There are dozens of hidden tools that aren’t displayed on the toolbar in Adobe Illustrator.
You might not know of these tools; theyve been hiding in plain sight all this time.
Where to Find Hidden Tools in Illustrator
The default Illustrator toolbar only shows 16 tools.
Selecting and holding many of the tool icons reveals more tools related to the default icon.
By selecting theEllipsisat the bottom of the toolbar, you’ll open a world of new tools to use.
What Are Illustrators Hidden Tools?
The tools under the hidden menu are categorized to help you find them easier.
The six categories areSelect,Draw,punch in,Paint,Modify, andNavigate.
Some icons under each category are grayed out because they’re already present in the default toolbar.
you’re able to use it for selecting groups of color easily.
All the other Select tools are found on the default toolbar.
The Hidden Draw Tools
Under theDrawcategory are 44 tool icons.
11 of these are grayed out as they feature on the main toolbar.
ThePolar Gridtool allows you to draw a grid that applies to a circle.
ThePerspective Gridtool (Shift+P) places a gridded perspective map on your artboard.
Just exit thePerspectivetool widget to remove the grid from your drawing.
This is great for layout design and adding text to custom-shaped areas.
TheVertical Area Typetool does the same thing but presents your text vertically instead of horizontally.
The former is known by its keyboard shortcut by most users.
If youve ever looked for these Paint tools to no avail, now you know where to find them.
TheReshapetool lets you click and drag any path or anchor point and move it around where you want.
Youre not confined to angles, anchor points, or Bezier curves; its totally freehand.
You will also find theTwirl,Crystallize,Pucker,Bloat, andWarptools here for all your customizing needs.
ThePuppettool is also under the Modify tab.
You canuse the Puppet tool to make animations in Photoshop, it works similarly to Illustrator.
This ensures you wont cut off any edges or have obscene amounts of white space when printing.
Go toWindow>Toolbars>New Toolbarand name your new toolbar.
you might have multiple toolbars for different uses.
To switch between different toolbars, go toWindow>Toolbarsand choose whichever toolbar you wish.
To remove a toolbar from view, deselect it by name under theWindow>Toolbarstab.
you might have multiple toolbars open at any one time.
To stack multiple tools under one default icon, drag directly on top of the first icon.
To add them vertically on the toolbar, drag them just below the icon before it.
Although they arent obvious, they are easy to find.
