I freelance for a large corporation that is very particular about how its logo is used. The logo must be centered under the copy with space above it that is equal to the height of the logo. The logo is provided in Illustrator in the AI native format. After drawing a Rectangle Frame, making sure to snap it to my margins, I drag on an additional Ruler Guide and line it up with the baseline of my last line of text. I then Place the logo in the Frame (File > Place) and Center it perfectly in the Frame (Object > Fitting > Center Content). So far, so good, but how do I center the logo exactly, leaving “the height of logo” as the space above it?
Easy! Because it’s an Illustrator logo, when you select the art with the Direct Selection, the Bounding Box around it is lined up with the edge of the vector art on all four sides. So to position the logo “the height of the logo” away from the last line of type, first drag a Ruler Guide to either the left or right side of the logo, snapping it to the art’s Bounding Box. Then drag the art up toward the type above, snapping it to the Guides at the side of the logo and at the Baseline of the last line of text. Then drag on a new Ruler Guide, snapping it to the Bounding Box at the bottom of the logo (which is exactly the height of the logo away from the type). To finish up, drag the logo back down, snapping the top of the logo to the new “bottom” Guide and the side of the logo to the side Guide. Perfect!
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
