How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator

Modified on Thu, 14 Sep, 2023 at 12:45 PM

Illustrator Text Effects are a great way to add personality to your artwork. You can easily apply them to your text with a single click to produce a great variety of colourful designs.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use pre-made text effects in Illustrator.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 1

We will use the Pop Pastel Text Effect and Awesome Groovy Font from Barcelona Design Shop.

Step 1: Open or Import the Text Effect in Illustrator

First, we need to bring the text effect into Illustrator to apply it to your text. There are a couple of ways of doing this. You can open the file directly into Illustrator, or load it through the Graphic Styles panel.

Open the Text Effect File In Illustrator

Just click Open in Illustrator and navigate to where your file is saved and select it.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 2

If you want, select the example text on the document and head to the Graphic Styles panel to save it as a new style for future use by clicking on the small icon at the bottom of the panel.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 3

You can now modify the example text and/or change the font to the one you want to work with.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 4

Import the Text Effect Through the Graphic Styles Panel

You can also add your text effects by going to the Graphic Styles panel and clicking on the small menu on the top right. Navigate to Open Graphic Styles Library > Other Library and then to where your file is saved to open it.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 5

Or, place it in Illustrator’s Graphics Style folder, so you can open the file from within that palette directly. You can find the folder going to Applications > Adobe Illustrator > Presets > en_US (or other language) > Graphic Styles.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 6

Then, with your text selected, head to the Graphic Styles panel and click on the new style to use it on your text.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 7

Step 2: Modify the Text Effect

You can also see the contents of the layer if needed.

To do this click on the small arrow on the left side of the layer thumbnail in the Layers panel. This will show its content and maybe hide or get rid of some elements.

Now, you can leave your text as it is, or maybe change some details and adapt it to your needs.

To do it, make sure it is selected, and head to the Appearance panel where you will see all the different text effect elements.

You may also check the Swatches panel. Some text effects files include different colors, patterns, etc. that you can use on your design.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 8

You can double-click on any of the text effect elements to open the settings windows and modify them if needed.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 9

Like for example here, we changed the Blending Mode on the pattern.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 10

And, here’s some text with colour and pattern variations.

How to Use Text Effects in Illustrator 11

You have now successfully applied a text effect in Illustrator!


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