Skip to main content
Participant
March 21, 2026
Question

Misaligned object highlight ("ghost outline") when rotating a symbol on the pasteboard

  • March 21, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 25 views

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing a visual glitch in Illustrator and hope someone can help.
I converted the contents of a top-level layer into a symbol definition. The definition is placed completely outside of any artboard. You can see it in the video.

When I hover over the symbol, the object highlight (the outline matching the layer color) appears as a "ghost outline" that is significantly offset from the actual object(s). This misalignment specifically happens and shifts around when I rotate the symbol.

Does anyone know why this is happening or how to fix it?

Illustrator 30.21 (MacOS 26.0.1 on MacBook Pro 14-inch, 2023)

    2 replies

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2026

    You can make real screen recordings on a Mac that do not involve your phone. Please do that. Press cmd+Shift+5 to start the recording and record the complete screen.

    NAdlerAuthor
    Participant
    March 22, 2026

    not a phone recording

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2026

    Looks like you are rotating the artboard. Does switching between GPU and CPU preview (Cmd E or Ctrl E) make it better? Did you restart your machine?

    NAdlerAuthor
    Participant
    March 22, 2026

    no change GPU vs CPU. restart yes. did not fix