Participant

Answered

Adding a new custom guide?

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 12, 2021
4 replies
899 views

So, I've made a new document and before I do anything, I would like to place guides on my document not by dragging from the Rulers on the side, but by entering the exact X or Y co-ordinate, or at pixel X of the document and so on (I am aware that Vector files don't actually use pixels, but the measurements for the document size are still there.)

I used to be able to do this just by entering the exact location in a Make Guide panel under View, but the option is greyed out. I've tried Lock Guides as well as Unlock Guides, but neither option allows me to make guides.

How to

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer pixxxelschubser

On the other hand:

drag one guide from your ruler
select this guide (if not possible - unlock it in View menu)
set your coordinates in the Transform Panel (or in the Control Bar or in the Properties Panel)

Note:

You can enter the numbers you want with your desired measurement, regardless of what unit the rulers indicate.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

You mention that you once used to be able to create guides with a Make Guides dialog. I think that was rather in Photoshop. Illustrator has never provided it.

As an alternative, you may take a look at Sergey Anosov's Make Guides script. Probably it does what you want.

You can find it here:

https://sites.google.com/site/dtpscripting/illustrator-scripts/makeguidesai

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Glad I could help.

😉

Furthermore you can (after select your guide):

scroll with mouse wheel while the cursor is over your x-coordinate (or y-coordinate) in Transform Panel

or

set your increment in preferences and use the arrow keys for moving the guide with your wished increment (additional you can also use Shift key as modifier key)

or

create an action or a script for that

pixxxelschubser

Correct answer

Community Expert

On the other hand:

drag one guide from your ruler
select this guide (if not possible - unlock it in View menu)
set your coordinates in the Transform Panel (or in the Control Bar or in the Properties Panel)

Note:

You can enter the numbers you want with your desired measurement, regardless of what unit the rulers indicate.

M

manuelb91228610Author

Participant

Actually hold on (and disregard my 2nd reply) because this may actually be the solution I was looking for!

M

manuelb91228610Author

Participant

I don't like placing guides by dragging because it usually isn't accurate enough for my purpose...dragging and dropping by mouse is more useful when you want to snap one object to another object or guide!

But thank you, I rekcon this does what I needed

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Draw a line ( or another shape), move it to the correct coordinates and use

menu: View --> Guides --> Create Guide [Strg/Ctrl]+[5]

(or similar) for creating your new self defined guide.

Have fun

😉

M

manuelb91228610Author

Participant

Ok thank you!

Not exactly what I was planning on doing....to be more specific: I have created a new 2560x1600 document in AI and I want to place a guide at 1230x0 on a new layer which will be my guides layer. Then later I want to place another guide at 50x0 and perhaps another at 2510x0. See these at axises of where I want to align objects or media elements which I might place later on in the project once I actually get to creating objects.

Because I want to place a guide at only one co-ordinate (1230x0) which should make it the very centre of the document, I don't think placing a shape would be applicable in my scenario.

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