Illustrator C6 How to count the border width into the box dimension?

Question

Is there any way of telling Illustrator that I want it to include the border width into total dimension of the object?

For example I want a box 30x30px with 1px border. Of course I could make it manually and insert 29x29px for the box and then 1px stays for the border. In this case it works, but what about when I change my mind during the creation process and want increase the border to 5 px? My box will be 34x34 px and I want it to always be 30, just different proportions between the fill and border. Does anybody know the solution?

Answer 1

From the stroke panel set the stroke to align inside. The border width will then extend inwards from the width of your object.

Answer 2

Preferences > General > Use Preview Bounds

That option will take into account things which fall outside the paths of obects, such as the strokes or effects.

This will give you the outer meansurement, But it won't auto-adjust existing objects. In other words, if you have the option checked... and have a 40x40px rectangle with a 1pt stroke.... and increase the stroke to 5pts... it will make the rectangle 45x45px. But that will include the entire stroke in it's measurment.