Some Illustrator tips

I’ve been terrible busy the last couple of weeks. Mostly because business has never been that hectic and we’re also on the verge of moving to a new place. A lot of time goes into arranging stuff you have no idea :) If things go as planned I’ll be moving boxes and furniture in about 3 weeks from now. So I haven’t been able to write much or prepare for another in-depth or step-by-step tutorial. Hopefully you don’t mind that I share the following short Illustrator tips with you…

Did you know that...

• there is an easy and fast way to delete individual points that are not connected to other anchor points?
  Deselect all objects. Choose Select > Object > Stray Points.
• when you hold down the shift key while dragging a guide, the guide will snap to each line shown in the ruler?
• when you hold down the control key or your second mouse button in the Rulers that you can change the units of the Rules?
• you can easily turn objects into guides? And that you can make them objects again?
  View > Guides > Make Guides (command/control + 5) or View > Guides > Release Guides (command/control + alt/option 5)
• you can switch fast between fill and stroke by hitting the x key?

Last but not least, did you know that...

you can create interesting effects by adding multiple fills and strokes within the same object? With the Appearance palette you can

I think the image is self-explanatory, but it basically comes down to adding new Strokes on top of each other using different transparency values and modes. You can of course do the same with Fills. Imagine the effects you can achieve by stacking different types of gradients on top of each other.