Turn on or off snapping and the snap grid

The snap grid gives you a set of horizontal and vertical gridlines on the artboard. If Snapping to gridlines is turned on when you drag an object on the artboard, the object will snap or pull towards the closest horizontal and vertical gridlines.

Workspace showing the snap grid turned on

Cc295038.e233e02b-ac6e-41f6-9f76-09e2b95575d7(en-us,Expression.10).png

If Snapping to snaplines is turned on when you drag an object on the artboard, the object will snap to the following targets:

  • Column and row dividers in a grid panel

  • Default margins

  • Baselines (for text objects)

  • Alignment boundaries, which appear on the artboard as red dashed lines

  • Default padding, or the padding properties that are set on the parent object

Shaded red areas showing snaplines

Cc295038.7af0ac70-e65b-474e-b0a0-68e41d0278a4(en-us,Expression.10).png

To show the snap grid

  • Do one of the following:

    • In the lower-left corner of the artboard, click Show snap grid Cc295038.b48738e0-1fee-40c9-80e4-34c466330775(en-us,Expression.10).png. To hide the snap grid, click the button again to see the off icon Cc295038.dfb395a4-6603-4b1d-af9e-52b3bf138c19(en-us,Expression.10).png.

    • On the Tools menu, click Options. In the Options dialog box, make sure that Artboard is selected on the left, and then select the Show snap grid check box. Click OK.

To turn on snapping to gridlines

  • Do one of the following:

    • In the lower-left corner of the artboard, click Turn on snapping to gridlines Cc295038.b1f294ca-8df2-45ba-9186-5bbdc7a019f1(en-us,Expression.10).png. To turn off snapping to gridlines, click the button again to see the off icon Cc295038.301d92cd-9679-4569-8161-b79a5821ad78(en-us,Expression.10).png.

    • On the Tools menu, click Options. In the Options dialog box, make sure that Artboard is selected on the left, and then select the Snap to gridlines check box. Click OK.

To configure gridline spacing

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

  2. In the Options dialog box, set the Gridline spacing to the value that you want. The default is 8 pixels (or device-independent units).

  3. Click OK.

To turn on snapping to snaplines

  • Do one of the following:

    • In the lower-left corner of the artboard, click Turn on snapping to snaplines Cc295038.322c9ec0-4060-43b5-8448-b28b0afcc3b5(en-us,Expression.10).png. To turn off snapping to snaplines, click the button again to see the off icon Cc295038.82706e25-3117-415c-a8ff-e370d8d97999(en-us,Expression.10).png.

    • On the Tools menu, click Options. In the Options dialog box, make sure that Artboard is selected on the left, and then select the Snap to snaplines check box. Click OK.

To configure snapline margins and padding

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

  2. In the Options dialog box, set the Default margin and Default padding properties to the values that you want. The defaults are 4 and 8 pixels (or device-independent units), respectively.

  3. Click OK.