Trouble setting inch marks in text – Iluustrator CS

[tim_musial@adobeforums.com]

Our agency has had trouble having inch marks show up in text (versus quote marks) in Illustrator CS. We have turned the smart quote feature on and off; it makes no difference in getting inch marks to show up in copy. We have tried all the keyboard short cuts that are supposed to work as well (unless there are new ones in OS X or Illustrator CS!). We are using Postscript Helvetica fonts in a project where we need the inch marks to denote a measurement. TrueType and Open Type fonts all share this dubious inability as well, it seems. Any insight and help would be appreciated.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

You should be able to use the find/change feature to do this. With smart quotes off you can always type the hash marks. So copy and paste the smart quotes into the find field, and type the correct hashmarks into the replace field.

[tim_musial@adobeforums.com]

That works, but what a backwards way to accomplish something that can be done easily in other programs. It would seem that the "Smart Quote" feature in Illustrator is not as "Smart" as it is in Photoshop and Quark. :-)

[Tim_Murray@adobeforums.com]

While using a straight quotes for an inch/foot marks is better than curly quotes, they are not the best. The proper marks are the prime and double-prime marks found in Symbol font.

[Toby_Thain@adobeforums.com]

The proper marks are the prime and double-prime marks found in Symbol
font.




That's correct. They are also found (along with bold-face versions) in the Commercial Pi font.

[tim_musial@adobeforums.com]

I will keep that in mind when I have need for those marks/symbols in the future. Thanks again for everyone's insights ...

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

That works, but what a backwards way to accomplish something that can
be done easily in other programs.




I thought your question was how to convert quote marks to hash marks throughout the document? Using find/change doesn't seem a backward way to accomplish this.

Illustrator ought to type the hash marks used as inch and foot designators by default. If you want to correctly type curly quote marks you can always use the option and shift-option keys with the brackets [ ] to get the mark you want. "Smart Quotes" isn't really designed to replace hash marks with curly quotes or vice versa, but to determine which curly quote is supposed to come at the beginning or end of words and sentences (though it's inaccurate with abbreviated numerals).

Admittedly it doesn't work as intuitively in AI as in PS or Quark et al, but it's not too bad overall.