CreativePro Tip of the Week: Decoding Illustrator’s Target Icons

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This CreativePro Tip of the Week on deciding Adobe Illustrator’s Target Icons was sent to CreativeProse email subscribers on December 28, 2016. 

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You can tell a lot about an item in Illustrator from its target icon in the Layers panel. The target icon is the circular icon that appears to the right of an item in the panel.

illustrator layers panel target icons

• A single empty circle means the item is not targeted and has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke.
• A double empty circle means the item is not targeted and has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke.
• A single shaded circle means the item is targeted and has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke
• A double shaded circle means the item is targeted and has appearance attributes

illustrator layers panel target icons

Also note that you can shift-click target icons to select multiple items, which can be easier than selecting them on the artboard in some cases.

Editor in Chief of CreativePro. Instructor at LinkedIn Learning with courses on InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, and Affinity Publisher.
  • Shawn Stone says:

    single empty circle Indicates the item is not targeted and has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke.

    single filled circle Indicates the item is not targeted but has appearance attributes.

    double empty circle Indicates the item is targeted but has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke.

    double filled circle Indicates the item is targeted and has appearance attributes.

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