The introduction of Adobe Illustrator in 1987 was only one of several Adobe innovations that completely changed the graphic design. It is an effective design tool that enables you to produce vector graphics and illustrations. But it’s entertaining to experiment with the tools and try things out, just like with other graphic design software. You might not always be happy with what you’ve produced.

To undo any changes you’ve made on Illustrator, you can use the relevant keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + Z) or you can navigate to the Edit menu and find the Undo option in the drop-down menu to undo your last changes.

Keep reading below as we discuss instructions on undoing changes in Illustrator using four main methods.

How Many Times Can You Undo Something in Adobe Illustrator?

You might be wondering how many total undos are allowed by default.

1. First, click on Illustrator from the Illustrator menu in the top-right area of the page.
2. Then, launch a new drop-down menu by scrolling to Preferences in the first one.
3. In the pop-up window, click Performance, then select the “Others” option.
4. You can choose 50, 100, or 200 counts in the selection box next to the subsection “Undo Counts” that appears. This indicates that if you choose 200, you can execute your last undo command up to 200 times.

Nevertheless, as the undo count increases, more memory is needed, which could affect the software’s performance. One hundred undo counts should be more than enough.

How to Undo in Adobe Illustrator

How to undo in Adobe Illustrator There are four ways to undo your changes in Adobe Illustrator. We’ve briefly discussed all four of them in the section below.

For more information on how to undo in Adobe Illustrator, watch this video below:

Method 1: Using Keyboard Shortcuts

1. Simply hit Command Z (for Mac OS users) or Control Z to reverse an activity (for Windows users) quickly. To reverse your previous action, press this keyboard shortcut key once. 
2. Use it once again to reverse the action that came before the last one, and so on.

Method 2: Edit Menu

1. You can undo an action by selecting the Edit menu. To reverse the previous action, select the Undo button.
2. One undo will reverse the most recent action, returning your artwork to the version that was created one step earlier.
3. You can reverse another prior action by using the Undo option in the top menu.

You can undo as many times as you’d like under the Options area, up to the appropriate number of undo counts. There could be fifty, one hundred, or two hundred undos.

Method 3: History Panel

There are instances where you want to undo practically all of the hundreds of actions you’ve already taken. If you were to use the Edit menu or keyboard shortcuts to undo each and everyone, you could only undo one step at a time. For hundreds of them, this should be a long process to reverse.

1. Using the History panel is the most effective way to do this. If the History panel isn’t visible, choose Window from the top menu and then History from the dropdown list (Window > History).
2. When you click on the History button, it will open the panel where you may view a log of your previous actions. 
3. Selecting a specific step from the panel will undo that activity in your artwork up to that point.

Method 4: Revert

How can an Adobe Illustrator file be changed back to an earlier version?

1. If you need help with how to do it, first choose File from the top menu, then choose Revert from the drop-down menu, or just go to File > Revert.
2. If you proceed, all current edits will be lost, and your Illustrator file will revert to the last time it was saved, as indicated by a notification or prompt. To put it another way, once you affirm that you want to restore the file to its most recent saved state, you cannot undo this action.
3. When you click the “Revert” button, your file instantly returns to the previous state.

When you haven’t yet modified your file, the Revert button will be grayed out and unclickable.

Conclusion

There you have it. When working on projects, designers find it helpful to understand how to undo past edits in Illustrator. We hope the instructions in this article will prove helpful when you set out to make your own changes in Adobe Illustrator. Happy editing!