INFOGRAPHIC SERIES - Digital Fingerprint Icon

You have seen these icons everywhere for your fingerprint password or identification. Here is how you create this icon... and you may be surprised just how it's done, and this doesn't require the pen tool or any drawing of curves. The Polar Grid Tool is the trick on this!

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Access the Polar Grid Tool nested in with the Line Tool. 

Click on the document with the Polar Grid Tool to call up the settings. Set the width and height to 1200 pt and the concentric dividers to 14, no radial dividers.

Click OK and you will get this set of concentric rings, perfectly spaced. Ungroup the rings. 

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Delete the outer 7 rings to leave the 7 inner rings. 

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select the bottom half of the 7 rings and delete, leaving the upper half of the rings. 

Select the Polar Grid Tool, click on the document to redraw the identical set we began with.

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Use the Direct Selection Tool to select and then delete the upper half of the rings. 

Use the Direct Selection Tool to select and then delete the left half of the rings. ​

Move the 1/4 ring into place matching up the lines exactly with the upper half of the 7 rings from the previous steps. Select everything and ungroup it.

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Using the center of the rings, draw a circle from the center (hold OPTION / ALT to draw from the center) and match the size to the outer ring.

Select everything and use the Pathfinder Divide Mode to chop off all the extra lines.

Ungroup everything. Using the Direct Selection Tool remove the small segments at the lower edges of the lines as show. 

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Select everything and rounded the ends and round the corners as well.

This will be the result of removing the end segments and leaving the arced tails.

Double-click on the Eraser Tool. Set the size to 45 pt and click OK.

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Use the eraser to erase the paths to break the lines. Use the right bracket ( } ) to make the eraser larger, left brakcet ( { ) to make the brush smaller to vary the spacing if desired. 

The end result is a fingerprint icon that required no drawing of arcs or manipulating the spacing. Yes, it really is that easy!