The one trick to this is, when I go in and I would like to manipulate the type on a path here, this is kind of interesting. Give me more or less space between my letters, and then I can base this on where I'd like the type to sit around my shape, based on the ascenders or the descenders or simply in the center of my line, right there. I can also, oh, it helps if I turn the preview on, so there's my spacing. I can space that out a little bit, which gives us more space between each letter. I can also flip this so it goes inside or outside my circle as well, and then I can also go in and set the spacing here. Not that I'm opinionated about it, but yeah. So with this, I'm gonna click on my preview here, and I have various types of hideousness. I have Type on a Path, and I'm gonna choose my Type on a Path options. So I can select my type, and under the Type menu, I've got different options that I can do with this type. Isn't that awesome? Now the fun part is actually getting it to move around the circle. And once you click on that, all of your attributes disappear, because this now just becomes a shape to do this. You need to make sure those little arms click right on that path. Flippy Fan thing, that's exactly what it is.
![new gradient swatch indesign cc 2015 new gradient swatch indesign cc 2015](https://creativepro.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/insaneradialgradients-f.jpg)
So if I use my Type on a Path Tool, I take this, and those little arms that are sticking out there, like one of those little things that are at the car dealership, Mr. Doesn't matter if it's a closed shape or a free-form line, makes no difference whatsoever. With this, I need a different type tool, and this is called the Type on a Path Tool. If I wanna put type around this object too, I can put a fill-in stroke on it, it's gonna disappear, so don't bother doing it. It simply becomes a container for the type. Once we click on it with the Type tool we lose all the attributes. I can't actually have a shape with type in it and put a filler stroke on that shape. Draw any shape that you want, and it doesn't matter what kind of stroke and fill you put on the shape. So that's type inside a shape, nothing magic. Sorry, kind of a font snob here, it's gotta be just right. Don't like that font either, change it to something that's a whole lot better other than that. I draw my area, I take my Area Type tool, I click on it, and I can type inside that shape.
![new gradient swatch indesign cc 2015 new gradient swatch indesign cc 2015](https://i.vimeocdn.com/filter/overlay?src0=https%3A%2F%2Fi.vimeocdn.com%2Fvideo%2F389141539-6ae04f274653eeb341076195a087c738274e4571e6eea82610345981be09b484-d_1280x720&src1=https%3A%2F%2Ff.vimeocdn.com%2Fimages_v6%2Fshare%2Fplay_icon_overlay.png)
It requires a special Type tool, called the Area Type tool. So if I wanna put type in a shape, I can draw the shape, and I can take my Type tool. But now I wanna put type around a shape, or in a shape. This is point type, we simply clicked on there as well. This is text inside a container that we drew with our Type tool. So let's show you the magic, right there. Because when we're doing it around this logo here, how do you get that type to go around there? Well, magically, of course. But when it comes to doing it around a shape, we can. So basic type, there's nothing really unique about doing type in Illustrator.