Identifying and Using Basic Tools In Adobe Illustrator

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Illustrator has many tools to use to create graphics. Many of them are complicated and take practice to use correctly.

We’re going to just focus on a few of them to get started with using Illustrator for graphic design.

In addition to highlighting where to find Illustrator’s basic tools, we’ve included the keyboard shortcuts that allow you to select the tool you need faster.

p – Pen Tool
Click where you want to make vertices of a shape. Click on the rst point a second time to close the shape.

m – Rectangle Tool

Click and drag to draw shape (hold shift to make square). Long-click to select other shapes.

\ – Line Tool

Click-and-drag to make line segment. Also found by long-clicking the Rectangle tool icon.

v – Move Tool

Select objects, move, rotate, resize using handles (hold shift to maintain proportions).

t – Text Tool

Click or click-and-drag where you want to add text. Use “Character” window to change font and size.

Color Palette

Customize colors and copy color number by double-clicking ll or stroke indicator.