Illustrator tool galleries

Illustrator provides many tools for creating and manipulating your artwork. These galleries provide a quick visual overview for each tool.

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Illustrator provides the following selection tools:

The Selection tool (V) selects entire objects. See Select objects with the Selection tool.	The Direct Selection tool (A) selects points or path segments within objects. See Select paths, segments, and anchor points.	The Group Selection tool selects objects and groups within groups. See Select objects and groups with the Group Selection tool.	The Magic Wand tool (Y) selects objects with similar attributes. See Select objects with the Magic Wand tool.
The Lasso tool (Q) selects points or path segments within objects. See Select objects with the Lasso tool.	The Artboard tool creates separate artboards for printing or export. See Create an artboard.

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Illustrator provides the following drawing tools:

The Pen tool (P) draws straight and curved lines to create objects. See Drawing with the Pen tool.	The Add Anchor Point tool (+) adds anchor points to paths. See Adding and deleting anchor points.	The Delete Anchor Point tool (-) deletes anchor points from paths. See Adding and deleting anchor points.	The Convert Anchor Point tool (Shift+C) changes smooth points to corner points and vice versa. See Convert between smooth points and corner points.
The Line Segment tool (\) draws individual straight line segments. See Draw straight lines with the Line Segment tool.	The Arc tool draws individual concave or convex curve segments. See Draw arcs.	The Spiral tool draws clockwise and counterclockwise spirals. See Draw spirals.	The Rectangular Grid tool draws rectangular grids. See Draw rectangular grids.
The Polar Grid tool draws circular chart grids. See Draw circular (polar) grids.	The Rectangle tool (M) draws squares and rectangles. See Draw rectangles and squares.	The Rounded Rectangle tool draws squares and rectangles with rounded corners. See Draw rectangles and squares.	The Ellipse tool (L) draws circles and ovals. See Draw ellipses.
The Polygon tool draws regular, multi-sided shapes. See Draw polygons.	The Star tool draws stars. See Draw stars.	The Flare tool creates lens-flare or solar-flare-like effects. See Drawing flares.	The Pencil tool (N) draws and edits freehand lines. See Drawing with the Pencil tool.
The Smooth tool smooths Bezier paths. See Smooth paths.	The Path Eraser tool erases paths and anchor points from the object. See Erase artwork.	The Perspective Grid allows creating and rendering artwork in perspective. See About Perspective Grid.	The Perspective Selection tool allows you to bring objects, text, and symbols in perspective, move objects in perspective, move objects in perpendicular to its current direction. See About Perspective Grid. .

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Illustrator provides the following type tools:

The Type tool (T) creates individual type and type containers and lets you enter and edit type. See Enter text in an area.	The Area Type tool changes closed paths to type containers and lets you enter and edit type within them. See Enter text in an area.	The Type On A Path tool changes paths to type paths, and lets you enter and edit type on them. See Creating type on a path.	The Vertical Type tool creates vertical type and vertical type containers and lets you enter and edit vertical type. See Enter text in an area.
The Vertical Area Type tool changes closed paths to vertical type containers and lets you enter and edit type within them. See Enter text in an area.	The Vertical Type On A Path tool changes paths to vertical type paths and lets you enter and edit type on them. See Creating type on a path.

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Illustrator provides the following painting tools:

The Paintbrush tool (B) draws freehand and calligraphic lines, as well as art, patterns, and bristle brush strokes on paths. See Draw paths and apply brush strokes simultaneously .	The Mesh tool (U) creates and edits meshes and mesh envelopes. See Create mesh objects.	The Gradient tool (G) adjusts the beginning and ending points and angle of gradients within objects, or applies a gradient to objects. See Apply a gradient to an object.	The Eyedropper tool (I) samples and applies color, type, and appearance attributes, including effects, from objects. See Copy appearance attributes using the Eyedropper tool.
The Live Paint Bucket tool (K) paints faces and edges of Live Paint groups with the current paint attributes. See Paint with the Live Paint Bucket tool.	The Live Paint Selection (Shift-L)tool selects faces and edges within Live Paint groups. See Select items in Live Paint groups.	The Measure tool measures the distance between two points. See Measure the distance between objects.	The Blob Brush tool (Shift-B)draws paths that automatically expand and merge calligraphic brush paths that share the same color and are adjacent in stacking order. See Draw and merge paths with the Blob Brush tool.

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Illustrator provides the following tools for reshaping objects:

The Rotate tool (R) rotates objects around a fixed point. See Rotate objects.	The Reflect tool (O) flips objects over a fixed axis. See Reflect or flip objects.	The Scale tool (S) resizes objects around a fixed point. See Scale objects.	The Shear tool skews objects around a fixed point. See Shear objects with the Shear tool .
The Reshape tool adjusts selected anchor points while keeping the overall detail of the path intact. See Stretch parts of a path without distorting its overall shape.	The Free Transform tool (E) scales, rotates, or skews a selection.	The Blend tool (W) creates a series of objects blended between the color and shape of multiple objects. See Create blends.	The Width tool (Shift+W) allows you to create a stroke with variable width. See Using the Width tool.
The Warp tool (Shift+R) molds objects with the movement of the cursor (like molding clay, for example). See Distort objects using a liquify tool.	The Twirl tool creates swirling distortions within an object. See Distort objects using a liquify tool.	The Pucker tool deflates an object by moving control points towards the cursor. See Distort objects using a liquify tool.	The Bloat tool inflates an object by moving control points away from the cursor. See Distort objects using a liquify tool.
The Scallop tool adds random curved details to the outline of an object. See Distort objects using a liquify tool.	The Crystallize tool adds random spiked details to the outline of an object. See Distort objects using a liquify tool.	The Wrinkle tool adds wrinkle-like details to the outline of an object. See Distort objects using a liquify tool.	The Shape Builder tool merges simple shapes to create custom, complex shapes. See Building new shapes using the Shape Builder tool.

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The symbolism tools let you create and modify sets of symbol instances. You create a symbol set using the Symbol Sprayer tool. You can then use the other symbolism tools to change the density, color, location, size, rotation, transparency, and style of the instances in the set.

The Symbol Sprayer tool (Shift+S) places multiple symbol instances as a set on the artboard. See Create symbol sets.	The Symbol Shifter tool moves symbol instances and change stacking order. See Change stacking order of symbol instances in a set.	The Symbol Scruncher tool moves symbol instances closer together or farther apart. See Gather or scatter symbol instances.	The Symbol Sizer tool resizes symbol instances. See Resize symbol instances.
The Symbol Spinner tool rotates symbol instances. See Rotate symbol instances.	The Symbol Stainer tool colorizes symbol instances. See Stain symbol instances.	The Symbol Screener tool applies opacity to symbol instances. See Adjust transparency of symbol instances.	The Symbol Styler tool applies the selected style to symbol instances. See Apply a graphic style to symbol instances.

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Illustrator provides nine graph tools, each one for creating a different type of graph. The type of graph you choose depends on the information you want to communicate. See Create a graph.

The Column Graph tool (J) creates graphs that compare values using vertical columns.	The Stacked Column Graph tool creates graphs that are similar to column graphs, but stacks the columns on top of one another, instead of side by side. This graph type is useful for showing the relationship of parts to the total.	The Bar Graph tool creates graphs that are similar to column graphs, but positions the bars horizontally instead of vertically.	The Stacked Bar Graph tool creates graphs that are similar to stacked column graphs, but stacks the bars horizontally instead of vertically.
The Line Graph tool creates graphs that use points to represent one or more sets of values, with a different line joining the points in each set. This type of graph is often used to show the trend of one or more subjects over a period of time.	The Area Graph tool creates graphs that are similar to line graphs, but emphasizes totals as well as changes in values.	The Scatter Graph tool creates graphs that plot data points as paired sets of coordinates along the x and y axes. Scatter graphs are useful for identifying patterns or trends in data. They also can indicate whether variables affect one another.	The Pie Graph tool creates circular graphs whose wedges represent the relative percentages of the values compared.
The Radar Graph tool creates graphs that compare sets of values at given points in time or in particular categories, and is displayed in a circular format. This type of graph is also called a web graph.