Can't scale to perspective like in photoshop

[Chris_Glawe@adobeforums.com]

When I paste a illustrator image into photoshop, I can grab just one of the corners and while holding down the apple/command key I can scale just that corner. This is great for when I do a illustration with perspective. Why doesn't Illustrator have this same feature. Do I need a plug-in? Thanks!

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

Free Transform Tool first start dragging the corner you want then while dragging the corner then hold down the Option Command keys or Option Shift Command keys, you'll see the difference between the two.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

note.. text must be converted to outlines before perspective will work on it via Wades explanation.

[Dee Holmes]

Not exactly, Scott, it just can't be in a text box.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Doesnt' work with point text here, unless it's converted to outlines Dee. Maybe it's me.

[Dee Holmes]

I can scale with point text in AI9 and AI10.

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

But you can't perspective distort or free distort which is what Scott is saying and what the original poster has in mind.

[Dee Holmes]

Doug, then explain free distort to me please.

[James_Talmage@adobeforums.com]

But you can't perspective distort or free distort which is what Scott
is saying and what the original poster has in mind.




Sure you can, Doug. With the Free Transform tool, mousedown on a bounding box corner. Then press Ctrl (I'm on PC; I assume Command on Mac) and you can distort just that corner (free distort). Press Ctrl and Alt and you distort opposite corners. Press Ctrl, Alt, and Shift and you distort both corners on one side with a "perspective" distortion.

JET

[James_Talmage@adobeforums.com]

Doesn't work in CS on areaText or pointText here, either.

JET

[Dee Holmes]

I'm not using the transform tool, I'm using the selection tool and just dragging the corner of the bounding box with control/alt/shift.

Must be something they changed in CS huh?

[Doug_Katz@adobeforums.com]

Right. NOT on area or point text... at least not in CS. And Scott's earlier comment way back in this thread was about the Free Transform of live text, I believe.

(You mean you CAN free distort live type in AI 10 and back?)

[Dee Holmes]

I always do in versions 9 and 10. Not with the transform tool, just with the selection tool holding the 3 magic keys and dragging the bounding box. I assume you can do it in AI8, but it's been so long I can't remember.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Yes, I was referring to live text in CS. It will skew and distort in some ways but perspective and free distort won't happen for me unless I convert text to outlines. I never gave it much thought actually. The amount I use this is very slim and I really prefer an envelope when this is needed. Maybe this is a bug in CS. I never used 9 ot 10 enough to know if it was the same. I went pretty much from 8 to CS only occassionally opening up 9 and 10 just to eventually go back to 8.

[Dee Holmes]

Geez, Scott, I hope it's just a preference setting or something in CS. I'd really hate to lose this feature when I cross over.

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

I will try to remove PullTab tomorrow morning and see if that changes things but I don't recall this working in previous versions on live text.

[Gary_Newman@adobeforums.com]

Ahem. Draw a rectangle on top of your text (area or point). Select both and go to Object - Envelope Distort - Make with Top Object. Now you may free distort with the Free Distort tool in perspective, and the text remains live and editable.

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

Yeah, like I posted Gary. I prefer envelopes as well.

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

I'm not so sure that works all that well Gary as it seems to stretch the text to fit the new rectangle if you don't have the text fill the whole rectangle.

Perhaps if you do it by just selecting the text frame or the point type and make an envelope distort with mesh with only one cell.

Then the text remains the same size as you started and only changes when you distort it. Although in actuality it does a very similar thing.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

The problem is that you can only free distort one handle of the bounding box in AI. Then it resets and creates a new bounding box. The next "free distort" distorts the enitre image, not just the side you want to distort. In PS you can keep working with the bounding box until the image is exactly what you want, then hit return, and it applies the entire distortion at once. Much simpler and cleaner.

I don't have CS but I've been told the AI interface hasn't changed in that version.