How to Change Baseline Shift in Illustrator

In this Adobe Illustrator baseline shift tutorial, you'll learn what a baseline is, where the baseline shift is, and how to change it in Illustrator.

We'll use the Alma Mono font from Envato Elements to better exemplify baseline shift in Illustrator and learn how to change the baseline shift in Illustrator.

Interested in learning more about working with fonts in Illustrator? Don't miss these useful resources:

What You'll Learn in This Adobe Illustrator Baseline Shift Tutorial

What is a baseline?
What is Baseline Shift?
Where is Baseline Shift in Illustrator?
How to change the Baseline Shift in Illustrator

What Is a Baseline?

A baseline is the invisible line on which letters sit. Using baseline shift in Illustrator, you can move the entire text or selected characters up or down relative to the baseline.

Where Is Baseline Shift in Illustrator?

To adjust the baseline shift in Adobe Illustrator, you need to go to the Character panel.

You can either go to Window > Type > Character or use the Control-T keyboard shortcut to open this panel. As long as you have some text selected, the Character panel can also be accessed from the control panel. All you have to do is click that underlined Character text which will open the Character fly-out panel.

How to Change the Baseline Shift in Illustrator

Select a piece of text or use the Type Tool (T) to select a part of that text, focus on the Baseline Shift box, and edit the existing value to move the selection relative to the baseline. Additionally, you can deselect your text and set a baseline shift value for the text that you're about to add.

Alternatively, you can use a keyboard shortcut to adjust the baseline shift in Illustrator. Select your text and press Alt-Shift-Up Arrow to increase the baseline shift or Alt-Shift-Down Arrow to decrease the baseline shift value.

Baseline shift can be particularly useful when you're working with text on a path as it provides a quick way for you to align and move text along that path.

Congratulations! You're Done!

Now that you know how to change the baseline shift in Illustrator, feel free to use the technique in your future projects.

You can find some great sources of inspiration at Envato Elements, with interesting solutions to improve your design portfolio.

Want to Learn More?

We have loads of tutorials on Envato Tuts+, from beginner to intermediate level. Take a look!