How to Make Letters Sparkle in Illustrator

Make letters sparkle in Illustrator by inserting a star shape on text you create with the "Text" tool. You can make the sparkling text potentially more interesting by applying the "Effects" menu's "Extrude" command to it. This expands the 2-D text into 3-D space. You can also improve your sparkling text by studying illustrations of this effect that others have made. Use the sparkling text for your picture captions, or for video footage you edit with Windows Movie Maker or another video editing tool.

Instructions

1. Click the tool palette icon shaped like an "A" to run the tool for entering text, and then click the point on the canvas where you want to insert the text.

2. Type some text that you want to apply the sparkle effect to, and then press "Control" and "Enter" simultaneously to indicate you're done entering text.

3. Click the star icon from the tool palette to run the tool for drawing stars, and then click the top of one of the characters in your text to indicate where you want to insert the sparkle. Illustrator will prompt you for the number of sides and other parameters for the star.

4. Type "4" in the "Sides" text box, and type "100" for the "Radius 1" text box. Type "10" for the "Radius 2" text box, and then click "OK" to insert the star on your text. The radius numbers you entered specify the width of the star's arms, and the overall diameter of the invisible guideline circle that surrounds the star's points.

5. Click the leftmost dropdown gallery above the canvas to display a list of colors you can fill the star with. Click the white color, or a light yellow color to fill the star with that color.

6. Click the "Effects" menu to display a list of effects you can apply to the sparkle star. Click the "Stylize" sub-menu, and then click the "Outer" glow effect, which makes objects appear to emit light. Your sparkle star now appears to glow.

7. Click the "Edit" menu's "Copy" command to copy the star to the clipboard, and then click the "Edit" menu's "Paste" command to insert a duplicate of the star on the canvas. Click the tool palette icon shaped like a black arrow to run the "Selection" tool, which lets you select and move objects.

8. Drag the duplicate star to another place on your text where you want the sparkle text to appear. Note that the sparkle effect looks highly effective on the top corners of characters.

9. Create other duplicates of the sparkle, and then use the "Selection" tool as instructed in step 7 to add the duplicates to other parts of your text.

References

• Illustrator CS5 Bible; Ted Alspach