Alignment and Distribution

Guides and Grids

Setting up guides in an Illustrator file helps you align objects and text. Guides can be pulled from rulers for vertical and horizontal alignment or you can make custom guides at angles. Smart Guides are guides that show the alignment between the edges or centers of objects or the spacing between objects. There are several methods of aligning and distributing spacing and creating guides in Illustrator.

Rulers

Rulers can help you place and measure objects as well as the spacing between them. To turn the rulers on choose View > Rulers > Show Rulers. Rulers appear at the top and left of the document window. The rulers measure from the origin, which is on the upper-left side.

Rulers can be set up to measure each active artboard or to globally measure the entire document. When the ruler is set to measure the artboard, the ruler origin will snap to the upper-left corner of the active artboard. When the rulers are set to be global, they will start at the first artboard in the document. To change the rulers from artboard rulers to global rulers choose View > Rulers > Change to Global Rulers. To hide the rulers choose View > Rulers > Hide Rulers.

To change the origin point of the rulers to measure from a different location, click on the small area where the rulers meet and drag the guideline to the location you choose. The crosshairs will indicate the new ruler origin point. To reset the ruler origin point back to the default, double-click at the ruler intersection on the ruler origin point.

Change Units of Measurement

The default unit of measurement in Illustrator is points. You can set a different unit of measure when you create a new document. After you create a document, turn on the rulers. Right-click on the ruler and choose from a list of units. You can also find these options under Illustrator > Preferences > Units (Mac) / Edit > Preferences > Units (PC). Set the units for General (rulers, size, spacing of objects, and general measurements), Stroke, and Type. Each of the three settings can be different units of measure.

Guides

Guides can help you align text, objects, and paths. You can use manually created guides or Smart Guides.

Create Guides

Guides can be pulled from the vertical or horizontal rulers and positioned on the artboard. If the rulers are not turned on, choose View > Rulers > Show Rulers. Drag a guide from a ruler and release it on the artboard. The guide will stop at the edge of the artboard. If you drag a guide outside the artboard, the guide will extend the entire distance of the document. The default color of guides is cyan, but that can be changed in the Preferences panel.

Guides can also be created by selecting a line or path on the artboard and choosing 
Guides > Make Guides. The path or shape selected will now be a guide and no longer a path or object. Guides can be created on a layer, which then can be turned on or off via layer visibility.

Show/Hide Guides

Guides are turned on by default and can be turned off by choosing View > Guide > Hide Guides. To show or hide guides, choose View > Guides > Show Guides or View > Guides > Hide Guides.

Unlock, Lock, Delete, Move, or Release Guides

Guides are locked by default (Illustrator CC 2019; in older versions the default is unlocked) and can be moved, copied, and deleted from the artboard once they are unlocked.

To unlock guides, choose View > Guides > Unlock Guides. This will unlock all the guides.

To lock guides, select View > Guides > Lock Guides.

To delete guides, unlock the guides then click on the guide and hit the Delete key or choose Guides > Clear Guides to delete all the guides.

To move guides, unlock the guide, click on it and move it with the Selection tool.

To release guides, unlock the guides and choose View > Guides > Release Guides. This function is only available when the original vector object or path was turned into a guide. A guide pulled from a ruler cannot be released back to a path.

Snap to Point

The Snap to Point function makes points adhere to their origination point or snap to a an existing point. To use this feature, choose View > Snap To Point, select the object with the Selection tool, and move the object. Position the cursor on the exact point you want to align the object with; to an anchor point or another object or guide. The cursor will change from black to white when the anchor point or guide has been snapped to. The Snap to Point alignment depends on the position of the cursor and not the edges or center of the object being moved. The cursor will Snap to Point when it comes within two pixels of an anchor or guide. This snap distance can be set in the Preferences > Selections & Anchor Display > Snap to Point. Snap to Point will not snap to a line or path, it will only snap to an anchor or a path or a guide.

Smart Guides

Smart Guides are guides that appear when you are moving, editing, or drawing an object or path. These guides help align or constrain the object or path being moved or drawn to align to other objects, paths, or to the artboard.

Unlike the Snap to Point feature, Smart Guides will align to any anchor point, guide, center point, or edge of any object, path, or artboard. Smart Guides are on by default and can be turned on and off under View > Smart Guides.

Smart Guide Labels

Smart Guides can be very helpful when creating and editing in Illustrator. When aligning, spacing, selecting, drawing, moving, and editing anything, Smart Guides will display helpful labels. These labels show how things align on the top, bottom, left, right, and center of the object you are moving or editing with any other object on the artboard. When drawing, Smart Guides will show when a circle or a square is constrained. Spacing is easy when you have three or more objects that you want to evenly space the last two objects and the third object you are moving. When selecting objects or paths, the Smart Guides will show the path, anchor, or center being selected.

Smart Guide preferences can be set to show the specific smart guides and helpful hints 
such as labels for measurement, anchor points and path, spacing guides, rotation angles, and object highlighting. Choose 
Preferences > Smart Guides to edit the Smart Guide preferences. The default color of Smart Guides is magenta.

Using Smart Guides

Since Smart Guides are on by default, you will see them appear when you begin to draw or move anything in Illustrator.

• Constrain: When you draw a square, a Smart Guide will appear at a 45-degree angle when the square is constrained. When drawing a circle, the Smart Guide will appear vertical and horizontal to show the circle is constrained.

• Measurement: A small box in the lower-right area of the shape or path being drawn will show the measurements of that object or path. When rotating, the angle of rotation will be displayed. When moving, the X and Y offset will be displayed.

• Spacing: When there are three or more objects being spaced apart, the third object being moved will show Smart Guide distance spacers between it and the first two objects and between it and the second object. This is very helpful for keeping spacing consistent without using the Align panel.

• Selection: When you select an object or path, Smart Guides will show the path, anchor, center point, or pull handle so you know exactly what you are selecting. These Smart Guides show when you are selecting with the Selection tool, Direct Selection tool, Group Selection tool, Pen tool, Curvature tool, and many other tools.

• Intersection: When objects or paths are being moved, edited, or transformed, the intersection of anchors, centers of objects, or paths will be displayed.

• Moving: When moving an object or path, a Smart Guide will appear vertically or horizontally in relation to where the object or path was initially located.

• Extension: When a straight path has been drawn and you want to extend the line, Smart Guides will appear to keep the line on the same trajectory.

Grids

Illustrator has a base grid that can be turned on under View > Show Grid and turned off under View > Hide Grid. This grid is for precise creation and alignment of shapes and paths. When using the grid, you can choose to have objects snap to the grid for very precise drawing, editing, and moving of objects and paths. When creating icons or working on UI (User Interface)/UX (User Experience) buttons, this grid can be of great help.

Snap to Grid

To turn on Snap to Grid, choose View > Snap to Grid. This Snap to Grid feature will snap any object, path, anchor point, or handle to the grid, even if the grid is not showing. Smart Guides are disabled when the Snap to Grid feature is turned on because the snap overrides all the Smart Guide features.

Grid measurements and preferences can be set up under Preferences > Guides & Grid. You can set the color of the grid and set the increments of the cells of the grid. Main grid lines can be set by using the Gridline every field; smaller subdivisions of the main grid are set in the Subdivisions field. Grids can be set in back of the artwork so all objects cover it.