THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR

Tools
© Mariah Althoff 2016 | www.mariahalthoff.com
 ILLUSTRATOR TOOLBAR

Selection Tool (A) Direct Selection Tool (A)

Magic Wand Tool (Y) Lasso Tool (Q)

Pen Tool (P) Curvature Tool (Shift +)

Type Tool (T) Line Segment Tool (/)

Rectangle Tool (M) Paintbrush Tool (B)

Shaper Tool (Shift+N) Eraser Tool (Shift+E)

Rotate Tool (R) Scale Tool (S)

Width Tool (Shift+W) Free Transform Tool (E)

Shape Builder Tool (Shift+M) Perspective Grid Tool (Shift+P)

Mesh Tool (U) Gradient Tool (G)

Eye Dropper Tool (I) Blend Tool (W)

Symbol Sprayer Tool (Shift+S) Column Graph Tool (J)

Artboard Tool (Shift+O) Slice Tool (Shift+K)

Hand Tool (H) Zoom Tool (Z)

ORIGINAL BLOG POST

© Mariah Althoff 2016 | www.mariahalthoff.com

 TOOL FUNCTIONS

Selection Tool (V)

Functions as a typical cursor, allowing you to select, click and drag objects and text around your screen.

Direct Selection Tool (A)

The direct selection tool allows you to individually select and edit specific anchor points of vector shapes or lines.

- Group Selection Tool

This tool allows you to easily select a specific object within a group in order to move, edit, or resize it individually.

Magic Wand Tool (Y)

This tool allows you to click on a single object in order to automatically select everything in your workspace with that
same fill color.

Lasso Tool (Q)

The lasso tool works similarly to the Direct Selection Tool in that it allows you to select individual anchor points within a
shape or object. However, the Lasso Tool allows you to draw around an area of points you want selected so that you’re
able to easily select several at a time.

Pen Tool (P)

Allows you to click in your workspace to create anchor points. By clicking and dragging these anchor points, you can ma-
neuver their “handles”, which give your paths curvature and shape. By connecting several anchor points with this tool, you
can create unique, hand drawn vector shapes.

- Add Anchor Point Tool (+)

The add actor point tool allows you to click in the middle of an existing path to add an extra anchor point to your
shape or line.

- Delete Anchor Point Tool (-)

The delete anchor point tool deletes anchor points from paths (pretty self-explanatory, I know).

- Anchor Point Tool

This tool allows you to add or maneuver handles of existing anchor points in order to add curvature to shapes
you’ve already created.

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Curvature Tool (Shift+)
The curvature tool is another great way to create vector shapes, especially if your shape has mostly curved edges.

Type Tool (T)

This tool allows you to add text to your Illustrator document.

- Area Type Tool

The area type tool allows you to convert an existing shape into a text box and type within it.

- Type on a Path Tool

This tool allows you to use an existing line or shape as a path to type on.

- Vertical Type Tool

The vertical type tool allows you to type your text vertically instead of horizontally.

- Vertical Area Type Tool

This is exactly like the area type tool, but this tool allows you to type vertically instead of horizontally.

- Vertical Type on a Path Tool

This tool is exactly like the type on a path tool, but allows you to type vertically instead of horizontally.

- Touch Type Tool

This it allows you to select individual letters of existing text and move them around.

Line Segment Tool (\)

This tool does exactly what you think it does – draws lines! Unlike the pen tool however, you cannot make connected lines,
only individual ones.

- Arch Tool
This tool makes arches – imagine that! However, I personally don’t find it the easiest to control and would recom-
mend using the curvature tool instead – but try them both out and see which you prefer!

- Spiral Tool
Another obvious one – this tool makes spirals! This is actually a super fun tool, however I don’t know that I’ve actual-
ly ever used it for a real project before. But if you can find a practical use for this – kudos!

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 - Rectangular Grid Tool
This tool is actually be super helpful because it allows you to create create tables or anything else you’d need a grid
with rows and columns for.

- Polar Grid Tool

This tool makes a polar grid, which apparently is a circular target looking thing, with perpendicular lines that meet in
the middle. I have no idea what you would ever use this for, but it’s there if you need it I guess?!

Rectangle Tool (M)

This tool makes squares and rectangles.

- Rounded Rectangle Tool

This tool works exactly the same as the rectangle tool, but the corners are rounded instead of squared.

- Ellipse Tool (L)

Fun fact: an ellipse is a circle. So any time you want a circle or an oval, this is the tool you’ll need.

- Polygon Tool
The polygon tool makes any number of sided shapes – from triangles to hexagons to octagons and beyond.

- Star Tool
This tool obviously makes stars. With this tool, you can choose how many points you want your star to have, as well
as how far in the inner points go towards the center.

-Flare Tool
This is another random tool that I have never actually used and I don’t totally understand who does. It makes this
weird multi-circular shape with some weird gradient flares.

Paint Brush Tool (B)

The paint brush tool makes thicker, paint-like strokes that you can change the width, shape and texture of.

- Blob Brush Tool

The blob brush tool is the same as the paint brush tool, but instead of creating lines down the middle of your brush-
strokes, it creates a vector shape AROUND the brushstroke. So instead of creating a single path, it creates an entire
an area instead.

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Shaper Tool (Shift+N)
The shaper tool allows you to draw general shapes by hand, but then will automatically clean them up and create the
shape you intended.

- Pencil Tool
The pencil tool is similar to the brush tool in that you can draw lines by hand without using the pen or line tools.

- Smooth Tool
This tool smooths out lines, making them less rigid and bumpy.

- Path Eraser Tool

With a line selected, you can use the path eraser tool to draw along segments of the line you want to be erased.

- Join Tool
The join tool allows you to take two paths and join them together to create one single path.

Eraser Tool (Shift+E)

The eraser tool… erases. I know, shocking, right? This tool really does come in handy if you want to get rid of a section of a
vector object or path.

- Scissors Tool
The scissors tool can be used to cut apart a vector object or path.

- Knife Tool
The knife tool allows you to do the same thing as the scissors tool, but instead of only cutting straight lines, the
knife tool can cut in any jigsaw manner you want!

Rotate Tool (R)

The rotate tool allows you to rotate shapes in a circular manner.

- Reflect Tool (O)

The reflect tool works similarly to the rotate tool, but instead reflects the image or object instead of just rotating it.

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Scale Tool (S)
This tool works similarly to the reflect and rotate tools, but scales objects instead.

- Shear Tool
The shear tool angles and skews your objects to look like they are going back into space.

- Reshape Tool
The reshape tool allows you to select multiple anchor points on a line or shape, and move them all in the same di-
rection.

Width Tool (Shift+W)

This tool allows you to click on areas of a line and make the stroke thicker or thinner.

- Warp Tool (Shift+R)

The warp tool works on both shapes and lines and creates warped indents into your vector drawings.

- Twirl Tool
The twirl tool distorts shapes by creating a swirl within them.

- Pucker Tool
The pucker tool creates weird, pointed divots in your shape.

- Bloat Tool
This tool bloats the shape, adding extra bumps to the outside of your shapes or lines.

- Scallop Tool
The scallop tool works on both shapes and lines, and it makes both indents and outward bumps, depending on
which area of the shape you place the tool.

- Crystalize Tool
The crystalize tool looks similar to the scallop tool, but with stronger peaks and shallower valleys.

- Wrinkle Tool
This tool makes your shape or line wavy, adding uneven bumps and squiggles into your paths.

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Free Transform Tool (E)
This tool essentially lets you resize your shape in all ways possible.

Shape Builder Tool (Shift+M)

The shape builder tool allows you to easily combine multiple, overlapping shapes in order to create one large, combined
shape.

- Live Paint Bucket (K)

The live paint bucket allows you to fill shapes quickly and easily with color or patterns.

- Live Paint Selection Tool (Shift+L)

This tool allows you to select individual segments from your live paint area, and change their attributes.

Perspective Grid Tool (Shift+P)

This tool is sort of confusing to use at first, but it can be really helpful in making perspective drawings. The perspective
grid allows you to make your drawing look 3D by giving them depth and spatial awareness.

- Perspective Selection Tool (Shift+V)

The perspective selection tool allows you to edit and change around the perspective grid that appears on your art-
board. Select the three points that appear on the bottom of the grid, and slide them around accordingly.

Mesh Tool (U)

This tool allows you to select certain points within a specific section of your shape to add another color. The two colors
will create a gradient in-between them, acting as highlights, shading, and natural color progression.

Gradient Tool (G)

The gradient tool creates either linear or radial gradients within a shape or line.

Eyedropper Tool (I)

The eyedropper tool allows you to pick colors from other shapes, lines, objects or images so you can use that same color
in other parts of your design.

- Measure Tool
The measure tool allows you to click and drag between two different areas of your workspace in order to measure
the distance between the two points.

Blend Tool (W)

This tool allows you to take two different colored objects and create a gradient in-between them by blending the two
objects together.

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Symbol Sprayer Tool (Shift+S)
Open the symbol panel to select what symbol you want to be sprayed, then click and drag the spray can around your
artboard.

- Symbol Shifter Tool

This tool allows you to move around symbols that have already been sprayed.

- Symbol Scruncher Tool

The scruncher tool scrunches the symbols in towards the center.

- Symbol Sizer Tool

This tool allows you to resize individual symbols after they have already been sprayed.

- Symbol Spinner Tool

The symbol spinner allows you to rotate individual or multiple symbols at once.

- Symbol Stainer Tool

This tool allows you to recolor individual symbols.

- Symbol Screener Tool

This tool changes the opacity of individual symbols, making them lighter and lighter each time you click on them.

- Symbol Styler Tool

This tool allows you to style your symbols more specifically by first using the Graphic Styles panel.

Column Graph Tool (J)

The column graph is your typical lineup of columns which correspond to values indicated by the Y axis.

- Stacked Column Graph Tool

This graph looks similar to the column graph, but the columns are segmented within itself, outlining more data from
within that particular segment.

- Bar Graph Tool

A Bar graph is a column graph flipped horizontally instead of vertically, with the values of the bars aligning with the
x-axis instead of the y-axis.

- Stacked Bar Graph Tool

This is a bar graph but includes segmented versions of each individual bar, to indicate more data than a typical bar
graph otherwise would.
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 - Line Graph Tool
A line graph uses points on the graph which are connected by a line.

- Area Graph Tool

An area graph is similar in structure to a line graph but instead has shaded areas to include broader values of infor-
mation.

- Scatter Graph Tool

A scatter graph is made up of several points, scattered across the graph.

- Pie Graph Tool

This is a classic pie chart where a circle is divided up into sections to a complete 100%.

- Radar Graph Tool

A radar graph is similar to an area graph, but instead is round and can, therefore, have more variables than just two
or four.

Artboard Tool (Shift+O)

With this tool, you can add a new artboard or resize your current arboards.

Slice Tool (Shift+K)

The slice tool allows you to separate your artboard into sections for you to save out individually.

- Slice Selection Tool

The slice selection tool allows you to change, move, edit and resize the slices you’ve already made with the slice
tool.

Hand Tool (H)

The hand tool gives you another option to move around the screen.

- Print Tiling Tool

This tool is to help you print images that are larger than the paper you’re printing on. In order to print your entire
image, you may need tile your printing, which means you will use several pages for the same artwork. This tool
allows you to specify more accurately where the first page in the tiling process starts.

Zoom Tool (Z)

The zoom tool zooms in and out of your workspace.

© Mariah Althoff 2016 | www.mariahalthoff.com