How to Zoom In and Out in Adobe Illustrator
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Zooming in and out is one of the most frequent functions you'll perform in Illustrator. You may need to zoom in to see the fine details of your work or zoom out to see the entire design.
Adobe Illustrator offers various ways of zooming in and out for you to explore. There are some dedicated tools you can use to zoom in and out, besides some helpful keyboard shortcuts.
In this article, we'll cover five ways to zoom in and out. Let's get started.
Zooming In and Out in Illustrator
There are a few things to keep in mind before we start with the tutorial, which will help you understand the concept easily.
- Zooming Area: No tool in Illustrator will focus on any particular artboard while zooming in. Whenever you use the zoom in or zoom out command using the zoom tool or trackpad, the zooming area will be determined by the cursor's position. This means your zoom-in command will be applied to the area where your cursor is placed.
- Keyboard Shortcut Keys: Sometimes, you want to work fast in Illustrator and select tools from the toolbar, but using them seems to be very time-consuming. And zooming in and out is a feature you must frequently use. To save time, you can use the keyboard shortcuts instead.
Method 1: Using Illustrator's Zoom Tool
You'll find this tool in the left toolbar. The keyboard shortcut is (Z)
Step 1
Open your file and the artboard you want to zoom in and out.
Step 2
Go to the left toolbar and click on the zoom tool, which looks like a tiny magnifying glass.
Step 3
With the zoom tool activated, go back to your artboard. Now place the cursor in the area you want to zoom in or out and click on it.
Method 2: Using Illustrator's Hand Tool
Usually, the hand tool is used to navigate through the artboard while zooming in and out. Hence, this tool and the zoom tool are used side by side.
Step 1
Select the hand tool from the left toolbar. It's the tiny hand you'll see beside the zoom tool. You can also use the shortcut key (H) to activate the hand tool.
Step 2
Bring your cursor to the artboard while you have the hand tool activated.
Step 3
Now press and hold on both the spacebar and Alt key together and scroll your mouse upward to zoom in and downward to zoom out.
Method 3: Using the Touchpad
If you're using a laptop, you can use the touchpad or trackpad to zoom in and out. This is unconventional, yet it's possibly the quickest way to zoom in or out.
Step 1
Open your file or artboard.
Step 2
Place the mouse cursor where you want to zoom in or out. The cursor's position is essential here because it will determine the zooming area.
Step 3
The only thing you have left to do now is pinch. Yes, you heard me right. For zooming out, pinch the trackpad with two fingers and the image or the artboard will be zoomed out. On the contrary, if you do the opposite, which is stretching your fingers away from each other, your artboard will be zoomed in.
So, it's simple. Pinch in to zoom out and pinch out to zoom in. It's the same way we zoom in and out with photos on our mobile phones.
Note: Sometimes, you must hold the Alt key and pinch the trackpad.
Method 4: Using the Keyboard Shortcut
This is another quick way to zoom in and out. You just need to know the combination of keys for this, and you're good to go.
Step 1
Open the artboard that you want to zoom in or out.
Step 2
Now press and hold Control (PC) or Command (Mac) and + to zoom in or – to zoom out.
Method 5: Using the View Menu
You'll manually zoom in and out using the View menu in this method.
Step 1
Open the artwork you want to zoom in and zoom out.
Step 2
Go to the overhead toolbar and choose the view menu.
Step 3
You'll get a drop-down menu where you can see zoom in and zoom out options. Click on them to zoom in and out.
Method 6: Using Mouse Scroll/Wheel
In this method, we'll use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. I prefer this method as it does not need any other tools or multiple keys from the keyboard, making it more convenient to use.
Step 1
Place the mouse cursor where you want to zoom in and out.
Step 2
Scroll up the mouse wheel while pressing and holding down the Alt key to zoom in. To zoom out, scroll the wheel down while holding the Alt key. All you need to do is hold the Alt key and scroll.
Final Thoughts on Zooming in Illustrator
Zooming in and out is one of the most important and repetitive things you'll do in Illustrator. It's always better to learn how to do this type of function quickly and easily. I hope this article helped you know how to zoom in and out more quickly and easily.
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