The Units Display Performance Panel


The Units & Display Performance Panel

How do you measure performance? You won't find the answer here, but you will find settings for how your rulers appear and how to speed up screen redraw (Figure C.6).

Figure C.6. The Units & Display Performance Preferences panel lets you easily switch between a variety of measurements settings.


  • Units. Illustrator can utilize different measurement systems for different uses. These preferences allow you to specify default measurements for General items (rulers and coordinates, sizes and values for objects and drawing tools, etc.), Stroke width and dash settings, and Roman and Asian type specifications (size, leading, etc.). Note that these are all used to set the default measurements in Illustrator, but at any time, you can always enter a value and Illustrator does the conversion for you. So if your document is set to inches, you can still specify a 4p9 rectangle (see next paragraph for information on such measurements).

  • Numbers Without Units Are Points When you're using picas and points, the standard notation is to enter the number of picas, the letter "p", and the number of points (i.e., 12p6). If your value is only points, you enter something like p6 to indicate 6 points instead. With this option turned on, simply typing 6 means 6 points (as opposed to 6 picas).

  • Identify Objects By. Illustrator has the ability to generate templates with XML-based variables, which are useful for generating graphics files automatically using scripts or the Adobe Graphics Server. Some of these templates require that all variables are defined using valid XML names. By default, Illustrator uses the object name to define variables, but you can specify that Illustrator use valid XML IDs instead.

  • Display Performance. Do you have an ancient video card in your computer? Or are your files so complex that even the fastest of computers begs for mercy when trying to redraw your screen? The Hand Tool slider allows you to dial in the performance that you need when scrolling with the Hand tool. With the slider closer to Full Quality, your graphics do look better while scrolling, at the expense of a slower redraw. You can drag your slider toward Faster Updates for better performance, but you won't get great looking art until you let go of the mouse after scrolling.




Real World Adobe Illustrator CS2
Real World Adobe Illustrator CS2
ISBN: 0321337026
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 147
Authors: Mordy Golding

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