Magnifying Glass Tutorial for Illustrator

Use Illustrator's magnifying glass to closely examine an image.

The toolbar in Adobe's Illustrator vector graphics software contains a set of tools that allow you to alter and manipulate images. The magnifying glass tool in the toolbar allows you to zoom in and out of an image that you've opened in Illustrator. Zoom in on an area of an image to perform a close analysis of the image's content; zoom out to see the big picture. Illustrator also allows you to select a precise area of an image with the magnifying glass, then zoom in on that area.

Instructions

1. Click "File" and "Open," then double-click the image on which you want to use the magnifying glass.

2. Click the magnifying glass icon on the Illustrator toolbar that runs down the left side of the window.

3. Click the part of the image that you want to magnify. Illustrator zooms in on the area of the image.

4. Press and hold the "Alt" key. Click on the image using the magnifying glass to zoom out.

5. Click and drag on the image using the magnifying glass to zoom in on a specific region of the image. Illustrator zooms in on the rectangular region that you select. To move the selected region, hold down the spacebar and click and drag the image.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also activate the magnifying glass by pressing the "Z" key.

References

• Adobe Illustrator CS5: Zoom In or Out

Resources

• Adobe Illustrator CS5: Using Illustrator