EDUCBA

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Free Tutorials
  • Free Courses
  • Certification Courses
  • 280+ Courses All in One Bundle
  • Login
Home Design Design Tutorials Illustrator Tutorial Illustrator Free Transform Tool
Secondary Sidebar
Illustrator Tutorial
  • Tools
    • Adobe Illustrator Tools
    • Selection Tool in Illustrator
    • Width Tool in Illustrator
    • Illustrator Grid Tool
    • Pathfinder Tool in Illustrator
    • Pen Tool In Illustrator
    • Measure Tool in Illustrator
    • Mesh Tool In Illustrator
    • Blend Tool in Illustrator
    • Direct Selection Tool Illustrator
    • Illustrator Free Transform Tool
    • Shape Builder Tool in Illustrator
    • Slice Tool in Illustrator
    • Smooth Tool in Illustrator
    • Eyedropper Tool in Illustrator
  • Basic
    • What is Adobe Illustrator
    • Install Adobe Illustrator
    • Adobe Illustrator For Windows
    • Adobe Illustrator for Windows 8
    • How to Use Adobe Illustrator
    • Adobe Illustrator for beginners
    • Adobe Illustrator for Students
    • Illustrator Shortcut Keys
    • Illustrator Plugins
    • Illustrator Repeat Action
    • Illustrator auto trace
    • Layers in Illustrator
    • Moon in Illustrator
  • Effects
    • Effects in Illustrator
    • Insert Image in Illustrator
    • Crop in Illustrator
    • Remove Background In Illustrator
    • Remove White Background in Illustrator
    • Shapes in Illustrator
    • Text Effects In Illustrator
    • Watercolor Brushes Illustrator
    • Blending Modes in Illustrator
    • Blur in Illustrator
    • Brushes in Illustrator
    • Change Background Color in Illustrator
    • Graphic Styles in Illustrator
    • Change Artboard Size in Illustrator
    • Logo Design in Illustrator
    • Rasterize in Illustrator
    • Resize Image in Adobe Illustrator
    • 3D Effects in Illustrator
    • 3D Text in Illustrator
    • Filters in Illustrator
    • Reflection in Illustrator
    • How to Make Logo in Illustrator?
    • Transparent in Illustrator
    • How to Add Texture in Illustrator?
    • Neon Effect in Illustrator
    • Create Table in Illustrator
    • Paper Texture in Illustrator
    • Stamp Effect in Illustrator
    • Sun in Illustrator
    • How to Warp Text in Illustrator?
    • Metal Effect in Illustrator
    • Action in Illustrator
    • Illustrator Gold Gradient

Related Courses

Illustrator Training Course

Adobe Flash Training Course

3Ds Max Modeling Training Course

Illustrator Free Transform Tool

Illustrator Free Transform Tool

Overview of Illustrator Free Transform Tool

The Free Transform tool is a useful and effective tool that can be used to rotate, resize, mirror, and bend an artwork. Furthermore, there are options to add distort and perspective effects as well. After selecting the free transform tool, a new widget appears. It contains buttons for various options. The users can also control the tool using the keyboard keys. It is always better to use the smart guides along with the free transform tool to have alignment control. The new update in Illustrator supports touch support. Therefore, you can work these tools using a touchscreen device. Go through this article and learn to use the free transform tool in your project.

Steps to Use Illustrator Free Transform Tool

Here are the steps to know how to use the Free Transform Tool.

Step 1: First of all, you will have to select the artwork you have created from the tools panel. For this, go to the Selection tool and select it. You can also use the shortcut key (V) for quickly selecting an object.

Step 2: Choose the required objects in the artwork that you need to transform.

Start Your Free Design Course

3D animation, modelling, simulation, game development & others

Step 3: Pick the free transform tool available in the tools panel. It is hidden under the Puppet Warp tool. As seen in the below image, hold the puppet warp tool, and below appears the Free transform tool.

Free Tool Example 1.1

Step 4: Using Smart Guides with transform can be helpful in your work. Follow the below method to do so. Go to the View option on top of the menu. From the drop-down list, select Smart Guides. This displays the smart guides.

Free Tool Example 1.2

Now, as you move the selected object around the artboard, you will notice smart guides that you can use to align the artwork.

Step 5: Transform tool with Perspective Distort or Free Distort: In order to modify an object, choose the Perspective Distort or Free Distort options.

Free Tool Example 1.3
As shown in the above image, toggle between perspective and distort based on your needs.

Step 6: If you require to free transform an object from the widget, choose the Free Transform button. After that, do the following:

  • Scale: You could change the size by dragging the corner, resize the handle along two axes. You can also select just one handle to scale in one axis.

For scaling uniformly, toggle on the constrain button from the widget and a lock icon appears. Next, to scale, use the shift key to drag the object. You can also scale the artwork from the center by holding the Alt key or the Opt key based on the system.

Example 1.4

  • Reflect: By dragging a slide handle all through the way, you can reflect an object.
  • Rotate: Move the mouse a little bit away from the corner handle (the pointer changes form into a double arrow), and then rotate the object circularly. You can use the shift key to rotate the object at a 45-degree angle. If you need to rotate an object at a 180-degree angle, just drag the handle diagonally till you want.

Example 1.5

  • Shear: Simply drag the handle from the side and press the Ctrl key and continue the step. Use the shift key to constrain the movement. For moving from the canter, hold the Alt or Option key.
  1. Select the required artwork or object to shear
  2. Pick the Free transform tool

Follow the below instructions:

Instruction: To shear in a vertical axis, all you have to do is to start dragging the side handles either in the left or the right. After that, press the Ctrl + Alt key or the Opt + Cmd button as you pull. If you want to proportionally drag the object, hold the shift key. Now, if you need to horizontally shear an object, repeat the above dragging method by dragging the top or the bottom handles.
  • Perspective: Pull the side handle and press the Ctrl + Alt + Shift key combo. In Mac, use Cmd + Option + Shift while dragging.

Example 1.7

  • Distort: Hold the Ctrl key or CMD button and drag the corner handle.
  1. Pick the objects to distort
  2. Next, activate the free transform tool

Now you can start to drag the corner handle of the object and follow the below methods:

  1. Press the Ctrl button if you are using Windows or the Cmd key if you are on Mac OS. See if the distortion is accurate and end the process.
  2. To distort in perspective mode, in Windows, use the Shift + Alt + Ctrl or in Mac, use Shift + Option + Command.

Example 1.8

You need to know that using perspective and distort requires some extra care, or else your work might get affected.

Scale objects with the bounding box

All in One Design Bundle(280+ Courses, 100+ projects)
AutoCADHoudiniAdobe Premiere ProPhotoshop
SolidworksVFX Visual EffectsCorelDrawUnreal Engine
Price
View Courses
280+ Online Courses | 100+ projects | 2000+ Hours | Verifiable Certificates | Lifetime Access
4.6 (64,963 ratings)
  1. Choose the artwork that needs to be scaled.
  2. Activate the free transform tool or the selection tool.
  3. Next, pull the bounding box handle until you find the object has reached the desired size.

You can further manipulate the scaling controls by:

  • Holding the shift key to uniformly transform the item.
  • Press the Alt key or the option key to start scaling from the canter.

In Adobe illustrator, strokes and effects are not transformed by default. For that, you no need to change some settings. Go to the edit option, and from the drop-down list, choose preferences. Next, select the general option and choose scale strokes and effects. You can also use the transform panel in order to scale objects depending on your project. Now you can change the reference point by pointing to the point and dragging it. For resetting the reference point, just double click it.

Conclusion

By reading this article, you might have understood the benefits that the Free Transform tool brings to the table. It is a real time saver and brings the desired results into your works with ease. If you are not familiar with the tool, practice applying it, and discover a new way of doing things in Illustrator.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide on Illustrator Free Transform Tool. Here we discuss the Steps to use the Free Transform Tool in illustrator. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. Features of 3ds Max Tools
  2. Adobe Photoshop Tools
  3. Blend Tool in Illustrator
  4. Overview of Effects in Illustrator
Popular Course in this category
Illustrator Courses (1 Courses, 2+ Projects)
  1 Online Courses |  2 Hands-on Projects |  12+ Hours |  Verifiable Certificate of Completion
4.5
Price

View Course

Related Courses

Adobe Flash Training (2 Courses, 1+ Projects)4.9
3Ds Max Modeling Training (5 Courses)4.8
1 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Primary Sidebar
Footer
About Us
  • Blog
  • Who is EDUCBA?
  • Sign Up
  • Live Classes
  • Corporate Training
  • Certificate from Top Institutions
  • Contact Us
  • Verifiable Certificate
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  •  
Apps
  • iPhone & iPad
  • Android
Resources
  • Free Courses
  • Photoshop Tutorial
  • 3ds Max Tutorial
  • All Tutorials
Certification Courses
  • All Courses
  • Design Course - All in One Bundle
  • Photoshop Course
  • Maya Course
  • Unreal Engine Course
  • Unity Course
  • DaVinci Resolve Course
  • Pro Tools Course

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2022 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA
Free Design Course

Banner Creation, Object Selection, Sky Replacement, Advance Filters & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA
Free Design Course

3D animation, modelling, simulation, game development & others

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Let’s Get Started

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more