Guides / Bold text
How to make text bold in Illustrator, even without a bold weight
If the font has a bold weight, pick it in the Character panel. If not, add a stroke in the text colour in the Appearance panel and drag it below the fill; the letters thicken without distorting. JuicyType's Strokes effect does this as one band.
JuicyType Strokes · screen recording goes hereSkip to JuicyType ↓
The manual way, in Illustrator
- Select the text. Open the Character panel (⌘T) and choose a Bold or Black weight if there is one.
- Otherwise open Window › Appearance, click Add New Stroke, colour it the same as the fill, set 0.5–2 pt, and drag it below the Characters row.
- If the font is variable, skip the stroke: click the Variable Font icon in the Character panel and drag the Weight slider.
- Set Round Join in the Stroke panel so corners stay clean.
Faux bold via stroke closes up counters on small text; keep it to headlines.
Menu paths checked against Adobe's current Illustrator documentation; hands-on verification and screenshots are still to come.
Or, with JuicyType
One effect in JuicyType
One Strokes band in the text colour is a faux bold you can dial by weight and turn off later.
- Strokesone band in the fill colour, 1–2 pt, round joins
Common questions
Why is Bold greyed out in the Character panel?
The font has no bold weight installed. Use the stroke method or a different family.