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Question

Illustrator Grid System

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 3, 2022
7 replies
602 views

Something that I have always wondered is why Illustrator doesn't have a system in place to setup a grid easily like photoshop or indesign. Does anyone know why? Would love that feature at some point in the future.

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pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Do you want to know the reasons (unfortunately I can't tell you either) or do you want a workaround (see my last post).

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

You can e.g. try Guideguide for Photoshop and Illustrator

It's not free, but I believe there is a 14-day free trial.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

I don't know why it is so, Caleb.

I just wanted to provide a workaround (that could be completely automated with a simple Illustrator action, by the way).

C

caleblitdenAuthor

Participating Frequently

Kurt, it is much appreciated! If I am coming off as anything, I apologize. I am finally just trying to get to the bottom of this question that I have had for years.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

It's a valid question, Caleb. No doubt.

But I'm just not involved in developing the application, so I cannot tell anything about the reasons.

As I cannot explain why the Pen tool in InDesign does not work as Illustrator's Pen tool. Or why there is no Isolation Mode available in InDesign. Or a Touch Type tool. Etc.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Caleb,

you may:

- Draw a rectangle that has the same size as your artboard. Then go to Object menu > Path > Split into Grid.

- Choose the desired settings and turn on the "Add Guides" option.

- The guides are usually common paths first (green strokes). Select them and convert them into real guides in the View menu.

- Delete the remaining grid.

C

caleblitdenAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Kurt,

As mentioned above, this is an option available in Illustrator, but my question is (to be more specific) does anyone know why there isn't a guide layout interface inside Illustrator much like that of InDesign or Photoshop?

J

Jeffrey_Smith

Community Expert

If you are referring to a grid in the sense of step and repeating an object that is similar to Indesign, then this function was added in the 2021 version. Object > Repeat

John Mensinger

Community Expert

I dunno, seems like everything you need is right there...

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Can you clarify about what kind of grid you are talking here?

Also, which version of Illustrator are you using?

C

caleblitdenAuthor

Participating Frequently

I am on the latest version on a new MacBook Pro.

I am referring to this type of UI inside Illustrator. There are other ways to go about creating grids, but not like this reference from InDesign. I've been using Illustrator since 2009 so I am well aware of the program and its many abilities; howver, I have been curious for awhile as to why something like this screenshot has not been included. And that isn't to say it needs to be exactly like this, but something simple.

John Mensinger

Community Expert

I'm sure it could all be called "semantics," but for what it's worth, InDesign is a purpose-designed layout application, so it offers tools to set a layout grid, using guides.

On the other hand, Illustrator's primary pupose is vector drawing, so like most such applications, it offers tools to set a drawing grid, not unlike graph paper.

Layout grids are different from drawing grids. It's just 2 different intents.

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