Modifying Text Attributes

Donna Baker Author, "Adobe Acrobat 6 Tips and Tricks: The 100 Best"

July 22, 2004

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You can modify properties of new text as well as text already in the document, including:

• Font and font size
• Fill and stroke options
• Font embedding and subsetting
• Spacing between words and characters
• Baseline adjustments

Here's how to do it:

1. With the TouchUp Text tool, click the row of text or select the words or characters you want to edit.
2. Right-click/Control-click the text to open the shortcut menu and choose Properties to open the TouchUp Properties dialog.

   

   
   Figure 1. Right-click the text to open a shortcut menu.

3. Click the Font pull-down list and choose a font if necessary. The fonts used in the document appear first; other fonts on your system are listed below a blank space.

   

   
   Figure 2. Choose a font from the TouchUp Properties dialog.

4. Adjust other text attributes as desired and as the font's attributes allow.

   

   
   Figure 3. Modify other attributes as desired.

5. Click Close to dismiss the dialog and apply the settings.

The Look of Letters

It can be great fun to experiment with the text attributes and change the way your text looks, but be aware of how you're changing the effect of your document. As professional page designers know, text's appearance has almost as great an impact on readers as the content of the text. Various fonts communicate different messages, and even something as subtle as character spacing can give words a different feel than you might have intended.

Wild changes like adding stroke and fill colors to your text can tilt a document onto its ear -- which may be just what you're looking for.

This tip is excerpted with permission from "Adobe Acrobat 6 Tips and Tricks: The 100 Best" by Donna Baker, published by Peachpit Press/Adobe Press, Copyright 2004 Peachpit Press.