Aligning text with objects

[COGordonW]

This sounds stupid but I am just trying to center type on an object. I've noticed when I do it's the type box it's self that gets aligned to the object and not the type. So for example, if you had all caps letters you would have a large space below where the ascenders for the lower case letters would be. Is there any way to center by the baseline? Or maybe just to the shape of the letters? I know you can outline the type and do it that way but I want to still be able to edit the type.

I am using the latest version of Illustrator on a Mac running High Siera.

[Bobby Henderson]

This very basic, fundamental problem has existed for what seems like forever with Adobe Illustrator. There is really no easy, direct way to vertically center-align text objects with other objects without the dopey bounding box being what is actually aligned. The ONLY correct way to vertically center-align text with other objects is by using the capital height of the letters. Neverthless Adobe has never bothered to incorporate such a feature into Illustrator, despite many requests from users. This is one of the top, most frequent things I bring up in the Illustrator feature request sub-forum.

I work in the sign industry and vertically center-aligning text items on background pieces is a very very common task in sign design. Maybe this is one reason why most sign shops still use CorelDRAW as a primary design application. It's not hard to do such a thing in CorelDRAW, although the accuracy of the aligning attempts will vary based on the font chosen. The "artistic text" tool doesn't create a bounding box around artistic text objects (it's "paragraph text" tool does create a container). You can type a dummy text object, like a capital letter "E," vertically align it to a background item and then type out your text string. It will look properly aligned. You can even give the "E" a specific physical size, like 1 inch, and that "E" will literally be 1 inch tall. Center it over a 2 inch tall background. No problem. Illustrator doesn't allow such a function without forcing the user to make all kinds of extra steps, usually including converting the text to outlines before one can even align anything.

The thing that makes the CorelDRAW artistic text approach start to fall apart is when one moves away from blocky sans serif typefaces. Many other fonts have features that dip below the baseline or rise above the cap height line. All fonts have built-in numerical values for baseline, cap height line, ascender and descender. I think it's possible for Adobe to use the distance between baseline and cap height line to allow users to properly vertically center-align a line of lettering and apply specific numerical sizes to capital letter heights. It would make a lot of sign design tasks much easier. It could also help in other areas, like creating text objects where the cap letter height corresponds to a specific pixel size. Text objects look considerably sharper on a big LED jumbotron sign when the baselines and cap height lines of the letters fit with the pixel grid. This approach wouldn't work for all fonts unfortunately. Some serif typefaces have capital letters that don't rise all the way to the font's built-in cap height line. Script typefaces are really bad about that. But it would work for most typefaces. At the very least they should come up with something equivalent to Corel's "artistic text" tool, which ditches the bounding box.

For now, the best work-around is going into Preferences and checking "Use Preview Bounds." Then select your starter cap letter object and choose Effect>Path>Outline Object. That will shrink the bounding box to roughly the same size as the capital letter. Align that to the target object, then ditch the outline effect in the Appearance panel, then type out the rest of your text string.