Adobe Illustrator Tools

Brushes panel

Use to add styles to stroked paths, create and edit existing brushes.

Color guide

Breaks down shades, tints, and color harmonies.

Color panel

Controls your fill or stroke color through sliders, hexadecimal codes, or RGB/CMYK.

Direct Selection tool (A)

Selects points or path segments within objects.

Eraser tool (Shift + E)

Erases any area of the object over which you drag.

Eye Dropper tool (I)

Samples and applies color, type, and appearance attributes, including effects, from objects.

Fill and Stroke panel

Shows the current state of fill and stroke in an object.

Free Transform tool (E)

Scales, rotates or skews a selection.

Gradient tool (G)

Adjusts the beginning and ending points and angle of gradients within objects.

Hand tool (H)

Moves the view within the window.

Lasso tool (Q)

Selects points or path segments within objects.

Layers panel

Creates, edits and deletes sheets within your document.

Line Segment tool (\)

Draws individual paths.

Magic Wand tool (Y)

Selects objects with similar attributes.

Paintbrush tool (B)

Draws freehand and calligraphic lines, as well as art, patterns, and bristle strokes.

Pathfinder panel

Unites, merges, divides and subtracts overlapping objects.

Pen tool (P)

Draws straight and curved lines to create objects.

Pencil tool (N)

Draws and edits freehand lines.

Rectangle tool (M)

Draws squares and rectangles.

Rotate tool (R)

Moves objects in a circular pattern around a fixed point.

Scale tool (S)

Resizes objects around a fixed point.

Shape Builder Tool

The Shape Builder tool merges simple shapes to create custom, complex shapes.

Stroke Panel

The panel that lets you set thickness and styles of strokes

Swap Stroke and Fill

Lets you swap stroke and fill back and forth to change them, as you can only change the one on top.

Swatches Panel

Contains saved color, gradient, and pattern swatches.

Transparency Panel

Lets you select the opacity or blend mode of objects and create or edit opacity masks.

Type tool (T)

Creates individual and containers of type.

Zoom tool (Z)

Increases and decreases the view magnification in the illustration window.

Convert Anchor Point Tool

The Convert Anchor Point tool (Shift+C) changes smooth points to corner points and vice versa.

Ellipse tool (L)

Draws circles and ovals.

Selection Tool

V

Blob Brush Tool

used to paint shapes of solid color based on the defined brush size and the area you drag with a single mouse click

Shift+B

Width tool (Shift + W)

Makes a line change a variable width.

Perspective Grid Tool

Creates perspective grids lines of a specified size with a specified number of dividers.

Shift+P

Mesh Tool

Creates and edits meshes and mesh envelopes

U

Blend tool (W)

A tool used to blend the space between two objects.

Symbol Sprayer tool (Shift + S)

Interactively sprays instances of a mark or character.

Column/Graph tool (J)

Creates proportional column graphs by comparing one or more sets of values.

Artboard tool (Shift + O)

Gateway to working with multiple artboards

Slice tool (Shift + K)

creates slices

Group Selection tool

Selects paths in a group.

Add Anchor Point tool (+)

Adding points to an existing path.

Delete Anchor Point tool (-)

Deletes unnecessary points without causing a break in the path.

Anchor Point tool

A tool used to edit anchor points using directional handles and Bezier curves.

Shift+C

Type Area tool

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Type on a Path

Attaches text to an open or closed path.

Vertical Type Tool

Tool that creates vertical text (top to bottom)

Vertical Area Type Tool

changes closed paths to vertical type containers and lets you enter and edit type within them.

Vertical Type on a Path Tool

changes paths to vertical type paths and lets you enter and edit type on them.

Touch Type Tool

allows you to visually edit certain character formatting options for individual characters in text

(Shift+T)

Arc Tool

Creates curved lines

Spiral Tool

Creates spiral lines

Rectangular Grid Tool

draws rectangular grids

Polar Grid Tool

draws circular chart grids

Rounded Rectangle Tool

draws squares and rectangles with rounded corners

Elipse tool

l

Polygon Tool

make a custom shape with any number of sides

Star Tool

draws stars

Flare Tool

creates lens-flare or solar-flare like effects

Shaper Tool

recognizes natural gestures and produces live shapes from those gestures

(Shift+N)

Smooth Tool

smooths Bezier paths

Path Eraser Tool

erases paths and anchor points from the object

Join Tool

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Scissors tool (C)

Cuts paths at specified points.

Knife tool

Cuts a selected object into two sections.

Reflect tool (O)

Flips an object over an imaginary axis.

Shear tool

Skew objects around a fixed point.

Reshape Tool

adjusts selected anchor points while keeping the overall detail of the path intact.

Warp Tool

A tool used to warp an object by conforming to the movement of the cursor.

(Shift+R)

Twirl Tool

causes paths to mix and swirl

Pucker Tool

A tool used to indent parts of an object.

Bloat Tool

inflates an object by moving control points away from the cursor

Scallop Tool

A tool used to incorporate scallop-like shapes into an object.

Crystallize Tool

A tool used to add jagged, crystal-like features to an object.

Wrinkle Tool

A tool used to wrinkle the edges of an object.

Puppet Warp Tool

adds natural motion to rasterized images including still images, shapes and rasterized text

Live Paint Bucket tool (K)

Fills overlapping selected shapes and line segments.

Live Paint Selection tool (Shift+L)

Tool used to select multiple regions in a Live Paint group.

Perspective Selection Tool

allows you to bring objects, text, and symbols in perspective, move objects in perspective, move objects in perpendicular to its current direction

(Shift+V)

Measure Tool

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Symbol Shifter Tool

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Symbol Scruncher Tool

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Symbol Sizer Tool

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Symbol Spinner Tool

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Symbol Stainer Tool

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Symbol Screener Tool

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Symbol Styler Tool

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Stacked Column Graph Tool

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Bar Graph Tool

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Stacked Bar Graph Tool

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Line Graph Tool

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Area Graph Tool

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Scatter Graph Tool

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Pie Graph Tool

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Radar Graph Tool

Slice Selection Tool

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Print Tilting Tool

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