Illustrator notes and shortcuts

The following is a working list of notes and keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Illustrator. I've always kept notes on how I've solved problems, and lists of my favorite keyboard shortcuts. Here are some of my Illustrator notes. Please note that this is a working document that will change over time.


SHOW TRANSPARENCY GRID- "View" menu, "Show Transparency Grid." This is useful for viewing artwork with white objects because they will be visible against the checkerboard pattern of the transparency grid. When the grid is visible the option in the view menu will change to "Hide Transparency Grid."

ARTBOARD RULERS VS GLOBAL RULERS- “Global Rulers” means that there is one set of rulers that applies to all of the artboards within the document. “Artboard Rulers” behaves as if each artboard has its’ own set of rulers which means that each artboard can have its’ own zero point. Clink to read more about Illustrator rulers.

REDUCE FILE SIZE- Uncheck "Create PDF compatible file" when saving. This is only effective if the file contains linked graphics. Warning- this will eliminate the preview. Read more about reducing the file size here.

HIDE ALL PANELS EXCEPT FOR THE TOOL PANEL- shift tab 
 
CONTINUOUS UNDO/REDO- hold down command z to cycle through the undos. This works with the redo command too, which is command shift z. I have noticed this only works with CS6. The older versions require command z to be pressed repeatedly to cycle through the steps. Change the keyboard preferences to speed this up, see the next tip below.

KEY REPEAT- under the "System Preferences", go to the "Keyboard" preferences. Then look for "Key Repeat" under the "Keyboard" tab and change it to "Fast".  This make text editing more efficient because you can use the arrow keys to make the cursor move through the document faster, and to delete text faster. The "Delay Until Repeat" is how long you have to hold the key down until it starts repeating. 

USING FUNCTION KEYS TO TRIGGER ILLUSTRATOR ACTIONS- Select the action, and look for "Action Options" under the triangle at the top right of the "Actions" panel. This will bring up a dialog box where you can select a function key for that script. You can also use "Shift" and "Command" as modifier keys. There are two caveats that I should mention.

1) The default settings for the function keys on a Mac are used for the operating system features. For example, there are keys for controlling brightness and volume levels. Under the "Keyboard" tab look for the checkbox that says "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" and check it. You can still use the function keys to control the brightness etc but you will have to press the "fn" key at the same time. (The full size aluminum keyboard has the "fn" key under the f13 key,  and it's on the bottom left of the wireless keyboard).

2) Illustrator already has set most of the function keys and will have to remove the shortcut before you can assign it to your actions. In Illustrator, click on Edit menu and then "Keyboard Shortcuts". Look for the commands that have function keys assigned to them. CS6 has a search field here which makes it easier to search for "F1".

A FEW OF THE DEFAULT FUNCTION KEYS IN CS6:
f1 help
f2 cut
f3 copy
f4 paste
f5 brushes panel toggle

TEMPLATE LAYER- when placing a file into an Illustrator file, there's an option for "template" which will create a separate locked, non printing layer that's dimmed to 50%. This is usefull for tracing scans of sketches.

HOW TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT FONT OF NEW ILLUSTRATOR DOCUMENT
When you create a new document in Illustrator, you're presented with a dialog box that allows you to choose a profile based upon what medium you're working in; Print, Web, Devices etc. These profiles are actually illustrator files that can be modified.

These profiles are all in the same folder. In this example I've changed the default font for the profile that is used for "Print" profile. The file path is below (Obviously, the "User" in this file path would be your actual user name.)

/Users/User/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS6/en_US/New Document Profiles/Print.ai

The path may be slightly different if you're running a different version of illustrator. The following is for Illustrator CS3:

Users/User/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS3/New Document Profiles

It's best to duplicate this file to another location, before you work on it, so that you can restore it if you make a mistake. Open the file. Then open the "Character Style" panel if it's not already open. It can be found under the "Window" menu- Window, Type, Character Styles. Then click on [Normal Character Style]. Click on "Basic Character Formats" on the left.  "Font Family" is where the default font can be changed. Change it to the desired default font, save and close the file. The next time you create a new document using the "Print" profile, the default font will be what you selected.

Other default settings such as the default stroke width, units, and swatches can also be changed in this manner.

SCALE AN OBJECT PROPORTIONATELY: hold down shift while dragging it to change the size.

ALIGN TO AN OBJECT- It's possible to align a selection of objects to a specific object instead of the artboard. While you have multiple objects selected, click once more on the object in the selection that you want to align to. This will create the "key object". Do not hold down shift when you do this, just click it once.  If you have done this correctly the key object should have a bounding box that appears bolder than normal. Now when you use the align features, all of the objects will align to this key object instead of the artboard.

*Alternatively you can look for the "Align To" button in the align panel. Click on this button and select "Key Object". It will make the frontmost object the key object, but you can change this by clicking on the object that you want to align to.

MAXIMUM PAGE SIZE FOR PDF EXPORT: 200"
MAXIMUM artboard size: 227"

RESTORE A CORRUPTED ILLUSTRATOR FILE: the fastest solution is to open a new document and place the corrupted file into it. But that converts text to paths. The long way is http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/500/cpsid_50031.html, which enables data recovery but I didn't have any success with this when I tried it.

OPACITY CONFUSION: if an object is selected with the direct selection tool the transparency may read 100% even though it appears to be screened. The confusion is that if the object is part of a group, the opacity of the group can be changed. So the group may have an opacity of 30% but the object may read 100%.

WRAP TEXT AROUND AN OBJECT: select object, go to object menu/textwrap/options. To make text automatically wrap around an object.

PREVIEW FONTS IN THE DOCUMENT (NOT IN THE MENU): Highlight the text or select the text frame in the illustrator document. Click once on the font name in the character palette which should highlight the font name in blue. Use the up or down arrow keys to cycle through the fonts. The selected text in the document will change to the new font. You may be interested in my post how to preview fonts in Adobe Illustrator that includes an animation.
 
SCALE AN OBJECT PROPORTIONATELY TO A SPECIFIC SIZE
If you need to get it to a specific size and keep the same proportions, click the link symbol that is between the width and height text fields, then enter the dimension of the height or the width. If you know you want the width to be 4" then enter 4 into the width and illustrator will automatically calculate what the height should be. If the link icon was unchecked in this example, it will scale the width but the height would remain the same.
 
SCALE FROM THE CENTER OF AN OBJECT: hold down option while dragging on a corner.

SCALE FROM AN ANCHOR POINT USING THE SCALE TOOL: With the object selected, hold down option and click on the anchor point with the scale tool. This also works with the rotation tool.

WHITE OBJECTS "DISAPPEAR" WHEN MAKING SEPARATIONS: Select the object and check to see if they're set to "overprint" in the attributes panel (Window menu, Attributes).

SET THE SPELLCHECK LANGUAGE FOR A TEXT FRAME : To set the spellcheck language for a specific text frame in an Illustrator document, click on the "Show Options" in the character palette. There should then be a "Language" drop down menu. Highlight the text frame and choose the desired language. If this is accidentally set to the wrong language, then every word in the text frame will come up as "not found" when you run a spellcheck.

GUIDES

SHOW GUIDES / HIDE GUIDES: command ;

MAKE GUIDES FROM PATHS: select the paths that you want to make guides from. Click on the View menu, Guides, Make Guides. This will work on paths, including text that has been converted to paths. Keyboard shortcut: command 5

RELEASE GUIDES: select the guides. "View" menu, Guides, Release guides. If the guides seem to disappear it's probably because the stroke is set to none. Add a stroke to make it visible. Also, guides that were created by pulling them from the ruler extend to the edges of the pasteboard. Keyboard shortcut: option, command 5.
 
CHANGE THE ORIENTATION OF A GUIDE AS YOU CREATE IT: as you drag a guide from the rulers, hold down option to change it from a vertical to a horizontal guide and vice versa.

MOVE A SHAPE WHILE IT'S BEING DRAWN: press the spacebar to move it while you're drawing a shape. Works on all polygons; squares, ellipses, stars etc.

MOVE A POINT WHILE DRAWING: click  to draw a point, but don’t let go. Then hit the spacebar to be able to move the point around.

DRAW THE SHAPE FROM THE CENTER: hold down option as you draw it.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Set the color to none: /
Set palette to default colors: d   (White fill, black stroke)
Switch between fill and stroke: x  (If the fill color is active,  press "x" to make the stroke active.
Reverse the fill and stroke: shift x. (If an object is selected it will reverse the fill and stroke of the object)
Hide all panels: tab
Cycle through the view modes: f (normal, full screen with menu bar, and full screen)
Toggle between preview and outline mode: command y
Enter into "Edit Artboards" mode: shift o (that's o as in orange)
Select All: command a
Deselect All: Shift Command a
Select all on active artboard: command option a

CLONE THE SELECTED OBJECT:  There are a few ways to do this.

1. Hold down the option key and click and drag the object
2. Hold down the option key and press any of the arrow keys 
3. Command "c" followed by command "f". This copies and pastes the selection in front, or use "b" to paste behind
4. Command "c" followed by command "v" (copy and paste)

ZOOM LEVELS

Show all artboards in window: command option 0
Fit artboard in window:  command 0
Fit artboard in window: double click hand tool
View at actual size:  command 1
View at actual size: double click magnifying glass
Zoom in: command +
Zoom in:  hold option, then scroll up
Zoom out: command -
Zoom out: hold option, then scroll down (requires mouse with scroll ball or touch capabilities- magic mouse or mighty mouse)
Switch to magnification tool: command spacebar. If spotlight search field pops up, you can turn that off in the system preferences. Click on the apple icon in the menu bar, then click on "System Preferences", click on "Keyboard" to get to the keyboard preferences. Make sure that "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab is selected at the top, and click on "Spotlight" in the left column. Uncheck "Show Spotlight search field" or assign it to a different key command. It's also a good idea to uncheck "Show Spotlight window" because that is the same key command as reducing the magnification.  
Switch to hand tool: spacebar

HIDING OBJECTS

Hide the selection: command 3
Hide unselected artwork: shift option command 3
Show all hidden objects: option command 3
Hide artboards: command shift H

Lock selection: "command 2"
Unlock all: "option command 2"

Select behind an object: Hold down command and click twice
Show/Hide rulers: Command "r"
Change ruler units: Control click or right click on the ruler to call up the drop-down menu.