Quick Tip: The Tilde Key Trick
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Quick Tip: The Tilde Key Trick

on Apr 1st 2010 with 54 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Illustrator CS4
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Video Length: 1:55 min

This screencast covers fun with the Tilde key and Adobe Illustrator. Works with any Shape Tool, the Line Segment Tool, the Arc Tool, the Spiral Tool, and more. Use this technique to quickly make complex shape patterns.

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By

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Cheryl Graham trained as a traditional artist in drawing and painting. These days she spends more time in front of the computer than the easel. She's been using Adobe Illustrator for over 15 years. Her Illustrator work has been featured in the "The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book" and "Real World Illustrator."  

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  • Ollivier

    Great, what about PC keyboard ?

    • http://www.graphicbeacon.com graphicbeacon

      use the single quote (‘) instead, the one on the same as the @ symbol next to the semicolon

  • http://designsbythec.ca Chrispytwist

    Thanks for that little demonstration. Just getting started on Illustrator myself and that will add some fun to things.

  • http://lenatailor.designerteam.info Lena Tailor

    Cool… interesting Trick… It will keep me busy for a while.
    Thanks.

  • Herr Blopix

    Hello,
    great Tip!
    On an German Keyboard it´s the “ö” Key

    Greetings

  • http://www.sitesyrup.co.uk SiteSyrup

    Sure could save a lot of time. Thanks

    -=SiteSyrups last Blog Post- More Syrupy Monsters =-

  • nielsch

    Sick trick :D Awesome, will play with this a lot over the next few days.
    Thanks

  • http://www.graphicbeacon.com graphicbeacon

    Neat trick. This tutorial seems to be aimed more at the mac keyboard or the US layout. I say this because im using the UK keyboard layout and therefore the Tilde key does not work. Instead it works with the single quote(‘) next to the semicolon (;) on the keyboard layout.

  • http://vimeo.com/4925316 Joe

    Great, thanks for the tip! I’m off to make some crazy lines :)

  • http://www.jakedillard.com Jake Dillard

    Nice tip! Very interesting.

    Someone please clarify for me, but isn’t it pronounced Vector TUHTS? Not Vector TOOTS?

    TUH TORIAL, NOT TOO TORIAL?

    • http://www.jonathanpatterson.com Jonathan Patterson

      tuts not toots.

    • Alison

      I’ve said too-torial all my life. Am I wrong? ;__;

  • João

    Hmm, cant seam to find any key to make it work.

  • João

    Hum just found out that for portuguese keybords its the key “ç”.
    cheers.

  • Terry

    Cool. But in Italian keyboard there is no tilde key.
    I’m not alble to do the same!!
    Could you help me? :-)

  • http://www.SuccessCircuit.com Shane Hudson

    Wow, this is new to me! As mentioned already, the UK keyboard uses the ‘ key instead which is in between ‘;’ and ‘#’.

  • http://www.uproarmultimedia.com Gregory Gunther

    Thanks for the tip. This was something I didn’t know about. And it may come in handy.

  • Natasha K

    I have tryed almost every button than could have been used for doing this ( ½ 2 ´ ¨ ‘ – . , ) on my Danish keyboard and nothing works.

    Does anyone have an idea how this works with non US/UK keyboards?

  • http://www.schrumpfschlaeuche.org Schrumpfschlauch

    cool trick… know I must find the key on the german keyboard… thx a lot

  • Katerwater

    It also does not work on AZERTY-keyboards…

  • katerwater

    I found it: for French and Belgian AZERTY-keyboards it is the “<"

    • Beep

      I can’t seem to find it. My belgian AZERTY-keyboard does not respond when I use the <-key. What am I doing wrong then?

      • val

        on my French AZERTY keyboard it’s actually “ù”…

  • shxxx82

    hey doesnt work at all….
    english tastatur in german configuration…
    makes me sad ;(

    help

    greetz

  • aladinooo

    Thanks for sharing this tip with us, very useful and powerful trick, KUDOS

  • illy

    The magic key in the German version on a German system is also this key: <

  • Andrea

    In spanish pc keyboards is the key ñ

  • http://www.mykhawater.blogspot.com anas3laa

    Great .
    i don’t know about it before
    i’ll try it , Thanks very much

  • http://www.pixelic.com/ Goran (Pixelic)

    In Sweden it is also the following key: <

  • Cheryl

    Thanks for all the comments re: non-US keyboards. It was certainly an oversight on my part, and I’ll try to give alternatives in the future. Glad to see that we have so many readers from around the world.

    As for tuts vs. toots, I’ve always pronounced it TOOtorial. Hmm.

  • http://www.everybodyelse.etsy.com Melody

    Looks cool. Of course I’m not entirely certain what you did since my computer has no working speakers. Maybe next time also type out instructions so the speaker impaired can learn too?

  • http://_ arvi

    Its Like Magic………..

  • Natalia

    I would like to know how to make this same trick on CS3, i used the tilde key but it didnt work.

  • http://jeremiespangrude.daportfolio.com/ Jeremie Spangrude

    This one trick pony is awesome! Thanks a ton.

  • Rodrigo Sakata

    Anyone knows what the key in a mac japanese keyboard?

  • http://klaes.se Klaes

    Hey!

    Thanks, on swedish keyboards its the < key.
    Makes a pretty cool effect if you press shift also when dragging.

    Thanks!

  • http://klaes.se Klaes

    By the way i’m working on CS 3 and it works fine.

  • http://www.imatei.ro Matei

    Cool trick – thanks!

  • Emanuele Conti

    Hello everyone!
    I know this is not the right place to post my question, but I was wondering if anyone knows any tips or trick or tool in order to make vector “money-like” background decoration.

    Image reference:
    http://www.freeworldalliance.biz/Pictures/1DollarBillPlain.jpg

    Or something very Obey style:

    http://pakalert.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/obey-giant-hostile-takeover-black1.jpg

    Let me know!
    Thank you so much!

  • Florent Zimmermann

    Hi everyone !

    it works for me with the “ù” on CS5
    i’m french and my keyboard is AZERTY

    Bye

  • http://jamiebarrow.deviantart.com James

    tutorial is pronounced TOOTorial. (or TWOtorial :B)

    tut is pronounced TUHT.

    Just like with Tutenkhamen and King Tut.

  • http://studiofunhouse.com Rey Hauksson

    Hahaha… who would have thunk…

    Great trick and thanks for sharing this.

  • Ainara

    In a spanish QWERTY keyboard and working with a mac… it’s the “<" key.

  • http://crbarnett.com Chris

    This “one trick pony” just came in very handy. I’m a web guy who mostly visits PSD and NET tuts. Just so happens that today is my lucky day! The tilde trick was exactly what I needed for a large scale print ad. Thanks!

  • Edgar

    Thanks Andrea.. ;)

  • http://sosparkly.photoshop.com Sherri

    Thanks! I appreciate the info, looks like fun!

  • sandeep aherkar

    very nice sir

  • http://www.mlangella.com/blog Manuela

    For Italian Keyboard (Mac), Tilde Key is <

  • LR

    Darn, I keep forgetting about this thing.

  • http://antongrahn.se Grahn

    Very Nice!

  • Citrina

    How about the PC keyboards?

    • MJ

      On PC (Japanese Keyboard) with some trial and error the Tilde action was 5
      It did not matter if I toggled the language bar input between Japanese/English keyboard, same result.

      In Illustrator, Alt+5 duplicated the object during perspective move,

  • DavidR

    In Spanish QWERTY MAC is the < key also

  • chung dempsey

    cool