{"id":17556,"date":"2014-09-23T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=17556"},"modified":"2024-03-28T22:35:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T05:35:02","slug":"how-to-create-awesome-retro-text-effects-in-illustrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-create-awesome-retro-text-effects-in-illustrator","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Awesome Retro Text Effects in Illustrator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I’m going to show you how you can use Illustrator’s Appearance panel to create editable vector text effects made up of Fills, Strokes, and various Illustrator Effects.\nThe great thing about using the Appearance panel for this is that the effects you create will be completely customizable and won’t affect your ability to edit your text. The effects can also be saved as Graphic Styles, enabling you to reuse the effects and apply them to any object with a single click.\nHere’s a preview of the effect that we’re going to be creating today:\n\"finished-effect\"<\/a>\n

<\/span>Getting Started<\/span><\/h2>

\nLet’s get started by creating a new document 210 mm X 210 mm in size with the Color Mode CMYK.\n\"new-document\"<\/a>\nUse the Rectangle Tool to draw a square that covers the entire Artboard and fill it with a nice off-white color (#F8F0E2). Follow this by using the Type Tool to add your text.\nAs we’re going to be adding 3D and Drop Shadow effects later on, you’ll need to increase the letter-spacing. You can do this by setting the tracking in the Character panel (Window > Type > Character).\n\"type-tool\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Set the Text Color<\/span><\/h2>

\nOnce you’ve done that, go to the Tools panel (Window > Tools) and set your text’s Fill color to None.\nThis will essentially make your text invisible, but don’t worry, we’re going to add a new fill using the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance).\nAt the bottom of the Appearance panel you should see a row of icons illustrating various options. From left to right we have: Add New Stroke, Add New Fill, Add New Effect, Clear Appearance, Duplicate Selected Item, and Delete Selected Item.\nClick Add New Fill. This will once again apply a Fill color to your text, which will also appear as a new item in the Appearance panel.\n\"add-new-fill\"<\/a>\nWith the Fill item selected, use the Tools panel to change the color to a nice orange-red (#F05125).\n\"fill-color\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Add An Offset Path<\/span><\/h2>

\nFollow this by clicking Add New Effect and selecting Path > Offset Path.\n\"offset-path-1\"<\/a>\nChange the Offset to 1 mm.\n\"offset-path-2\"<\/a>\nEffects that have been applied to items can be viewed by clicking the arrow to the left of the item name. This is important to know if you want to edit the effect later on.\n\"effects\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Add a Second Stroke<\/span><\/h2>

\nNext, add a Stroke to your effect by selecting the Stroke item and entering 1.5 into the Stroke Weight field.\n\"add-new-stroke-1\"<\/a>\nChange the color of the Stroke to a slightly lighter orange-red than you used for the Fill (#F68C59).\n\"stroke-color\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Make it 3D<\/span><\/h2>

\nNext up, we want to add a 3D effect. Start by making sure no existing items in the Appearance panel are selected (as this will apply the effect directly to that item rather than the type as a whole), then click Add New Effect and select 3D > Extrude & Bevel.\n\"3D-effect-1\"<\/a>\nEdit the settings to match the following:\n\"3D-effect-2\"<\/a>\nAs you can see, applying a 3D effect initially makes the text look a little dark. This is because our text is now essentially a 3D object, which means we need to redirect the light towards the front. To do this move the light as close to the center of the sphere as you can.\n\"3D-effect-3\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Adjust the Lighting<\/span><\/h2>

\nClick New Light to essentially duplicate the light and give yourself an even stronger light source.\n\"3D-effect-4\"<\/a>\nNow that we’ve corrected the position of the light, we can edit the Shadow Color. Select Custom from the drop-down menu and change the color to a dark red (#791616).\n\"3D-effect-5\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Add a Drop Shadow<\/span><\/h2>

\nTo complete the effect, add a Drop Shadow by clicking Add New Effect and selecting Stylize > Drop Shadow.\n\"drop-shadow-1\"<\/a>\nSet the Color to black (#231F20) and edit the settings to match the following:\n\"drop-shadow-2\"<\/a>\nAnd there was have it! The finished effect.\n\"finished-effect\"<\/a>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Create a Graphic Style<\/span><\/h2>

\nThis can now be turned into a Graphic Style so that the effect can be applied to any other object with just a single click.\nTo do this, go the Graphic Style panel (Window > Graphic Styles), click the panel menu icon, and select New Graphic Style.\n\"new-graphic-style\"<\/a>\nGive your style a name and click OK.\n\"name-graphic-style\"<\/a>\nYour Graphic Style will then appear, ready to use, in the Graphic Styles panel.\n\"graphic-styles-panel\"<\/a>\nAs Graphic Styles remain completely customizable, you can effectively use existing styles as templates for creating new ones. This is particularly handy if you’re working on a project in which you need several custom styles.\n<\/p>

<\/span>The Easy Way<\/span><\/h2>

\nIf you lack the time to create a set of styles for yourself, check out Retro Textpress<\/a>, a ready-made Graphic Style library containing 20 unique and customizable text effects.\n

<\/figure>\n \n<\/p>
Sam Jones is the owner of Sivioco<\/a>, home of some of the bestselling design resources on the web. He also runs a blog<\/a> where he shares free resources, training, and advice to help designers work better, faster, and smarter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I’m going to show you how you can use Illustrator’s Appearance panel to create editable vector text effects made up of Fills, Strokes, and various Illustrator Effects. The great thing about using the Appearance panel for this is that the effects you create will be completely customizable and won’t affect your ability to edit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[37,95,101,166,697,854],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-17556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-typography","tag-how-to-2","tag-tutorial","tag-fonts","tag-illustrator","tag-add-ons"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Create Awesome Retro Text Effects in Illustrator - Creative Market Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-create-awesome-retro-text-effects-in-illustrator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Create Awesome Retro Text Effects in Illustrator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today I'm going to show you how you can use Illustrator's Appearance panel to create editable vector text effects made up of Fills, Strokes, and various\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-create-awesome-retro-text-effects-in-illustrator\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Creative Market Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/crtvmrkt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T13:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-29T05:35:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2014\/09\/28223017\/finished-effect.png.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sam Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sam Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/how-to-create-awesome-retro-text-effects-in-illustrator\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/how-to-create-awesome-retro-text-effects-in-illustrator\",\"name\":\"How to Create Awesome Retro Text Effects in Illustrator - 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