Inflate

Inflate Deflate is an Astute Graphics tool for Adobe Illustrator that moves art objects further apart or closer together without changing their size. The motion can be constrained to the horizontal, vertical, or general constrain angle directions, and an optional “warp factor” can create special effects. Inflate Deflate is part of the ColliderScribe plugin.

Inflate Deflate Tool Example

Tool Location and Cursor Appearance

The Inflate Deflate tool appears in Illustrator’s main toolbar (which must be in Advanced mode: View > Toolbars > Advanced) stacked under the native Selection tool along with ColliderScribe’s other tools. As with other stacked tools, click and hold on the top tool icon to display the tools stacked under it.

Inflate Deflate Tool Location

The Inflate Deflate tool’s cursor is a crosshair by default, but changes when it is being dragged to transform artwork: 

Inflate Deflate Tool Cursors

As the Inflate Deflate tool has several keypresses which can add or change its functionality, we strongly suggest installing the free Astute Graphics plugin Astute Buddy, which creates a panel that dynamically updates to inform you of the various keys which can be pressed in the tool’s current context.

After selecting some artwork, choosing the Inflate Deflate tool will display a small red crosshair annotation, which indicates the position of the transformation point, about which the expansion or shrinkage of the art will take place. Dragging with the tool will move the art further apart (as the cursor is dragged away from the transformation point) or closer together (as the cursor is dragged towards the transformation point). During the drag, the new positions of the art will be displayed as wireframes. 

Inflate Deflate Out or In

When the mouse button is released, the art objects are moved to their final positions.

Although the transformation point is placed, by default, at the center of the bounding box of the selected art objects, it can be relocated using one of several methods. First, the tool may simply be clicked (without dragging), which will move the point to the clicked location. Second, the point may be dragged, with the Shift key constraining its movement to 45° increments around the general constrain angle and the Command/Ctrl key overriding snapping. Finally, the point may be doubleclicked, which brings up a small dialog allowing the position to be specified numerically:

Inflate Deflate Transformation Point Numeric Specification

The Inflate Deflate tool preference Reset Transformation Point When Selection Changes controls whether or not the transformation point remains in the same position when the selection of art objects changes.

Pressing one or more modifier keys while dragging the tool changes its functionality:

• Shift: Transforms the art only in the horizontal direction.

• Option/Alt: Duplicates the selected objects to the new locations instead of moving them.

• Command/Ctrl: Transforms the art only in the vertical direction.

• Shift+Command/Ctrl: Transforms the art only along the direction of the general constrain angle; i.e., only the components of each object’s movement vector that lies along the direction of the constrain angle are used. 

Inflate Deflate with Modifier Keys

The following non-modifier keys can be pressed while dragging the tool:

• Up/Down Arrow: Increases or decreases the “warp factor,” a setting which controls how bulged or pinched the results are. It can range from 6.0 to –6.0, with values above zero causing the objects to appear to bulge out, and values less than zero causing them to pinch in. The effect is most apparent when used on regularly-spaced objects.

Inflate Deflate Warping Factor

• 1: Changes the warp factor to 1.0.

• 2: Changes the warp factor to –1.0.

• G: Toggles the Ignore Groups preference (see Inflate Deflate: Preferences).

• R: Resets the warp factor (to zero).