Changing the unit of measurement


    The default unit of measurement in Illustrator is points (a point equals .3528 millimeter). You can change the unit of measurement to inches, millimeters, centimeters, picas (a pica equals 12 points or 4.2333 millimeters), or pixels. This general unit of measurement is used for rulers, measuring the distance between points, moving and transforming objects, setting grid and guides spacing, and creating shapes.

    For rules that apply when you enter unit values, see Entering values in palettes and dialog boxes.

    Note: Illustrator provides separate options for changing stroke and type units. (See Changing stroke attributes and Changing the type units.)

To set the unit of measurement for all documents:

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Mac OS).
  2. From the General pop-up menu, choose the unit of measure you want to use, and click OK.

To set the unit of measurement for only the current document:

  1. Choose File > Document Setup. Choose Artboard from the pop-up menu at the top left of the Document Setup dialog box.
  2. From the Units pop-up menu, choose the unit of measure you want to use, and click OK.
  3. Tip iconYou can quickly change the units of measure by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac OS) the ruler and choosing a new unit of measure from the menu that appears.