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- [Voiceover] So if you

think about how things



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would really work, our

sculpted letters are not truly



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centered inside of their squares.



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And so what we have right

now is an equal amount



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of horizontal space

between the extruded edge



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and the right side of

the square as between



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the forward edge and the

left hand side of the square.



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If these things were really sculpted



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and they were really centered,



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it'd be the backsides of the

letters that would be centered



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and then the forward sides

would be coming outward.



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Meaning that all of our letters

and numbers need to move



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slightly up and to the left.



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But to what degree is the question.



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Now we can find out exactly

how much these letters



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should move using the alignment options.



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And so I'm gonna switch

over to my document so far,



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and the trick is to find

a representative letter.



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And probably the simplest

letter of them all here



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in terms of expressing it

as a shape, is the "O."



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And so what I'm gonna

do is press the A key



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to switch to the white arrow tool,



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and then I'm gonna click

inside the red portion



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of the O to select that entire path.



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And the reason I'm using

the white arrow tool



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is because the red and

the black path outlines



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are grouped together.



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Now it's a little hard to

see these anchor points,



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red on red, so I'm gonna double

click on an empty portion



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of the letters layer, and

I'm gonna change the color



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to something that's gonna

stand out better, like gold.



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And then I'll click okay.



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Alright, now we what we

wanna do is copy this guy,



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so go ahead and press Control

+ C, or Command + C on a Mac.



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And then, press Control + Shift + A,



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or Command + Shift + A on a

Mac, to deselect your artwork.



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Press the V key to switch

to the black arrow tool,



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and press Control + F,

or Command + F on a Mac,



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in order to paste that guy in front.



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Alright, now we need to

make it larger so that it



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takes up this forward side of the letter,



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and we're gonna do that using

that special scaling option



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that we saw in the previous

chapter, Offset Path.



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And so go up to the

object menu, choose path,



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and then choose Offset Path.



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And you're gonna start

with an offset value of 10,



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at which point if you turn

a preview checkbox on,



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you'll see that's way too big.



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Something like three is a lot closer,



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but it's still a little bit too big



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and so if you wanna get it exactly right,



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try out 2.5 for a moment,

and you'll see that almost



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goes all the way to the

edge, which is why I came up



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with a value of 2.7 points,



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which looks spot on to me.



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And so I'll go ahead

and click okay in order



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to accept that change.



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Alright, now just go ahead and

cut this guy out of the way



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by pressing Control + X,

or Command + X on a Mac,



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and that will show you that

the original's still left over.



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So go ahead and click on

it to select it and press



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the Backspace key or

the Delete key on a Mac.



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Now, select the checker right there,



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and press Control + F,

or Command + F on a Mac



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to paste this guy to this other layer.



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And that should work assuming

that Paste Remembers Layers



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is turned off here inside the

layers panel fly out menu.



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Alright, now I wanna demonstrate what



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I'm talking about here,

you don't really have to



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move this guy to a different location,



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but I'm gonna go ahead and

drag it down into the right,



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so that you can see this is

where the back of the 3D letter



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would actually be located.



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And so now what I want

you to do is Shift + Click



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on a square, so that both of

these shapes are selected,



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and then click on a square

again to make it the key object.



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Then go up to the control

panel and click on



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the Horizontal Align

Center icon, followed by



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the Vertical Align Center icon in order to



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move that shape to the proper location.



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Alright, now let's select

all of the characters,



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which are relegated to the letters layer,



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by clicking in the upper right

corner of that layer like so.



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And then you wanna switch

to the outline mode



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by going to the view menu and

choosing the outline command



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way up here at the top, or

you can press Control + Y,



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or Command + Y on a Mac.



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And I'm gonna go ahead

and zoom in a little,



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just so that I know I'm

doing this properly,



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and I'll go ahead and drag

this guy until we get a snap.



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See the Smart Guide snap right there,



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at the bottom of the letter.



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And you way see a snap on

the right hand side as well,



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but you just wanna get it more

or less into place like so,



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then you can select that

dummy path right there,



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the one that you were using

for alignment purposes.



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And if you're working along with me,



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then your anchor points should appear blue



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to tell you that you're working

on the blue checkers layer.



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At which point press the Backspace key,



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or the Delete key on a Mac in order



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to get rid of that shape.



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Then press Control + 0,

or Command + 0 on a Mac



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to zoom out, and press Control + Y



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or Command + Y on a Mac to

switch back to the preview mode.



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And we now have 3D letters that appear



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to be properly centered

inside of their squares.



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And that's how you

precisely center the backs



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of your extruded letters

using a combination



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of the offset path command,

along with the alignment options



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here inside Illustrator.