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- [Instructor] In this movie,
I'll show you how to use

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the simplest of the line tools,

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which Illustrator calls
the Line Segment Tool.

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And all it does is allow
you to draw straight lines.

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But as we'll see in the next movie,

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there's a lot you can
do with straight lines

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inside Illustrator.

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So the first thing I'm going to do

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is create a new layer to house my lines,

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and while it isn't absolutely
necessary that you do this,

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it's good to get in the habit

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of creating independent
layers for your designs.

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And it's often useful to keep your guides,

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which we drew in the previous movie,

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isolated to their own layer as well.

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So the first thing you want to do

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is make sure that you're
seeing the Layers panel

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up on screen.

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Then, drop down to this little page icon

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at the bottom of the panel and click on it

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to create a new layer in front

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of the previously selected one.

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The only problem with working this way

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is you end up with an unnamed layer,

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notice in our case it's called layer two.

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Of course, you can change that

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just by double clicking on that name

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and typing in a new one,

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but you may find over time,

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that you prefer to name your
layers as you create them

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and you do this as follows.

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First thing I'm going to
do is escape out there

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and then press Control + Z

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or Command + Z on a Mac to undo
the creation of that layer.

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Then, I will once again dropdown
to the little page icon,

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and I will Alt or Option + Click on it

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to force the display of the
Layer Options dialog box.

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So once again, that's an Alt + Click

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or an Option + Click on a Mac.

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And now, I'll just go ahead
and call this layer, lines,

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and click OK in order to
create my new lines layer.

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Next, if you're working along with me,

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go up to the View menu

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and make sure Smart Guides is turned on.

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So, if it's got a check
mark in front of it,

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that's just fine.

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If it doesn't, then go ahead
and choose the command.

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And then, you want to select
the Line Segment Tool,

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which you'll find directly
underneath the Type Tool

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in the single column toolbox.

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If you're not seeing it, just
go ahead and click and hold

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on whatever tool you do see

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and then select the Line Segment Tool

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from the top of the flyout menu.

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Notice that it has a keyboard shortcut

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which is a backward
version of the tools icon,

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so in other words, you can
press the backslash key

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to select the Line Segment Tool.

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You'll also have the option

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of releasing on this vertical bar

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in order to create an
independent mini toolbox

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that contains just those line tools

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that we saw in the flyout menu.

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Alright, assuming that your
Line Segment Tool is selected,

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just go ahead and drag some
place inside the document window

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and because we have
Smart Guides turned on,

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you're going to see a heads up display.

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The d-value stands for distance,

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and it represents the length of the line.

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And we're also seeing an angle value

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that tells us the angle,

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and of course, both of these
values are going to change

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on the fly.

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Once you get the effect you want,

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just go ahead and release the mouse button

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in order to create that straight line.

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Now, notice these two swatches up here

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at the beginning of the control panel,

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over here on the left hand side.

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The first one indicates the fill,

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and the fill is the
color inside of a shape.

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A straight line, however, has no inside.

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And so, it's generally
best to make sure its fill

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is set to none, as
indicated by this white box

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with a red slash through it.

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If you're seeing some other color,

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just go ahead and click on the swatch

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and select this very first swatch

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in the upper left corner
of the popup panel.

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Next, we see the color of the stroke,

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which is essentially the
color of the outline,

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as we'll see in more detail

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over the course of these chapters.

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And third, we have this line weight value,

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which represents the
thickness of the stroke.

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And so, just so I can see things
a little better on screen,

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I'm going to click this
down pointing arrowhead,

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and I'm going to choose eight point

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in order to thicken up that line.

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Alright, so obviously,
drawing a straight line

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is pretty easy work inside of Illustrator,

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but you do have a few more options

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that are available to you.

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For one thing, I'll go
ahead and start dragging

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at the intersection of
these two guidelines.

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Rather than dragging from
one endpoint to the other,

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you can draw from the center outward

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by pressing and holding the alt key

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or the option key on a Mac.

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And now, you can see that
that line is centered

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at the intersection of those two guides.

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But you've got to keep the alt key down,

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that is to say, the option key on the Mac,

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because if you release at
any point as you're drawing,

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then you're going to go back to
your standard drawing method,

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that is to say, you're going
to start at one endpoint

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and end at another.

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But because I do want to
go from the center out,

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I'll keep my alt key down,

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again that's the option key on a Mac.

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You can also constrain
the angle of your line

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by first dragging with
the Line Segment Tool

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and then pressing and
holding the shift key.

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And because my shift key is down,

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the angle value, as you can see here,

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goes from zero degrees to
45 degrees to 90 degrees

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to 135 and so forth.

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So, in other words, pressing
and holding the shift key

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constrains the angle of the line

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to a multiple of 45 degrees,

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which includes of course

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vertical and horizontal lines as well,

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but again, you've got to
keep that shift key down.

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If you release the shift key,

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the constraint is going to go away.

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So, because I want an absolutely
horizontal line, let's say,

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I'm going to keep that shift key down

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until after I release the mouse button.

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Now, in addition to
actually drawing the line

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by dragging inside the document,

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you can click with the Line Tool

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in order to bring up a dialog box

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that allows you to
specify exact dimensions.

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And again, that's just
a click with the tool.

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And let's say I want the
length to be 300 points.

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I could just enter that in there,

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or I could enter something like 2.5"

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in order to create a two
and a half inch line,

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and then, that way, as soon
as I press the tab key,

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Illustrator automatically
converts the inches to points.

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Now, I'll enter an angle
value of let's say 45 degrees,

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and I'll click OK in
order to create a line

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by the numbers like so.

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Alright, so much for creating lines.

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Now let's see how you can edit them.

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Notice if you move your cursor

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over one of these points right here,

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you're going to get a little arrowhead,

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which tells you that you
can drag these points

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in order to manipulate them like so,

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and if you drag while pressing the alt key

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or the option key in the Mac,

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then you're going to
expand or contract the line

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with respect to its center point

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as we're seeing right here.

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You also have the option
of moving the line

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to a different location,

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which you do by hovering your cursor

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not over the line itself

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but rather over that
center point right there,

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at which point, once again,

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your cursor will change to an arrowhead,

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which tells you that you
can drag the entire line

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to a new location.

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And then, one more thing you can do,

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just so you know all your options,

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you can hover your cursor
very close to an endpoint,

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not quite on it, at which point

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you'll get this rotate cursor

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and then if you drag,
you're going to once again

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rotate the line around its center

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without changing its length.

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So it's just a straight ahead rotation.

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And those, my friends, are the many ways

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to use the Line Segment Tool

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here inside the most recent
version of Illustrator CC.