Quick Tip: How to Give Your Text a Hand Sketched Look in Illustrator
Giving your perfectly clean vector lines a more imperfect and hand made feel has been a trend lately. While some of us are gifted when it comes to a pencil and paper, some of us are more comfortable with mouse in hand. If that's the case for you, then fear not, creating a hand sketched look in Illustrator is really quite easy.
Step 1 - Choose Some Text
In Adobe Illustrator, create a new document. For this example I chose a font called Pacifico (http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/pacifico). I rotated it at a slight angle.
Also, note that I outlined the font ( Type | Create Outlines ) and combined it to one shape using "Unite" in the Pathfinder panel. But you don't have to do this if you want your text to remain editable. I chose to turn this font into one shape since it had overlapping characters.
Let's also remove any fills or strokes by clicking the "None" icon on the tools panel. After doing so, you won't be able to see the text unless it's selected.
Step 2 - Scribble the Outline
Now with text selected, open the Appearance panel. Add a new stroke to the type by click the "Add New Stroke" icon at the bottom of the panel.
Next, apply a roughen filter to the stroke. Click ( Effect | Distort & Transform | Roughen ) and apply the settings below, or whatever settings you feel look best for your type.
I set my stroke width to 2 and stroke color to 85% gray. Here's where we're at currently.
Step 3 - Loosely Shade the Inside
To apply some shading to the inside, head back over to the Appearance panel and add a new fill by clicking the "Add New Fill" icon at the bottom of the panel.
Now apply a scribbling effect by clicking ( Effect | Stylize | Scribble ). Use my settings below, or the settings that you fill look best for your type.
Here's a peak at the current look.
Here's where things get creative and fun. Duplicate the Fill layer in the Appearance panel a few times by clicking it and dragging it to the "Duplicate Item" icon at the bottom of the panel. I copied mine 3 more times for a total of 4 fill layers. For each fill layer, change the opacity and slightly adjust the scribble effect angle and spacing to create a random scribbled look. To edit the effect, simply click on the "Scribble" link to open the effect settings window back up for each fill layer.
Here's a look at my final sketched type.
The Appearance panel, in Illustrator, allows you to do some really awesome sketch effects. Try adding colors to your scribble fills to achieve a colored pencil look. Play with these settings, experiment, and have fun!
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