Illustrator

Shear objects

Shearing an object slants, or skews, the object along the horizontal or vertical axis, or a specified angle that’s relative to a specified axis. Objects shear relative to a reference point which varies depending on the shearing method you choose and can be changed for most shearing methods. You can lock one dimension of an object as you shear it, and you can shear one object or multiple objects simultaneously.

Shearing is useful for creating cast shadows.
Shearing relative to the center (left) compared to shearing relative to a user-defined reference point (right)

Shear objects with the Shear tool

  1. Select one or more objects.
  2. Select the Shear tool .
  3. Do one of the following:

    • To shear relative to the object’s center, drag anywhere in the document window.

    • To shear relative to a different reference point , click anywhere in the document window to move the reference point, move the pointer away from the reference point, and then drag until the object is at the desired slant.

    • To shear along the object’s vertical axis, drag anywhere in the document window in an up or down direction. To constrain the object to its original width, hold down Shift.

    • To shear along the object’s horizontal axis, drag anywhere in the document window in a left or right direction. To constrain the object to its original height, hold down Shift.

Shear objects with the Shear command

  1. Select one or more objects.
  2. Do one of the following:

    • To shear from the center, choose Object > Transform > Shear or double-click the Shear tool.

    • To shear from a different reference point, select the Shear tool  and Alt‑click (Windows) or Option‑click (Mac OS) where you want the reference point to be in the document window.

  3. In the Shear dialog box, enter a shear angle from ‑359 to 359. The shear angle is the amount of slant applied to the object in a clockwise direction and is relative to a line that’s perpendicular to the shear axis.
  4. Select the axis along which to shear the object.

    If you chose an angled axis, enter a value between –359 and 359, relative to the horizontal axis.

  5. If the objects contain a pattern fill, select Patterns to move the pattern. Deselect Objects if you want to move the pattern but not the objects.
  6. Click OK, or click Copy to shear a copy of the objects.

Shear objects with the Free Transform tool

  1. Select one or more objects.
  2. Select the Free Transform tool .
  3. Do one of the following:

    • To shear along the object’s vertical axis, start dragging the middle-left or middle-right bounding-box handle, and then hold down Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Option+Command (Mac OS) as you drag up or down. You can also hold down Shift to constrain the object to its original width.

    • To shear along the object’s horizontal axis, start dragging the top-middle or bottom-middle bounding-box handle and then hold down Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or Option+Command (Mac OS) as you drag right or left. You can also hold down Shift to constrain the object to its original height.

Shear objects with the Transform panel

  1. Select one or more objects.
  2. In the Transform panel, enter a value in the Shear text box.

    To change the reference point, click a white square on the reference point locator  before you enter the value.

    You can also call up the Transform panel by clicking X, Y, W, or H in the Control panel.