Page 31 - CS6_AI_Look_Inside.pdf

control oBject Positioning
The ability to move objects around on the artboard is one of the advantages of digital
drawing. On paper, you have to manually erase items and then redraw them in their
new locations. Illustrator offers a number of tools that make it easy to move existing
objects around the artboard, either as isolated objects or in relation to other elements
on the page. In this exercise, you learn several techniques for moving objects on the
artboard.

1. With icons.ai open, change your zoom percentage so you can see all four
shapes and the entire top of the artboard.

2. Choose View>Rulers>Show Rulers to show the rulers at the top and left
edges of the document window.
Because you created this file using points as the default unit of measurement, the
rulers — and fields in dialog boxes and panels — show measurements in points.

3. Control/right-click the top ruler and choose Inches from the contextual menu.

Rulers on the top and
left edges show measure-
ments in the default units
of measurement.

4. Choose the Selection tool from the top of the Tools panel. Click the left Note:
rectangle on the artboard to select it. The Change to Global
Rulers option is only
5. With the left rectangle selected, look at the right side of the Control panel. relevant when you work
If you see the word “Transform”, click it to open the pop-up Transform panel.
with multiple artboards.
What you see in the Control panel depends on the size of your monitor (or the size of You will explore this
your Application Frame, if you’ve made it smaller than your monitor). in Project 3: Identity

If you have a wide monitor, the reference point proxy and the X, Y, W, and H fields of Package and Project 5:
the Transform panel are available directly in the Control panel. Letterfold Brochure.

If you have a smaller monitor that does not allow these fields to fit, the Control panel
includes a hot-text link to the Transform panel. Clicking the link opens the Transform
panel as a pop-up, directly below the Control panel; after you make a change in the pop-
up panel, it collapses back into the Control panel.

Click these hot-text links to Monitor width might limit the
open the related pop-up panel. contents of your Control panel.

With a wider monitor, you can
access most Transform panel options Click these hot-text links to
directly in the Control panel. open the full pop-up panel.

Project 1: International Symbols 39