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_James_Hedges_
Participant
March 24, 2009
Question

vertical alignment of text within bounding box

  • March 24, 2009
  • 5 replies
  • 24678 views
I'm trying to find out why text has a vertical offset (its anchor point is lower than center) within a bounding box. If I type the letter 'x', for example, with type tool and then set its y value to match of a circle you can see clearly that it is lower than the center of the circle. I can use smart guides to adjust text in certain instances where this occurs, getting it to match by eye, but I'm hoping there is a better way. Is all text that is aligned to other things slightly offset in this way? Thank you!
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    5 replies

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    _James_Hedges_Author
    Participant
    March 25, 2009
    Thanks very much for your help. I'd known Align palette well when I submitted this question. You can try to align them vertically with that, or you can set them to have equal y-values, and you'll get the same result. An easy way to see what I was talking about is to create a lowercase 'x' in with Helvetica Neue 11 point and then a black circle around it that is 0.2 by 0.2 in. Align them vertically and you'll see the x is too low. Anyway, the 'ASK MORDY' article basically gives a solution. If you do Type>Create Outlines and then align again it's right. In this case the x is asymmetric (so it's center is slightly higher than the center of the overall shape), which you can see if you flip it. I haven't noticed any difference if 'Use Preview Bounds' is on or off. Thanks again.
    M
    Mordy Golding
    Known Participant
    March 25, 2009
    I know that the change you refer to happened when AI adopted the newer text engine (in version CS), but I don't know WHY the change was made.

    :) Mordy
    Steve Fairbairn
    Steve Fairbairn
    Inspiring
    March 25, 2009
    Good article, Mordy.
    Have you any idea why it is that Average no longer works on text points? Neither does Snap work properly on point text unless you've got smart guides turned on, and even then you can't be sure. Seems that the present Illustrator team could learn a thing or two from their predecessors. It was all so easy and intuitive prior to OS X and I never understood why they had to mend things that weren't broken :-)
    Steve.
    M
    Mordy Golding
    Known Participant
    March 25, 2009
    This article might offer some additional insight:

    http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2006/08/ask-mordy-text-alignment-nuances.html

    :) Mordy
    N
    Narr GM Coro
    Participating Frequently
    March 29, 2011

    Wow - Mordy, that is just a great article (your link above), to understand how to work with text boxes in Illustrator.

    You always come through, and this should be part of the standard documentation, as it indicates thought processes in the Illustrator design.

    Indeed, the Illustrator design is about precision. Vertically aligning text is a tricky problem.

    Your insight into using Effect->Outlines makes it very easy to have both editable text boxes, and very nice alignment, with the hands knowing what they are doing..

    Highly recommended, and thank you - suddenly I felt at ease with this tool.

    Regards.

    Steve Fairbairn
    Steve Fairbairn
    Inspiring
    March 24, 2009
    Why use a bounding box for text? It doesn't help. Best turn it off so that you can see better what you're doing. The anchor point of point text is always on the baseline unless you happen to be using a baseline shift (unlikely).
    In your case it sounds as if you might be looking for the Align palette. This usually works fairly accurately for type depending slightly on whether the type in question has ascenders and descenders or just ascenders. If you're still dissatisfied with the results try giving the type some baseline shift.
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