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Design

Posted by Kristina Nelson
Kristina Nelson
4,196 Points

Adobe Illustrator - Grouping, outlining, merging and expanding objects?

Hi,

I've been learning Adobe Illustrator and am enjoying it immensely.

There is some confusion I am having however about: Grouping and ungrouping objects When to expand objects When to flatten objects Example, when I create something with the pen tool/paintbrush/pencil, am I suppose to flatten it when I'm done? Expand it? Group my various objects...Merge them?

So say I've created a drawing of various mountains with my pen tool, then what?

I'll explain better if you need me to.

Thanks, Kristina

3 Answers

Matt Spiel
Matt Spiel
2,617 Points

Kristina Nelson, Here are some of my rules/workflow for the things you mentioned. Keep in mind there are no hard/fast rules for how to use illustrator. You will develop your own habits as you use it more.

Grouping & Ungrouping

I tend to group shapes and objects that are related. So for instance, if I can creating a building with windows on it, I want those windows to be grouped with my building shape so I can move then all at once.

Expanding

I will almost always expand anything I have live-traced. The reason for this is I want to interact with all the individual shapes and objects that were created when I traced it.

Flattening

I tend to never flatten objects. The reason for this is I want them to remain in vector format, and flattening something pixelates it.

Chad Ehlinger
Chad Ehlinger
843 Points
Chad Ehlinger
Chad Ehlinger
843 Points

If your mountains consist of various closed paths/shapes then you could group them so you are able to move together if you need to. Ungroup them to edit individually. Or if you intend to use various shapes to construct your mountain, but would like for it to be one object or shape then you would use your pathfinder to merge the shapes so it is one entity.

Kristina Nelson
Kristina Nelson
4,196 Points
Kristina Nelson
Kristina Nelson
4,196 Points

Ah. Okay. I think I'm understanding things better. Thanks!

Kristina