Let's look at seven useful Illustrator techniques to accomplish easily. These may seem tedious to resolve issues for the beginning Illustrator user. While many of these techniques are rudimentary, even advanced artists may learn a tip or two they didn't know.
Seven Helpful Techniques That Every Adobe Illustrator Artist Should Know
Jul 29th in Tools & Tips by Jonathan
1: How To Make All Strokes and Effects Scale Proportionately
Ever drew an object and decided you needed to change the size; but as soon as you do that you notice that the stroke or pattern in your object changes size when you wanted it to remain the same, or vice-versa? The solution is simple. You need to change your Scale Strokes & Effects Options. To access this option go to the top of the screen and select Illustrator > Preferences > General. Simply check or uncheck the box depending on what effect you are trying to achieve.
2: How To Make Guidelines On An Angle
If you've ever wanted to draw a guideline on an angle, but couldn't figure it out, here's a quick technique. Grab the Pen Tool, and draw the angle in which you'd like your guideline to be at. Then go to the top of the screen and select View > Guides > Make Guides. The object will instantly turn into a guideline. This will work on irregular shapes and objects too!
3: Reset The Box Around An Object That's Been Rotated Back To Normal
When you rotate an object the bounding box around it rotates with it, as seen in the top graphic. What happens when you want to vertically or horizontally stretch the box (to make a diamond for example)? The box enlarges, shrinks, or stretches disproportionately.
This is where resetting the bounding box comes into play. To reset an objects bounding box go to the top and select Object > Transform > Reset Bounding Box. The graphic on the bottom shows the same object with its bounding box reset. The bottom graphic can be easily stretched and made into a perfectly symmetrical diamond.
4: Stretch a Box With Rounded Corners Without Distorting the Box or Selecting Individual Points
We've all been there, you draw a box with rounded corners. The you decide to stretch it out a little, only to discover that the rounded corners stretch too. The remedy is simple. First, draw a box with square corners and add rounded corners to it by going to the top and selecting Effects > Stylize > Rounded Corners, as seen in the first graphic.
The second graphic was drawn using the Rounded Rectangle Tool. It's OK to use the Rounded Rectangle Tool if you know you're not going to need to stretch the shape. The other benefit of using the stylize filter is that you can remove the rounded corners altogether if you decide you no longer want them.
5: One Document, Multiple Views (Up-Close and Far-Away), and Work In Either View
This handy little technique will save you time from zooming-in and out all the time. You can work on a single document while having multiple views of it. In the example below, I show a close-up and far-away view.
If I make changes on one view, it's reflected in the other view too! To have multiple views of one document, go to the top and select Window > New Window. In your new window you can zoom-in to work on a detailed area while still seeing how it effects the overall design. You can safely close either document window when you're done. For further information on this technique, see the article Moving Through Infinite Vision over at AiBURN.
6: Change Your Document's Background From White To Your Own Custom Color
Ever wanted to change the boring white background of your document to another color? This technique eliminates the hassle of drawing a box, putting it on its own layer and locking the layer. All you have to do is go to the top and select File > Document Setup. Select Transparency from the drop down menu, check Simulate Colored Paper, click on the white square to change the color and press OK. Presto! Your background is now the color of your choice.
Keep in mind that this simulates colored paper. So, the darker the color you choose, the darker your artwork will appear. For example, if you choose black as a paper color, your artwork will disappear, because you wouldn't be able to see artwork that was printed on black paper.
7: Quickly Hide All Unnecessary Palettes So You Can See What You're Doing
This last technique makes it easy to temporarily get rid of all the palettes you may have surrounding your artwork. Simply press Tab to hide all palettes or press Shift+Tab to hide all the palettes except the Tools Palette. The image below shows all other palettes besides the Tools Palette have been hidden.
Conclusion
There you have it. Seven beginner techniques that every Adobe Illustrator artist should know. Now work on putting these techniques into practice. If you have any Adobe Illustrator tips you'd like to share, leave a comment, as we'd love to hear them.
Related Posts
Keep reading with more great tutorials and articles!
Enjoy this Post?
We'd love your vote!
User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Sacha July 29th
Wow… I just found out I’m a beginner at Illustrator, since I didn’t know most of these. The diagonal guide must be great for working with perspective effects !
Moritz Feierabend July 29th
Good information! THX
AndrU July 29th
Nothing new to me!, but useful for new designers!.
Salute!,
WAR July 29th
Thanks for the info.
I was very surprised by the background color simulating paper and it’s printing outcome. Great Tip!
Mike July 29th
Nice, couple of those will save me some time!
Gabe July 29th
Sweet, love the multiple windows in one document trick!
RUGRLN July 29th
Good stuff….some I wish were available in Photoshop…..:(
Michael Thompson July 29th
You can also access “Scale Strokes & Effects” in the Transform palette options.
Braden Keith July 29th
Pretty basic, but still helpful
James July 29th
Very nice… I’d say out of all of those the only one I haven’t used in a LONG time, and had actually forgotten was Scale Stroke and Effects.
Thanks!
Jeff Foster July 29th
Cool! I paid for a class in Illustrator, and the only one of these they taught was the Tab key to hide palettes. Thanks!
Nate July 29th
Thanks, some useful stuff.
giackop July 29th
thanx.. really useful..
Daniel Geraldi July 29th
cool… very usefull for new designers
Dino July 29th
Nothing really new but great for AI noobs.
Shane July 30th
nice tips - good for beginners (me!)
Cynthia July 30th
Helpful information!
Thank you very much!
Chris Spooner July 30th
I love finding handy little tips like these, a few months down the line I’ll be wondering how I ever managed without them!
NGP July 30th
Just a quick addition to the Guideline trick:
If you unlock your guides you can edit them as if you were editing a line, you can free transform them, move them to specific coordinates and you can also cut them using the scissors tool. This is very helpful as mentioned in the comments above for creating vanishing points for perspective illustration. The center can be manipulated as well and they can be rotated from different angles.
As mentioned in the tut irregular shapes can be transformed into guides like for label printouts and CD label printouts instead of an object because the guides don’t print
Thanks for the tips!
Mark Abucayon July 30th
very helpful tips, thank you for sharing this one.
Tolana July 30th
Thanks! I keep forgetting where the “Scale Strokes & Effects” is, I should print this and tape it to the wall!
Jonathan July 31st
Thanks guys for the feedback. I’m glad you all are finding these useful!
Tolana: I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t change the Scale Strokes and Effects. I use to ALL the time.
NGP: Good tips, thanks.
Mikkel July 31st
Hmm. Nothing new to me. And I’ve been working with Illustrator for a couple of weeks now… Some how sad
Bern August 1st
Nice, but you forgot a copule—like the highly sought after “paste in place” which in Illustrator is simply called Paste In Front (Command-F)
You can also use the technique from the second point to create a guide of any shape—including circles, rectangles, free lines, etc.
Good stuff.
Angie Bowen August 1st
Thanks so much for these, they’ll be very handy here in a few weeks when I get my new computer so that I can actually run Illustrator. I’ve been using Xara just to learn a bit on but I can’t wait to start using Illustrator!
bryan August 1st
This is a great list for beginners. There are a million other helpful techniques you could add in for follow-up posts. Maybe like using the option arrows with type to play with the tracking, something like that. Nice work
f August 4th
Nice tips!
Thanks!
Andrew Fleming August 5th
Great Tips!
I accomplish #4 by using the Direct Selection Tool (shortcut: A) and selecting the 4 points on the side I want to stretch. I’m not a big fan of converting a non-rounded box to a rounded one.
wetworker August 7th
Very useful stuff to know.
ChocolateMonkey August 11th
Wow! This is awsome. I’m going to start using illustrator for logo design and I was dreading all of the small issues like these things while getting used to using it. Thanks for saving us the trouble
Abhijit V. Chaore August 12th
Though I knew at least five of them before, I appreciate you told us few new things.
Dan Greenblatt August 14th
I’ve been using Illustrator for a while, but picked up some really nice pointers here - thanks for posting! If I could add two to the list from personal experience (and I’m sure there are many more that you had to cut to keep this list tight) I’d say the out-of-the-box functionality provided by the Crop Area tool and the Eraser tool in CS3 are real gems. Thanks for the great post!!
garth August 18th
I’d add that a constant willingness to explore the application is the best possible tip for using and learning Illustrator. I’ve been using it for a long time, and I’m still finding new things every day. Teach yourself key commands, first…that will save a LOT of time. I use a Mac, so Command key combos are written into my DNA.
iHazim August 28th
Very useful techniques, thanks alot.
Jeree September 15th
Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together. New to Illustrator, I did the whole tutorial twice and it really helped me a lot!
Thijs September 17th
Very usefull things!
Thanks alot guys
Grts from Belgium!
Greg Althoff December 18th
I needed that Rounded Corner one again for sure, I always forget how to do it.
good stuff.
Add Your Comment
( GET A GRAVATAR )Your Name January 6th