The Warp Tool provides a distortion function. Use it to create or alter an object's grid for Adobe Illustrator. There are three types of Warp:
- Circular Warp: May be suitable for shrink wrap applications
- Conic Warp: May be suitable for pre-printed labels that will be applied to conic containers
- Complex Warp: May be suitable for metal decoration (can printing)
- Pre-Warping: During the design stage of packaging containers (such as plastic bottles, metal cans and paper cups), models and mesh deformation data are generated according to their shapes and settings.
- Shrink-Warping: Adjust the patterns to be deformed based on the models and mesh deformation data generated by Pre-Warping, and confirm via 3D display.
Defining a source grid and destination grid are two requirements for using the Warp Tool. The source grid is always a rectangle. The destination grid is non-rectangular; commonly an arc or circular shape. Elements located on the source grid are moved to the corresponding point in the destination grid. The distortion created by the Warp tool is primarily a result of the shape of the destination grid.
The Warp Tool also includes features for adjusting grid and for creating a circular standard grid.