10 Adobe Illustrator Shortcuts for Pattern Design

Streamline your pattern design workflow with the most commonly used Illustrator shortcuts

The beauty of pattern design is that it has no limits: you can stretch your design infinitely and create patterns in all sorts of detailed or minimalistic styles. If you are an illustrator, a graphic designer, or perhaps both, you will likely create patterns that can be applied to all sorts of projects at some point in your career.

Sarmiento, better known as Sara Tomate (@saratomate), knows this for sure:

To help you streamline your creative process when designing patterns in Illustrator, Sara has created a list of the most common time-saving shortcuts:

Before you start

- Recommended artboard size: 1000 x 1000 pixels
- Recommended color mode: RGB
- Resolution: 300 dpi

Illustrator shortcuts for pattern design

Note: For Mac, use Cmd, and for PC, use Ctrl

- Cmd + G → group

- Cmd + Shift + G → ungroup

- Cmd + C → copy

- Cmd + Shift + C → activate anchor points

- Cmd + F → paste in front

- Cmd + M → join lines

- Cmd + 2 → block objects

- Cmd + Alt + 2 → unblock objects

Avoid distortion

Remember to expand the objects to avoid distortion by selecting:
Menu → Object → Expand

Create Brushes

Open the Brushes menu → New Brush → Calligraphic Brush → Pressure

If you want to learn more from Sara, sign up for her course Vectorial Pattern Illustration for Beginners. Create a step-by-step graphic pattern system and turn it into a collection of illustrated products.

English version by @acesarato

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