Screen

Another way to align objects in the document, is by making use of the grid.

The grid is displayed behind the artwork and it is not printed.

To show the grid, click the “View” button in the menu bar and select “Show Grid” in the drop-down menu.

This shows a grid in the background of your document. You can change the representation of this grid.

Just click the “Preferences” button in the options bar and select “Guides and Grid” in the dialog box that appears.

In the dialog box you will now find two sections, the Guides section and the Grid section.

In the “Guides” section, you can set any color and style. In the “Grid” section, you can display the grid. I think all the options here are clear.

If you want to hide the grid again, click “View” in the menu bar and select “Hide Grid” in the drop-down menu.

What I can tell you perhaps is the “Snap to Grid” option, which is under the “View” button.

When this is checked, if the object is placed within two pixels of a grid line, the object is connected with the grid point magnetically.

The hotkey to show or hide the grid is

Ctrl “+”.

 

Smart Guides

In the previous lesson, I already told you about the existence of Smart Guides in Illustrator.

In this lesson I want to expand more that subject.

Smart Guides are temporary magnetic guides that appear when you draw objects or move drawing areas.
When you move objects (1), X-and Y-location values are also given (a).
And when you draw objects (2), the width and height are displayed (b).
Move your mouse over the object, it will also be displayed on the object (3). For example, an anchor point or path.

So you can really use this information displayed by smart guides.
But, if you think that this is annoying, you can disable it by pressing the “View” button in the menu bar and clicking on “Smart Guides” in the drop-down menu.

 

Bounding Box

Like the smart guides, you can also hide the box that appears (1) around the object when this is selected.
Just click the “View” button in the menu bar and click the “Hide Bounding Box” option in the drop-down menu.
If you want to show this again, repeat these actions, only you should select “Show Bounding Box”.

 

Hide Borders

You can also hide the edges or rather the anchor points (1).
Just click the “View” button in the menu bar and click the “Hide Edges” option in the drop-down menu. This hides the edges as well as the anchor points (3).

These anchors are neccessary to adjust the shape of the object. For a simple object as a star like this, all this is not so bad, but when you have drawn a complicated object with many anchor points, you will never find them if they are hidden.
So it might be best to remember the keyboard shortcut Ctrl H for this option, as you will use this regularly.

Now I’m already drooling over anchor points and we have not even drawn a single line.
In the next lesson, I will talk about selecting and then we will do a little drawing.

 

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