This article provides step by step guidelines on how to create a download icon using Adobe Illustrator. It includes details on how to add artboards, create guides, copy elements from one artboard to another, and adjust the positioning of elements within the artboard.
Key Insights:
- Creating a download icon in Illustrator involves adding an additional artboard, creating guides at specific pixel points, and using tools such as the selection tool and the direct selection tool to manipulate elements on the artboard.
- Elements from one artboard can be copied to another by using the selection tool to draw a box around the desired elements, hitting control C on the keyboard, clicking on the destination artboard, and hitting control V to paste.
- Adjustments to the elements, such as rotating them, changing their length, and repositioning them can be done using various tools and controls in Illustrator, including the direct selection tool, the selection tool, and keyboard shortcuts.
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In this video, we're going to be working on our download icon. So, let's begin by first viewing our download icon, going into our C drive, opening our unzipped folder, and double-clicking the icons preview PDF.
As we can see here, the second icon is our download icon, and it uses the same arrow and most of a box below it. So, let's recreate this with Illustrator. We'll click back into Illustrator, and now, we need to create an additional artboard to the right of our first icon.
To do this, let's zoom out. I'll use CTRL + MINUS (-) on the keyboard, and I'll scroll right using CTRL on the keyboard, and scroll down with the mouse. We'll then add another artboard.
To add an additional artboard, we can go to our Artboard tool and simply click the icon for a new artboard found either within the Properties panel or the Control bar. We'll click, and we'll see that an additional artboard appears to the right. We can then click "Exit" within our Properties panel, and we're ready to create our second icon.
I'm going to scroll my perspective to the left, holding CTRL and moving up with the scroll button, so I can view the first icon as we work on this one. Additionally, I'll click on Artboard number two here, and also make sure that I'm working within the "Working" layers. I'll close the tab for "Final" layers, and now we're ready to begin creating the second icon.
The first thing we want to do is create guides for this, and so we'll drag from the left ruler, and holding Shift, we'll release right at 15 pixels, and we'll release from the top at 15 pixels. Unfortunately, these guides are disappearing because we still have "Hide Guides" on. To fix this, we'll right-click on the artboard and click "Show Guides."
We can now see all the guides in our work. Let's now delete this guide from our first artboard by selecting it and simply hitting the Delete key on our keyboard, so it’s not too distracting to the second icon. Next, let's begin creating our icon.
While we could create an arrow, just like we did with the first icon, we can also copy these elements and apply them to our second artboard. To do this, we're going to use the Selection Tool (V on the keyboard), and we'll simply draw a selection box around the first piece of art. As we can see, we also have the guides. To deselect the guides, we can hold Shift while clicking on each of the guides to deselect them.
Now, with only these three lines selected, we'll hit CTRL + C on our keyboard, and now, clicking on the second artboard, we'll hit CTRL + V to paste. Additionally, we want to move these three lines from the "Final" layer, where they currently reside, into our "Working" layer. With them already selected, we can see the blue selection to the right, indicating elements are selected. We'll drag them up into the "Working" layer by clicking and dragging.
When they've moved up, we'll see that they're now red, and we can begin working with these elements. Let's now drag all three to the right, to the center of our artboard. We can drag it until the center intersects, and we have our line here. Next, let's rotate all three lines so the arrow is pointing down.
To do this, we'll go to one of the edges, just like we rotated the lines, and we'll see that we have the curved arrows. We can then rotate by clicking and dragging, and if we hold Shift, we'll see that it rotates in 45-degree angles. We'll release when the arrow is pointing straight down, and we now simply have to adjust it so that it's centered within our artboard.
As we can see here, I also have one of the guides selected, so let's deselect everything, hitting CTRL + Shift + A, and we'll simply click this guide and delete it for now. Let's now zoom in to our download icon. We'll scroll to the right and hit CTRL + PLUS (+), then holding CTRL, we'll scroll down with the mouse and center our view, and zoom out once more.
Next, for our download button, the arrow will be shorter, so to shorten our line, we can use the Direct Selection Tool. To do this, we'll go to our Direct Selection Tool (or use A on the keyboard), and next, we’re going to want to take this anchor point that makes up the end of the line and move it down. We'll hover until we see the anchor, click, and now we've just selected one point of the line. We'll click and drag, moving down and holding Shift as we move down to make sure that we move straight across the line.
We'll drag it to about here, and now we need to move the entire arrow upward. To do this, we'll go back to our Selection Tool (hitting V), we'll deselect all using the shortcut CTRL + Shift + A to deselect everything, and then we’re going to select all three lines. To do this, we’ll select the bottom line on the right, and then holding Shift, the left line and the center line.
Then, we can move it up. We can do this a couple of ways. One is by clicking and dragging it up. Additionally, we can move the object once it's selected using the arrow keys. Moving it up, down, right, and left, we'll move it up so that the arrow has enough room for most of the box to be below. We’ll then deselect all using CTRL + Shift + A, and let's now save our work using CTRL + S on the keyboard.
As we can see, Illustrator is helpful with many different shortcuts that will help speed up productivity. In the next video, we'll be adding the bottom download box. See you there!