How can I paint gaps within text in Adobe Illustrator?

Question

I'm using Adobe Illustrator CS4. I have text that is along a path that looks like this:

I would like to be able to color the gaps within the font like this:

I'm having trouble finding how to do this. I'm guessing that I need to somehow convert the outline of the text into a path and then paint the gaps but I'm not sure how. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Solution 1

You can do it with Live Paint.

Type -> Create Outlines
Object -> Live Paint -> Make

Then select the Live Paint Bucket to fill in any shape with any color

Solution 2

First, convert the text to outlines by choosing Type -> Create Outlines. (I'm not sure if this is the exact wording, but it is something like that)

Next, ungroup the text. Now each letter is a compound path. Right click on each one and choose Release Compound Path. Then you can choose the individual parts of the letter and color each one. By changing the z-order and the color of each part, you should be able to get the effect you want.

Solution 3

The Appearance panel (Window > Appearance) lets you add layered fills, strokes and effects, so it's possible to get that effect without converting the text to shapes/Live Paint/whatever.

Just set it up so it looks something like this:

• Fill (brown)
• Stroke (white, 5pt)
• Stroke (brown, 8pt)

Comments

[Dave Forgac]

I could do that but I would prefer to keep the image as a vector since it will be used for both print and online.

[Mike Cooper]

This would work well, and in Illustrator the binary operation are going to be in the Path Finder. Luckily, Illustrator has an easier way to do this, that I explained in my answer.