Can I undo transformations?

[KlausKi]

I transformed a text like this:

Now I want to completely undo all the transformations on the object and start anew.

How can I do this?

[Larry G. Schneider]

Can you show a screenshot with the object selected and the Appearance panel open?

[Bill Silbert]

If it is an Effect then with the object selected just go into the Appearance Panel and trash all of the effects that have been applied. You can tell for sure if it was done as an Effect by going into the Artwork mode (Command-Y on Mac Control-Y on PC). If you can see the original untransformed object there then all of your transformations were done as effects.

If it is not done as an effect then try using Command-z on a Mac or Control-z on a PC. As long as you have not closed the document then you will have (I believe the number is) 200 undos that you can do. You can check under the Edit Menu to see if Undo is available to you at this time. It will be greyed out if it is not.

[KlausKi]

Thanks to y'all for trying to help. Unfortunately I transformed the text using the Shear tool, and the Appearance panel is completely empty.

So there is currently no option for resetting an object's shear/scaling/rotation values to their original values?

In that case I have created an improvement suggestion for AI at UserVoice:

Introduce reset option for shear/rotation/scaling – Adobe Illustrator Feedback

Anyone interested in such a feature, please vote and add your comments.

[Jacob Bugge]

Klaus,

Too late in this case, but a general advice is to keep a (backup) copy of artwork before irreversible change is made. Apart from that, if convenient enough, if things can be made with effects or similar live/reversible properties, that may be preferable; it is normally possible to just Expand (Appearance) when needed for final use/simplicity (still, a copy of the original artwork is good at that stage).

[rcraighead]

To remove text transformations, do this:

1. Copy text object
2. Select "Text" tool
3. Click to create a new "Point Text" object.
4. Paste.

This give you the original, non-transformed text.

[Mike_Gondek]

Would be great if you could command click on the transform icons to reset, as in the character palette. Shear would be great as a live effect added to the transform effect. Great suggestion.

[rcraighead]

If it is a "Static" Symbol any distortion is deleted by clicking the "Reset" button. Not true of "Dynamic" Symbols. I have yet to find a practical use for Dynamic Symbols, but that's another discussion.

[Mike_Gondek]

What about transformations using the free transform tool, I could not get those to reset.

I liked the old secret way you could perspective and free distort using the command and shift keys, but they took that away >.<. Thought I might grow to like these 4 icons, but still feels like more steps now, and  highlighting more than one does not seem correct.

[KlausKi]

It would be cool if any kind of transformation would always be available as a separate entry in the Appearance panel, and thereby removable/editable.

From a programmer's point of view, a transformation by its nature is always a non-destructive property being applied to the original object when displaying it. A distortion never is intrinsic. This is particularly discernible for text objects.

The programming effort for Adobe to show these transformation properties in the Appearance panel and allow them to be reset to "0" or to be edited to any other value by entering decimal values would be minimal, as this internally already happens, only without having the Appearance GUI provided yet.

I'd envision something like this:

Example 1 - Horizontal shear applied to an object by using the Shear tool:

Example 2 - Horizontal and vertical shear applied to an object by using the Shear tool:

[Kurt Gold]

Mike, the keys (Shift, Option, Cmd) to free distort (perspective) with the Free Transform tool still work. The feature was not removed.

Ray, in the latest version of Illustrator the Reset Transformation command does work with dynamic symbols.