something I never understood about illustrator

[DDD]

Why cant you italicize or bold more than half the font on there. I mean when i use FW I can do everything to every font. But in ILL the font options are hella limited. Is there a setting somewhere I have tweaked to hell or what? Does anyone else notice this? Is there a fix? Maybe I should ask Adobe but eh. I would like to see if anyone here noticed this or fixed this.

[jimhere]

Illustrator and InDesign are considered Professional Design applications, so if the typeface wasn't designed with an italic version, it won't make one up for you (which is what Quark's "I" button does). Since Joe Trajan never made a Trajan Italic, why would Joe trust Illustrator to slant it?). For example, the lowercase "a" sometimes has that extra staff abbove it, sometimes not, and italic versions should reflect the overall typeface, which someone spent a few minutes creating.

Of course these days, everone has a computer and everyone is a desiner, but some applications still, um, is respect the word? still respect the typeface being used as far as character weight, width, tracking, kerning, baseline, and all that goes.

In ai, I thing there is the 'ol "oblique" trick (haven't used it in awhile) which'll force slant things...

[reverendflash]

I'm so glad we have Adobe looking out for our best interests!

;)

Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[jimhere]

Is that the carefully crafted "Reverend Flash" typeface? those backwards N's are safe!

[reverendflash]

nope, it's called "firstgrader"


Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[DDD]

that sux .....ppfft professional and cant even italicize........I love ILL but you should be able to slant or bold any font....I am tired of switching back and forth to do it between ILL and FW.

[jimhere]

It started out as a print app in the '80s (that's the 20th century). There's probably a trick. I'll look...

[Ohmu]

You can make them 'Italic' looking by Shearing (the tools lies underneath the Scale tool in the Tool-window) the text you have. The text-box will be slanted (i.e you'll be reading the whole thing diagonally) but you can correct that using the Direct selection Tool (white arrow) and the select the two lower anchors of your 'text-field' and just straighten it up.

It's tough work, but someones gotta do it...

oh and one thing... don't tell anyone I told you to do it... it's kinda against the rules ;)

[CanadianGuy]

Kinda off topic but I had a graphic design teacher who was fanatical about not transforming typefaces in any way. Personally i thought the guy was an idiot 'cause his work sucked and beyond Illustrator 6 the first photoshop he didn't know jack.

lol I just felt like sharing that

[DDD]

it is just **** weird to not be able to adjust your fonts. I have been using ill for a while and it just reached a boiling point today when I realized how much time I spend with a work around for that. any hoo. I hope they change it. I cant remember if Freehand is the same way....I doubt it tho.

[reverendflash]

DDD -

they won't change it. it is a security feature. just like they don't allow scanning of money...

it all reverts back to the fact that Adobe gets royalties off of every post script font that is sold...

so I doubt that it will ever change for Illustrator.

Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[DDD]

ok that one flew over my head. Will it mess up the licensing or whatever to just bold it or italicize it? I notice when you save sometimes you will get that font licensing error... Oh well. I was just venting it aint like I am going to stop using ILL.

[reverendflash]

no, but they can get additional $$ if they sell the entire family, rather than just the normal face...

Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[DDD]

dang I feel like I am seriously missing something here. How are the losing out? So a person who makes a font has to make an italicized version sell it, then make a bold version...sell it. Just to make a full set? Actually some of my free fonts have the 3 settings and still only the regular shows up. Another thing I dont understand. Any hoo.....that sux.

[reverendflash]

yup.

same thing happens with Acrobat Distiller...

fonts are vector, so they are attempting to protect their copyrights, screw everyone else.

Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[jimhere]

I guess I'm just used to it after all these years. It actually seems normal to me to find a font family that has an italic face if I need it. Otherwise, sheary-sheary.

[.soulty]

its the integrity of the font maker and their font. I like the fact that you cannot make font italic if there isent the font provided for it. Reason are exactly what jimhere mentioned before

Also my teachers said people that use the italic button in Quark and other apps are Desktop publishers not graphic designers and i agree. The quality you can easy see when fonts are suppose to be italic compared to those that shouldnt be.

Yes it might be a big downer for speed but its for the best in the long run.

Just my 2cents.
.soulty :)

[reverendflash]

Oh, Give me a Break.

that is just old print school talking. That "desktop publishers" crack is evidence that they are biased toward print media anyway.

for the web, it is all raster'd, so "integrity of the font" is out the window.

They don't have the right to say how their font is going to be used, they sold the font with the license to use as the customer saw fit.

And I would be willing to bet that if you didn't know the font wasn't italicized by the font designer, or by the "desktop publisher." Usually, there isn't enough of the font used to determine whether or not it has been skewed.

This is just Adobe trying to protect it's post script font monopoly. It really has nothing to do with the font originators & thier integrity... otherwise, at least one other company would be doing the same, rather than everyone else allowing "bolding" and "italics" on every font.

Besides, if there isn't an italics offered, what harm is there in the prog saving a bit of time and skewing it for me? If there is an italic version, use it. But Adobe doesn't see it that way.

That is one major reason I have always disliked Adobe. They come up with a solution, then force thier procedures. Other companies see that the customers are spending a lot of time creating stuff that they could automate, so they do, to make the product more usable (efficient). Adobe continues to protect thier "font integrity", regardless of usability.

my $.02

Revhttp://aulman.com/rev.gif

[.soulty]

ok , i agree with what your saying rev, my opinion was directed to print media.. such things like booklets and multi-page documents that consist mainly of type.

If its for web, well then thats a different story.. my bad for not reading the rest of the posts. :sigh:

[jimhere]

On the one hand if someone spends real time designing a typeface (or even a Flash movie), why let random people skew that?
On the other hand (I only have two!), people post their .fla's for others to mess with. Doenload a font-making program, open the font you like, and make an italic version. These programs will easily let you open existing fonts (I believe MM's legacy one is Fontographer).
You need the Flash app to open and alter flash movies. If you can't find another font with a good italic, get one of those apps.