I wanted to start this week off with a simple tutorial, so we are making a Custom Signature.  The fun thing about this tutorial, is that I am going to show you how to alter your font and so that your Signature can be even more personalized than just a cute font alone.  I am using Illustrator CS5, but you can use any version that you have (nothing in this tutorial requires CS5).

First I am going to make a new document.  I am sizing mine at 100px high by 175px wide.

Now, I have used the Type tool to type my name.

Next you need to find a cute font.  I have used “Pea Anna-Banana” from KevinandAmanda.com  LOVE her site!

So I love this font, but not thrilled about the way it lays out when just typed straight across.  So what I am going to do, is right click and select “Create Outlines“.  **What “Create Outlines” does, is to change type to a Vector Object.

Now, right click again, and select “Ungroup”

Now you can see that you can select, size, rotate, each individual letters.

So as I started moving letters around, I decided that I would like to make my “L” taller, rather than just sizing it with my “Selection Tool” (the black arrow), I am going to use my “Direct Selection Tool” (the white arrow).  The “Direct Selection Tool” gives you a lot more control over objects.  So I am going to only select the top 2 anchor points of the “L” and drag it up.  I also used that same tool to adjust the “Y”, I made the bottom part of the “Y” a little longer.

Now that I have it laid out the way I like it.  I am going to fix the “C”, because I made it larger, it is to thick now.  So I am going to select the “C” and put a white stroke on it.

Your stroke will automatically go to 1pt, and that isn’t exactly where I want it, so I am going to adjust it on my stroke panel.

0.75pt was still a little thick, so I manually typed in 0.6pt was just right.

I like to add little embellishments to my signatures, so I am going to go to my top menu bar and select “Type” and “Glyphs“.

I found a cute butterfly that I liked, from the font “Pea Stacy’s New Doodles”, also from KevinandAmanda.com.  She has quite a few cute doodle fonts that are fun.

I wanted the butterfly to go the other way, so I right clicked, and selected “Transform“, and “Reflect“.

Select “Vertical“.

All that is left is to add color, but I want to add more than one color to the butterfly, so what I am going to do is do a right click, “Create Outlines“,  and then right click “Ungroup“, and then right click and “Release Compound Path“.

Now you can select each part of the butterfly, and change the colors :)

And there you have it!

The last thing you need to do, is do a File, Save for Web, and save it as a PNG.

Now if you need to know how to Install your Signature, CLICK HERE.