If you are working in an earlier version of Illustrator, you will still be able to follow along and become as much a master of symbols in Illustrator as the next guy. You can also make sure that the symbol scales correctly for your interface design by choosing 9-Slice Scaling while still in Illustrator.ĬS5 makes working with symbols even easier by adding a few new features, explained below.

Another benefit of symbols in Illustrator CS5 is that you can change a symbol to a movie clip, making it easy to export to Adobe Flash. And in CS5, you can now change the settings for a symbol while editing. With the Symbols tools, you can add and alter several symbols at once. Illustrator makes it easy to use symbols multiple times within a document as well. Plus, symbols greatly reduce the size of image files. Instead, simply save the flower as a symbol for future use. This means that all of the time you have spent creating a minutely detailed flower does not have to be repeated. The Symbols feature in Illustrator does just this: it saves valuable time by creating a “symbol,” or copy, of an object. One of the reasons is some of the amazing time-saving features that come with it. Take the time to really play around with them and grasp this gem!įor drawing and painting digital illustrations, Adobe Illustrator is a favorite among designers for many reasons. If you plan to create illustrations that repeat a lot of graphics, such as trees, grass, flowers, floating shapes and swirls, then symbols should become your best friend in Illustrator.

Illustrator tool icons