Illustrator text effects: 15 you can make, and how

The manual way, in Illustrator

1. Open Window › Appearance. Everything here works on the text object, not on outlined shapes.
2. Add fills and strokes with the buttons at the bottom of the panel, and reorder them by dragging.
3. Apply live effects from the fx button; they appear as rows you can reopen and edit.
4. Save the result with Window › Graphic Styles › New Graphic Style to reuse it on other text.

Create Outlines converts type into paths. Clipping masks can keep live text, and so do extra fills and live effects. Pathfinder operations that cut outlined letters produce shapes, and compound shapes behave differently again, so each guide below says what its method keeps live.

Menu paths checked against Adobe's current Illustrator documentation; hands-on verification and screenshots are still to come.

Or, with JuicyType

15 effects in JuicyType

Every JuicyType effect is a live effect in the same Appearance stack, so they combine with each other and with Illustrator's own effects.

1. 3D3D text
2. Strokesoutlines and bands
3. Split Facesplit and sliced type
4. Glitchglitch
5. Party!per-letter chaos
6. Crackcracked and shattered type
7. Bevelbevels
8. Pattern Slicegrooves and stripes
9. Swishswooshes
10. Halftone Effectshalftone fills
11. Highlightshine
12. Shadowshadows
13. Stickersticker borders
14. Ribbon Bannerribbon banners
15. Shapetype warped into a container shape

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Common questions

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