Illustrator, the basics

Member lesson

Type and outlines

Lesson 4 of 8 in Illustrator, the basics.

Checked against the makers' documentation on 9 October 2026.

Add Text to Your Logo in Illustrator | Adobe Creative Cloud · Adobe Creative Cloud
Lesson

Type in Illustrator stays live until you decide otherwise. Text set with the Type tool (T) can be changed at any time, and Window > Type > Character opens the Character panel, where the font, size, kerning and tracking live. Variable fonts get an extra control. When the selected text is set in one, a Variable Font icon appears in the Character section of the Properties panel, and it moves the weight along the font's own range. EB Garamond, No. 4's display face, is free from Google Fonts as a variable font whose weight runs from 400 to 800, which is how No. 4 can ask for exactly 600.

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  1. Question 1, locked

    Tracking is measured in thousandths of an em. What does a tracking of 20 add after each letter of a word set at 100 pt?

    • 20 points
    • 0.2 points
    • 2 points
    • 20 per cent of the letter's width
  2. Question 2, locked

    Before you choose Type > Create Outlines on a wordmark, what does Adobe's own guide tell you to do?

    • Duplicate the text, because the font and character settings cannot be changed afterwards
    • Convert the document to CMYK
    • Set kerning to 0
    • Run Retype on the live text
  3. Question 3, locked

    When does Adobe suggest Optical kerning instead of Auto?

    • For any body text set below 12 pt
    • Only for text that has already been outlined
    • When the text will be exported as SVG
    • For fonts with little built-in kerning, or lines that mix typefaces or sizes

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