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How to Make Guides in Illustrator

Strong alignment is the foundation of graphic design, and guides make it easy. Let’s look at how to make guides in Illustrator.

No need to eyeball your layouts! With this simple guide to guides, you’ll know what guides are and how to make them in Adobe Illustrator using the built-in tools. 


What Are Guides?

Essentially, guides are vertical and horizontal lines (or dots) that can be moved around the page as needed. When you’re ready to print a project, the guides are hidden from view. 

There are two main types of guides in Illustrator: ruler guides (i.e. normal lines) and guide objects (i.e. vectors transformed into guides).


What Are Smart Guides?

Unlike normal guides, Smart Guides only appear when you’re editing objects on the artboard. They provide more contextual information, such as X/Y values, so you know if an object is aligned with other objects. As you move objects closer to one another on the artboard, your selection will snap to the nearest object or edge. 

To turn on Smart Guides, just choose View > Smart Guides from the main menu. 

For more control over how the Smart Guides look and behave, go to Edit > Preferences > Smart Guides (or Illustrator > Preferences > Smart Guides on Mac). 


Prefer to see the following steps in video form? Here’s an excellent tutorial on how to create guides in Illustrator.


How to Make Ruler & Vector Guides in Illustrator

To create ruler guides:

  1. Activate the guides by going to View > Guides > Show Guides. 
  2. Activate the rulers by going to View > Rulers > Show Rulers. (This will give you an accurate measurement system around your artboard.)
  3. To create a horizontal guide, long click on the top ruler and then drag the guide down to your artboard and into the desired position. (To create a vertical guide, click and drag from the left-hand ruler instead.)
  4. If you need to move a guide once it’s on your artboard, just click and drag it with your mouse. Alternatively, copy/paste it with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (Command on Mac). 

To convert a vector to a guide:

  1. Draw a vector using the Pen tool.
  2. Click on your vector with the Selection tool.
  3. Select View > Guides > Make Guides.

If you want to customize your guides’ color or style, adjust the guide settings at any time by selecting Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid (or Illustrator > Preferences > Guides & Grid on Mac). 


How to Lock Illustrator Guides

By default, you can edit or delete Illustrator guides on your artboard. If you want to prevent editing, choose View > Guides > Lock Guides. 


How to Delete and Release Guides in Illustrator

  1. Check View > Guides > Lock Guides to make sure guides are unlocked, and then click on a guide. 
  2. Press the Backspace key (or Delete key on Mac) to delete it.
  3. To delete all of your guides at the same time, select View > Guides > Clear Guides.

If you’d like to transform a vector guide back into a normal graphic (called “releasing”), select View > Guides > Release Guides. 


Cover image via KatePilko

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