Beginner Illustrator InDesign Tutorials

How to Use the Align Panel in Illustrator and InDesign

Kelly Osmolski

In this tutorial, we’ll go over how to use the Align panel in Illustrator and InDesign!

Understand the Align Panel

In Illustrator, access the align panel by clicking Window > Align (Shift + F7).

In InDesign, access the align panel by clicking Window > Object & Layout > Align (Shift + F7).

Tip: Drag the align panel to your windows panel to give you easy access to the alignment panel. Simply click on the Align Icon when you need to access the alignment panel.

The top row has alignment options while the bottom row has distribution options. What’s the difference?

  • Align Objects – align every object you select to the furthest left, right, bottom, top, or center most point of the objects.
  • Distribute Objects – equally distribute the objects you select from the left, right, bottom, top, or center.

Before we go into every alignment and distribution option, there should be a menu on the bottom right corner that says Align To:. Make sure you’re on Align to Selection. That means everything object you select will all align relative to each other.

Align to Selection

Here we have two squares and a circle placed randomly on the artboard. When we select them all and click Horizontal Align Left, they all align to the left most part of the selection, which is the pinkish square’s left side.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
black square (top left), green circle (middle left), pink square (bottom left)

Click Horizontal Align Center to move the objects either left or right to align everything to the center of the selection.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
black square (top), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom)

Click Horizontal Align Right to align everything to the right most part of the selection, which is to the right side of the black square.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
black square (top right), green circle (middle right), pink square (bottom right)

Vertical Align Top aligns everything to the top most part of the selection, which is the top of the black square.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
black square (top right), green circle (top middle), pink square (top left)

Vertical Align Center moves the objects either up or down to align everything to the center of the selection.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
black square (middle right), green circle (middle), pink square (middle left)

Vertical Align Bottom aligns everything to the bottom most part of the selection, which is the bottom of the pinkish square.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
black square (bottom right), green circle (bottom middle), pink square (bottom left)

Distribution

Vertical Distribute Top distributes the tops of the objects equally. There are red lines on the top of each object to show that the tops of all the objects are equidistant.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
The top of each shape is equidistant from each other.
The top of each shape is equidistant from each other (with red lines intersecting the top of each shape).

Vertical Distribute Center moves the objects up or down to distribute the centers of the objects equally.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
The middle of each shape is equidistant from each other.
The middle of each shape is equidistant from each other (with red lines intersecting the middle of each shape).

Vertical Distribute Bottom distributes the bottoms of the objects equally. The objects are already vertically distributed so they haven’t moved.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
The bottom of each shape is equidistant from each other (with red lines intersecting the bottom of each shape).

Horizontal Distribute Left distributes the left most side of the objects equally.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
The left side of each shape is equidistant from each other.
The left side of each shape is equidistant from each other (with red lines intersecting the left side of each shape).

Horizontal Distribute Center moves the objects either left or right to distribute the centers of the objects equally.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
The center of each shape is equidistant from each other.
The center of each shape is equidistant from each other (with red lines intersecting the center of each shape).

Horizontal Distribute Right distributes the right most side of the objects equally.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)
The right side of each shape is equidistant from each other.
The right side of each shape is equidistant from each other (with red lines intersecting the right side of each shape).

Align to Key Object

Layers panel with the following order (highest to lowest): pink square, black square, green circle.

Now that we’ve gone through every alignment and distribution option, we can go through the Align To: menu. Change Align to Selection to Align to Key Object. With this chosen, instead of everything being relative to each other, your objects will now be relative to a key object. The key object is the one that’s the highest in your layers – in this case, the pink square.

Here are all the alignment and distribution options applied to the pink square:

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)

When you align objects with the Key Object selection, the corresponding alignment and distribution options achieve the same effect.

Align to Artboard

Finally, we’ll align and distribute to the artboard. This means that the objects align themselves relative to the artboard. Objects align to the left, right, top, bottom, and center of the artboard.

black square (top right), green circle (middle), pink square (bottom left)

The Align To: menu in InDesign is roughly the same. However, in InDesign the Align To: menu includes margin (the area inside the pink/purple lines on the page), page (equivalent to the Illustrator artboard), and spread (the left and right page put together).

Want to use the Align panel in Illustrator more? Check out Designing Impactful Infographics with Adobe Illustrator to use your new skills to create your own infographic!