Illustrator CC: Inverting text colour, white on navy blue & navy blue on white

Question

I am creating a document in Adobe Illustrator CC.

I have a heading that needs to run across a section of white background and a section of navy blue background. I would like the text to take the opposite colour to the background. In other words, where the background is white, the text should be navy blue. Where the background is navy blue, the text should be white.

I've followed the instructions recommended for a similar purpose using black and white backgrounds, at How to invert text color with respect to background in Illustrator?

However, this doesn't quite have the desired effect - It results in black text on white, and an creamy colour text on navy blue, as shown in the image. .

I can understand why this might be the case since we are using an opacity 'difference' setting, but does anyone have a solution that will allow me to invert navy blue and white depending on the background colour?

Answer 1

You could use an opacity mask.

In the example below, on the left, I have some navy text, and a shape filled white that overlays it, to hide the text underneath.

Make a copy of it, fill the shape navy, bring the text to the top, make the text black.

Select both text and navy shape, open the Appearance panel, double click Opacity, then click Make Mask, uncheck the Clip option.