Option
Last updated on
Sep 11, 2025
Learn about the different ways to select objects and customize selection preferences in Adobe Illustrator.
Object selection options
To modify an object, you must first select it. Once selected, you can edit the object or its parts. Illustrator offers several tools and methods for selecting objects:
|
|
Function |
|
Selection (V) tool |
Selects objects and groups, including nested ones. |
|
Direct Selection (A) tool |
Selects and edits individual anchor points or path segments of an object. |
|
Group Selection tool |
Selects individual objects within a group, one at a time, without ungrouping. Each selection adds all objects from the next hierarchical group. |
|
Magic Wand (Y) tool |
Selects all objects with similar attributes, such as fill color, stroke weight, or opacity. |
|
Artboard (Shift + O) tool |
Selects, creates, and resizes artboards on the canvas. |
|
Lasso (Q) tool |
Selects objects, anchor points, or path segments by dragging around all or part of the object. |
|
Perspective selection tool |
Selects, moves, and transforms objects in perspective while maintaining alignment to the perspective grid. |
|
Live Paint Selection (Shift + L) tool |
Selects faces and edges in Live Paint groups. Faces are enclosed areas, and edges are segments between path intersections. |
|
Select menu commands |
Selects or deselects objects by attribute, type, relative position, or all objects in the active artboard, and saves or loads custom selections. |
Note
The Layers panel provides precise selection of individual objects, groups, or all objects within a layer, even when nested inside other elements.
Selection preferences
Specify the Selection & Anchor Display preferences to make selection easier for a particular document.
To access the preferences, select Edit > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display (Windows) or Illustrator > Settings > Selection & Anchor Display (macOS).
|
Option |
Function |
|
Tolerance |
Sets how close the pointer must be to an anchor point for selection. The default value is 3 pixels. |
|
Object Selection by Path Only |
Restricts selection to the object’s path and excludes the filled areas from selection. Useful when working with overlapping filled objects. Disabled by default. It does not apply to unfilled objects or in Outline mode, select the path directly. |
|
Snap to Point |
Aligns the pointer to anchor points and guides when objects are moved or transformed. |
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