Inserting symbols in Illustrator

[kretzy]

I was wondering if it was possible to somehow type a "pi" symbol (as in the 3.14, mathematical variety) in Illustrator. I need it as a label on a graph. I tried copy and pasting it from Word but I just get a question mark in Illustrator.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Surf and Turf]

do you have mathcad..or matlab..or adobe pro ....just use photo clip

 

[kretzy]

I don't think I have any of those programs. So is my best option just to find an image of the symbol and use that?

 

[whattheduece]

Yeah just use the keyboard combo of option(alt)+p look here for more character accessible elements for legacy fonts, also look here for open type sampling. These should work for most fonts if it dosn't work with the one your using select a different font. Hope this helps.

 

[iMeowbot]

I was wondering if it was possible to somehow type a "pi" symbol (as in the 3.14, mathematical variety) in Illustrator. I need it as a label on a graph. I tried copy and pasting it from Word but I just get a question mark in Illustrator.

Make sure that in Illustrator, you are using a font that actually contains the pi character. It won't guess and substitute fonts for you if a character is missing, instead you get the ? in that case.

 

[zero2dash]

1) Designate a new type area with the type tool
2) Click to get the blinking | cursor
3) Type (menu) -> Glyphs
4) At the bottom, instead of Myriad (or whatever your default font is), choose Symbol
5) the Pi symbol is in there, double click it to insert where the blinking | is

(works the same way in InDesign, if you ever need to do it in that program as well)

 

[Sdashiki]

I like just holding ALT and pressing a zillion keys, watching the glyphs each show themselves.

then go back and find out which key I pressed to get the specific glyph.

then, just keep the glyph by itself, which saves you from the problem of not all fonts having glyphs.

 

[kretzy]

I used the alt option and it worked fine.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

 

[Lebowski]

pretty obvious....



create one in illustrator?





i can see if you need a PI symbol in Word, or some other app that doesnt in fact, draw. but its a very basic symbol, and illustrator is easy to create such a symbol in like 20 seconds.

sure, the shortcut for it is easy, but a google image search for the PI symbol, then dropped onto a Ill doc, traced, and done is faster than posting here and waiting....

me thinks you should learn illustrator a bit more.

 

[Lau]

me thinks you should learn illustrator a bit more.

Me thinks you should learn manners a bit more.

Posting for help in a forum is a good way to learn stuff. Were you born knowing Illustrator or did you ask for help?

And, using a symbol from the same font if possible is more sensible than drawing one yourself because they'll then match as the font creator intended. That, my dear, is the beauty of fonts... Not to mention the fact that it's easier.

 

[kretzy]

Me thinks you should learn manners a bit more.

Posting for help in a forum is a good way to learn stuff. Were you born knowing Illustrator or did you ask for help?

And, using a symbol from the same font if possible is more sensible than drawing one yourself because they'll then match as the font creator intended. That, my dear, is the beauty of fonts... Not to mention the fact that it's easier.

Thanks Lau!

That was the exact reason I actually created the thread - "to learn illustrator a bit more". The font factor was something I took into consideration as well.

 

[Lau]

Thanks Lau!

That was the exact reason I actually created the thread - "to learn illustrator a bit more". The font factor was something I took into consideration as well.

And you're right to — posting a question in order to learn the quickest way to do something (the alt+p way) is much better than doing it the cack-handed way (tracing it) and then having to do it the slow way every time because you didn't ask the question, in my opinion. That, rather ironically, is how you learn Illustrator.

The pi symbol is very different in each font, and so using alt instead of tracing a random one from google is far more sensible. If the font didn't have a pi symbol, I would suggest using a similar font's one before tracing a random one.