Adobe Illustrator Tutorial - How To Use The Scale Tool

[bryankun1]

You might as well go to Edit>Preferences>General (Ctrl/Cmd+K) and check "Scale Strokes & Effects".

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@bryankun1 A more permanent soluton, but yes....that is true. Thank you for showing another way of doing this. Take care!!

[Sh3nmu]

Hi, i need to know how to shear an object to a confined space. I would like to shear each individual anchor point without loosing the shape of the other corners. Please help, thanks.

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@Sh3nmu This is a good idea for my next tutorial. The shear tool skews objects. Experiment using shear on different shapes. The shear tool will pull from each anchor point. If I'm understanding you correctly, to work with each anchor point and not affect the others......you need to use the direct selection tool (A) and select the individual point that you need to manipulate. Let me know if this helps. Subscribe to us so you can get an update when I make a shear video. Take care :)

[Sh3nmu]

@GraphicDesignerTips it worked, thanks for the help, subscribed and happy new year

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@Sh3nmu Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet..:)

[moriwenne]

Here's a question if you don't mind. What you are doing is a transformation. Transformations (right click transform or menu object transform) can be done in many ways, scale, reflect, rotate.

Then there are the tools, scale tool, reflect tool, etc.

My question is, what use is the scale tool? What can it do that the transform can't? Plus, if you set that option for the strokes, you can just use the bounding box, no need to even use the scale transform. When would you need it?

Thank you kindly.

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@moriwenne

The scale tool I went to is the same as the scale tool from the object menu or when your right clicking an object. It's just another way of getting there. The benefit of using the transform tools is that you can mathematically change the properties as opposed to selecting with object with the selection tool and moving, scaling, or rotating it yourself.

I personally use the scale tool to get accuracy when scaling up or down elements with strokes and effects.

I hope this helps!!

[moriwenne]

@GraphicDesignerTips Greets. Thank you for taking the time. You added to my confusion. If it's the same thing then there's no use for the tool. Why make a tool? You can arrange an object by going to the menu, right clicking and with the layers panel. They didn't make an arrange tool. But they did make a scale tool. Take the reflect tool,without it you can't set the reference point. With the transform menu you can only reference the center or the boundary, so there's a use. What's the scale's use

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@moriwenne

Illustrator has things arranged in a certain way where you can find the same tool in multiple places, and do the same thing many different ways.

To answer your main question again. The scale tool to the "SCALE" and object larger or smaller. The benefit of this to me is I use it when I need an exact percentage scaling of my objects so if I know I need my artwork to be scaled down by exactly 50% to fit on a business card I can use the scale tool.

[moriwenne]

@GraphicDesignerTips Hmm I don't think you understood me. Let me try to clarify. If you want to scale precisely you can you the scale options like u said. BUT those options are on the transform menu AS WELL as on the tool. What do you need the tool for if u can do the same thing with the menu option? Same thing in a different place? That argument seems weak. They don't make a tool for each option in each panel. Tools usually have a usage that u can't get anywhere else.

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@moriwenne

Correct, they don't make a tool for each option, they created shortcut tools to what they believed were the most important items. You can make the same argument that they don't have keyboard commands to every single thing in Illustrator. Adobe wants you to find easier what they believe are the important parts of this program. That's all I can say, contact Adobe if you really need to know.

[moriwenne]

@GraphicDesignerTips Well I thank you for your time in discussing the matter. I have found something that satisfied my curiosity so let me share it with you. What I was looking for was basically a need for the scale tool, meaning, a feature that was only available by using the tool. I found that feature. ONLY with the tool can you scale an object (or group of objects) to a specific point. You can click anywhere to declare that point. You can't do that with the transform window.

[Pedjamadafaka]

Didin't really know the purpose of the Scale Tool untill I watched this.

Thank you for this, and all of the other videos, they really help.

Based on your videos, I can now make a new logo for my company, and maybe some flyers in the future :)

Could you please make a tutorial on the type of strokes on this logo?

[GraphicDesignerTips]

@Pedjamadafaka

Greattt!! Happy to hear this helped. I will make my very next video on that topic.

Message me when you finalize your logo and flyer. I would love take a look :)