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- In this movie, I'll show
you how to align objects

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to the pixel grid and I'll explain

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why it's so very important to do so

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when you're exporting
pixel-based screen graphics

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whether they're bound
for the web, a device,

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a presentation, or what have you.

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So, here we are looking at a slide

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from my Adobe Pen Tools
Fundamentals Course.

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And, let's say I go ahead and zoom in

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by control + spacebar clicking,

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that's command + spacebar
clicking on the Mac.

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And, as you can see, no
matter how far I zoom in,

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everything looks absolutely perfect

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and that's because Illustrator
is continuously rendering

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my vector-based artwork to my
pixel-based screen on the fly.

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But, that's not how things
work when you export

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a pixel-based image, and
that's because pixels are

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always little squares of color.

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And so, to get a sense for
what your screen graphic

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is going to look like, you
can go up to the View menu,

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and choose Pixel Preview.

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You also have that key board shortcut

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of control + alt + Y, or
command + option + Y on the Mac

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which is based on that
shortcut that allows us

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to switch back and forth
between the Outline

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and Preview modes.

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Anyway, I'll go ahead
and choose Pixel Preview

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and notice, now, we can see
all these choppy transitions.

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Now, these transitional
pixels, right here,

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are not blurry pixels,
rather they're what's known

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as anti-aliasing.

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So, the idea is this.

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If a pixel occurs entirely
inside this white letter, s,

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it's going to be white.

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If it occurs entirely
inside this blue bar,

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it's going to be blue,

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but if it strides the line,
then it's going to be some

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sort of mix of the two.

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Generally speaking, that's
really a great thing,

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because even though it looks
pretty jagged up close,

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it looks very smooth from far away,

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and you can see that's the
case if I press control + 1,

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or command + 1 on the
Mac, to zoom out to 100%

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at which point everything
looks pretty darn good.

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I'll go ahead and control + spacebar,

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or command + spacebar, click again.

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And notice, by the way,

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if you zoom into 600% or further,

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you're going to see the pixel grid

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which are all these little
lines between the pixels.

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I'm going to zoom out a bit, here,

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so that we can see the big problem,

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and, that is, the perpendicular edges.

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So, anytime you have a
horizontal or vertical line

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or edge, you're going to get
unnecessary anti-aliasing.

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And the reason that
this isn't necessary is

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because the perpendicular
edges fit very nicely

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inside square pixels.

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So, what we want to do is
turn the anti-aliasing off

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for these objects, by aligning
them to the pixel grid,

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and you do that by selecting
the objects, like so.

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In my case, by partially marqueeing them

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with my black arrow tool.

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And then, you have one of two options.

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You can right-click
inside the document window

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and choose this command right
here, Make Pixel Perfect,

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or you also have this icon
that's available to you

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on the far right side of the control panel

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that will align the selected
art to the pixel grid.

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And notice, as soon as I click on it,

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all of that anti-aliasing

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around the horizontal and
vertical edges disappears.

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Now, you need to bear in mind

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that not all objects need to be aligned

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to the pixel grid inside Illustrator.

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And so, for example,
if I were to select one

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of these curving drops, right here,

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by clicking on any one of them.

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Notice that they're
currently grouped together.

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Because we have these
smooth organic curves,

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not everything is going
to fit into square pixels.

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And so, in this case,
if I were to go ahead

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and click on that same icon,

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I'm going to get a warning that tells me

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that the selected art cannot
be made pixel perfect,

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and that's because curves
always require anti-aliasing

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when they're converted to square pixels.

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But, consider this artwork right here.

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If I go ahead and, once
again, partially marquee it

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with the black arrow tool,

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we have some curves as
well as these straight

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and perpendicular lines.

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Now, like curves, angled
lines require anti-aliasing,

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because, again, they're not going to fit

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into the perfect squares.

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But, any edge that's perpendicular,

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and, once again, by that
I mean exactly horizontal

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or vertical, then you can align that edge

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to the pixel grid by clicking on this icon

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on the far right side
of the control panel.

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And just like that, as you can see,

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all the anti-aliasing along

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that horizontal edge disappears.

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Now, you make take
issue with that and say,

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"Well, wait a second.

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"We still have a little
bit of anti-aliasing

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"right there along the top of that edge."

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And that's coming to us from
a different piece of artwork,

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namely this guy right here.

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So, to make it disappear,
I'll just go ahead

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and click on it to select it,

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and then, just for the sake of variety,

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I'll right click inside
the document window

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and choose Make Pixel Perfect,

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and that final bit of
anti-aliasing goes away.

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And that, friends, is
how you align horizontal

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and vertical edges so that they snap

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into exact alignment with the pixel grid

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when preparing screen graphics
here inside Illustrator.