Adobe Illustrator CS4 - Manual (Page 56)

49 USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Workspace
• When you create an object with the pen or shape tools, or when you transform an object, use the smart guides’
construction guides to position anchor points to specific preset angles, such as 45 or 90 degrees. You set these angles
in the Smart Guides preferences.
• When you move an object or artboard, use the Smart Guides to align the selected object or artboard to other objects
or artboards. The alignment is based on the geometry of objects and artboards. Guides appear as the object
approaches the edge or center point of other objects.
Note: Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to use the alignment behavior from Illustrator CS3, which uses the
center point or edge of one object or artboard.
• When you transform an object, Smart Guides automatically appear to assist the transformation.
You can change when and how Smart Guides appear by setting Smart Guide preferences.
Note: When Snap To Grid or Pixel Preview is turned on, you cannot use Smart Guides (even if the menu command is
selected).
Smart Guide preferences
Choose Edit > Preferences > Smart Guides (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Smart Guides (Mac OS) to set the
following preferences:
Color Specifies the color of the guides.
Alignment Guides Displays guide lines that are generated along the center and edges of geometric objects, artboard,
and bleeds. They are generated when you move objects and when you perform operations such as drawing basic
shapes, using Pen tool, and transforming objects.
Anchor/Path Labels Displays information when paths intersect and when they are centered on an anchor point.
Measurement Labels Displays information for many tools (such as Drawing tools and Text tools) about the current
position the cursor as you position the cursor over an anchor point. While creating, selecting, moving, or transforming
objects it displays the x and y delta from the object’s original location. When you press Shift while using a drawing tool,
the starting location appears.
Object Highlighting Highlights the object below the pointer as you drag around it. The highlight color matches the
object’s layer color.
Transform Tools Displays information when you scale, rotate, and shear objects.
Construction Guides Displays guidelines as you draw new objects. You specify the angles at which you want guidelines
drawn from the anchor points of a nearby object. You can set up to six angles. Type an angle in the selected Angles
box, select a set of angles from the Angles pop-up menu, or select a set of angles from the pop-up menu and change
one of the values in the box to customize a set of angles. The preview reflects your settings.
Snapping Tolerance Specifies the number of points the pointer must be from another object for Smart Guides to take
effect.
Specify crop marks for trimming or aligning
In addition to specifying different artboards to crop artwork for output, you can also create and use multiple sets of
crop marks within your artwork. Crop marks indicate where you want the printed paper to be cut. Crop marks are
useful when you want to create marks around several objects on a page—for example, when printing a sheet of business
cards. They are also helpful for aligning Illustrator artwork that you’ve exported to another application.
Crop marks differ from the artboard in the following ways:
• Artboards specify the printable boundaries of artwork, whereas crop marks don’t affect the printed area at all.