Using the Ellipse Tool (Keyboard Shortcut: L)
This was likely one of the first tools you learned to use in Adobe Illustrator. It’s quick and easy to draw an ellipse or oval – and even a circle. You may not realize that there are a number of settings available to assist you in creating an ellipse of a specific size and with certain attributes.
In this exercise, we practice making and manipulating ellipses. I’ll always refer to the keyboard shortcut as the easiest way to invoke the ellipse tool.
Draw a Basic Ellipse
This is the perfect opportunity to imbed the keyboard shortcut into your memory! Hit “L” on the keyboard to invoke the ellipse tool.
Click and drag to draw the ellipse. NOTE: I choose fun colors for the fill and stroke rather than use the default white fill/black outline.
Forget the shortcut? It’s shown on the shape fly-out menu. To access the ellipse tool, hold down the rectangle tool button until the fly-out menu pops out.
Draw a Circle
Hold SHIFT while dragging
This is just like making an ellipse, except you hold the “SHIFT” key while dragging the cursor. Releasing the “SHIFT” key and your circle likely reverts to an ellipse. Press the “SHIFT” key again and your shape will snap back into being a circle. Be sure to release the mouse button BEFORE you release the “SHIFT” key to maintain the shape as a circle.
Draw from the Center Point
When drawing an ellipse, the starting point is usually the upper left corner of the bounding box. You click where you want that point to be and then drag to where the lower right corner is of the bounding box. Technically you can start in the lower left and move to the upper right as well. The point is that Illustrator starts at one corner and ends at the diagonally opposite corner.
What if you wanted to draw from the center point of the ellipse? It’s easy! Hold the “OPTION” key as you drag. To make a circle from the center, also hold the “SHIFT” key while dragging.
Draw the Precise Size
Many times I’m drawing ovals “on the fly” – not really sure of their exact dimensions until I eyeball where they go. However, there are a number of times that I know exactly how big the ellipse or circle needs to be.
Good news! You can get Illustrator to deliver that precise shape with the click of the mouse.
Instead of clicking and dragging, just click where you want the shape to “begin.” A pop-up appears asking for the width and height.
The units will be whatever the default is for this project, but you can certainly change them as well. For instance, if your file is defaulting to inches, you can create a 300 px by 500 px ellipse by simply typing “300px” and “500px” respectively. Note that if you don’t put any units, then it assumes the default unit.
Want to draw a precise size from the center? Hold the “OPTION” key then click the center point. Fill in dimensions and the shape will be rendered from that center point.
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