Illustrator Bounding Box Missing: How to Restore It

How to restore the missing Bounding Box in Adobe Illustrator to easily resize and transform objects using keyboard shortcuts or the top menu.

If you’ve ever faced a situation where the resize handles around objects disappear in Adobe Illustrator, don’t panic — it’s easily fixable. This border is called the Bounding Box, and its absence can significantly slow down your workflow, especially when scaling and transforming objects.

Why the Bounding Box Disappears

In Illustrator, the resizing box can disappear for several reasons:

1. Accidental Bounding Box shortcut press. Often, the bounding box is hidden by accidentally pressing a shortcut.
2. Working with specific selection tools. For instance, if the Direct Selection tool is active or only specific anchor points are selected, the bounding box won’t show.
3. Menu settings. In rare cases, settings might have been changed via the menu.

How to Restore the Bounding Box

The fastest way to get your bounding box back is using the keyboard shortcut:

Ctrl + Shift + B (Windows)

Cmd + Shift + B (macOS)

Pressing this shortcut toggle will immediately show the bounding box around your selected object again, allowing you to freely scale, rotate, and transform it.

Alternative Method via Menu

If you prefer using the menu interface:

1. Go to the top menu and select View.
2. Click on Show Bounding Box.

The bounding box will become visible again.

Pro Tips

• If the bounding box still doesn’t appear, make sure you are not in Outline View (Ctrl/Cmd + Y) where handles are not rendered.
• Using Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + B is the quickest way to toggle the bounding box on and off anytime.