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Text Overview

Ryan Blake
Updated

Flexi has a dynamic system for creating Text objects. Text operate as vector objects, but maintain unique properties and settings. Text is infinitely scalable and has a very wide variety of effects that you can apply to them. This article will show you the basics of text and provide a list of articles with text settings and effects (located at the end of this article).

Text Basics

You can locate the Text tool on your Main Toolbar. Also note the Vertical Text Tool mceclip4.png in the Text Tool flyout. The below settings and options work the same way, except that the text is rotated 90°.

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Once you click the Text Tool, you can click anywhere on the art board to begin typing text. This cursor will designate the beginning:

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Additionally, you can click and drag the Text Tool to set a constrained space to type inside. This is called Block Text.

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When you reach the edge of the Block Text as you are typing, the tool will move down a line automatically.

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When you first click on the Text Tool, DesignCentral will update with two tabs, the Character Tab and the Paragraph Tab.

Many of these features can be adjusted using handles on the text itself. You can learn more about them in this article: Text Control Points

The Character Tab

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Font

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 Font Selection. These fonts are pulled from your Windows Fonts. With the exception of some very old font systems, Flexi does not store or manage any fonts. 

Character Style

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 Stylizes your font, ie. Bold, Italic, etc. The options in this dropdown are dependent on the Font. 

Font Size

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 Changes the font size.

Character Width

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Adjusts the character width using a percentage scale.

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   40%                   100%                                 150%

Character Slant

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Applies a slant at a given angle.

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   0°                             20°                             40°

Tracking

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Adjusts the space between characters.

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  0%                                30%

Character Orientation

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This changes the Orientation of the text. This is generally more useful with the Text Pathing tools shown below. There are only two orientations with this option.

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mceclip8.png Upright                    mceclip9.png Turn right 90°

Vertical Offset

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Adjusts the Vertical placement of the text in relation to the base line.

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0"                                                1"                                            -1"

Line Spacing

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Adjusts the distance between lines of text. This only occurs in Block Text. If this option is grayed out, then Automatic is set in the next setting below.

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 4"                                       6"

Note that these sizes will be dependent on your text size. 0" means there is no space between the center of the text for each line and the text will type on top of itself.

Automatic/Manual Line Spacing

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This dropdown menu will let you select whether you want the text to automatically apply line spacing or whether you want to specify a very specific length.

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Automatic spacing is always proportionate to the size of the text.

 

The Paragraph Tab

Most of the options in the paragraph tab work best in Block Text.

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Alignment

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Designates the alignment origin point for the text.

mceclip20.png                                  mceclip21.png                                   mceclip23.png

mceclip19.png mceclip22.png mceclip24.png

 

Full Justify  Options

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 Provides a list of options to fine tune your alignment and spacing. These options will override the Alignment options above.

Text Direction

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Designates whether the text will type forwards or backwards.

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Line Space Direction

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Designates whether the new line of text will proceed up or down. Occurs when reaching the edge of Block Text or hitting the Enter key on your keyboard.

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Word Spacing

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Adjusts the space between each word with the spacebar.

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  0%                                                           50%

Tab Distance

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 Adjusts how far the text cursor moves when hitting the Tab key.

Width of Block Text

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 Determines how wide the Block Text constraints are. This option only shows when Block Text is created with the Text Tool.

Block Text Indent

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Designates how deep the first line is indented in Block Text. This option only shows when Block Text is created with the Text Tool.

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Text Edit

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Allows you to edit the text content in a simplified field. This allows you to ignore the formatting and visual effects applied to text if you are having trouble seeing or selecting the text.

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There are numerous other tools and features you can use with tools. Below are a list of articles detailing these features:

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Further Reading:

 

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