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Spelling and language dictionaries

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Learn about spelling and language dictionaries in Illustrator.

Designing a brochure, a flyer, or a resume? Ensure text accuracy with spelling and language dictionaries.

Check spellings

With the Check Spelling feature, Illustrator will check spelling for you. You can set Illustrator to do it either manually (post-writing, one-by-one) or automatically (real-time, all at once).

Spelling check

Manual spelling check

Follow any of these options to check spellings one by one after typing the text:

  • Select Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling.
  • Right-click the text component and select Spelling > Check Spelling.

Automatic spelling check

Follow any of these options to check spelling automatically while you type:

  • Select Edit > Spelling > Auto spell check.
  • Right-click the text component and select Spelling > Auto spell check.

Address the spelling error

Check spelling

A. Check spelling dialog B. Options for finding and ignoring words 

Manual spelling check

When an error is indicated, follow any of these options:

  • Select Ignore or Ignore All to continue spell-checking without changing the word.

  • Select a word from the Suggestions list or type the correct word in the top box.

  • Select Add to store an acceptable but unrecognized word in the dictionary.

Automatic spelling check

Right-click the misspelled word and follow any of these options:

  • Select the correct word from the listed suggestions.
  • Select Ignore All to ignore all misspelled occurrences in the document.
  • Select Add to Dictionary to add the word in the dictionary so that it's no longer reported as an error.
Note:
  • To modify the rules for automatic spellcheck, go to Options in the Change Spelling dialog. 
  • Automatic spellcheck isn't supported if the text contains an effect.
  • Illustrator can check for spelling errors in various languages based on the language you assign to words. To assign a language, select the text and use the Language menu on the Character panel to specify the language for the text.

Edit the spelling dictionary

  1. Go to Edit > Edit Custom Dictionary.

  2. Follow any of these options, and select Done:

    • To add a word to the dictionary, type the word in the Entry box and select Add.

    • To remove a word from the dictionary, select the word in the list, and select Delete.

    • To modify a word in the dictionary, select the word in the list. Then, type the new word and select Change.

Edit Spelling Dictionary

Assign languages to text

Illustrator has features for checking both spelling and hyphenation. The dictionary contains hundreds of thousands of words with standard syllable breaks. You can assign a language to an entire document or apply a language to selected text.

Apply a language to all text

  1. Select Edit > Preferences > Hyphenation (Windows) 
    Select Illustrator > Preferences > Hyphenation (macOS)

  2. Select a dictionary from the Default Language drop-down list and select OK.

Assign a language to selected text

In the Character panel, select the appropriate dictionary from the Language menu. If the Language menu isn’t showing, select Show Options from the Character panel menu.

Assign languages to text in Illustrator
Examples of hyphenation for different languages

A. “Glockenspiel” in English B. “Glockenspiel” in Traditional German C. “Glockenspiel” in Reformed German 

Unicode

Illustrator supports Unicode, a standard that assigns a unique number to every character, no matter which language or type of computer you use.

This makes it possible for a French designer to design for a client in Korea and hand the job off to a partner in the United States without struggling with the text. The U.S. designer can select the correct language in the operating system, load the foreign‑language font, and continue the project.

Features of unicode

Portable

Letters and numbers will not change when you move the file from one workstation to another. Adding a foreign language to a document doesn’t cause confusion, because foreign characters have their own designations that don’t interfere with the encoding from other languages in the same project.

Platform-neutral

Because Windows and macOS now support Unicode, moving a file between the two platforms is easier. No longer will you need to proofread an Illustrator file just because you moved to it a Windows computer from a Mac or vice versa.

Robust

Because Unicode‑compliant fonts offer a larger number of potential characters, specialty type characters are readily available.

Flexible

With Unicode support, substituting a typeface in a project won’t result in substituted characters. With a Unicode‑compliant font, a g is a g no matter which typeface is used.


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