This is a introductory tutorial for beginner level users of Illustrator. I am using Illustrator CS2.

If you are not familiar with the definition and use of symbols, you may want to refer back to PART ONE of this series, “Simply Symbols PART ONE: An Intro to Illustrator Symbols”.

There are several symbol tools in your Illustrator toolbox. They can be found midway down on the left hand side of your toolbox, as seen to the right. These tools let you create and modify SYMBOL SETS. Once you have a set of symbol instances, you can change color, size, location, transparency and style of the symbols within that set. If you click on the small black triangle in the corner of the symbol tool button and hold it down, a flyout menu containing the whole collection of symbol tools is visible. You can pull the tool set away from the toolbox by dragging your cursor out to the little black triangle which should now appear on the outside edge of the tool set.

The Symbol Tool Set can be seen below:

I will go through the tools one at a time, providing an example of what the tool does.

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Symbol Sprayer
You create a SYMBOL SET using the Symbol Sprayer tool. Simply spray the desired amount of symbols onto the artboard in the general shape that you want them to appear. You can spray them one at a time or as dense coverage. The entire symbol set is a single object.

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Symbol Shifter
The symbol shifter is used to move the instances in the symbol set.

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Symbol Scruncher
The symbol scruncher moves the symbol instances closer together or farther apart.

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Symbol Sizer
The symbol sizer resizes symbol instances.

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Symbol Spinner
The symbol spinner rotates symbol instances.

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Symbol Stainer
The symbol stainer changes the color of symbol instances.

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Symbol Screener
The symbol screener controls the opacity of symbol instances.

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Symbol Styler
The symbol screener applies styles to symbol instances.