How to Draw with Illustrator: GUIDES

© Ugur Akinci

TOOL 2: Guides

You need to use guides to position objects correctly relative to one another and precisely on an Illustrator grid.

SNAP ON guides are a delight to use since objects snap to them like iron fillings snap to a magnet.

CREATE the Guides by first turning on your RULERS.  Click CTRL + R to turn on the vertical and horizontal rulers:

Then, CLICK your CURSOR on a RULER and DRAG it down or to the right to pull out a GUIDE:

Guides change color when they are selected. You need to SELECT a guide in order to HIDE or DELETE it.

To DELETE a guide, select it and then press Delete.

NOTE: You cannot select a guide if it’s locked.

(Again, you can change the colors of the guides but something you do not need to learn at this stage.)

Here are some very useful operations to perform AFTER you create a guide:

To HIDE the guides so they won’t clutter your workspace, select View > Guides > Hide Guides from the main menu.

To SHOW the guides back again, select View > Guides > Show Guides from the main menu.

To LOCK the guides so they won’t move by accident and mess up the positions of your picture elements, select View > Guides > Lock Guides from the main menu.

NOTE: You cannot select a guide if it’s locked.

To UNLOCK the guides, select once again View > Guides > Lock Guides from the main menu.

To CLEAR the guides, select View > Guides > Clear Guides from the main menu.

One last thing, to make sure that your objects will SNAP to your guides and make your life easier, select View > Snap to Point from your main menu.

There is more to working with the GUIDES but this much should be enough to move forward before “paralysis-of-analysis” sets in. At this stage “less is more,” trust me. Just learn the basics and practice, practice, practice…