Area Type text and bullet error

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
November 18, 2025
3 replies
99 views

Not scaling properly and changing bullet spacing
Same error when scaling artwork with artboard, scaling area-type text, and area-type text in a group
When converting to point type, the “•” changes to “ABCD,” and the same bullet-spacing issue appears when scaling up/down point type.

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
OS: Windows
Version: 11.0
Process Architecture: x86_64

Scaling Bullet-Threaded Area type Text in Illustrator

Scaling Bullet-Threaded Text in Illustrator

I’ve tried several methods to scale bullet-threaded text in Illustrator, but I haven’t been able to achieve the desired result. Here are the methods I’ve attempted:

Scaling by 150%: When scaling, only the area boundaries scale, but the text itself does not scale.

Using the Free Transform Tool: The spacing and bullets are not correct after scaling.

Adding a Rectangle and Grouping with Area Text: When grouping the text with a rectangle and scaling, there’s some random movement, which creates an annoying result.

Using CTC: I can get the perfect result with CTC, but I’m wondering if there’s a way to achieve the same scaling without using CTC.

Is there a better way to scale bullet-threaded text without these issues?

Monika Gause

Community Expert

The gaps are created using the settings (like tabs).

So you need to open the settings for lists and adjust them. Scale strokes and effects has nothing to do with it.

It's in the Paragraph panel.

creative explorer

Community Expert

@raviraj_8074 by any chance did you have 'Scale Strokes & Effects' and 'Scale Corners' are checked within Illustrator preferences? Control K (keyboard shortcuts for Preferences)

While the bullet symbol (•) itself is a character, the space around the bullet or the spacing between the list item and the bullet is often treated by Illustrator as a type of stroke, effect, or internal graphic property that requires scaling. If this setting is off, Illustrator scales the text size but might leave the spacing and any applied effects (like an underline or outline) at their original size, leading to distorted spacing (the "changing bullet spacing" issue).

With regards to the Area Text Box, scale corners setting primarily affects the corner radius of shapes, but it's part of the general transformation. When scaling an Area Type box, turning this on ensures that all bounding box properties are handled uniformly during the transformation.

m

barbara_a7746676

Community Expert

Disable the "Scale Strokes and Effects" option in Preferences > General. You can also find this option in the Scale tool options or the Transform panel to adjust scaling behavior for individual objects.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded