Distribute

Distribute spaces the selected shapes so that an edge or a center of each falls at even intervals. Where Align puts shapes on one line, Distribute sets them on the rungs of an evenly spaced ladder. It is the arithmetic a compositor did with slivers of metal, and that the builders of temples did with columns.

What it does

Under ‘Distribute objects’ in the ALIGN section are six buttons, shown while the Move tool is in hand. The first three space shapes down the sheet by their top edges, vertical centers or bottom edges; the second three space them across it by their left edges, horizontal centers or right edges. Each moves shapes along one axis only.

The switch beside the ALIGN heading decides the span:

• ‘Selection’ keeps the two outermost shapes exactly where they are and spaces the rest evenly between them. Three shapes is the fewest that means anything, so the buttons wait for three.
• ‘Sheet’ first pushes the two outermost shapes out until they touch the sheet’s edges – the first one’s near edge on one side of the paper, the last one’s far edge on the other – and then spaces the rest evenly between. Two shapes are enough: they go to the two edges.

The shapes are taken in the order they already run along that axis, so Distribute never shuffles them past one another.

The important word is key. Distribute makes the chosen edges or centers evenly spaced; it does not make the gaps between shapes equal. When every shape is the same size the two come to the same thing. When sizes differ they do not: equal steps between centers leave a narrow gap beside a wide shape and a wide gap beside a narrow one. There is no equal-gaps button here, so for mixed sizes choose the key the eye will follow – centers for a row of round motifs, left edges for a column read from the left.

Like Align, it measures the outlines you drew, lifts the shapes it moves above the others, and counts as one step for Undo. The line under the buttons tells you when there are too few shapes to distribute.

Why it works this way

Even intervals make rhythm, and the eye is extraordinarily good at spotting a broken one. In a row of five, a single spacing a few percent off stands out, while the absolute size of the spacing hardly registers. Getting it right by hand means measuring a span, dividing by the number of gaps and nudging each shape into place. The button does the division.

Keeping the outer two fixed means you set the span the natural way, by placing the ends, and then press. The ‘Sheet’ version is for the other common case: a row that should run edge to edge across the paper.

Spacing keys rather than gaps keeps the result predictable, and in a notan it has a pleasing consequence. A reflection keeps distances, so shapes whose centers are evenly spaced on the sheet fold out into pieces whose centers are evenly spaced beyond the edge. The rhythm survives the fold.

The metaphor

The metaphor is justification: the compositor’s job of sharing leftover space among the gaps of a line until it fills the measure exactly. Where it holds: the ends are fixed, the space between is shared out evenly, and the eye judges the result by its evenness. Where it breaks: a compositor shares out space so that the gaps between words are equal, whatever the words’ lengths. This button makes the steps equal, which is closer to a colonnade, where every column is the same and centers and gaps agree.

A history

In art

Architecture has some of the oldest written rules for even spacing. The Roman architect Vitruvius set out five spacings for a colonnade, each measured in the diameter of the column itself: pycnostyle, one and a half diameters; systyle, two; eustyle, two and a quarter; diastyle, three; and araeostyle, wider still, so wide that a stone beam across the gap would break and the lintel had to be of timber. He praised the eustyle as the best and credited it to the Hellenistic architect Hermogenes, whose version widened the middle bay.

The idea hidden in those names is lovely: the unit of spacing is a part of the thing being spaced. A column’s own width sets the rhythm, so a larger temple keeps the same proportions. Distributing by edges or centers is the same move. The key is a part of each shape, and the spacing is measured between like parts.

In printing

A hand compositor justified each line by choosing among spaces of graded widths, all fractions of the em, the square of the type size: the en quad at half an em, and the thick, mid and thin spaces at a third, a quarter and a fifth. Combined, they give many different gap widths under an em, and hair spaces of brass or copper finer still. The job was to share the leftover width evenly among the word gaps. Do it badly and the gaps line up by chance down a page of justified text into pale channels of white, called rivers.

Type designers met the gaps-versus-steps problem at the scale of single letters. Letters spaced with equal measured gaps look uneven, because a round letter touches its neighbor at one point and a straight stem along its whole height. Good spacing is optical: it evens out the area of white between letters rather than the distance. No button can do that, which is why the choice of key is left to you.

In technology

Web layout faces the same choice and names it plainly. The CSS property that spaces items in a flexible row offers ‘space-between’, which pins the outer items to the edges and makes the gaps between them equal, as well as ‘space-around’ and ‘space-evenly’. Adobe Illustrator, which this section follows, has both kinds: ‘Distribute Objects’, which spaces keys, and ‘Distribute Spacing’, which spaces gaps. Only the first is here.

Underneath, the arithmetic is linear interpolation, one of the most used formulas in computing. With the first key at one end of the span and the last at the other, the shape in position k of n goes to the start plus k ÷ (n − 1) of the way along.

In professional software

The professional programs keep apart the two ideas this chapter separates. Distributing objects spaces their edges or centers; distributing spacing makes the gaps equal. Most drawing programs offer both, and CAD programs tend to build even spacing in from the start.

• Adobe Illustrator. The Align panel’s ‘Distribute Objects’ row matches the six buttons here. ‘Distribute Spacing’, shown when you choose ‘Show Options’ from the panel menu, makes the gaps equal instead. Click one selected shape again to make it the key object, and you can type the exact gap, such as 5 mm.
• Adobe InDesign. The same two rows, each with a ‘Use Spacing’ option for a typed distance, so a row of picture frames can sit exactly one gutter apart.
• Figma. ‘Distribute horizontal spacing’ and ‘Distribute vertical spacing’ equalize the gaps and leave the two outer layers in place. Once the gaps are equal, pink handles appear between the layers; drag one and every gap changes together. ‘Tidy up’ arranges a loose selection into an even row or grid.
• Autodesk AutoCAD. In drafting, even spacing is usually built rather than tidied. DIVIDE places points or blocks at equal intervals along a line or curve, MEASURE places them a set distance apart, and ARRAY makes rows and columns from a spacing you type.
• Autodesk Fusion (formerly Fusion 360). A sketch’s Rectangular Pattern asks for a ‘Distance Type’. ‘Extent’ shares an overall distance among the copies, like ‘Selection’ here with its fixed ends; ‘Spacing’ sets the step from one copy to the next.

What carries over. Decide first whether you want even steps or even gaps. For shapes of one size they agree; for mixed sizes they do not, and the professional programs make you choose. Then watch which shapes stay put. Without a key object, Illustrator and Figma keep the two outermost fixed, as this app does; with a typed gap, the row is measured out from the key object instead.

Try this

• Draw four shapes of clearly different widths in a rough row. Distribute their horizontal centers, then their left edges, and watch the gaps change while the steps stay even.
• Set the switch to ‘Sheet’, select two shapes and distribute their left edges. One goes to each side of the paper. Add a third shape of the same size and distribute centers: the middle one lands in the middle of the sheet.
• Cut three shapes along the bottom of the sheet that fold down, then distribute them. Look below the sheet: the pieces are evenly spaced too.

Going further

For a row that is even by construction, make it with Copies. To put shapes on one line first, see Align.

• Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture
• Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style