Illustrator problems with free transform and type tool

Question

I was used to trasform object by clicking ctrl+T and then working the shape off by dragging the vertexes here and there as much as I want.

Now this shortcut is not working anymore and I dont know why..(the new shortcut is suddenly "E")I also have a similar problem with type tool. I click on the Type tool then click on the stage and start dragging for defining the area for my text.So I start writing my paragraph.

The point is that when I try to resize the text area also the font stretches!

why this is happening?

thanks Luca

Answer 1

if i am not wrong, This is not a issue, what are you facing is default keyboard shortcut settings turned on cause of improper termination of application,

default Free Transform tool shortcut key is : E

default Character tool shortcut key is : Ctrl+T

• Keyboard shortcuts / Default keyboard shortcuts of adobe illustrator cs5
• Keyboard shortcuts / Default keyboard shortcuts of adobe illustrator cs4

Changing the default or creating new keyboard shortcuts in Illustrator is easy.

Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

Illustrator has two types of text objects: Point Type and Area Type. Point Type is used most often for random text objects that appear in your document and aren't bound by any shape or frame. Area Type is used for larger blocks of text, where words flow from one line to the next and are encompassed within a shape or a frame.

Point Type has no frame or shape that holds it. Therefore, scaling Point Type will always result in the text becoming distorted -- after all, you are scaling the text

if you use the Selection tool to scale an Area Type object, the object itself will scale, but the text within the object will not scale, only re flow to fit within the new shape

i grabbed this images and some lines from : Creative pro make illustrator behave

Hope this will help....

Answer 2

Really two questions, here. Broad answer: You're confusing Photoshop and Illustrator. They don't use the same shortcuts and they don't handle text frames the same way.

The keyboard shortcut in Illustrator for Free Transform is E. Ctl+T is the Photoshop shortcut.

As to the font stretching, it sounds like you're using point type (not in a box) or the Free Transform tool, either of which results in scaling the actual text.

Answer 3

view---> show bounding box! It's important to be on.