Adobe Illustrator is a computer application dedicated to the editing and design of graphics. It is oriented to the artistic creation of drawing and painting for illustration.
You can get it with a free trial of Adobe Illustrator offered from its official website. It is a simple application and in this article you will learn how to use the “Rotate Objects” tool in Adobe Illustrator.
What is Adobe Illustrator and what is it for?
Adobe Illustrator was released in early 1987 and since then it has been one of the graphic design and drawing tools preferred by users.
Although it is mainly oriented to work with vectors, you can also carry out endless tasks within the application such as creating shapes with the shape creator tool, drawings, designs, illustrations, animations, logos , creating or designing Flat style icons , among others.
One of the biggest advantages of working in vector is that every time you zoom in or out on the image or design, it does not lose its quality, so it is an essential program for professional graphic designers.
How to use the rotate objects tool in Adobe Illustrator?
This tool allows the object to rotate around a fixed point which, by default, is the center of the object . However, if you have multiple objects, they will all rotate around a single central point that you have chosen.
So if you want to edit the resulting design of the object individually and to your liking, in addition to making each one rotate about its own central point, you must use the “Transform individually” function.
There are several ways to rotate an object . Here you will learn some of them step by step according to what you want to do.
Step 1: Rotating an Object Using the Bounding Box
To do this, just select the objects, use the “Selection” tool , move the pointer outside a bounding box and near a bounding box handle, and then drag it.
Step 2: Rotating an Object with the Free Transform Tool
Select the object (s) and the “Free Transform” tool. Then place the pointer somewhere outside of the box and when the pointer changes shape, drag it.
Step 3: Rotating an Object with the Rotate Tool
Select the object again, the “Rotate” tool, and if you want to rotate the object about its central point, drag in a circular motion towards any direction on the artboard.
If you rather want to rotate the object around a different reference point , click anywhere in the window to define the new center point. Then, move the pointer away from the point you just defined and drag it in a circular motion.
To rotate a copy of the object you just have to hold down the “Alt” key and then start dragging.
Step 4: Rotating an object around its full angle
Start by selecting the object. If you want to rotate the object around a different reference point, you must press the “Rotate” option, then hold down the “Alt” key and click on the place you want to be taken as the reference point.
And if you want the object to rotate about its own center point, then select “Object”, “Transform” and finally “Rotate”.
After this you must enter the angle of rotation in the blank in the “Angle” section. You must write a negative angle if you want the object to rotate to the right and a positive angle if you want it to rotate to the left.
If the object has a pattern fill, then you must select “Patterns” to move it. And if you want to move only the motif, but not the object, you just have to deselect the “Objects” option.
Finally press “OK” or “Copy” if you want to change the scale of one of the copies of the object.
Step 5: Rotating an object with the Transform panel
Select the objects. If you want to rotate the object about its own reference point, enter a value in “Panel angle” .
And if you want to use another reference point, click on the white square that indicates the reference point and write a value in “Angle”.
If you want to learn other things about Adobe Illustrator, this article Convert an image to vector can help.
