: Shape gets distorted when adding stroke in Illustrator CS6 I very recently started learning how to use Adobe Illustrator (CS6), and just now I noticed something strange. When I add a 1pt stroke

@Marchetta832

Turning 'Align to pixel grid' off doesn't affect previous shapes. If I
turn it off and then recreate my shape from scratch, the problem is
fixed.


That is correct. Because the setting affects what you do from there on. But what is happening exactly here? The problem is that a stroke (typically with 1pt) is centered on the line, resulting in "half" pixels. Now Illustrator tries to set those new outlines on whole pixels, resulting in your curves moving. Here are two additional things (to turning off align to grid, as you might need the alignment) you can use to battles this from the start:

Work in 10-fold of the size.
Why? All this typically happens when working on very small sizes (e.g. 16x16px). So If you work in 160x160 and export everything with 10% it reduces this problem.

Setting up the stroke in 2pt.
I found out that you can also battle this behavior by setting the stroke to 2pt when you set it up, basically 1px on the inside and one one the outside. Then, align the stroke to the inside or outside. After that you can change it back to 1pt.

I myself work only with 1pt stroke aligned inside or outside anymore. The results are simply more crisp too as it eliminates the half-pixel problem on straight lines.

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@Jessie844

The control for whether or not each individual object is aligned to the pixel grid is hidden by default (in CS6, and I think in CS5 too). Why? No idea... one of those many confusing things.

In the Transform window (open it with Window > Transform), in the flyout menu (icon in top right corner), click Show options. In most panels in Adobe applications, many of the most important controls are helpfully hidden without trace like this...

That then gives you two checkboxes:



The 'Align to pixel grid' button controls the setting for whatever you currently have selected, and works whether or not you have Align new objects to pixel grid ticked.

I'm 90% sure that this is what Scott was referring to, and that because there was no visible Align to Pixel Grid button, you thought he meant the Align new objects to pixel grid option. Personally, I always hit 'show options' on everything and don't remember what's hidden by default and what isn't (because why would I ever hide options? Silly Adobe...).



Select everything (cmd+A), then tick the now-unhidden Align to Pixel Grid box until it's empty to completely cleanse your document of Align new objects to pixel grid having been ticked by default.



Personally, I don't really trust Align to Pixel Grid except as a last resort when designed-for-web images are rendering really badly - I prefer to use the Wundes script Pixel Align which just nudges the selected objects onto the pixel grid once with no unexpected consequences.

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@Caterina889

Uncheck Align to Pixel Grid on the Transform Panel.

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