9 More "Advanced" Keyboard Shortcuts on Adobe Illustrator
- Kiara Brown
- Feb 11, 2018
- 5 min read
Knowing basic keyboard shortcuts on Adobe Illustrator is a huge game changer for your efficiency, but knowing a few more obscure ones – especially for things that are particularly difficult to access in general – can really take your illustrator proficiency to the next level. Up ahead are some of my personal favorite "advanced keyboard shortcuts "
Add Anchor Point Tool “+”
Let's say you've made a path, and everything about it is perfect except you remember you need to add in a part that can't be edited using your existing anchors. What do you do? Delete this line and redo it? While you can do this, there's a better and probably more efficient way – the add anchor point tool. The add anchor point tool will add another anchor point along your pre-existing path. To access this to use the keyboard shortcut “+”, then click anywhere along your path and another editable anchor point will be added.
Delete Anchor Point Tool “-”
The delete anchor point tool is the exact opposite of the add anchor point tool; when your path has too many anchor points than you need or want to edit, you can delete them using this tool. However, unlike the add anchor point tool which doesn't immediately change the look of your path; deleting a point will change your path to what it would look like without that anchor- so be careful. The access is to use the keyboard shortcut “-”.
Pencil “N”
The name of this tool is kind of deceptive. It might make you think it's like another kind of pen, and while the two have similarities, they do not do the same thing. Let's say you make a mistake with drawing your path and you want to add something to it – something more complex than a few anchor points that could be added with the add anchor point tool; that’s where the pencil comes in handy. The pencil allows you to change a path entirely. It's hard kind of hard to explain so you should really test it out for yourself to understand this one fully. To use the pencil tool select a path using the direct select arrow, then select the pencil tool and draw whatever you want the line to look like instead (make sure to start and end your stroke on the already existing path). Whatever you draw this way replace the original section of the path. To quickly access this tool use the keyboard shortcut key “N”.
Artboard Tool “O”
To quickly change the size of your artboard you can use the artboard tool. This tool is really easy; once you have it selected all you have to do is click and drag the sides of the artboard to the size that you want. You can also use this tool to create additional artboards in the same document or change paper orientation (i.e. landscape to portrait or vice versa). To quickly access this took use the keyboard shortcut “O”.
Rectangle Tool “C”
Personally, I use the line tool much more often than I use the rectangle counterpart, but if you're curious about this one the shortcut is "C". The rectangle tool does exactly what you expect – it makes rectangles (and squares but more on that later), To use this tool, simply click and drag with it until you get your desired shape.
Live Paint Bucket “K”
The live paint bucket it is pretty self-explanatory with its purpose, but the Adobe illustrator paint bucket is difficult to work with without prior knowledge – so here it is. In order to convert an object into something you can use the paint bucket for, you need to make sure everything is selected ahead of time using the direct select arrow. Then, select this part with the paint bucket tool (keyboard shortcut “K"). This will convert everything so you can color objects in illustrator. To actually add to this color just select a fill color (make sure it's not outline color) and then click where you want to fill in with the paint bucket tool. The only issue I have with this method is that the paths can look super skinny after they’ve been converted; then when I increase the stroke thickness, the edges of the strokes or awkward and boxy. When I need to color drawings I usually use Photoshop, but the paint bucket on illustrator is good for quick filling.
Tab and F
So full disclaimer, I found both of these by accident, but they prove super useful when doing detail work. Hitting either of these buttons gets rid of various panels and toolbars from your screen so you can just focus on your artboard. If you know your keyboard shortcuts, you can operate this way like 80% of the time with no issue. Tab either hides or shows the panels on the sides but leaves the top and bottom ones on. F gets rid of the bottom panel and your computer toolbar (if you have one there). Hitting F again will get rid of everything except the thin bottom panel that shows how zoomed in you are. Both of these can be cycled through to bring back whatever is missing, so don't panic if you hit them by accident and suddenly can't find your toolbars. A simple click or two on the same key will bring them back.
Move Forward and Backwards
When you have multiple things in a layer and need to change which one is on top or bottom you can use the shortcut for the bring forward and backwards. This allows you to move whatever you’ve selected forwards and backwards either a little bit or all the way. To move forward one use the shortcut ctrl/cmd + ], to move something backwards one use the shortcut ctrl/cmd+]. If you want to bring something all the way to the front or back add shift into these shortcuts (i.e. ctrl/cmd + shift + ] or ctrl/cmd + shift + [ )
Shift
The Almighty. That's a joke, but seriously shift does a million and one things on all the Adobe programs. On illustrator here are some of my favorites.
If you have something below another object to the point where the one below can't be seen without moving the one on top, if you press down shift and continuously click, it will eventually select the one below
If you are making a shape like an ellipse or rectangle but want to equal dimensions of a circle or square if you hold down shift while dragging the shape, it will keep your proportions right.
If you're drawing shapes and would prefer to drag out from the center of the shape instead of the edge, holding down the shift + alt will do just that.
Well hopefully these will help you as you get more accustomed to using illustrator. If nothing else – some of these make for some cool graphic design party tricks. Next week we will be going into some of the coolest and most helpful adobe illustrator tricks tips and secrets.
Tried one of these methods? Have an additional one? Need help? Leave it in the comments below or send us an email. Thank you!
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