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Adobe Illustrator/lay text down on a flat plane

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Expert: - 2/8/2012


Question
Map text laydown example
Map text laydown examp  
How can I lay text down in CS3 Illustrator Mac so it looks like its on a flat plane
but going back in perspective?

Would also like the text fonts to be editable for future changes

See street map example

Thanks
Mike

Answer
Dear Mike,

Here are a couple of ways to lay text down in Illustrator CS3 for Mac:

METHOD 1

1. Using the selection tool, select the text to which you would like to apply the effect.

2. Go to the effects menu > Distort and Transform > select free distort.

3 You will see the selected text in a box with 4 handles. Move the top handles towards the center and down to create the desired effect.

4. Using the method also allows you to still edit the text, i.e, change fonts, text size , color, etc.



METHOD 2 (cannot change the font with this option)

1. Make sure bounding boxes is turned on. View > Show Bounding box or Command + Shift + B to turn them on.

2. Create your text, then convert it to outlines using the Type > Create Outlines command.

3. Select the text object with the Selection Tool (V) (black arrow).

4. While the text object is selected, select the Free Transform Tool (E) (It's the triangular arrow & dotted box tool directly below the scale tool.)

5. Click down and hold on a corner handle of the object, while holding the option and or command key. Holding SHIFT at the same time constrains your drag, preserving your angles.

Hope This Helps,
Markzware

Adobe Illustrator

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We are Adobe Certified and an Adobe partner. We can answer questions about prepress preflighting and data conversion for desktop publishing with Adobe Illustrator CS3 up to the current version.

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