Using guides and grids

When displayed, guides appear as lines that float over the entire composition in front of objects. Guides help in positioning objects in the composition. They are not printed nor exported. You can move or delete a guide. You can also lock a guide to avoid accidentally moving it.

Guides and grids behave similarly:

• Objects snap to a guide or grid when dragged within 8 pixels. Guides also snap to the grid when moved. You can turn this feature on and off.
• Guide spacing and grid visibility are specific to a file.
• Grid spacing, and grid color and style are the same for all files.

To show or hide guides and grids:

Choose View > Show Guides or Show Grid.

To place a guide:

With the rulers displayed, do one of the following:

• Drag from the horizontal ruler to create a horizontal guide.
• Drag from the vertical ruler to create a vertical guide.

To move a guide:

Select the guide with a selection tool, and drag the guide to its new position.

To lock all guides:

Choose View > Lock Guides.

To delete a guide from the composition:

Select the guide with a selection tool, and drag the guide out of the composition area and back to the ruler.

To clear all guides:

Select View > Clear Guides.

To turn snap to guide or snap to grid behavior on or off:

Choose View > Snap To Guides or Snap To Grid.

To set grid preferences:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences.
2. Set the gridline spacing and subdivisions using the Grid sliders or by entering values directly in the text boxes.