Tech: Shear Transformation in Illustrator

April 4, 2006

I tried to use draw an isometric grid with some text in it. Kun-Chang suggested me to use Illustrator to draw a grid, but he did not know how to call shear transformation feature in it. In short, we want to draw a rectangular grid and shear transform it to an isometric one.

To draw a rectangular grid:

1. Show a grid (in top menu bar)
   
2. Snap to grid (in top menu bar as well)
3. Draw a grid easily as you want
   

To call the feature, do not use the top menu bar, but right click on objects you want to transform, instead. We can do multiple transform by dragging an area of interest as usual. Then, choose Transform -> Shear. Next, select shear angle. The good one is 20 degree.

When export it for later use with other document, we'd better use somewhat high resolution to do that job.