17 Tips that will save you time in Illustrator
I’ve put together a list of 17 quick tips that will help you save time when using Illustrator, and increase productivity as well. For some of you, this may mean breaking a habit or two, but in the long run it’s well worth exploring the options of the Illustrator interface if it means saving time (measured in clicks and curse phrases, in my case), especially when it comes to “selection” methods. Some of these are obvious, and some may not be, but I want to help enlighten even the most casual of Illustrator jockeys. In no particular order. . .
1. Select all shapes with the same fill or stroke, or both.
If you go to the “Select” menu, and click on “Same,” you can instantly select ALL of the shapes with that same fill color, stroke color, or both, in single click! I love this feature and I find myself using it more and more every day. It comes in handy especially when editing a file received from a client when trying to prepare for printing (color matching to a pantone). Also if you make a last minute color scheme decision, you can easily update all of your shapes at once. Other “select same” options include Blending Mode, Opacity, and Stroke Weight.
2. Use the “White Arrow” to select individual paths within a group, without ungrouping.
Also known as the Direct Selection Tool, you can use the white arrow to select individual shapes, paths, and points, within a group of shapes, without ungrouping. Notice if you use the “Black Arrow,” or (standard) Selection Tool, all of the shapes within the group are selected at once. Switch to the Direct Selection Tool and click on a single shape within that group, and you can instantly change it’s fill, or stroke, or whatever (even drag it’s position), without ever ungrouping anything.
Example: (A group of shapes that make up a button)
Clicking on the blue shape with the Black Arrow. . .
Clicking on the blue shape with the White Arrow. . .
3. Use the Layers Palette to select paths within a group.
Instead of constantly grouping and ungrouping, you can easily select an individual path or shape in the Layers palette and change whatever you want (fill, stroke, etc) without ungrouping anything. This not only saves you a little bit of time, it keeps your shapes aligned the way you want them. To select an individual path, click on the circle icon in the corresponding path sublayer. (this is also a good way to FIND paths)
4. Learn to “Lock” shapes for selection purposes.
A lot of times I find myself stacking shapes and paths on top of each other to achieve the effect I want. Sometimes it can be frustrating when trying to select paths at different depths in this case. An easy way to help your stacked selection woes is to lock the shapes you don’t want to select. You can do this by hitting Control + 2 (PC) or Command + 2 (Mac). instead of right clicking on the top shape and navigating to “Select Next Object Below,” just lock the top shape and you can select the one below every time with one click. You can also find Lock in the Object menu at the top, and as an Icon (above) in the Layers palette.
5. “Detach” tools that you use on a regular basis.
Some of the tools in the Illustrator tools palette are detachable. You can pluck them off of the main tools palette to display the main tool, as well as all of the sub-tools, to gain easier access to them as a stand-alone palette. (note: this doesn’t apply to ALL of the tools in the Illustrator toolbar) Simply click and hold on the desired tool, then mouse over to the arrow on the right to “detatch.” Now you can move the tool anywhere in your workspace.
6. You can use the white arrow to adjust path curves, without ever touching the “Handlebars.”
This one might not be used as much as the others but it is good to know none-the-less. You can select (using the White Arrow) a line segment between 2 points on a path, and manipulate its Bezier curve by dragging, without messing with the anchor points at all.
7. Take advantage of the Layers palette and grouping.
Let’s say you have a group of objects and you just created a brand new shape that you want to be inside that group, at a certain depth. Instead of ungrouping and using keyboard shortcuts to control depth (which you can’t really see anyway in large groups), drag the path to the appropriate depth in the layers palette, and it is automatically included in your grouped object. There, you just saved at least 3 steps.
8. Make the “Align” palette your best friend.
If you don’t use the Align palette, you definitely should check it out. It makes guides obsolete in many cases, and gives you more freedom to let the creativity flow freely, while you worry about aligning later.
9. Always make sure your Clipping Mask is on top.
When using clipping masks, the path that is doing the masking has to be on top of anything it is going to clip. The reason this is in a “time saving” list is because if you don’t have your (most of the time) relatively simple clipping mask path on top: When you try to apply it and the rest of your shapes are very complex, Illustrator will either crash or tell you it is going to and give you an option to cancel. Not crashing Illustrator qualifies as saving time in my book (not to mention all the lost work that you can’t get back if you didn’t save recently), and making sure your clipping mask is on top will help you have less crashes.
10. Save your own custom swatch library.
If you’re like me, you hate unwanted swatches that you never use, getting in your way. Not only do you never use these default swatches, it makes it harder to find your own swatches that you’ve just added. If you take a few minutes and make a custom swatch set, then save the set as a swatch library, you can load your most used colors in a couple clicks, whenever you want, with any file open. Don’t sift through your hard drive to open a file just to get a color and bog down your memory even more. A few minutes setting up your favorite swatches could save you hours in the long run.
Saving a custom swatch library. . .
Loading a custom swatch library. . .
11. Create custom actions just like Photoshop.
You hear about Photoshop actions all the time, and how much time they save. Well, guess what, you can do exactly the same thing in Illustrator, including “Button Mode.” (pictured) Again, this takes a few minutes, sometimes seconds to set up, but well worth it. A true time saver.
12. Join 2 endpoints with a keyboard shortcut.
I recommend keyboard shortcuts in general, but an uncommon one that I find extremely useful is joining endpoints. Simply select 2 endpoints (with the White Arrow) and key “Command + J” (Mac) or “Control + J” (PC) to join the to paths together. This may come in handy when doing custom typography or logo work, if you alter, slice, or customize intricate paths.
Example before and after. . .
13. Quickly copy color with the “Eyedropper Tool.”
Another quick way to change the color of an object is to select the object you want to change and use the Eyedropper tool to grab the color from any other object on the artboard. Make sure that you have the correct attribute selected in the tools palette, (stroke or fill) and click on the a shape whose color you want to apply to the selected shape. This also applies to Type! If you have some new type and want to change it’s style to some type you already have on the artboard, just use the Eyedropper on the type you want to mimic (when using the eyedropper on type, you know it is working when you see a small “T” next to the tool on rollover) and you type changes instantly. point size, font, color, everything. (simple color pluck pictured)
14. Change effects you have already applied in the Appearance palette.
Instead of hitting undo and re-applying filters and effects, open the Appearance palette and you can easily adjust the effects you’ve already applied to shapes. Yes, this will still re-apply the entire effect once you adjust any of the options, but the time saving value here lies in having quick access to exactly what settings you previously applied.
15. The fastest way to duplicate a shape.
This makes me want to kick 3 or 4 of my college professors in the face, but all you have to do to quickly duplicate a shape is hold down the Option key (Mac) or Alt key (PC) click an a shape, drag, and release. You should now have two identical shapes (also works with grouped shapes), while leaving the original intact, and with a few less key strokes. Give it a year, it’ll save some time in the long run, guaranteed; AND you don’t have to look for it like when you paste a copy and it shows up in a random location. You control where the copy goes with your mouse, just don’t let go of the option/alt key until you release the mouse.
16. Special characters via the “Glyphs” palette.
Illustrator has a special character palette called “Glyphs.” If you find yourself needing to use special characters on a regular basis, I suggest exploring this palette. You can even choose the font and variation at the bottom, as well as preview size.
17. Get to know the “Pathfinder.”
If you don’t know what the pathfinder is, you probably need to. It allows you to combine, subtract, and basically use shapes in Illustrator like cookie-cutters. This can mean eliminating grouped paths into a single path for easier selection and organization, as well as condensing overall file size in the bigger picture.
Related Posts:
- How to Make a Custom Illustrator Brush
- Illustrator 101: One Gradient Across Multiple Paths
- Take Vector Paths from Photoshop into Illustrator
- Get More-Natural Adjustments with the Illustrator “Reshape” Tool
- Illustrator: How to Make Custom Swooshes, Swirls, and Curls
- Illustrator Tutorial: How To Make 3D Vector Vintage Stars
This helps a lot! Can you do a #9 tutorial some day? Clipping Masks confuse the heck out of me and I never, ever get it right. It may be that I’m not using my Pathfinder enough.
The other thing that seems to happen to me a lot is that Illustrator opens and all of a sudden the menu selections and sizes I had open the last session are gone. It’s irritating!
[...] 17 Tips that will save you time in Illustrator | BittBox I?ve put together a list of 17 quick tips that will help you save time when using Illustrator, and increase productivity as well. (tags: illustrator design adobe tips tutorial) [...]
nicely done. No one ever showed you alt-drag? Bummer.
Well done - very helpful stuff. AND It made me feel kinda smart, cause I already knew it all :D
Regarding swatches: I just went into the “Adobe Illustrator Startup” documents found in the Plug-ins directory and nuked everything. No garish default swatches to delete, no generic symbols I’ll never use, no custom brushes but the ones I made myself.
I like no default palette, as it makes me think about my colors - but you could just as easily dump your Favorite Colors in there.
I use these 17 tips all the time.
They’re great for newbies.
cool there… I use all, they are handy. Will you be coming up with an advanced version of tips. and for anyone out there. Anyone know if there is a plugin to save layers (or groups of layers)as individual files
“13. Quickly copy color with the ?Eyedropper Tool.?
One trick that I have found extremely useful in regards to the eyedropper tool is to hold down the Shift key while clicking. This will grab just the color from whatever you click and apply it only to the attribute you have selected (stroke or fill). I find this especially useful when using a photograph to pick out certain colors and apply them to shapes.
8. Make the ?Align? palette your best friend.
There is a handy feature for aligning objects that isn’t really well-documented. When you select say 5 objects to do an align to a left edge (Horizontal Align Left), each one will align to a left edge but also, each object will move a little when you select all and hit the align button. However, if you select all of the objects and then make one last selection of the object you want the rest to align to (while all are still selected), the rest of the objects will align to that last one you select. So, if you want each to line up on the left edge of a particular object (and keep that one where it is), use this method.
Also, I’m not sure if everyone already knows this, but I love the shift+arrow keys for moving things at 10px intervals instead of single pixels.
Awesome flasmonk! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for all the extra help you’re giving us! Tips or samples (eps!) makes me work a lot faster these days. I’m in a way depending on you guys so keep them coming! ;-)
robin
#17 pathfinder
I just discovered how helpful the “expand” button is in relation to the pathfinder tool. I got so tired of having this complex, double shape to deal with, when you click the expand button it finalizes your new shape and eliminates the original shapes used to make it. Really helps tidy things up.
thanks for your great tips! Ive learned a lot!
Thanks Man! Really nice tips!
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Great set of illustrator tips. I would add “Learn keyboard shortcuts” to this list as well. It can come in handy to know all the shortcuts to add node, delete node, etc while working with a shape.
I’ve never used the technique given for duplicating a shape, but the way I normally go about it is using the Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+F commands. This of course copies the selected shape and then pastes a copy of the shape directly above the original. Now, you know exactly where the new shape is; and if you are working on some sort of effect that requires the original and new shape to be aligned, it is already done for you.
Regarding Tip #16, if you’re going to use only a few special characters on a regular basis, such as the copyright symbol, learning the keyboard shortcut for them can save even more time than going to the Glyphs menu. For example, the keyboard shortcut for the copyright symbol is Alt + 0169 on a PC.
I actually printed out a list of the special characters and their keyboard shortcuts and put them right by my monitor. I find looking at the printed list is quicker than going through a palette.
I also have a question regarding Tip #10. I know how to save a custom Swatch library and have already saved some. However, I’ve found that I can’t edit a swatch library once it has been made. For example, I got this dotted background pattern for webpages from the net and I put it in a swatch library called Dotted Bkgd. And one day later, I got another type of dotted background, when I tried to drag the existing pattern from the artboard to the Dotted Bkgd swatch library, it wouldn’t work. I can only add the swatch to the default swatch library, but I can’t add them to my custom swatch libraries. I don’t know if this’ll warrant a tutorial, but if you could answer this questioning in a post, I’d be very grateful.
Thanks a lot!
This is good. I knew about most of these — learned a little too, of course — but I’ve yet to have the time to develop my talents and put them to good use. glad to know they’re there!
RE: daimondd…you can export your layers as individual SWF files natively in Illustrator, I’m not to sure about other file formats though.
Nice collection. Thanks!
Hi, bittbox reader,
I am working regarding automotive documantation, that is why i am fruequently drawing dashboards and complex mechanical parts. In this case, selection becomes very crucial for me. Here are my methods except above;
1- Utilize the power of Lasso (Short cut key L)tool(Lasso tool using in IIIustrator like in photoshop)
just sweep Lasso tool where you want to select-Lasso tool will select anchor points. whetere you can delete selected anchor points or Click(Selection tool -V-) after Lasso tool in order to select all curves which are connected.
Like photoshop Shift tool whilist Lasso tool is active behave (adding to selection)
Like photoshop Alt tool whilist Lasso tool is active behave (Subract from selection)
2- Another gem is using Shift tool. Select arbitrary with Direct Selection tool (A) after selection just select again with SHIFT curves which you dont want to select. Rest of curves yours.
3- Especially, illustrator user who have experience about engineering drawing programs like Autocad, CATIA, Inventor, looking for TRIM tool behavior, indeed There is no TRIM tool. But there are more easier techniques instead.
3-a, Using Erase Tool (No Short cut key, you can assign it From (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+ K ) Erase Tool under the Pencil Tool -You can detach that part-
Erase what kind of path, curve, line you have. Happines
3-b, Of course Scissors (I dont know default short cut, i have already changed it )tool using to trim some thing
4- Of course Smart Guides, Without smart guides an illustrator operator look likes using default program of windows “Paint”. Smart guides helps us holding the prejoctor of other curves. In order to access here View> Smart Guides (Ctrl + U)
Always Make sure that your Smart Guides option is ON.
Pagalina, you wrote about how useful the expand feature is used in conjunction with the pathfinder tools. Another cool feature about the pathfinder tools are that after you select the objects you want to apply a pathfinder to, hold the option key (alt on PC) and click on the pathfinder tool. You’ll find that it performs the pathfinder function as well as expanding the object all in one step. This is bound to save you time!
Great list and I agree with all of these; many are ones I use as well. I thought I’d add an extra comment to tips 12 & 15.
Tip #12: In addition to using the “join” command to join 2 endpoints, use of that in conjunction with the “average” command is useful as well. The “join” command alone inserts a connection path between the 2 points. However, if you want to join those 2 endpoints and combine them into one anchor point along a smooth path, the “average” command splits the difference of the space between the 2 points and puts them right on top of each other. Then when you select “join”, a dialog box will ask you if you want it to be a smooth join or a corner join. If you select “curved” the 2 points will join into one point and you’ll now have singular control of the curve using the handles.
Tip 15: Although the Option-drag is a great way to duplicate a shape, use of the “copy” and “paste in front” command is useful, too. Selecting “paste in front” puts the copy directly on top of the copied object, eliminating the need to search the drawing area for the newly pasted object.
Good work! Thanks for this information!
Good work! Thanks for this information!
ome users are finding that if in Illustrator CS2 if you open a CMYK file with a unit of measure other than points, and then you open a new document with dimensions set in anything other than points and then select an RGB color, the application quits. If this happens, quit the application and dispose of the Preferences file. In Windows, this file, AIPrefs, is located in Documents and Settings/ [user profile] /Application Data/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings. On the Mac, delete the Adobe Illustrator Prefs file located in Users/ [User] /local/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS2 Settings.
Thanks buddy for sharing all these. GREAT !
Of all above I’m already using 14 while working in Illy,
but anyways thanks for rest 3 and also letting me know
that I’m working ina good way.
Take Care
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[...] Illustrator tips Posted by sharonb under Illustrator Bittbox has put together a list of 17 Tips that will save you time in Illustrator [...]
TIP 18!!!!
The tip I would suggest everyone do is increase the tolerance of point selection in Illustrator. Simply go into Preferences (under Edit Menu on PC, and under Illustrator Menu on MAC).
Edit: Preferences: Selection & Anchor Display
Then I’d suggest changing the tolerance selection to 5px and I put Snap to Point at 5px as well.
This will make your life a lot easier. You can always zoom in closer if you need the precision where theres a lot of points.
Hi, i’ve translated two of your tips in my blog.. obviously redirecting to the source (here!)
Anyway if you have problems with it just let me know (commenting on my blog, as comments are screened until i moderate them), and i’ll remove it.
Keep on the good work,
Teresa
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Not sure if anyone posted this one already, but I find the “Ctrl + Y ” keyboard short-cut to be extra effective - it shows you an outline view of your layout - making it easier to find paths and click directly on the edges to select them. It also helps you catch type and other vector thing-a-ma-dings that get left behind on your layout, that are painted in white (therefore being hidden) so that you can easily delete them and prevent all kinds of mishaps from occurring in the printing stages….
So many times I have seen replicas of text or vector symbols sitting in my layout or just off to the side that don’t need to be there….
I am new to illustrator and can’t figure out how to make a selection in an object I place on the workspace. With photoshop, the magic wand outlines the selected color with a dotted outline.
But neither the lasso or the magic wand in illustrator appear to work for me.
I am trying to delete the white background of a jpg object that I placed onto the workspace.
Can you help me?
Thank you in advance.
Cal, as illustrator is a vector drawing program, jpg (any bitmap) doesn’t work like in photoshop. You have to ‘Trace’ it to vectors first (toolbar in the top). Then you have to do ‘Release Group’ or something (right mouse on the traced image) until you can select only the background. You can also use the white arrow instead of the black one (i think) to directly select something in the traced group.
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Maxwell, Rob
http://www.amaprostar.com/
Very helpfull for me! Good Job!
referring to “AND you don’t have to look for it like when you paste a copy and it shows up in a random location. ” in tip 15, actually, if you just hit command+f (mac) then it will paste to the exact position that you copied.
p.s. i thought the swatch library tip was really helpful!
(doing couple of gradient mesh objects with pantone)
In illustrator, can we change the default stroke weigh of 1 pt. For some project we use .5 pt a lot.
Thank you.
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#15 should win an award. Thank you! I never knew this, and I’ve always been frustrated with where my object ends up when I copy & paste.
[...] Some other quick Illustrator tips to help you with basic selection methods, among other things in this post. [...]
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