How to Manage Artwork with Sublayers in Adobe Illustrator

The Layers Panel in Illustrator allows you to organize and manage complex artwork. Sublayers are the objects create on a layer.

1. When you create a new file, there is always a default Layer 1. Once you've added an object to an artboard, the Layers Panel, will display an expansion arrow next to the current layer. Click that arrow to see a list of the layer's content, or sublayers.
2. The Layers Panel is structured in columns with controls for turning off or on the layer or sublayer's Visibility, or Locking them. The color bars indicate what the frame color of a selected object on that layer will be. The Target column lets you select objects on the layer. There are also buttons at the bottom of the panel for managing the layers and sublayers.
3. New layers can be created by clicking the Create New Layer button. The layers can be given significant names by double-clicking directly on the default layer name to highlight the text. Here, three additional layers have been created, and all layers named according to content.
4. To move content from one layer to another, expand the layer containing the objects and select them. To move more than one object, click on the first, then hold down Shift and click the additional sublayers. Once the sublayers are selected, click and hold, then drag them to just under the layer you want them on. You'll see a blue line appear under the destination layer.
5. Additional controls for layers can be accessed by clicking the layer, then going to the Layer Panel Menu and choosing Options for "[name]".
6. The Layer Options also let you rename a layer, but there are additional options for changing the selection color, locking, print supression, or dimming the layer.
7. Clipping layers create masks where a minimum of two objects are used and areas outside the topmost object's boundaries are masked out. To make a clipping layer through the Layers Panel, all objects must be on a sublayer. Select the sublayer in the Layers Panel, then click Make/Release Clipping Path.
8. The topmost object masks everything underneath.