobe Fonts in the background and substitutes the missing font with an identical font.

If you can access the font file, you can instantly add the missing font in the Illustrator app. For details, see Quickly add a missing font.

See also: Resolve missing fonts in desktop applications.

View East Asian type options

To view the formatting options for East Asian characters in the Properties panel, do the following:

1. Go to Manage App Settings > General.
2. Select the Enable East Asian type options check box.
3. In the Placeholder Text drop-down list, choose the dummy text as Japanese (selected automatically when the check box is enabled), Korean, Maru-Maru, or Lorem Ipsum. 

Related resources

• Create text designs on a path
  
• Fonts and typography in Illustrator on the desktop
• Fonts | FAQ and troubleshooting tips
• Troubleshoot font issues in Illustrator

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