- [Voiceover] Now if there's a downside to the techniques I was demonstrating in the previous movie, it's that you're forever zooming with respect to the center of your document or artboard. So, for example, if I press control plus or command plus on a Mac to zoom in on this welcome screen, after a point, I end up entirely missing Michelangelo's David, which means that if I want to be able to see him on screen, I need to manually scroll to that portion of the document, which can be a real pain in the neck over time. Alright, so I'll go and fit this artboard on screen by pressing control, zero or command, zero on the Mac.
Notice, in my case, the first central artboard is once again active. And now I'll switch to the zoom tool, located down here at the bottom of the toolbox. And the advantage of this tool is that it allows you to zoom in on a specific detail just by clicking on it. So for example, I'll go ahead and click on this area between David's eyes in order to zoom in on his face. You can even totally shift your zoom to a different detail. For example, if I click on this leaf ornament right here, I'll go ahead and center it on screen, I can click on the second o in the words on-on-one in order to zoom this text and so forth.
Now notice that my magnifying glass cursor currently shows a plus sign, which indicates that it's set to zoom in. If you want to zoom out, press and hold the alt key or the option key on the Mac. At which point, the plus will change to a minus, and then click on an element in order to center it as you zoom outward. And now notice that I have the option of zooming in on this other detail inside of my illustration by releasing the alter option key so I return to my magnifying glass cursor with a plus sign in it, and then I'll just click on this detail right here to zoom in on it.
Now once again, this is one of those functions that you use so often inside Illustrator that it's worth memorizing a keyboard shortcut. And here's how that works. The first thing I'm going to do is switch back to the black arrow tool up here at the top of the toolbox. And now I'll just press control, zero or command, zero on the mac to once again fit the active artboard on screen. And now I'll press a keyboard shortcut for the zoom tool, which is control, spacebar here on the PC. That's command, spacebar on a Mac.
And incidentally, those of you working on a Mac, if you run into problems, sit tight. In just a moment, I'll show you the solution. And now, having pressed control, spacebar or command, spacebar on a Mac, I'll just go ahead and click on David's face in order to zoom in. If you want to zoom out, then you add the alt key here in the PC or the option key on the Mac. So in other words, you control, alt, spacebar, click to zoom out. That's command, option, spacebar, click on the Mac to zoom out from your Illustration. And then, to return to the active tool, you just release your keys and notice that once again, I'm seeing my black arrow cursor on screen.
Now if you're having problems on a Macintosh, then the most likely culprit is Spotlight. Notice that, by default, if I press command, spacebar, I get the Spotlight search. Now one way around that is to press the spacebar first and then press the command key, and that way, you can, then, click to zoom in. But that's kind of a pain in the neck. And then if you press command, option, spacebar, you're gonna bring up the search window. So here's the solution. What I recommend you do because command, spacebar and command, option, spacebar are such useful tricks here inside Illustrator and throughout InDesign and Photoshop as well, I suggest you change the OS level keyboard shortcut by going up to the Apple menu and choosing system preferences.
And then go ahead and click on the keyboard icon, which you may find at a different location in the list, and next, you want to click on the shortcut tabs right there. Then locate Spotlight and notice our offending keyboard shortcut. To show the Spotlight search it's command, spacebar. To show our Finder search window, it's command, option, spacebar. Let's change both of these by first clicking on this item and then clicking on this keyboard shortcut right there. Make sure it's highlighted and press control, spacebar.
That's the whole control key with a spacebar. And that'll show you your new keyboard shortcut, which looks like a caret followed by space. And then go ahead and click on the next item. Click its keyboard shortcut again to make sure it's highlight, and press control, options, spacebar. And you'll end up with this little cryptic thing here. Caret followed by this thing here, which stands for the option key, followed by spacebar. And that should take care of it. Now if you just go ahead and close your keyboard preferences and return to Illustrator, you can now press command, spacebar and click to zoom in and you can press command, option, spacebar and click to zoom out just like so.
Alright, now there's one more way to work. I'll go ahead and reset things by pressing control, zero or command, zero on a Mac, which once again, goes ahead and centers the active artboard onscreen. You can also zoom using the scroll wheel using your mouse, and to do that, first go ahead and place your cursor over the portion of the illustration that you want to zoom into and then press and hold the alt key or the option key on the Mac and scroll up with your mouse to zoom in like so or scroll down to zoom out.
So once again, you need to have the alt key or the option key on the Mac down for that trick to work. And again, the position of your cursor matters. IF I go ahead and position my cursor in front of David's face and alt, scroll up or option, scroll up on the Mac, then I'll magnify David's face here on screen. And so you have a few keyboard shortcuts to remember. Once again, that's control, spacebar or command, spacebar, click to zoom in. Control, alt, spacebar or command, option, spacebar to zoom out and then finally, press the alt key or the option key and scroll up and down with the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out on a specific detail of your document here inside Illustrator.
Author
Updated
8/10/2016Released
9/23/2015Start watching to learn how to create multipage documents with artboards; how to draw anything you can imagine with the Pen, Pencil, and Curvature tools; and how to start adding color to your artwork with swatches. Deke also covers drawing shapes, adjusting strokes, formatting text, and painting digitally, with or without a tablet. Each chapter should leave you with a new set of skills—and a sense of accomplishment.
And as Creative Cloud evolves, so will we. Check back every time Illustrator updates for new movies, new feature reviews, and new ways to work.
- Opening, creating, saving, and closing documents
- Working with artboards
- Zooming and panning
- Drawing lines, arcs, grids, and spirals
- Drawing shapes
- Creating compound paths
- Working in RGB vs. CMYK color modes
- Creating and applying swatches
- Adjusting the line weight of strokes
- Formatting text
- Building custom paths with the Shape Builder and Join tools
- Freeform drawing with the Pencil
- Painting and erasing artwork
- Painting with a tablet
- Drawing with the Curvature tool
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: This course was updated on 02/24/2016. What changed?
A: We added five new videos and updated eight others, to keep up with the latest version of Illustrator CC.
Related Courses
-
Deke's Techniques
with Deke McClelland155h 55m Intermediate
-
Introduction
-
Welcome to One-on-One4m 20s
-
-
1. Working with Documents
-
Creating a new document5m 2s
-
Modifying your new document5m 59s
-
Saving your changes7m 46s
-
2. Working with Artboards
-
Using the Artboard tool8m 51s
-
Undo, Redo, and Revert3m 16s
-
Artboard tips and tricks4m 46s
-
Autoarranging artboards6m 41s
-
Artboards and rulers7m 26s
-
3. Getting Around
-
Zooming in and out5m 59s
-
Cycling between screen modes6m 38s
-
4. Drawing Lines
-
Now, we draw44s
-
Creating center guides7m 13s
-
Drawing straight lines5m 10s
-
Duplicating and extending6m 15s
-
Using the Move command5m 19s
-
Joining your line segments5m 23s
-
Using the Arc tool6m 45s
-
Using the Polar Grid tool3m 29s
-
Using the Spiral tool7m 31s
-
-
5. Drawing Shapes
-
Using the Ellipse tool7m 45s
-
Live ellipses and pies4m 44s
-
Drawing two perfect circles8m 22s
-
Creating compound paths7m 1s
-
Using the Rectangle tool5m 39s
-
Using the crazy Flare tool6m 19s
-
6. Color and Swatches
-
How color works1m 7s
-
Working with global swatches5m 43s
-
-
7. Strokes, Dashes, and Arrows
-
Adjusting the line weight4m 42s
-
Caps, joins, and miter limit6m 25s
-
Dashes and arrowheads7m 24s
-
Variable-width strokes5m 58s
-
Combining multiple strokes4m 18s
-
8. Creating and Formatting Text
-
Text at its best1m 2s
-
Setting up page margins6m 25s
-
Placing and flowing text5m 34s
-
Formatting display text5m 47s
-
Formatting body copy5m 59s
-
Creating a drop cap3m 39s
-
Resolving widows and orphans4m 49s
-
Redefining a paragraph style6m 48s
-
Creating type on a path6m 3s
-
-
9. Building Custom Paths
-
Join and the Shape Builder1m 12s
-
Using the Join command6m 26s
-
Using the Join tool4m 16s
-
Creating an inset reflection6m 32s
-
-
10. Using the Pencil Tool
-
Creating a tracing template3m 28s
-
11. Painting and Erasing
-
The best tools for painting1m 27s
-
Introducing the Eraser tool6m 56s
-
Merging selected paths4m 58s
-
Releasing compound paths6m 7s
-
Erasing and smoothing lumps6m 13s
-
-
12. Using the Curvature Tool
-
Drawing one point at a time1m 46s
-
Curvature tool curiosities4m 32s
-
Creating quick smooth shapes6m 29s
-
-
13. Using the Pen Tool
-
Creating corner points6m 44s
-
How smooth points work6m 51s
-
Drawing smooth points7m 55s
-
Creating cusp points6m 34s
-
Using the Anchor Point tool5m 32s
-
Drawing perspective edges5m 48s
-
Drawing a few distress marks10m 1s
-
A preview of round corners9m 26s
-
14. Drawing with Round Corners
-
Making corners smooth1m 7s
-
The round corner widget3m 44s
-
Rounding off corner points4m 54s
-
Changing the corner type3m 37s
-
Rounding characters of type6m 15s
-
Decorating an iPhone screen6m 37s
-
Reshaping rounded paths9m 40s
-
-
15. Making Screen Graphics
-
Pixel grid "gotchas"5m 5s
-
Saving an 8-bit graphic6m 32s
-
Saving a JPEG image5m 10s
-
Assigning a copyright3m 10s
-
Using the Asset Export panel4m 42s
-
Conclusion
-
Until next time1m 50s
-
- Mark as unwatched
- Mark all as unwatched
Are you sure you want to mark all the videos in this course as unwatched?
This will not affect your course history, your reports, or your certificates of completion for this course.
CancelTake notes with your new membership!
Type in the entry box, then click Enter to save your note.
1:30Press on any video thumbnail to jump immediately to the timecode shown.
Notes are saved with you account but can also be exported as plain text, MS Word, PDF, Google Doc, or Evernote.
Share this video
Embed this video
Video: Using the more precise Zoom tool