Page 32 - CC2017_AI_Look_Inside

Align And distribute objeCts
In addition to dragging objects around the artboard, the Illustrator Align panel makes
it very easy to align and distribute selected objects relative to one another, to a specific
key object in the file, or to the overall artboard. In this exercise, you learn how to use
the Align panel to align shapes.
1. With icons.ai open, click and drag with the Selection tool to draw a
marquee that touches some part of all four objects on the artboard.
The Selection tool selects objects, so the selection marquee only needs to touch the
objects you want to select. The marquee doesn’t need to surround the objects entirely.

We started the marquee here
because clicking the top-left
shape would have resulted in
dragging that shape instead of
creating a selection marquee.

Selection marquee

The bounding box shows
the outer edges of the
entire selection (the four
shapes collectively).

2. Open the Align panel (Window>Align) and click the Vertical Align Top button.
By default, alignment and distribution functions occur relative to the selected objects.
In other words, when you click the Vertical Align Top button, Illustrator determines the
topmost edge of the selected objects, and then moves the top edges of all other selected
objects to that position.
Depending on your monitor width, Align options
might be available in the Control panel.

Vertical Align Top
button

44 Project 1: Campground Icons