To open the Symbols panel, click on the button that looks like a clover, located in the menu on the right side of the Illustrator screen. Below is an overview of how to use symbols, but remember that you can move, scale, rotate, reflect and skew (shear) symbols just like other objects. Some of the actions for Symbols are quite easy to figure out just by playing around with them, while others take some explanation. If you are working in an earlier version of Illustrator, you will still be able to follow along and become as much a master of symbols in Illustrator as the next guy. You can also make sure that the symbol scales correctly for your interface design by choosing 9-Slice Scaling while still in Illustrator.ĬS5 makes working with symbols even easier by adding a few new features, explained below. Another benefit of symbols in Illustrator CS5 is that you can change a symbol to a movie clip, making it easy to export to Adobe Flash. And in CS5, you can now change the settings for a symbol while editing. With the Symbols tools, you can add and alter several symbols at once. Illustrator makes it easy to use symbols multiple times within a document as well. Plus, symbols greatly reduce the size of image files.

Instead, simply save the flower as a symbol for future use. This means that all of the time you have spent creating a minutely detailed flower does not have to be repeated.

The Symbols feature in Illustrator does just this: it saves valuable time by creating a “symbol,” or copy, of an object.

One of the reasons is some of the amazing time-saving features that come with it. Take the time to really play around with them and grasp this gem!įor drawing and painting digital illustrations, Adobe Illustrator is a favorite among designers for many reasons. If you plan to create illustrations that repeat a lot of graphics, such as trees, grass, flowers, floating shapes and swirls, then symbols should become your best friend in Illustrator.

Adobe illustrator symbols