Illustrator in 60 Seconds: How to Use the Align Panel

Welcome to our Illustrator in 60 Seconds series, in which you can learn an Illustrator skill, feature, or technique in just a minute!

Illustrator in 60 Seconds: The Align Panel

Aligning objects can sometimes be a tedious task, especially when you're doing it manually. Today I'm going to show you how you can easily use the Align panel to increase your speed when dealing with multiple objects that need to be re-positioned.

How to Use Adobe Illustrator's Align Panel

By default the panel is hidden, so make it visible by going over to Window > Align.

By default it has two main functions. The first one is Align Objects, which gives you the power to align two or more selected objects or anchor points using either horizontal or vertical alignments.

The second one is Distribute Objects which allows you to distribute two or more selected objects using similar horizontal and vertical distribution patterns.

Finer control options are hidden, so you will have to click on a little Down-facing Arrow and enable Show Options in order to make them visible. The first new option is Distribute Spacing, and it's really helpful since it allows you to horizontally or vertically space two or more shapes at a precise distance of your choosing.

The second option is Align To, which lets you to align your objects to your selection, a key object, or the Artboard itself.

Want to see this in action? Check out the quick video above to see this lesson at work!

A Bit More Detail

Want to learn more about Adobe Illustrator's vast tools and settings? Check out these tutorials below:

• 
  Roundups
  The A to Z of Adobe Illustrator
  Mary Winkler
• 
  Clipping Mask
  Quick Tip: Advantages of Using the Clipping Mask Over the Pathfinder Panel
  Andrei Stefan
• 
  Icon Design
  How to Scale Icons Correctly in Adobe Illustrator
  Andrei Stefan
• 
  Graphic Design
  Understanding Adobe Illustrator's Grid System
  Andrei Stefan

60 Seconds?!

This is part of a series of quick video tutorials on Envato Tuts+ in which we introduce a range of subjects, all in 60 seconds—just enough to whet your appetite. Let us know in the comments what you thought of this video and what else you'd like to see explained in 60 seconds!