tion point will be fixed in the center. To shear along a horizontal axis, drag horizontally, and to shear along a vertical axis, drag vertical. To constrain an object's width or height, or to shear along axes slanted by a 45-divided degree, hold down Shift. As with other transformation tools, assign different reference points by clicking in the needed place prior to shearing.
For a precise angle, double-click Shear in Tools panel and insert the shear amount in degrees and axis in the dialog. Press Copy to duplicate an object while skewing. To change the transformation point from the object center to any other place, Alt-click to assign the new point and open the dialog.
Using the Black Arrow/Direction Selection Tool
As I already mentioned, the Selection Tool (V) is used for Move - the first and most important type of transformation. Still, this tool can also be used to manually perform some other transformation methods. We can easily change not only the object's position, but it's size and angle.
To scale with the Selection Tool (V) select an object and simply drag the handles on it's bounding box (white squares in the corners and on the sides). The object will be scaled in the direction you drag.
If you want to constrain the proportions, hold down Shift to scale in both directions while dragging the corner handler. The reference point is not considered in this case, so the object will be transformed according to the direction you drag without any fixed transformation point specified. You cannot determine the reference point, but if you want to fix a central point while scaling an object with the Selection Tool, hold down the Alt button.
To rotate with the Selection Tool (V), select an object and place the cursor over any corner handle of its bounding box. When the little double arrow appears, you can rotate the object in any direction and angle.
In order to keep the exact angles (45, 90, and so on), hold down Shift - the object will snap to this angle while rotating. The reference point can not be changed while rotating with the Selection Tool, so the object will be rotated around itself with the transformation point in the center.
Reshaping and Distortion Tools
Besides the transformation tools described above, Illustrator has some extra tools that can alter object shapes in other various ways. They not only change one object parameter, like position, size, or angle, but they can distort and reshape it drastically. Let's briefly take a look at these tools.
Free Transform Tool
The Free Transform Tool (E) allows to transform the object freely - it combines all transformation tools into one, including: move, scale, rotate, reflect, and shear. Also, it allows one to perform perspective distortion. Basically, with this tool you can drag handles on the object's bounding box in any direction, unlike with other transformation tools.
To rotate or scale, simply place the cursor near the handle you need on the object bounding box and perform the transformation just like with the appropriate tools. To reflect an object, drag from the handle on one side to the opposite one, while holding Shift. Finally, to shear the object with the Free Transform Tool, move one of the side handles to the needed direction, while holding down Command + Alt.
To drag one corner handle separately, press the mouse key over the corner and then press Command after this - now you can reposition it as you distort the object. To constrain the horizontal or vertical baseline while dragging a handle, hold down Shift. If you want to drag two handles symmetrically to distort in perspective, drag a corner handle while holding down Alt + Command + Shift.
Reshape Tool is hidden under the Scale and Shear tools. It also allows one to transform an object its own specific way. To my mind, it works much like scaling but considers anchor points while transforming. When you select an object and choose the Reshape Tool, you can move any existing anchor point on the object by dragging it to the desired position. However, the result will be reshaping the entire object proporti