With so many new things in Illustrator, it’s easy to overlook things that have been around for a while and forget what powerful tools they still can be. For instance, in this tutorial we are going see the precise control we can have on distorting an object by using Envelope Distortion.

1. Wrapping Text In Illustrator
2. Warp Text Illustrator
3. Bend Text Box In Illustrator
4. Adobe Illustrator Bend Text
5. Bend Text Illustrator

Warping Text in Illustrator. In Illustrator, go to Effect Warp and select the kind of warp you want to text. You have the same 15 options to choose from. If you want more control over the warping, go to Object Envelope Distort Make with Warp. Again, a dialog box will pop up where you can select the same settings available in Photoshop. Text is slanted to the diagonal with vertical shearing. One way to skew text in Illustrator is from the object menu. Click object, then transform, then shear. You can also right click on a PC or control click on a Mac and jump right to the transform option. Another way to skew text is through the transform panel.

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Wrapping Text In Illustrator

Set the text in your desired type style. (In this example, I used the font Myriad Pro Black). Then go under the Type Menu and select Create Outlines to convert the text to shapes.

2

Grab your Rectangle tool from the toolbar, make sure that your fill is set to empty and set your stroke color to black so you can see the shape. Draw a box around the text so that the text just barely fits within.

3

Warp Text Illustrator

Go to Objects menu > Envelope Distort, then choose Make with Top Object. This will contain the text within the box so that you can distort the overall shape.

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In the toolbar, select the Direct Select Tool (the hollowed out arrow at the top right of the toolbar). Then, just select any point in the shape and drag around the handles that extend out in order to distort the shape.

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When you are finished distorting the shape, you will need to revert it back to outlines. To do this, select the object, go under the Object menu and go down to Expand. You will get a dialog asking you what properties you want to expand. By default, Object and Fill will be checked. You want to make sure that the Object is checked. You can leave Fill checked as it will not effect anything.

Note: Once you expand the object you will no longer be able to distort the shape unless you place it inside another envelope object. When you are ready to expand the object, make a copy of that object and then expand. This way, you have a spare if you need to go back and change the distortion.

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Now, with that object converted to a regular shape, you can change its color and style in any way you like.

You can rotate, reflect,scale, and shear type just as you do other objects. However, howyou select the type affects the transformation results:

• To transform the type along with its bounding path, select the type object and use the Rotate tool to rotate the object and text.

• To transform just the bounding path, but not the type it contains, select the type object and drag with the Selection tool.

Bend Text Box In Illustrator

Youcan specify the proportion between the height and width of the type, relativeto the original width and height of the characters. Unscaled characters havea value of 100%. Some type families include a true expandedfont, which is designed with a larger horizontal spread thanthe plain type style. Scaling distorts the type, so it is generallypreferable to use a font that is designed as condensed or expanded,if one is available.

Adobe Illustrator Bend Text

Select the characters or type objects you wantto change. If you don’t select any text, the scale applies to newtext you create.
In the Character panel, set the Vertical Scaling option orthe Horizontal Scaling option .

• Torotate the characters within a type object by a specific numberof degrees, select the characters or type objects you want to change.(If you don’t select any text, the rotation applies to new textyou create.) In the Character panel, set the Character Rotationoption .
• To change horizontal type to vertical type, and viceversa, select the type object and choose Type > TypeOrientation > Horizontal or Type > Type Orientation >Vertical.
• To rotate an entire type object (both the charactersand the type bounding box), select the type object and use the boundingbox, Free Transform tool, Rotate tool, Rotate command, or Transformpanel to perform the rotation.
• To rotate multiple characters in vertical Asian text,use the tate‑chu-yoko option to rotate multiple characters.

Bend Text Illustrator