Adobe Illustrator CS4 - Manual (Page 54)

47 USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Workspace
Change the unit of measurement
The default unit of measurement in Illustrator is points (a point equals .3528 millimeter). You can change the unit that
Illustrator uses for general measurements, strokes, and type. You can override the default unit while entering values in
boxes.
• To change the default unit of measurement, choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Windows)
or Illustrator > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Mac OS), and then select units for the General, Stroke,
and Type options. If Show Asian Options is selected in the Type preferences, you can also select a unit specifically
for Asian type.
Note: The “General” measurement option affects rulers, measuring the distance between points, moving and
transforming objects, setting grid and guides spacing, and creating shapes.
• To set the general unit of measurement for the current document only, choose File > Document Setup, choose the
unit of measure you want to use from the Units menu, and click OK.
• To change the unit of measurement when entering a value in a box, follow the value by any of the following
abbreviations: inch, inches, in, millimeters, millimetres, mm, Qs (one Q equals 0.25 millimeter), centimeters,
centimetres, cm, points, p, pt, picas, pc, pixel, pixels, and px.
When mixing picas and points, you can enter values as XpY, where X and Y are the number of picas and points (for
example, 12p6 for 12 picas, 6 points).
Use the grid
The grid appears behind your artwork in the illustration window, and it does not print.
• To use the grid, choose View > Show Grid.
• To hide the grid, choose View > Hide Grid.
• To snap objects to gridlines, choose View > Snap To Grid, select the object you want to move, and drag it to the
desired location.
When the object’s boundaries come within 2 pixels of a gridline, it snaps to the point.
Note: When the View
> Pixel Preview option is selected, Snap To Grid changes to Snap To Pixel.
• To specify the spacing between gridlines, grid style (lines or dots), grid color, or whether grids appear in the front
or back of artwork, choose Edit > Preferences
> Guides & Grid (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Guides &
Grid (Mac OS).
Use guides
Guides help you align text and graphic objects. You can create ruler guides (straight vertical or horizontal lines) and
guide objects (vector objects that you convert to guides). Like the grid, guides do not print.
You can choose between two guide styles—dots and lines—and you can change the color of guides by using either
predefined guide colors or colors you select using a color picker. By default, guides are unlocked so that you can move,
modify, delete, or revert them, but you can choose to lock them into place.
• To show or hide guides, choose View > Guides > Show Guides or View > Guides > Hide Guides.
• To change guide settings, choose Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences >
Guides & Grid (Mac OS).
• To lock guides, select View > Guides > Lock Guides.