Defining a Symbol Registration Point in Adobe Illustrator CS5

One of the best things about Adobe Illustrator CS5 is the amount of control for placing a registration point for points. With earlier versions of Adobe Illustrator, the point registration for a point is in the centre extent dimension (make a rectangular shape for the point's extent, then place a point at the centre.)

Here's a quick example of this. We start with a simple graphic, the green flag shown below.

When the graphic is dragged into the Symbols panel, the Symbols Options dialog box appears. In it, you can type a name for the new symbol.

More importantly, look at the Registration option matrix:

An easy way of setting the registration point is to click one of the positions available on the registration option matrix. The default registration point is set to the centre of the matrix. In total, there are nine registration point positions to choose from. Below is an example graphic of a matrix on top of the flag symbol.

After a graphic is registered as a symbol, the registration point is indicated by a black crosshair when the symbol is selected. In this case, it is at the centre of the symbol.

In order to tweak the registration point position, double-click a symbol to enter isolation mode. In isolation mode, the registration point is stationary, meaning that to change the position of it, the symbol should be moved. The image below shows the adjustment in the registration point position

The registration point functions as the point of origin for rotating and scaling. When rotating the registration point is the centre of the rotation.

Likewise, when scaling, the registration is the origin of the scaling.

In addition, when dealing with point symbols with MAPublisher, the registration point is the XY coordinate when placing the symbols in a MAP Point layer. The XY coordinates are indicated in the layer's attribute table as #MapX and #MapY columns. They are considered MAPublisher property attributes and are hidden by default. To make them visible, in the MAP Attributes panel, click the Show/Hide button and choose #MapX and #MapY.

Related topic:

• Changing the Point Angle using Expressions and Attribute Values in MAPublisher

If you have any questions, please feel free to send us a question at support@avenza.com.