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Alignment / Snapping Problems in CS5 Illustrator

Community Beginner ,
Jul 07, 2010 Jul 07, 2010

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I'm experiencing what I considerable a major issue in CS5 where I have points and lines that are, apparently, snapping to some unknown grid or point.

It's most noticeable when I'm working on an illustration, and then I scale it down.. all of a sudden things get wonky.

I'm a longtime illustrator user and am pretty familiar with the ins and outs of these functions... just wondering if something has changed in CS5 or if anyone else has experienced this... and obviously looking for a solution. Thanks!

BJ Heinley

howdy@heinley.com

Screen shot 2010-07-07 at 12.57.54 PM.pngScreen shot 2010-07-07 at 12.58.18 PM.png

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Jul 10, 2010 Jul 10, 2010

Clicking on the Transorm, click the flyout menu and uncheck align new objects to pixel grid works.

Thanks Jesseham

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New Here ,
Jul 07, 2010 Jul 07, 2010

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Having the same problem - was trying to align a vertical line with the center point in a circle - the closest I could get the line to the center poitn was approx 1 pixel up and 1 pixel left. I've never experienced a precision problem like this in Adobe products before - very strange. Tried changing keyboard increments and transparency grid resolution ot see if anything would change it. If I make the circle and line larger, it works OK. Also, when scaling things down, they now become slightly out of alignment.

Screen shot 2010-07-07 at 2.46.56 PM.png

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Advisor ,
Jul 07, 2010 Jul 07, 2010

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Is "view -> snap to grid" turned on or is "align new objects to pixel grid" (in the flyout menu of the transform panel) checked?

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 07, 2010 Jul 07, 2010

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This might have worked ..

--»  Align new objects to pixel grid" (in the flyout menu of the transform panel)

... I'm going to do some further tests this evening, but I just did a quick one and it seemed to do the trick!

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2010 Jul 10, 2010

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Clicking on the Transorm, click the flyout menu and uncheck align new objects to pixel grid works.

Thanks Jesseham

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 22, 2010 Jul 22, 2010

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THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. This issue was driving me absolutely crazy. THANK YOU!!!!


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New Here ,
Jul 27, 2010 Jul 27, 2010

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Turned off align to pixel grid and snap to grid was off - it doesn't fix it. Don't know why it's working for everyone else but it's not for my computer. Smart guides are off too. all snapping is off.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 21, 2010 Jul 21, 2010

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Thank God for this thread because I having the same issue.  Unchecking the "Align to Pixel Grid" fixed my issue.   Thanks Jess...

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 30, 2010 Jul 30, 2010

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This wasn't solved for me either after turning off the 'Align New Objects to Pixel Grid' or unchecking everything in my smart guides preferences. I am working on a small scale to begin with and this is frustrating the crap out of me because I never had this problem in Illustrator CS3.

Please Help!

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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I agree.. how retarded is it that it's checked in the first place! -BJ

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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I’ve still got this issue, and the fly-out menu setting hasn’t worked for me either.

Furthermore, I’ve got another related problem in working at small sizes, when objects aren’t the size they should be, further adding to aligning woes. I tried to align a small circle and square, and not only were they not aligned, they weren’t the right size either.

E.g. I created a 4mm x 4.mm cirle using the elipse tool, and a “square” using the rectangle tool dialog box, which then patently wasn’t square on screen, and bringing up the dialog box it now read 3.88mm x 4.2mm. They wouldn’t align centre to each other either.

Any other suggestions very welcome!

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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You don't use the flyout menu, there's a checkbox in the transform panel which you have to uncheck.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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Ah thanks, psisar, that’s good of you to get back to me so quickly, but the fly-out menu should change the pixel alignment setting for the whole document (like un-checking the tick box in the initial set-up panel when you create a new document).

I think that I see the problem may be that if you change the over-all setting via the fly-out) it doesn’t make the change to all existing objects, only to new ones (which is fair enough, but not something which was obvious to me in the middle of last night). The good thing is, once you have made the change in the fly-out menu, you won’t have to un-tick in the alignment panel any more.

Better yet, un-tick it when you make a new document, and the problem doesn’t arise.

I think having it checked as the default is an error, really: I presume it helps those who use Illustrator in web-work, but it was counter-intuitive for a print based person like me.

But thank you once more for the help - it clarified something which was puzzling me.

Simon

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Adobe Employee ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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The setting Align to Pixel Grid is available in 4 places:

1. In the New Document Dialog under Advanced. Here it is on by default ONLY for the Web profile and Flash Catalyst profile

2. In the Transform panel. Here it controls individual selections.

3. In the flyout menu of the transform panel. Here the setting is Align New Objects to Pixel Grid and it only controls newly created objects, NOT anything that is already in the document.

4. In the Symbol Options dialog. Here it sets whether each instance of a symbol will be pixel adjusted.

There is also an option available under the Select menu: Select > Object > Not Aligned to Pixel grid. You can use this to check for alignment after creating content.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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Many thanks for the clarification, davidmacy; I found that the profiles supplied were singularly unhelpful to me - I work as standard in RGB at A4, which I had though pretty normal, but Adobe hadn’t thought to include, so have had to work with a custom set-up, based on the “Basic RGB” one - don’t know how/when I must have checked the box in the set up panel…

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Adobe Employee ,
Aug 19, 2010 Aug 19, 2010

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You are welcome.

You may want to create your own Document Startup Profile to add to the list that shows up in the New Document dialog

see

http://blogs.adobe.com/infiniteresolution/2009/05/startup_profiles_a_great_tool.html

for tips on what you can define in Document Startup Profiles. That blog was written before CS5, so now you can add the Align to Pixel setting to the list.

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New Here ,
Mar 02, 2017 Mar 02, 2017

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Had unchecked 'Align New Objects in Pixel Grid' which didn't work. Unchecking 'Align to Pixel Grid' on the Transform panel under the angle option does work. Thanks

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New Here ,
Aug 31, 2010 Aug 31, 2010

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This is all very well: I had the same problem with Align to Pixel Grid being checked. But now whenever I create a new object it rechecks the box so I must constantly uncheck it. Anyway to turn it off for the whole document?

Sorry disregard that. didnt read the above posts properly

Message was edited by: MeltingDog

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Adobe Employee ,
Sep 01, 2010 Sep 01, 2010

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Please see setting 3 listed in my post of Aug 19, 2010 10:53 AM in this same thread.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 15, 2010 Oct 15, 2010

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I had issues snapping guides to point or to zero origins. Turned off  Smart Guides, made sure that pixel and perspective grid options were  off, still did not work. Drove me crazy but I think I found the issue.  Under 'View' menus, under 'Rulers', select 'Change to Global Rulers'.  Mine by default was set to 'Change to Artboard Rulers'. As soon as I did  this, my 'snapping' worked as it did for CS3 and CS4.

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Explorer ,
Oct 29, 2010 Oct 29, 2010

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The reason this is a feature is for the saving. did you ever make a 1px straight line and have it blury when you saved it. This feature gets rid of that.

Here is a blog post by John Nack:

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/05/illustrator_cs5_has_excellent_pixel_chops.html

(it's too bad the "fix" broke other things, in my opinion it isn't illustrator but the user that needs to be aware of pixels)

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 30, 2010 Oct 30, 2010

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Sorry, but that doesn’t seem to be a justification at all for the

change - in fact that makes me even more dissatisfied!

Illustrator may be bad for web work, but that’s not what it’s for;

it’s wrecking what it is fantastic at (print graphics) to cater for a

use that it doesn’t need. You might as well add a synthesizer because

it’s not good at music, or a thing for doing tax returns because it’s

no good at accountancy.

It’s a post-script programme, for creating vector art for print. I

have used it for around a couple of decades now, and if I wanted to

do pixel art, I’d use Photoshop.

Please don’t turn Illustrator into a weak web-graphics thing at the

expense of its core skill, and please don’t blame the user when you do!

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 31, 2010 Oct 31, 2010

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Sorry Nomis, Adobe Illustrator is for illustrating with vectors in all media, not just print design. I've been using illustrator for 16 years almost exclusively for web and internet related work and while I understand what you're saying about why it was originally created, that's not necessarily it's primary function.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 31, 2010 Oct 31, 2010

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I’m sorry, but I disagree with you entirely - pixel work is not the primary function of a vector - it’s a contradiction in terms. Vectors were designed to free us from the pixel grid, and now that’s being screwed up. Good for you if you’ve been using it for web-work for so long, but that *isn’t what it’s for. It may be what it it is to become, but I think that it is at the expense of what it is/ was really good at. The very least that should have been done is to leave the default position as to not to snap to grid, and let those that wish to hobble the vector in favour of screen work turn it on…

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 31, 2010 Oct 31, 2010

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You can disagree all you want, but that doesn't mean that you're right.

The web, the film industry, 3D design, any pdf file, iconography, user interface and user experience, the iphone/ipad and many, MANY more use Illustrator as the starting point if not the main place to work with vector based projects. Your argument is weak, and if you think illustrator's only purpose on the planet is for print, then you need to pull your head out of 1996 and get with the program (sic) here in 2010.

I'll let you have the last word as your weak argument needs a few more words .. but in case you missed them, here are a few examples of Adobe Illustrator being used for (gasp) Illustration!

http://www.khulsey.com/masters_yukio_miyamoto.html

http://www.tutorial9.net/resources/39-astonishing-examples-of-3d-typography/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/05/illustrator-tutorials-best-of/

Happy Halloween to the rest of you.. BJ

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