Inspiring

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Text wrap issue with italic

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Text wrap ignores parts of the first letter in italic like the bottom part of the letter “p”. In a font like Time New Roman, the bottom of letter “p” extends outside the text box. That part of the letter just goes under the object it is wrapping around and is no longer visible. I see this problem in CS4. Any suggestion for a workaround that would not need tweaking when text reflows? Is this problem still there in CC 2026?

Bill SilbertCorrect answer

Community Expert

Your initial question was whether this behavior with serif italic type was still the same in CC 2026. The answer is yes. I was able to replicate your screen shot and then used a text wrap of zero and the bottom of the letters did get hidden by the object. It appears to be the nature of the beast with italic serif type (I tested a couple of more faces with the same result). The only workaround that I can suggest is to use a text wrap larger than zero. Obviously, the exact amount of text wrap will need to be experimented with.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

sPretzel,

your detection is obviously appropriate, but may I ask you in which specific situations you think it may be a grave problem, given that you can always fine-tune the distance with the text wrap offset settings.

Can you tell a serious case that may prove that your complaint may lead to unpleasant or destructive results?

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sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

Hello Kurt. I replied to @Jacob Bugge but don’t see my reply. Can you see it?

The situation is not as dire as the words you used to describe it (grave, serious, complaint, unpleasant, destructive 😨). After all, CC 2026 still features this bug and generations of users have been enjoying it for decades! I’m joking.

There are workarounds but either they apply to the entire text, in which case there will be a notable offset for the offending characters (you can see that well in pictures posted by Jacob), or the workarounds will be undone by text reflowing and possibly become warts elsewhere. You’re right in that the text wrap offset settings can fine-tune the clearance, but an offset of zero is still desirable in some text wrap situations.

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Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

s,

I believe your reply is the littlest and latest that has fallen into the black hole of the forums, owing to different mysterious way that they have moved in.

From the very beginning and till April 2009, all threads without new replies within a year fell in one by one, first loss round the turn of the Millennium; I only found out in 2004.

In 2007, almost all threads posted during a few weeks of a failed forum change fell in.

In September 2019, two thirds of all threads ever posted fell in, along with three weeks of new threads.

By June 2026, all images uploaded over four months between October 2025 and January 2026 fell in.

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Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

s,

I am afraid this bug has been with us all the way since Text Wrap appeared more than two decades ago.

You can try to post a feature request or see whether there is one already,

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

Until the feature request has been realized or till the end of days, whichever occurs first, you can cheat as follows, in whichever version has Text Wrap:

1)) Create the wrong Text Wrap, as in the image to the left,

2)) With the Type Tool, select the first downtrodden letter f in the image to the left, then in the Transparency palette set the Opacity to 0%, then add the same letter after it, so you keep the visible text as it should be;

3)) Repeat 2)) for the rest of the downtrodden letters, 2 x f yielding 3 x f in total and 1 x p;

4)) You can do the same for the 2nd p in both sides for better visual appearance, in which case it will be a total of 3 x f and 3 x p.

The image in the middle shows the changes in 3)) and the image to the right shows the changes in 4)).

You can see in the 10th row with the switch from f to p that 3 x f have been added before the switch so there are 4 x f in the image to the left and 7 x f in the image to the right.

Click to get closer, Click again to get closer still

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Bill Silbert

Correct answer

Community Expert

Your initial question was whether this behavior with serif italic type was still the same in CC 2026. The answer is yes. I was able to replicate your screen shot and then used a text wrap of zero and the bottom of the letters did get hidden by the object. It appears to be the nature of the beast with italic serif type (I tested a couple of more faces with the same result). The only workaround that I can suggest is to use a text wrap larger than zero. Obviously, the exact amount of text wrap will need to be experimented with.

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sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Bill. The problem also applies to sans serif fonts (leg of “p”). The problem with the workaround you suggest is that while it improves the issue for some characters, it would push others farther from the wrapped object. Another solution would be to adjust individual character or paragraph spacing but that will become a problem with text reflowing. In my opinion, this implementation is not the “nature of the beast” but an oversight or a bug. At least an option should be provided in Illustrator to keep it this way or compensate for it.

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

When I used the term “nature of the beast” I meant it in terms of text wrap in general. Just to explore it a bit more I tested the same thing in InDesign which has a much more sophisticated text wrap feature. The results were the same as can be seen in the screenshot below. As for san serif fonts I found that at least the one that I tested did not have a problem with losing the bottom of the “p”. In the case of san serif the results may vary depending on the particular font used.

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

To my eye the “f” and “p” of Times New Roman Italic in your screenshot look the same as they do without any Text Wrap applied. The letters do not look obscured by the yellow object. See my screenshot below for a comparison with the characters in your screenshot.

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sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

The “legs” of “f” and “p” cross the line into the clearance area outlined by the blue line. No part of the text should step into that area. If the offset was 0, they would be cut off by the yellow object.

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

I am not able to replicate this problem (as well as I understand what you are describing) using CC 2026. Could you please post a screen shot to show exactly what you are talking about? Also CS4 is 18 years old and completely unsupported. Depending on the age of the computer that you are using it may be time to start using an up to date version of Illustrator.

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sPretzelAuthor

Inspiring

Hello Bill. Attached is a screenshot showing “p” and “f” in italic stepping into the clearance zone around the yellow object.

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