Page 18 - CC2018_AI_Look_Inside

draW roundEd rEctanglEs
Illustrator includes a number of tools that make it easy to create basic shapes —
rectangles (or squares), ellipses (or circles), and so on. Using any of the basic shape
tools, you can click and drag with the tool cursor to create a shape of any size. Pressing
Shift while dragging constrains the shape to equal height and width — for example,
an exact square or circle. Pressing Option/Alt while you drag creates the shape so that
the center appears where you first click. In the following images, the red dot identifies
where we first clicked to create the new shape.

Shift-click and drag to create Option/Alt-click and drag to
Click and drag to a shape with equal height create a basic shape with its
create a basic shape. and width. center where you first click.

You can also single-click using a basic shape tool to open a dialog box, where you
can define settings specific to the shape. In this case, the top-left corner of the new
shape will be positioned at the place where you click.
In this exercise, you are going to draw a set of simple rectangles with rounded
corners to contain the icon artwork that you create throughout this project. We
introduce you to a number of techniques for creating these shapes so you can be better
aware of the different options as you continue your professional career using Illustrator.

1. With icons.ai open, click the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel and hold
down the mouse button until the nested tools appear. Choose the Rounded
Rectangle tool from the list of nested tools.
When you choose a nested tool, that variation becomes the default
option in the Tools panel. You don’t need to access the nested
menu to select the Rounded Rectangle tool again as long as the
application remains open.

2. Click the Default Fill and Stroke button at the bottom of the Tools panel.

In Illustrator, the default fill is white and the default stroke is 1-pt black. The button
appears in a slightly different location depending on whether your Tools panel is in one-
or two-column mode.
One-Column mode Two-Column mode Note:

Default Fill Swap Fill Swap Fill You can also press D to
and Stroke and Stroke Default Fill and Stroke restore the default fill and
and Stroke
stroke colors.

3. With the Rounded Rectangle tool active, click anywhere on the artboard.
In the case of the Rounded Rectangle tool, you can define
the size of the shape you want to create, as well as the corner The Width field is
radius. The default measurement system is points, which you highlighted when the
defined when you created this file. dialog box opens.

When the dialog box first opens, the Width field is
automatically highlighted. You can simply type to replace the highlighted value.

30 Project 1: Campground Icons