Text in a shape???

[balloonguy]

Is there an easy way to do this in AI? I have a customer that wants names placed inside the number 18.  Is there a short cut to do this and make it look good or do I have to place them by eye?
Thanks,

[blue moon]

would this work?
https://designadobe.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/creating-a-custom-text/

pierre

[im_mcguire]

this is always difficult, because you dont want any names cut off, but try this:

in Illustrator type the 18, and make a second copy
Create outlines on the 18

paste the names you want

Object>clipping mask> make

This gets you to a certain point, but you will have a lot of fudging of spacing doing it this way...

This is one way to do it, and Im sure there is 100 other ways, but this is how I have done it in the past.

[Sbrem]

give them a 1 and an 8, outlined, as large as you can print them out, give it to them, have them sign inside (make sure they don't sign over the outlines) and scan them, save as bitmap tiffs so you can place them and color them if need be. I wouldn't bother converting to vectors, just be sure to scan at a high resolution, minimum 300 ppi. But Pierre's answer for setting text in a custom shape will work, but, there is a ton of editing...

Steve

[balloonguy]

Thanks to all. I like the idea of having them sign. That takes me out of the mix...

[dsh]

We do this every year for one of our schools.  Make sure they use something like a sharpie, otherwise it can be difficult to scan kids printing to make a screen.  Give them a backup 18 so they can start over if they need to.

[Sbrem]

We do this every year for one of our schools.  Make sure they use something like a sharpie, otherwise it can be difficult to scan kids printing to make a screen.  Give them a backup 18 so they can start over if they need to.

Yes, definitely give them the tool to sign with, or you'll get blue pens, pencil, etc. Be sure to note that it's a "special" pen, lol...

Steve