How to Ungroup in Illustrator

Especially for complex graphics, grouping objects makes design files much easier to manage. Let’s see how to ungroup in Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator has a variety of features that make it easy to simplify your design workflow, including Group and Ungroup. Essentially, these options allow you to consolidate complex graphics — which are often created with many different shapes — as a group, and then uncouple objects from the group as you see fit.

Below, we jump straight to how to ungroup in Illustrator and then circle back for a basic overview of grouping in general.

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How to Ungroup in Illustrator

To ungroup in Illustrator:

1. Select any grouped object with the selection tool (looks like a black arrow).
2. Ungroup by going to Object > Ungroup or by using the keystroke Ctrl+Shift+G (or Cmd+Shift+G on Mac).

That’s it! Your objects will now be ungrouped and will no longer be movable or transformable as a single unit.

Note: If you have several groups within groups (called “nested groups”), you may have to repeat these steps several times until all objects are released from their groups.

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The Basics of Grouping 

Why Group Objects?

Grouping objects can speed up your workflow by making complex files easier to handle. 

Once objects are grouped, the entire group can be moved or transformed as a single unit. So, for example, you could scale up a group without affecting the relative size or position of the elements within the group.

Grouping can also help prevent small details from getting lost or mismatched as you edit your design file. By grouping complex shapes until they’re in the final position, you won’t accidentally miss a small piece when manually selecting objects.

How to Group in Illustrator

It’s easy to group objects in Illustrator:

1. Select the items you’d like to group by clicking and dragging your mouse over the desired elements. Alternatively, select multiple objects one by one with Shift+click.
2. To group your selection, press Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on Mac).

Nested Groups

If you like, you can also create “nested” groups, which are essentially groups within groups. 

You can do this by first grouping objects (see the instructions above) and then using the same commands to group the groups. Alternatively, you can move groups into other groups by dragging them in the Layers panel.

Groups and Layers

Note that you can group objects on different layers, but doing so will change the position of objects across and within layers. All grouped objects will be automatically placed on the topmost layer in the group.

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Cover image via KatePilko.

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