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Part IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files
Adjusting Entire Paragraphs The Paragraph panel provides controls for modifying all the text in a paragraph at once. These controls are quite different from those in the Character panel. (Don’t want any silly old consistency to spoil the fun, now do we?)
Changing the alignment of a paragraph At the top of the Paragraph panel are seven buttons that set the alignment of paragraphs. Although the buttons are tiny, if you squint hard enough at them, you can see that the tiny graphic image on each one mimics the alignment that they create. Position the cursor over the button without clicking and a tooltip appears and tells you what it is. To align a paragraph, click anywhere inside it with the Type tool; then click the alignment button in the Paragraph panel. By default, paragraphs align to the left side with their right edge ragged (uneven). Choose the Align Right setting, and the opposite is true (right edge smooth, left edge ragged). Try the Align Center setting for ragged left and right edges with centered lines of text. Use the Justify Full Lines setting for straight left and right edges (except for the last line if it’s not a full line). Finally, the Justify All Lines setting keeps all lines (including the bottom one) even on both the left and the right. Figure 14-17 shows examples of these alignments.
Changing the space around the paragraph The Paragraph panel in Illustrator offers options for adjusting the space around a paragraph, plus an option to set how far from the left edge of the paragraph the first line starts. Figure 14-18 shows these options. Use the Left Indent setting for modifying the position of the left edge of the paragraph. The larger the number, the farther to the right the left edge moves. Use the First Line Left Indent setting to move the first line of the paragraph left or right relative to the left edge of the paragraph. Use a negative number to make the first line come out from paragraph’s left edge, as shown in Figure 14-19. Use a positive number to push the first line in to the right of the paragraph’s left edge. Use the Right Indent setting to adjust the paragraph’s right edge. The larger the number, the farther to the left the edge moves. Use the Space Before Paragraph setting adjusts the amount of space before the current paragraph. If you select a bunch of paragraphs, changing this setting puts space between each one of the paragraphs.
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