Easy Grids in Illustrator
We all like easier ways to do things when we’re working with software like Adobe Illustrator. Theoretically, you could create grids of your own using squares and aligning them properly. Illustrator has many distribution and alignment tools built right in. However, you don’t have to do that. If you just want to focus on making a grid, and making it precisely, then you’ll want to use the grid tool. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make easy grids in Illustrator.
A lot of people don’t even know that this tool exists. If you’re curious about the illustrator tools, I encourage you to explore the tools panel. It’s a great way to see everything the illustrator has to offer. Surprisingly, there are several tools found under the line segment tool in Adobe Illustrator. One of those tools is called the grid tool.
When you select this tool, you can click and drag a grid across your canvas. The problem with this is that you don’t have much control over the turnout of your grid. However, an easier and more precise way to create your grid is to double-click the grid tool to bring up the options menu. The options menu for the grid tool makes it a cinch to create easy grids in Illustrator. From here, you can dial in the precise size for your overall grid. If you’re creating it to fill the entire size of your document, then you’ll want to type in the exact pixel dimensions of your document. Type in the pixel dimensions in the width and height fields.
The next thing you want to do is decide how many horizontal and vertical dividers your grid will have. If you want a perfectly square grid, you may have to do some math in order to get the grid that you want. For example, the overall size of my grid is 700 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall. To create an evenly square grid, I’ll need to create five horizontal dividers and seven vertical dividers. This creates a perfectly square grid, which you can see in the screenshot above.
Another thing that you can do is skew the proportion of your grids. This means that you can start off with one side of your grid being small, and have it gradually build to a larger grid.
Using the grid tool is a great way to create easy grids in illustrator. With very little effort, and just a little bit of math, you can create pixel perfect grids for your designs. You can add a stroke or a fill to your grids, completely customizing them to your needs. Just make sure the fill option is checked, and you can control the fill and stroke, just like any other object in Illustrator.
