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JB-Sketch
JB-Sketch
Participant
August 25, 2021
Answered

Is there a way to Data Merge formatted text?

  • August 25, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 904 views

I am trying to create a data merge in Illustrator where I need certain words in text strings to be in Bold or Underlined, or even to have specific placement for line breaks.  Is this possible to do?  I did think that perhaps converting the text field in the CSV to HTML, but I can't see a way of Illustrator reading and converting the result to formatted text.

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Correct answer John Mensinger

The only way I've found to do that is to make the "icon" a character in a font. Of course that only applies if the icon itself qualifies as a glyph in a font (a single-color graphic), and, you have to have some means of authoring the custom font. Then you can apply the font via GREP style to its corresponding alphanumeric character merged-in from the data source.

1 reply

John Mensinger
Community Expert
John MensingerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 25, 2021

You cannot pre-format in the data source, but you can style the fields when you set them in your merge document. Set up and assign a paragraph style to a field to control the font, size, and paragraphical behaviors of the merged content. Add GREP styles (to the paragraph style) to apply character-level formating such as bold, italic, no break, etc., to particular words or strings.

 

EDIT: Sorry, when I saw "Data Merge" my thinking defaulted to InDesign. The above is still true, except the part about GREP styles. IMO, that's reason enough to consider running your data merge in InDesign rather than Illustrator.

    JB-Sketch
    JB-SketchAuthor
    Participant
    August 25, 2021

    Thanks John, that's good advice.  I will give ID a try instead.

    The GREP feature you mention, can this also be used to replace a word for an icon?  The project is actually some custom playing cards for a new game. I'd like some icons to replace common words, but these would be used in-line within sentences (this is on top of custom word formatting).

    Cheers.

    John Mensinger
    Community Expert
    John MensingerCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 25, 2021

    The only way I've found to do that is to make the "icon" a character in a font. Of course that only applies if the icon itself qualifies as a glyph in a font (a single-color graphic), and, you have to have some means of authoring the custom font. Then you can apply the font via GREP style to its corresponding alphanumeric character merged-in from the data source.

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