Illustrator Tip: 9-Point Proxy and Transformation

Have you ever wondered what those 9 tiny small squares are all about on your Transform palette?!! Well, those tiny squares are called 9-Point Proxy which corresponds to the 8 points of an object's bounding box and its center.

If you click on any one point of this 9 points, your selected point is highlighted by black color and the x, y coordinates also changes depending on the point you have selected, that is: clicking a different point reveals the coordinates for that point of the selection.

When specifying transformations like rotation or skew values, or width or height settings the point you choose becomes the origin point, the point from which the transformation originates. For example, rotating an object from any of corner or side points yields very different results from that same rotation applied to its center point.

Just for the sake of experimentation draw a simple rectangle, duplicate it by copying it and paste it in front (Ctrl+F), so that both of them are exactly on the same place. Now, for one rectangle, select a center point in 9-point proxy and rotate it say 45 degree. And for the second rectangle select one of the corner point in 9-point proxy and rotate it 45 degree. The results will vary.

Oh and while I am at it, you may also like to check out my other Illustrator Tips/Tricks I have written over at Vectordiary:

• Transparency and Knockout Group
• Transform Pattern
• Pasting Smart Objects in Photoshop from illustrator