Do You Want to Draw an Arrow in Illustrator? Whether creating infographics, menus, or booklets, arrows are indispensable tools that can guide the viewer’s attention without cluttering your design.
In this tutorial, we will be creating arrows using Illustrator’s Stroke panel, Shape tools, Pen tool, and Symbols panel, inspired by four simple methods.
Straight arrows, curved arrows, and whatever-else-you-can-think of arrow heads can all be made directly in Illustrator depending on your design.
To create your arrows, you will need to use different tools, such as line segment or shape tools. In this article, I will show you 3 ways How you can draw an Arrow in Illustrator. Note: All screenshots in this tutorial are taken from the Illustrator PC version. MAC or other versions can look different.
Steps to Draw an Arrow in Illustrator
- Method 1: Using the Stroke Panel
- Method 2: Using the Shape tools
- Method 3: Use the Pen Tool or Brush tool
- Method 4: Use Symbols Panel
Method 1: How to Create an Arrow in Illustrator Using the Stroke Panel
Step 1: Create a New Artboard. First of all, go to File>New or shortcut Ctrl+N (Windows) / Cmd+N (Mac) to create a new artboard. Set the different page aspects like size, bleed, and dimensions, then click OK.
Step 2: Draw a line. Choose the Line Segment tool or shortcut \. Click and drag on the artboard to draw a line. Remove the fill and make it a stroke.
Step 3: Open the stroke panel. Go to Window>Stroke. Click the arrowheads option and choose the kind of arrowhead and tail you want. To add an arrowhead, go to the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) with the line selected.
Step 4: Add Arrowheads. From the options, choose an arrowhead for both the front and rear. Finally, set aspects’ of the arrow from the menu. You can set the color, thickness, and many more.
Step 5: Adjust Arrow Appearance. Use the Stroke Panel options to customize the arrow’s thickness, scale, and other properties. Alternatively, you can change the stroke color in the Color Panel.
Method 2: How to Make Arrows in Illustrator with Shape Tools
Step 1: Create an artboard like you did in the earlier section. That is File>New or Ctrl+N (Windows) / Cmd+N (Mac) and set the size and dimensions.
Step 2: Create a rectangle shape with a long length and short width. To do this, click the shape tool or shortcut M and choose the rectangle tool. To draw, just click and drag.
Step 3: Create a triangle shape using the polygon tool. To get the polygon tool, just click and hold on the rectangle tool. When you draw, you’ll notice it has more than 3 points. Hold down the right mouse key and click the down arrows on your keyboard until you draw it as a triangle.
Alternatively, you can click on the artboard with the Polygon tool selected. Input 3 sides on the pop-up menu to create a triangle.
Step 4: Rotate the triangle to the correct side to form the arrow.
Step 5: Combine to one object: You want to join the two to one object so that you can easily change colors as a single object. Select the two shapes and go to Window>Pathfinder. With the two selected, click the circled option.
Method 3: Use the Pen Tool or Brush tool
Instead of using the shape or line segment tool, you can use the pen, pencil, or pencil tools to draw your line. After that, you can either use the stroke to create the arrow ends on the lines or the polygon tool to create a triangle. If you use the Polygon option, you must unite like we did earlier to be able to edit the final arrow as one.
Method 3: Use Symbols Panel
Step 1: For the symbols panel, go to Window>Symbols to open the symbols panel.
Step 2: Click the three lines on the top right of the menu. Choose Open Library, and choose arrows.
Step 3: The pop-up window will show some arrow options. Choose the one you like and drag and drop it to your artboard. That’s it—you have created an arrow.
Conclusion
Now that you learned how to make arrows in Illustrator, it’s time to play with some creativity! Try various arrowheads or line style/color combinations to suit your design. For Illustrator skill sharpeners, have a look at these related tutorials: