: Converting shape into symbol in Illustrator distorts the box I am trying to convert a simple shape into a symbol. When I do that, the selection box (I don't know the technical term for it)

@Caterina889

By default, all strokes in Illustrator are aligned to the center of their corresponding path. The bounding box on paths, is defined by the outside edge of the path and not the stroke applied to that path. You can see this by changing the stroke weight... the bounding box won't change no matter how thick or thin the stroke.

A Symbol is seen as a rectangle with contents. There is no "path" directly for a symbol. The bounding box for a Symbol is defined as the outside preview of the symbol contents, and not the paths within the symbol.

You can see identical bounding boxes for both pieces of art by ticking the Use Preview Bounds option in Preferences > General.

There is no way to change what a symbols sees as it's defining shapes. It'll always be the preview bounds. Therefore, if you want symbol and standard artwork to have the same bounding box, you need to check Use Preview Bounds in the Preferences and leave it on.

In some cases you can align a stroke to the inside on non-symbol artwork as @Lucian answers. That will work for simple stroked shapes. However, that is not always a viable solution and is highly dependent upon the actual artwork containing the stroke.

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@Nimeshi706

Firstly, the pink box is commonly referred to as a bounding box.

Secondly, I don't think that it is possible to achieve the behaviour that you are looking for.

In your first image the bounding box shows the extent of the shape. The key line is a style applied to that shape so it can go beyond the bounding box. Once the shape is converted to a symbol, the appearance is expanded (sort off) so the bounding box moves to the extent of the resulting object. That's just how illustrator works.

As I see it, you have two options; either don't use symbols (you can still duplicate the shape and it will then behave as you want it to) or if you need to use symbols, then align the centre of the symbol to your grid, rather than the edges. If your example is representative then the centre won't move.

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@Shanna688

Before converting to symbol, align the stroke of your circle shape to inside by clicking this button shown below. This pushes the stroke inside the circle so it doesn`t go off the grid.

The pink box is called 'Bounding Box' and it is pink because your layer is pink. Bounding boxes will take the color of their layer. Change the color of your layer to green, the box will be green and so on. Not always pink :)

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