Filling a shape with text in Illustrator may seem like an intimidating job at first, but we assure you it’s not! In fact, it can be done by following a few simple instructions. So, how do you make text fill a shape in Illustrator?

Using the Type Tool and the Envelope Distort tool, you can easily fill a shape with your text to produce a fantastic text poster or vector. You’ll discover a solution for whatever you’re working on today.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you two quick and simple methods for using text to fill a shape in Adobe Illustrator.

How to Fill a Shape with Text in Adobe Illustrator in 2 Simple Ways

With only a few selections and clicks, you can use Envelope Distort and the well-known Type Tool to fill text into a shape. Whereas the Type Tool only fills text into a shape without distorting it, Envelope Distort fits text in a shape by warping the text’s appearance.

To learn more about how to fill a shape with text in Illustrator, watch this video below:

1. Envelope Distort

The envelope distort tool makes it very simple to produce a pretty unique text effect.

Create Using Warp

1. The create with warp function in Illustrator is the first method for warping text into shapes. This enables you to change your text into a variety of pre-made forms.
2. Go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Warp after creating a text object, selecting it, and then clicking on it.
3. The Warp Options window with several defaults for warping your text object should now show up.
4. You may warp your text into a variety of shapes using the Style drop-down menu. If you want, you may go through them one at a time.
5. You will be given the option to select between a horizontal or vertical alignment in the Warp Options panel. This represents the axis along which the warp is placed.
6. For the purpose of this tutorial, let’s utilize the Arc style. The effect is applied to the horizontal axis when Horizontal is chosen. It applies to the vertical axis whenever Vertical is chosen.

The remaining options in the Warp Options panel are quite straightforward. They provide you with the ability to modify the warp’s placement in addition to its strength and intensity (you might, for instance, provide the arc more or less of a curve or move the peak of the arc a little bit towards the left instead of the right, etc.)

Method 2: Type Tool

The Type Tool should always be used if you wish to fill in a paragraph of text in an object without distorting any of the content.

One other technique to warp text into shapes in Illustrator is to design your own unique custom shape and utilize it as a model for your text transformation when none of the shape presets inside the warp options box give you the right shape for your text. This feature’s operation is pretty straightforward. 

1. Create your own object first, then right-click on it and select Arrange > Bring to Front to ensure that it is lifted over your text. 
2. After that, choose the text object as well as the custom shape, and align them on the horizontal and vertical axes.
3. Go to Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Top Object with both of the objects chosen.
4. You can see that this function truly allows you to let your imagination go wild because there are so many various ways to bend text into different shapes.
5. You can see that this function truly allows you to let your imagination go wild because there are so many various ways to bend text into different shapes.

How to Change the Color of Text That Has Already Filled in Shape?

By selecting the text and picking a color from the Color Picker or Swatches while using the Type Tool approach, you may instantly alter the text’s color.

Double-click on the text inside the shape to alter the color using the separate layer if you wish to alter the color of text that has been envelope-distorted. To leave the layer editing mode, double-click the artboard once more.

Conclusion

Adobe Illustrator makes it simple to insert text into a shape. When you just need to fit text inside a form, the type tool technique works well. It is speedy and makes text editing simple. Try the Envelope Distort option if you’re thinking of making a text vector or design and don’t care if the text gets distorted. Just remember that a path must be your top object.