Preferences are options regarding how you want Illustrator to work, including those for display, tools, ruler units, and exporting information. Your preferences are saved in a file called AIPrefs (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Prefs (Mac OS), which is launched each time you start Illustrator. To restore Illustrator’s default settings, you can remove or rename preferences file and relaunch Illustrator. This can be helpful if you are having problems with the application.

You set preferences in the Preferences dialog box. To open the Preferences dialog box, choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences (Mac OS), followed by the type of preferences you want. To switch to different options in the Preferences dialog box, select an option from the menu at the upper-left of the Preferences dialog box. You can also click Next to display the next options, or click Prev to display the previous options.