Preferences

Document-Specific and Global

For Illustrator to run as smoothly as possible within your workflow, you will need to set up your preferences to your liking. Preferences on a Mac are under the Illustrator menu > Preferences. On a PC they are under the Edit Menu > Preferences.

VERY Important Note: I strongly recommend that you change the preferences with no document open because this will set the preferences for the application. Any preferences set with a document open will only be applied to that document.

At times, preferences may become damaged and may need to be reset to their default values. To restore preferences, press and hold Option+Command+Shift (Mac) or Alt+Control+Shift (PC) as you start Illustrator. The new preferences files are created the next time you launch Illustrator.

General

The General section contains the preferences that don’t fit neatly in the other categories. These are all global preferences.

Keyboard Increment

This value represents how much an object will move when you use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Constrain Angle

This the degree to which an object will rotate when you hold down the Shift key while turning the object.

Corner Radius

This describes the default rounded corner size when drawing a rounded rectangle.

Show Tool Tips

The Tool Tips become visible when you hover the cursor over a tool. This feature is useful for new users but these impact the performance of Illustrator.

Anti-aliased Artwork

Anti-aliasing is the smoothing of jagged edges when the artwork is being viewed in Pixel Preview.

Select Same Tint %

This allows the selection of a color that has a tint applied to it and other colors with that same tint percentage.

Show The Home Screen When No Documents Are Open

The Home Screen shows recent documents, new document presets, and Adobe stock templates.

Use Legacy “File New” Interface

The legacy File New interface is an older version of creating a New File.

Use Preview Bounds

When aligning objects, the coordination is based on the object’s shape and not its boundary or edge. That is to say that when a stroke is applied to an object, the object will not align to the edge of the stroke, but instead to the shape of the object. Preview Bounds will have them align to the edge of the stroke or what you preview on screen.

Display Print Size at 100% Zoom

Shows the actual size of the printed piece when the zoom size is at 100%.

Append [Converted] Upon Opening Legacy Files

This setting will convert and update older files to the current version of Illustrator. A Dialog box appears informing you of how the file is being converted.

Double Click To Isolate

This function is used isolate a layer, sublayer, path, or group of objects without having to ungroup the file or find the objects in the layers panel. If you find that you are a frequent “double-clicker” and you are in Isolation mode inadvertently, turn this option off.

Use Japanese Crop Marks

This creates crop marks for Japanese printing.

Transform Pattern Tiles

This transforms the pattern in an object when the object is scaled. This can also be set in the Transform panel.

Scale Corners

When scaling or transforming an object with rounded corners, this option scales the corners in proportion with the object. This can also be turned on and off in the Transform panel.

Scale Stroke & Effects

When scaling or transforming an object with a stroke and/or effect, this option scales the stroke/effect in proportion with the object. This can also be turned on and off in the Transform panel.

Enable Content Aware Defaults

This feature works with the Puppet Warp tool to add pins where it identifies the best location for warping.

Reset All Warning Dialogs

From time to time, dialog boxes will pop up warnings informing you of important items. Those dialog boxes may have a checkbox that says “Don’t Show Again.” Once that box is checked and you click OK, the dialog will not appear again. Click the reset button to see the dialog boxes again.

Selection & Anchor Display

This is where you adjust how lines and anchor points act and appear.

Selection

This defines how items can be selected, and how they will look once selected.

Tolerance

This sets the pixel range for anchor points. A lower values means you have to be closer to an anchor point to be able to select it.

Object Selection by Path Only

This limits selection of an object to clicking on just the path—not inside the shape. I would not use this option because it makes it more work selecting objects.

Snap to Point

This snaps objects to anchor points and guides. You can set the distance between the object and anchor point or guide; larger number means it will snap from farther away.

Command Click to Select Objects Behind

When objects are stacked on each other, use Command+Click (Mac) or Control-Click (PC) to select objects on the bottom of the stack without moving the objects on top out of the way.

Constrain Path Dragging on Segment Reshape

This feature allows you to reshape a path in a relative transformation. This keeps the control handles in alignment on their original angles when transforming.

Show Anchor Points in Selection Tool and Shape Tools

When this is enabled, anchor points will show on an object when using the Selection or Shape tools.

Zoom to Selection

When this feature is enabled, the point of the zoom will be centered on a selected object.

Move Locked and Hidden Artwork with Artboard

Moving artboards around will move all the visible and unlocked content. To have everything move with the artboard, check this box to enable this feature.

Anchor Points, Handle, and Bounding Box Display

Size

This sets the size of the handles and anchor points.

Handle Style

This sets the look of the handles but does not change their functionality.

Highlight Anchors on Mouse Over

With this function enabled, anchor points on an object will be indicated when you mouse over them.

Show Handles When Multiple Anchors Are Selected

By default, when an anchor is selected, it will only show the handles associated with that point. Click this box to have it show all the handles on the shape when a point is selected.

Hide Corner Widget for Angles Greater Than:

This hides the corner widget indicator when angles are set to a specified value.

Enable Rubber Band for:

When you enable the Rubber Band for any lines made with either the Pen tool or the Curvature tool, it will show both the curve of a path and how the points on the line connect.

Type

This section controls text behavior and display.

Size/Leading:

This controls the increments in which the size/leading will change using the keyboard shortcuts. The default setting for the size of type is 2 pt; I suggest 1 pt for finer adjustments.

Press ⌘+Shift+</Ctrl+Shift+< to decrease the size or ⌘+Shift+>/Ctrl+Shift+> to increase the size (respectively). To adjust the leading, press ⎇+↑ / Alt-↑ to decrease leading or ⎇+↓ / Alt-↓ to increase the leading.

Tracking:

This controls the increments in which the kerning will change using the keyboard shortcuts. The default is 20/1000; I suggest 10 pt for finer kerning adjustments. To kern the space between two character, place the type cursor between the characters and use ⎇+← / Alt-← to tighten the letter spacing or ⎇+→ / Alt-→ to loosen the letter spacing. Tracking works the same as kerning; the only difference is tracking is spacing that is applied to multiple characters at one time. The shortcuts for tracking and kerning are the same.

Baseline Shift:

This controls the increments in which the baseline will change using the keyboard shortcuts. The default is 2 pt; I suggest 1 pt for finer adjustments.

Language Options

When creating Illustrator files in different languages, check the applicable language box.

Type Object Selection by Path Only

This limits the selection of text to clicking on just the path, not on the text areas. This is not recommended because it makes for more work selecting text.

Show Font Names in English

This displays font names in English if the fonts are not in English originally.

Auto Size New Area Type

This function automatically resizes the Area Type container to fit the amount of text entered. It’s a helpful feature because it saves a step in closing and opening up Area Type containers.

Enable In-Menu Font Previews

This displays the name of the font and the selected text in that font.

Number of Recent Fonts

This displays the listed number of recently used fonts in the font menu.

Enable Japanese Font Preview in ‘Find More’

Click this box to display Japanese fonts when you click on the Find More (fonts) item in the font menu.

Enable Missing Glyph Protection

Choose this item to automatically select incorrect, unreadable characters between roman and non-roman fonts.

Highlight Substituted Fonts

When opening an Illustrator file, there may be fonts that are missing from your system and don’t display correctly. This feature highlights the incorrect font to make you aware that it is substituted.

Fill New Type Objects with Placeholder Text

When drawing a new area text container, this feature autofills the container with placeholder text.

Show Character Alternates

Character Alternates are different styles of the same letter. With this option enabled, a small menu will appear below a letter with alternate options available in that typeface.

Units

Units are basic settings for how things are measured.

General:

These are the increments for measuring objects, position, spacing, and size. The available choices are points, inches, millimeters, centimeters, and pixels.

Stroke:

Your choices for units to measure the weight of the stroke are points, inches, millimeters, centimeters, and pixels.

Type:

Here you can chose a unit to measure the size of the type. Points are the standard for measuring type.

Identify Objects By:

This feature identifies the object by its description. XML identifies each object by a unique tag.

Guides & Grid

For alignment and control of artwork, guides and grids are helpful.

Guides

Color:

Set the color of the guides by clicking on the color square.

Style:

Guides can be displayed as colored lines or dots.

Grid

Color:

Set the color of the guides by clicking on the color square.

Style:

Guides can be displayed as colored lines or dots.

Gridline Every:

This draws major grid lines based on this value.

Subdivisions:

This divides the major grid lines into subdivisions based on the value.

Grids in Back:

This creates the grid to appear behind the artwork.

Show Pixel Grid

When working in Pixel Preview mode, this option will show the grid only when the file is zoomed into 600% or greater.

Smart Guides

These options provide you with more ways to give structure to your layout. Here you set the appearance and action of Smart Guides.

Display Options

Here you can choose how close the Smart Guides appear and function.

Color:

Here you can choose the color of the Smart Guides from a full spectrum of color.

Alignment Guides

This feature shows alignment to edges and centers of other objects and the artboard when Smart Guides are active.

Anchor/Paths Labels

This features shows tool hints identifying an anchor, point, path, or center on an object when these items intersect or align.

Object Highlighting

With this function enabled, objects will be highlighted as you drag them around the workspace. The highlight color matches the object’s layer color.

Measurement Labels

This function displays size information for many drawing tools and text tools. Labels show the position of the object on the artboard using X and Y coordinates. While you create, select, move, or transform objects, these labels appear.

Transform Tools

This displays size and angle values when you scale, rotate, and shear objects.

Spacing Guides

These display guides show the spacing between two objects when a third object is being placed to match the spacing of the first two objects.

Construction Guides:

These guidelines appear as you draw new objects. The values represent the angles at which the guidelines will be drawn from the anchor points of a nearby object.

Snapping Tolerance:

This value specifies the number of points the object must be from another object for Smart Guides to take effect.

Slices

This section is for slicing a file for web use.

Show Slice Numbers

This labels each slice with a number for easier identification.

Line Color:

Here you can choose the color of the divider lines that indicate the slices.

Hyphenation

This section allows you to set the language for the hyphenation regulations. These corrections, (or exceptions) are typically stored in the User Dictionary.

Plug-ins & Scratch Disks

Additional Plug-ins Folder

Plug-ins add more features and capabilities and are generated by third parties outside of Adobe. Check the box to choose the appropriate folder to locate the plug-ins.

Scratch Disks

Scratch space on the hard disk drive is dedicated to temporary storage while working in Illustrator. A disk that is near full or full can slow down the performance of the program.

Primary

This indicates the main hard drive in your device.

Secondary

This indicates a backup device to allow for more room as needed if the primary become full.

User Interface

These options allow you to configure how light or dark the interface appears, how the panels function, and the overall size of the interface.

Brightness:

This allows you to choose either a dark interface with light callouts or a light interface with dark callouts.

Canvas Color:

This allows you to set the canvas area outside the artboard to your chosen interface color. Select white if you don’t want the canvas to match the interface.

Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels

When using the panels, this option allows you to expand and auto-collapse a panel when done. If you need the space on your screen, this helps. If you don’t need space, this adds the extra step of opening the panel each time you need to use it.

Open Documents as Tabs

This opens all documents in one window with each document identified as a tab instead of an individual floating window.

Large Tabs

This creates larger tabs that identify each open document window.

UI Scaling

This scales the user interface up so it’s larger and easier to see. As indicated, it changes the size of tools, text, and other UI elements proportionally. The scale adapts to your current screen resolution.

Scale Cursor Proportionately

This scales the cursor size when the user interface is scaled.

Performance

Not your performance—the performance of Illustrator!

GPU Performance

The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is part of the video card/display and is designed to rapidly execute commands for manipulating and displaying images. There are known issues that may be encountered when GPU Performance is enabled. They are: Rendered artwork appears jagged, black, or white; or Illustrator crashes. Documents appear in black-and-white. You may receive an error message that GPU Performance Features are not available in the document you are currently working on, or the width lines may look tapered, or the ends vanish.

Turn off GPU Performance to see if these problems are part of the GPU.

Animated Zoom

This makes zooming actions smooth and animated.

GPU Details

This displays an overview of your system.

Others

Undo Counts:

This value controls the number of undos available. The default is 100. More undos may slow performance.

File Handling & Clipboard

The options in this section control file saving and the copying of data.

Data Recovery

Automatically Save Recovery Data Every:

Yes, you do want to automatically recover data in case Illustrator crashes (and it will crash). This options sets up an “auto save” every two minutes as a default. This is not a substitute for frequent saving of the file but it is a worthwhile safety net.

Turn off Data Recovery for Complex Documents

When data recovery is turned on, Illustrator may pause while backing up large or complex 
files. If this slows down or interrupts your workflow, select the checkbox to turn off data 
recovery.

Files

Number of Recent Files to Display (0-30):

This sets the number of recent files that will appear in the File menu or the Startup window.

Use Low Resolution Proxy for Linked EPS

In this mode, linked EPS files will display as low resolution to save memory and increase program performance.

Display Bitmaps as Anti-Aliased Images in Pixel Preview

This smooths the appearance of a Bitmap image when in Pixel Preview mode.

Updates Links

This determines how links will be updated. The options are Automatically, Manually, or Ask When Modified.

Clipboard

On Copy:

When copying content, check this option to include SVG data.

On Quit:

If you have copied content and quit Illustrator, a dialog box will appear and ask what you want to do with the clipboard contents. Content can be saved as a PDF, as paths, or as paths that preserve the Appearance and Overprints as they were created in Illustrator.

Appearance of Black

Just when you thought black was black! These options allow you to set the appearance of black elements in your workspace.

On Screen:

I choose to display all blacks accurately on-screen. This means that items that use the pure black (100% K) swatch will look slightly lighter or more gray than a rich black, which is made from black ink plus other inks to make it appear more saturated.

Printing/Exporting:

This is the confusing one. Choose Output All Blacks as Rich Black, then hover your cursor over that choice and note the description below that attempts—but fails—to clarify what that means. What it means is that on a device that has only black ink or toner, both rich blacks and pure blacks will print as dark as possible. RGB devices refers to common desktop inkjet printers. However, with this choice, color laser printers and printing presses (true CMYK devices) will still produce blacks accurately: pure black will use black ink or toner only, and rich black will be output as designed. Since I output to all of these devices, I choose the confusing Output All Blacks as Rich Black setting. It works!