Have you tried using the measure tool? It's nested with the Eyedropper tool. Measurements and angles will appear in the Info Panel (launches automatically when you use the tool). Does that help? ... View more

Depending on the font you're using, it may be worth you checking out the glyphs panel (Type > Glyphs), and seeing if there are any alternate glyphs available for the characters in use. In the most recent versions of Illustrator, there is direct support for alternate glyphs with OpenType fonts and selecting a character will display any alternates as shown in the image here. If you want to get into manually drawing new shapes using existing expanded type, then I can recommend Astute Graphics' VectorScribe plugin—as there are tools there that supercharge Illustrator's capabilities and can make your life a lot easier; whenever I've done this kind of work, the Extend Path Tool has been worth the price alone. ... View more

Just in case they've somehow been damaged, could you make a duplicate of the current Keyboard Shortcuts, and try using those? ... View more

Have you also tried enabling "Shade Artwork" in the Map Art dialog? You can also add and adjust lights, which may help. ... View more

You've tried a complete restart, too? I know that sounds obvious, but a lot of people just relaunch the app and assume everything will be ok, but it may be the OS that's causing the issue. Also, if you have a tablet connected, disconnect it, wait about ten-fifteen seconds and reconnect. If this doesn't work, can you come back with some details around your OS and machine, please? It's easier to help with that information on something like this. ... View more

Ok, in that case—turn off the GPU acceleration (look for the rocket icon in the application bar) and let us know how that looks. ... View more

Monika is right—as always. Looking at some of the curves you've got there it looks like you have more than one point occupying the same space—probably due to an inadvertent double-hit; you also have points close together that do not need to be so (as in the outlined example) and there are also points that I'm willing to bet do not have the handles set at the tangencies of the curves (as in the orange example). Maybe if you could let us have the file, we could confirm this for you? ... View more

Hey When you say "updated Illustrator default brushes" do youmean that you've added to them, but you're just seeing the regular default brushes? If I'm understanding you correctly, that is normal behaviour. If you want to create a brush set that is there with every new document you create, you need to change the default document templates. Hope that helps. ... View more

Hey It's a good idea to use the colour guide panel, but you could also use the Recolor Artwork dialog to help you with assigning colors. Just before you do that, it would be a good idea to select some objects containing the colors you'd like to use, and click the New Color Group icon at the bottom of the Swatches Panel (it looks like a folder). This will be of some assistance in the dialog. Hope that helps. ... View more

Hey there—just to expand on Ray's suggestion above: Open the Layers Panel and click the small circles on the right (this target's the layer's appearance) Open the Transparency Panel and click the button that says Make Mask—your artwork will vanish, initially Click on the mask thumbnail (pictured, bottom right), if selected, uncheck Clip and check Invert Mask Draw a rectangle with a white fill and your artwork will reappear with a gap in it; adjust the rectangle to suit your requirements Hope that helps! ... View more

That's a piece of good, solid advice from pedley_s right there! ... View more

In addition to the two suggestions by my lovely friends above, if you have Adobe Capture on your phone, you could use the type matching module to se if it can find a match from typekit. ... View more

Really glad that helped! ... View more

Are you using the Path Selection Tool? If you're using the Direct Selection Tool, that may not always work—depending on the path. Then when pasting you should get a small dialog asking which way you'd want to paste the path. The export paths to Illustrator method is a good solution too (as mentioned by SJRiegel, above). ... View more

Mariam—this is a fake. The CC desktop app is the only way to install and manage Illustrator CC. ... View more

If it's of any help: (A) shows originsl object, with simple radial gradient; (B) shows result of clicking on object with Mesh Tool; (C) shows result of selecting centre point with Direct Selection Tool and selecting colour swatch; (D) shows result of adding additional mesh points and repeating (C) on various points. ... View more

Hi Converting a spot colour to a process approximation of that colour is quite simple: Select the swatch in the swatches panel Either click the swatch options icon at the bottom of the panel or double-click the swatch Change the colour mode to CMYK You'll get the closest possible approximation of that colour as a result - remember that a lot of book colours (from colour books like Pantone) can't be reproduced in the CMYK gamut. You can't convert a CMYK colour to "Pantone" as such as these are set definitions. I'm assuming what you actually mean is to convert CMYK values to a premixed spot colour. If so, then the steps are: Mix your colour using the sliders/input fields in the colour panel Choose "Create New Swatch" from the panel flyout menu at the top-right of the panel From the Colour Type drop-down shoose Spot Colour. Hope that helps. ... View more

Hey - you're ok, I was able to get it anyway. Ok, could you take a look at this page http://tonyharmer.co.uk/smileMore.html - the link will disappear at 19:00GMT today - and tell me how that looks. ... View more

Hi Sorry - I may not have been clear - I'd like the .ai file, please. ... View more

Ok - just asking - could you upload one of your PNG files to a site so that I can see the actual output. Would it also be possible for you to make your file available via DropBox or similar? ... View more

Hi again Just a thought - are you just going to be using this graphic on the web? If so, why not save it as an SVG? You can use it on pages just as you would an image, and it will be completely sharp at ANY resolution. ... View more

Ah - that's the best option. Ok, when you next export (via Save For Web) look over on the right-hand side, about half way down (if I recall correctly) and you'll find a percent field - try an export at 200%, then use the resulting graphic at 50% size - this should have the effect of "doubling" the pixel density (or so I'm told, I'm still using a "standard" display). Hope that helps! ... View more

It isn't really something that requires a 'fix' as such - sadly the number of people with Retina displays is still quite small and most of the time devices use some clever upsampling jiggery-pokery that makes the graphics look better. I have another question for you, now - when you are exporting your image file from Illustrator, are you changing the anti-aliasing settings to Art Optimised? If this is all news to you, are you using the Export for Microsoft Office option? Or Save For Web? Sorry to have to ask but it helps in helping you. ... View more

Ok, could you try this, please? Go to the Effect menu and choose Document Raster Effects Settings... set the resolution to High. I think the problem here is the view you're getting on a Retina display - there's probably nothing actually wrong with the document itself. The Document Raster Effects Settings on a web document is by default 72ppi and this won't look too great on your display. ... View more

Hi I think we need a little more information, please. How are you saving it? Into what format? ... View more

Brilliant! ... View more