How to use the Align Panel in Illustrator and InDesign

In this tutorial we’ll learn how to use the Align panel in both Illustrator and InDesign. Because it’s almost exactly the same in both programs, I’ll be showing how to use it in Illustrator while adding in bits that are specific to InDesign in blue.

Understanding the Align Panel

The icon that looks like a bar graph and says ‘Align’ will open up your alignment panel. If you don’t see it, go to Window > Align (or Shift F7). It’s under Window > Object & Layout > Align (or Shift F7) in InDesign.

tool-bar
looks like a bar graph

The top row has alignment options while the bottom row has distribution options. What’s the difference? Aligning means aligning every object you select to the furthest most left, right, bottom, top, or center. Distributing means equally distributing the objects you select from the left, right, bottom, top, or center.

Before we go into every alignment and distribution option, first click on the hamburger on the top right and click ‘Show Options’ if it’s not already clicked. There should now be a dropdown menu on the bottom right corner that says ‘Align To:’. Make sure you’re on ‘Align to Selection.’ That means everything you select will all align relative to each other. We will go more in to this later on.

align-panel-option
blue circle – hamburger red circle – drop down menu

 

 

 

 

 

Align to Selection

Here we have two squares and a circle placed randomly on the artboard. When we select them all and hit Horizontal Align Left, they will all align to the most left part of the selection, which is the pinkish square’s left.

standard  align-horizontal-left


Clicking Horizontal Align Center will move the objects either left or right to align everything to the center of the selection.

standard align-horizontal-center


Clicking Horizontal Align Right will align everything to the most right part of the selection, which is the black square’s right.

standard align-horizontal-right


Vertical Align Top will align everything to the most top part of the selection, which is the top of the black square.

standard align-vertical-top


Vertical Align Center will move the objects either up or down to align everything to the center of the selection.

standard align-vertical-center


Vertical Align Bottom will align everything to the most bottom part of the selection, which is the bottom of the pinkish square.

standard align-vertical-bottom


We’ll now play with distribution. Vertical Distribute Top will distribute the tops of the objects equally. I’ve drawn red lines on the top of each object to show that the tops of all the objects are equidistant.

standard distribute-vertical-top  distribute-vertical-top-lines


Hitting Vertical Distribute Center will move the objects up or down to distribute the centers of the objects equally. Red lines are provided to show distance.

standard distribute-vertical-center distribute-vertical-center-lines


Vertical Distribute Bottom will distribute the bottoms of the objects equally. My objects were already vertically distributed so they haven’t moved. But I’ve added the red lines anyway to show that they’re equally apart.

standard distribute-vertical-bottom-lines


Horizontal Distribute Left will distribute the lefts of the objects equally. Red lines provided to show distance.

standard distribute-horizontal-left distribute-horizontal-left-lines


Horizontal Distribute Center will move the objects either left or right to distribute the centers of the objects equally. Red lines provided to show distance.

standard distribute-horizontal-center distribute-horizontal-center-lines


Horizontal Distribute Right will distribute the rights of the objects equally. Red lines provided to show distance.

standard distribute-horizontal-right distribute-horizontal-right-lines

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Align to Key Object

layersNow that we’ve gone through every alignment and distribution option, we can go through ‘Align To:’ menu. Change ‘Align to Selection’ to ‘Align to Key Object’. With this chosen, instead of everything being relative to each other, your objects will now be relative to a key object. The key object is the one that’s highest in your layers – in my case, my pink square. So here are all the alignment and distribution options applied to my pink square.

 

 

 

standard align-horizontal-center align-horizontal-left align-horizontal-right align-vertical-bottom align-vertical-center align-vertical-topalign-horizontal-center align-horizontal-left align-horizontal-right                                                                                                                                    align-vertical-bottom align-vertical-center align-vertical-top

For those of you who actually went through the trouble of looking through each thumbnail, you’ll notice that when you align objects with the Key Object selection – alignment and distribution become identical.

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Align to Artboard

Finally, we’ll be aligning and distributing to the artboard. This means that the objects will align themselves relative to the artboard. So things will align to the left, right, top, bottom, and center of the artboard.

standardalign-horizontal-center align-horizontal-left align-horizontal-right align-vertical-bottom align-vertical-center align-vertical-top distribute-horizontal-center distribute-horizontal-left distribute-horizontal-right                                                                                                                                    distribute-vertical-bottom distribute-vertical-center distribute-vertical-top


The ‘Align To:’ menu in InDesign is roughly the same. However, in InDesign the ‘Align To:’ menu will include margin (the area inside the pink/purple lines on the page), page (which is equivalent to the Illustrator artboard), and spread (which is the left and right page put together).