Expert: Laith Ibrahim - 9/15/2008

Question
Hi Laith,
I am trying to have 3 letters written inside an empty
circle (circle and letters in the same color). Could u
please guide me on how to do that in illustrator. i hv
illustrtor 12.0.
Thank you so much,
Anita  

Answer
Hi Anita,
To be able to do that, please follow the following steps:

1. Create your circle and give it a stroke by clicking on the "Stroke" at the bottom of the tool box and choosing a color from the "Swatches" palette (select "windows>swatches" if you can't see it). Now to make the circle without a fill, click on the "Fill" at the bottom of the tool box and then select the box that has a diagonal red line from the "Swatches" palette.

2. Select this circle and press CTRL+C to copy it. Now press CTRL+F to paste a copy of it exactly on top of the 1st one. You'll only see one circle.

3. We need to lock one of the circles so click on the top circle to select it and press CTRL+2 (or select “Object>Lock” from the top menu)  

3. Type your 3 letters on one line or type them individually. Don't put them on the circles yet. Give them the same color you gave to the stroke of the circles.

4. Select the top circle and press ctrl+Shift+] or select “Object>Arrange>Bring to Front from the top menu. This will put the circle on top of all other objects.

5. While the top circle is selected, from the transparency menu (click on “Windows>Transparency if you can’t see it) move the slider to reduce its opacity. You can ignore this step but I think it’ll help you see the text when you put it under this circle.

5. Move you text until it’s underneath the top circle. Resize it from the corners while holding the “ALT” and “Shift” keys until you get the size that you like.

6. Now press CTRL+A (or “Select>All” from the top menu). This will select the circle and the text.

7. Press CTRL+7 to mask the text. The circle will disappear and the text will be masked. Only the parts that were within the circle will be visible. Of course the 1st circle we created (bottom one) will be visible.

8. To complete the project, unlock the bottom circle (we locked it in step 2). Press CTRL+SHIFT+2, the circle will be unlocked and selected. Now press CTRL+SHIFT+] or select “Object>Arrange>Bring to Front from the top menu. Since we have given the circle “no fill” then only its stroke will cover the text.
I have the answer above in details because I assumed that you just started with Adobe Illustrator. If you follow the steps you’ll get what you need.
I hope I managed to give you the answer to your question.
Please let me know if you need anything else.
Best regards,

Laith


Follow up:
Hi again Anita,
I asked you to lock one of the circles to be able to select the other one only. When it's locked it'll stay in place untouched until we need it.

We made 2 circles because one will disappear when we apply the clipping mask. You said you wanted a circle that have the same color as text so the 2nd one we created was for this purpose.

As for the clipping mask, it is to hide any pieces of the 3 letters that go beyond the circle. Making clipping masks is very simple and fun. For example, open a picture in Illustrator then draw any shape using the pen tool (or make a circle, a star or any other shape). Put your shape over the picture, select both and press CTRL+7 (or object>clipping Mask>Make). The shape will disappear and your picture will be inside the shape.
I hope the above answered your questions.
Illustrator is a great program, you'll love it more and more.
Good luck,

Laith