Blog Post 34 - Stage 2 - Adobe Illustrator - Text Wrap

Now that I have looked at both the Shape Tools and Pen Tools, the next element of Illustrator that I am going to be looking into is that of the Text Wrap. This is being to be looked into as part of the assignment specification for this Stage is that text wrap must be used.

Image Placed in Illustrator Art Board

With this in mind, I decided that I should research this as I had not used this before in the past and wanted to keep up with the specification as those were the areas that have to be covered (see Blog Post 30 - Introduction for more information) to fulfil the assignment specification. Ideally I would like to go above and beyond the specification with new and untaught features however the basics have to be covered first of course.Researching around on the internet I managed to find a simple and to the point YouTube Tutorial Video which allowed me to follow the tutorial so that I could carry out this exercise. The YouTube Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rukmlI_pBaY) was particularly useful and to the right hand side you will be able to see the different stage of using the Text Wrap function of Illustrator.

Lipsum Text added as example

To being with, though, I had to import an image onto my art board which is done by navigating to File -> Place... which will then allow you to find and insert your chosen image onto the artboard. Once I had placed by image onto the art board it was apparent that it was slightly too large for my chosen base size of board, so utilising the resizing button at the corners of the image and holding the Shift Key to keep the aspect ratio this allowed me to resize the image to the size of my choosing. Once this was in place, I was then able to use the Type Tool which allowed me to draw an area that filled the majority of the art board which I would be filling with text. At this stage, I was ready to be able to insert text into the type area however as this was just a test and an experiment of the tools it was rather difficult to this of any text to use. With this in mind, I decided to head over to the Lipsum Website (http://www.lipsum.com/feed/html) which allowed me to copy a whole host of text. This text itself in the design and publishing trade is commonly used as place holder text which in my case was particularly of use.

Text justified and Wrapped

Once this had been pasted into the type box, then the paragraph settings were tweaked to that of being fully justified and so that that the text carries to the the total edge of the type area which would mean that the wrap would be more successful and pleasing to the eye. Then, I was able to select the text and navigate to Object -> Arrange -> Send To Back and this was carried out so that when the wrapping occurring the correct effect is produced and the text is correctly wrapped. Then, I could select both the image and text, navigate to Object -> Text Wrap -> Make... which once clicked on an information message wrapped the text. 

Text Wrap Offset Adjusted

Now that I had successfully wrapped the text with the photograph above I decided to have a look into what other options were available as I had previously spotted in the Object -> Text Wrap... drop down menu that there was a Text Wrap Options which I felt I should explore. With this in mind, looking into this it turns out that you can tweak the Offset of the wrap. Shown in the screen print here, you can see that an Offset of 40 Points meant that there was a largely space around the outside of the image which is certainly something to bear in mind when I come to making my On Disc label as something like this could be very useful indeed. 

Having now made a successful text wrap and also that of a further adjustment this has given me a great insight into this particular element of Illustrator which I am sure that I will be able to use in the future for my On Disc Logo. Continuing with the theme of text and type, the next stage that I will be completing is that of Typography.