Enter the (also known as a synthetic bold ). While professional typographers often warn against it, the faux bold remains a practical, powerful tool in Adobe Illustrator—when used correctly. What Exactly Is a Faux Bold? A faux bold is an artificially thickened version of a typeface. Unlike a true bold (which is meticulously redrawn by a type designer with adjusted spacing, kerning, and stroke contrast), a faux bold is generated on the fly by the software.
In a perfect typographic world, every font family would include a dedicated Bold weight. But in reality, many fonts—especially free or legacy typefaces—ship with only a single Regular style. You might also find yourself working with a client’s brand font that lacks a bold variant, or you need a slightly heavier version of an existing weight without altering the original design. illustrator faux bold
Faux bold for exploration; real bold for execution. Enter the (also known as a synthetic bold )