How to Make a Faded Text Effect in Illustrator

Illustrator Text Effects

Surely you have seen many text effects all over the internet that seems to take a long time to make and probably they look very complex. While some of those can in fact take a long time to make, there are others that are actually very simple to replicate if you use the correct application and the right tools. So today, I will show you a very simple way to make a faded text effect in Illustrator with the ability to edit the text, change the font, size, colors and even the path that follows the fading text even after we finish the effect, so you can use it an unlimited number of times for different designs and without having to make the whole process again.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. In this case I will make mine at 1500 x 1000 px.

Step 2

Select the Type Tool (T), be sure to set the Fill to White and the Stroke to Black (or any other colors you wish) and type your text using any font you want. here I will be using "CocoSharp" at 200 pt.

Step 3

With the text selected go to Edit > Copy and then to Edit > Paste in Back.

Step 4

Now that the active object is the copied version, set the Stroke to "none" in the toolbar.

Step 5

With the copied text selected, move it to the top as far as you want and then move the original text to the bottom as shown.

Step 6

Select both versions of the text and go to Object > Blend > Blend Options. Select "Specified Steps" under the Spacing dropdown and set any amount of steps that you want. In this case, I will setup mine to 100.

Step 7

Now go to Object > Blend > Make.

Step 8

To give the text a more appealing look, select the Pen Tool (P) and draw a path with any shape you want. Be sure to have the Fill and Stroke set to "none" in the toolbar.

Step 9

Lastly, go to Select > All and then go to Object > Blend > Replace Spine.

Some Final Tips:

Now that you know how to make this faded text effect in Illustrator, you can easily change the text, font, size and colors without having to make the whole effect again. Simply double click on the text, edit it and double click anywhere outside the artboard to aplly the changes. In the same way, you can also edit the path that we did before, just double click on it, make any changes you wish and then simply double click outside the artboard to commit the changes.