academyX Illustrator User Guide

Below you will find brief information for Illustrator CC. This document covers interface basics, pen tool usage, typography features, color panels, layers, effects, and integrations with Creative Cloud. Learn about workspaces, creating documents, and manipulating objects.

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Document

Illustrator Cover

Illustrator

®

academy

(800) 716-4324 [email protected]

Illustrator

Illustrator Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Helpful Web Links

Better Hyphenation and Justification

Table of Contents

Illustrator

Expanded Language Support

Path Type Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Find Font

Improved Text Linking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Color Panels & Swatches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Color Guide

Save Swatches as ASE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Gradient Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Lasso Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Scribble Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Creative Cloud Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Creative Cloud Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Creative Cloud Mobile Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Adobe Capture

Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Stroke Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

3D Extrude & Bevel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

3D Revolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Wrapping Artwork Around a Shape

Drop Shadow Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Document Raster Effects Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Appearance Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Expanding Effects

Warping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Cut Path at Selected Points Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Image Trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Image Trace Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Improved Live Paint Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Live Paint Selection Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Table of Contents

Illustrator

Offset Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Magic Wand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Pathfinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Page Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Eyedropper Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Colorize Grayscale Tiffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

To EPS or Not to EPS

Document Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Photoshop to Illustrator

Illustrator to Photoshop

PDF Font Embed Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Font Embed Status

Acrobat & Adobe Reader Font Substitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Loading PDF Settings

Direct Export to PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Bookmarks & Buttons in Richly Interactive PDFs

General PDF Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Compression Settings

Marks & Bleeds

Output

Advanced

PDF Security

PDF Summary

Save Preset

Printing a PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

Printing Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Setup

Marks & Bleeds

Output

Graphics

Color Management

Table of Contents

iii

Copyright Notice

The information in this handout is furnished for instructional use and is subject to change without notice. No part of this handout may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical (including

photocopying) without the expressed written consent of Kelly McCathran.

The software described in this handout is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license. Creative Suite and Creative Cloud are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated

(“Adobe”), registered in the United States and elsewhere. InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat & Bridge are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

The value of each printed copy of this material is $20 retail.* Reprint rights may be purchased at a discount, depending on the quantity.

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Adobe Forums

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Get feedback from Adobe staffers, vote on new features or changes you’d like to see in an application.

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* Personal friends of Kelly can ask for a re-print discount.

Kelly McCathran [email protected]

San Francisco, CA

Illustrator Tools

Selection (

)

Magic Wand (

)

Pen (

)

Type (

)

Rectangle (

)

Shaper (

Shift n

)

Rotate (

)

Width (

Shift w

)

Shape Builder (

Shift m

)

Mesh (

)

Eyedropper (

)

Symbol Sprayer (

Shift S

)

Artboard (

Shift o

)

Hand (

)

Default Colors (

)

Draw Mode (

Shift d

)

(Normal, Behind, Inside)

Direct Selection (

)

Lasso (

)

Curvature tool (

)

Line Tool (

)

Paintbrush Tool (

)

Eraser (

Shift e

)

Scale (

)

Free Transform (

)

Perspective Grid (

Shift p

)

Gradient (

)

Blend (

)

Column Graph (

)

Slice (

Shift k

)

Zoom (

)

Swap fill and stroke (

shift x

)

Panel Shortcuts

Tab:

Hide all panels

Shift Tab:

Hide all panels (except tools & control panel)

Color (

) None (

) Gradient (

)

Change Screen Mode (

)

Interface

Illustrator

Toolbar Layouts

Illustrator offers two toolbar layouts,

Single Column

Double Column

. I prefer the double column layout, it gives you a larger target for

fill

and

stroke

Shortcuts for Nested Tools

Nested tools are hidden under the main tools on your tools panel. You can tell which tools have nested tools underneath by looking at the lower right corner. A tiny arrow indicates if you click and hold on the tool, nested tools will pop up.

Add Anchor Point Tool (

)

Delete Anchor Point Tool (

–

)

Anchor Point Tool (

Shift c

)

Interface

Click for 2 columns

Click again to go back to 1 column

Illustrator

The Control Panel

Window > Control

(at the top of your Illustrator screen) can be used to set the fill, stroke, typeface, size, and much more. It is context sensitive, when you change tools, different options will appear on the Control

Panel.

The

Control Panel

reduces the need for many panels on the right side of your screen — roughly 80% of tasks can be performed here (provided you have a higher screen resolution, such as 1600 x 900, or higher). The

higher

your

screen resolution

, the more options you will see on the Control Panel.

Clicking on a

blue

underlined link

in the control panel will display full panels, to show more options. If you have an object selected, with the

Selection

Direct Selection

tool look for the

Select Similar Objects

button and

Isolate Group

button on the Control panel.

Text Tool Active

In a text area

Extra Options

(with high enough screen resolution)

Set your type color

Click the blue underlined words to see full panels

Object Selected

Type of object

Isolate Group

Select Similar Objects

Placed Image Selected

Illustrator

Workspaces

Default Workspace

I prefer to load the

Layout

workspace before I start working in Illustrator. Do this by choosing

Window > Workspace > Layout

. Panel locations can be saved as custom workspaces (so Illustrator remembers which

panels you use if they get moved or out of order). Workspaces (saved panel arrangements) can be switched at any time, based on the task you are completing that day. The

default

workspace is

Essentials

Workspace Switcher

(upper right corner)

Workspaces

Illustrator

Collapsible Panel Layout

The technical term for a docked window on the right side of your screen is:

panel

. Panels can be docked in

collapsible Panel bays

and nested

Panel Groups

. Panels can be re-organized by grabbing the top of the Panel and dragging it to the desired location. One click on the name of the Panel will collapse or expand the panel.

Click here to change views

Click the

name

of the

panel

open

, click the

name again

close

the panel.

Workspaces

Illustrator

Arranging & Expanding Panels

Panels can be re-organized by grabbing the top of the

Panel

and

dragging it

to the desired location.

Drag the panel to a new location, look for the

blue highlight

, before you let go

Stretch by the edge to see panel names

Illustrator

Workspaces

Collapsing and Expanding Docked Panels

Panels have three types of views:

Expanded

Collapsed

(with names showing), and

Collapsed

(icons only).

Collapsed Panels Expanded Panels

to change views

Workspaces

Illustrator

User Interface (UI) Defaults

Illustrator, like most other Creative Cloud programs, defalut to the

Dark UI

(User Interface). Personally, I find the panel names easier to read with the

Brightness

set to

Light

and difficult to make out — with the Brightness set to the default

Medium Dark. For this handout, screen shots, eat up more black ink and toner if I don’t change the UI Brightness.

Choose

Illustrator > Preferences > User Interface

(Mac)

Edit > Preferences > User Interface (PC).

User Interface

Illustrator

Creating a New Document

To create a new file, choose

File > New

(

Command N

Ctrl N).

BLEED

is a

very

important feature added to Illustrator a few versions ago. If you are not creating documents for a

printing press

, you may never use bleed. In the new document window you can select your unit of measure (Pixels, Points, Inches, etc.) without changing your preferences. If you click the expand triangle next to

Advanced

you can select your color mode, such as:

CMYK

RGB

. RGB is used for the web and devices. CMYK for print (or press-ready) files.

New Documents

Illustrator

The Pen Tool

The heart of the Illustrator application is the Pen tool. All good computer artists should master it. Many find that a mouse is cumbersome to draw with, so they opt for a Stylus, such as a Wacom tablet. Once you let go of your natural instinct, when it comes to drawing, and accept the logic of Illustrator’s pen tool, it gets much easier.

Straight Lines

When you do

quick clicks

with the Pen tool, from point to point, Illustrator plays

connect the dots

. You are telling the application to create lines. If you click and drag, you are instructing Illustrator to create a curve.

Introduction

Illustrator

Introduction

Drawing Curves

If you click and hold the mouse down while dragging to start a path, then let go and move away and click & hold again, you are telling Illustrator to create a curve. The perfect example is an egg shape or a mountain.

click & drag up to start the path click & drag down look for the circle to close the loop and click & drag up

Pen States

Illustrator’s cursor will indicate what mode the pen tool is in. Here are some helpful icons:

Start a

New Path

or shape o

Close

a path or shape

Convert Anchor Point

(changes a curve to a corner or a corner to a curve)

Continue a Path

or shape that has not been closed

Add

an Anchor Point

–

Delete

an Anchor Point

Pen Tips

Option

Alt will convert direction while drawing.

Command

Ctrl will switch to the

Select

arrow or

Direct Select

arrow (which ever one you were

on before you started drawing

the shape).

Illustrator

Anchor and Handle Size Preference

Another setting I change before beginning work in Illustrator is to change the Selection and Anchor display, to display larger handles and anchors (they are sometimes impossible to grab when they are at the default size). Choose

Illustrator > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display

(Mac)

Edit > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display (PC). In this dialog you can also make Illustrator snap to your guides more carefully by increasing the

Selection Tolerance

and

Snap to Point distance

Introduction

Illustrator

Pen Practice

Try to use what you’ve learned about drawing lines (with quick clicks) and settings up curves (by clicking and drag-

ging) to draw this egg:

Introduction

For more practice, open

shapes.ai

and trace.

Illustrator

Type in Illustrator

The type features of Illustrator are some of it’s most powerful aspects, not to mention that the vector of the type is maintained throughout the design process. You can create columns or rows of text, flow text into a shape or along a path and turn letters into graphic objects.

Clicking on the blue underlined words for Character or Paragraph in the Control panel (the bar across the top) brings up the full panel.

Text Selection Tips

In order to quickly select text, these shortcuts are helpful:

Select a Word ......................................................................................................................................Double Click

Select a Line ..................................................................................................................................................3 Clicks

Select a Paragraph ......................................................................................................................................4 Clicks

Select All ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Clicks

Select to the End of the Story ..............................................................................................

Command Shift End

..............................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift End

Select to the Beginning of the Story .............................................................................

Command Shift Home

.............................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift Home

Illustrator

Typography

Type Preferences

The default unit of measure for Illustrator (for print) is points. In the New document dialog you can change this to inches or choose pixels if you are doing web/device work. When you scale type using keyboard shortcuts,

Illustrator will increase or decrease the type in 2 point increments. To make type move 1 point at a time go to

InDesign > Preferences > Type

(Mac),

Edit > Preferences > Type (Windows).

Typography

Illustrator

Typography

Type Keyboard Shortcuts

Align Left ..........................................................................................................................................

Command Shift L

......................................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift L

Align Center ...................................................................................................................................

Command Shift C

......................................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift C

Align Right ........................................................................................................................................

Command Shift R

.....................................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift R

Justify ................................................................................................................................................

Command Shift J

......................................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift J

Increase Text Size ........................................................................................................................

Command Shift .>

....................................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift .>

Decrease Text Size ......................................................................................................................

Command Shift <,

....................................................................................................................................................................

Ctrl Shift <,

Leading ....................................................................................................................

Option

up or down arrow

..........................................................................................................................................

Alt up or down arrow

Kerning/Tracking .............................................................................................

Option

left or right arrow

.....................................................................................................................................

Alt

left or right arrow

WYSIWYG Font Display

Illustrator has

WYSIWYG

(What You See Is What You Get) font menus, if you choose

Window > Type > Font

which means each font displays in it’s actual typeface.

Note: On Windows, this from

Type > Font

does not

show up on the

Character panel

, only

Note: Add the

Option

Alt key

to increase or decrease the text size in 5x greater increments than the setting in the Text

Preferences.

Illustrator

Paragraph and Character Styles

Paragraph

and

Character Styles

have finally been added to Illustrator. To open these panels go to

Window > Type > Paragraph Styles

Window > Type > Character Styles

. You can create a new style by clicking the tiny new style button at the bottom of the panel. All of the settings for the styles are on the left side of the dialog.

Typography

Illustrator

Glyphs Panel

The Glyphs panel in Illustrator offers Ornaments, Terminal Forms, Discretionary Ligatures, and more. Simply doubleclicking inserts the selected glyph.

Typography

Columns, Rows, and Area Type Improvements

You can now define columns and rows in any text area. Specify the number of columns and rows, the width and height and set the size of the inset between the text and the object.

Illustrator

Optical Kerning

Optical kerning visually kerns text to produce better spacing. This is located under

Window > Type> Character

Typography

Hanging Punctuation

Optical margin alignment sets punctuation and text characters at either end of a line to hang and make the edges of a text block look more visually even. This is located on the Paragraph Panel,

Window > Type > Paragraph

, under the pop-up menu.

Illustrator

Tabs & Leaders

Now you can create custom dot leaders and set unlimited numbers of tabs through

Window > Type > Tabs

Better Hyphenation and Justification

Now you can control how long a word must be before Illustrator hyphenates it, whether Illustrator hyphenates capitalized words, and whether it favors better word and character spacing or fewer hyphens. Also, you can set minimum, maximum, and desired settings for word spacing, letter spacing, glyph scaling, and more.

Expanded Language Support

Illustrator documents support spell check and hyphenate in 29 languages.

Typography

Illustrator

Path Type Options

There are five new preset alignment options for text on a Path under

Type > Type on a Path > Type on a Path Options

Typography

Rainbow Skew 3D Ribbon Stair Step Gravity

Find Font

Through

Type > Find Font

(added in and earlier version of Illustrator) you can replace the missing fonts.

Illustrator

Improved Text Linking

Any text area, even type on a path, can be linked to any other text area. Plus, you can now delete a linked text block without also deleting any text it contains—the text will flow back into the previous box. Illustrator also now reduces clutter in your documents by automatically deleting empty text blocks that are created by clicking a type tool and not entering text.

In the example above, the 2nd umbrella was

automatically created

by clicking the

out port (red plus sign)

and clicking once anywhere on the page.

Typography

Illustrator

Color Panels & Swatches

The

Pantone®

libraries are under

Window > Swatch Libraries > Color Books > Pantone+ Solid Coated

. In order to search by number, click the

panel menu

and choose

Show Find Field

. In order for Illustrator to remember to leave the find field on click the pop-up menu and choose

Persistent

. The

Small List View

setting was lost in earlier versions of Illustrator, but is now remembered in newer versions of Illustrator.

Color & Swatches

Color Guide

The new Color guide panel gives shades of complementary colors for the object you have selected, or the document colors.

Illustrator

Save Swatches as ASE

Once the Swatches are created from the Tracing result they can be saved and pulled into other Creative Suite applications. This file is saved as an

ASE

(Adobe Swatch Exchange), which can be loaded into the Swatches panel in

Photoshop, InDesign and of course Illustrator.

1. Go to the

Swatches

panel

pop-up

menu and choose

Select All Unused

, then hit the trash can icon to delete the swatches that weren’t part of the tracing.

2. Then go back to the

Swatches

panel

pop-up

menu and choose

Save Swatch Library as ASE...

Color & Swatches

Illustrator

3. Once the swatches are saved, you can switch applications. In the example below the

InDesign Swatches Panel

is shown. To

load

the

Live Trace swatches

(created earlier) go to the

pop-up menu

and select

Load Swatches...

Color & Swatches

Illustrator

Gradients

The Gradient tool (

) can be use to set the angle of Gradients, but before we do that we’ll choose the colors to blend. When getting ready to apply gradients, it is helpful to dock the Color and Gradient panel together. gradient slider

To apply colors to the gradient, you can drag & drop colors from Swatches to Gradient, or choose one in the Color panel. To apply colors, first click the Gradient slider square (at the bottom of the panel), then click the

pop-up menu

on the Color panel and choose

CMYK.

Illustrator

Gradients

Gradient Mesh

The Mesh tool will create more realistic (and deeper gradient). To create a mesh:

1. Draw a circle with the Ellipse tool.

2. Click the Mesh tool in the tools panel (

3. Click off center on the circle.

4. Open your Swatches panel and click white, to set the highlight.

Illustrator

Gradients

Layers

When creating complex artwork, it can be difficult to keep track of all items without layers (

Window > Layers

). Smaller objects can get hidden under larger objects, and selecting individual pieces can be difficult. Layers let you organize your page elements in a manner that makes the most sense to you. By default, all items are placed in a single layer.

However, you can create new layers and move items between them at any time. .

toggles lock parent layer sublayer selected art show or hide layer

Command

Ctrl click to

switch between Preview &

Outline mode

clipping mask new sublayer new layer delete layer or selection

Layers

Illustrator

Guides

Double click on the spot on the Ruler (

View > Rulers > Show Rulers

)

Command R

Ctrl R, to place a guide. You can also click and drag in the ruler to the artboard to place a guide.

Extras

Illustrator

Lasso Tool

An easier way to select multiple points is with the new

Lasso

tool (

). Simply marquee (in a circular shape) the points you would like to grab.

Scribble Effect

The Scribble effect,

Effect > Stylize >Scribble

, is handy for making a design element look casual, masking images, creating scratch board style illustrations.

Extras

Illustrator

Creative Cloud Desktop

To install any Creative Cloud application, you need the desktop version of the Creative Cloud app.

Creative Cloud

Adobe

Creative Cloud

Creative Cloud Libraries

You can create personal (and shared) libraries to keep track of brand identity assets, icons for web & mobile layouts, video clips, brushes, and color themes. Library items are automatically synced to your Creative Cloud account using your Adobe ID and password on desktop and mobile.

Add assets created in Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Fuse CC (Preview), and Animate CC to a Creative Cloud Library. Also add assets created in Adobe mobile apps or downloaded from

Adobe Stock & Creative Cloud Market to make them available on your desktop.

Creative Cloud

Adobe

Creative Cloud

Creative Cloud Mobile Apps

All your apps and assets are connected through your desktop and mobile devices. Sketch, draw, paint, create layouts, edit photos and make videos with Adobe’s family of mobile apps.

Adobe Capture

All the features of Adobe Color CC, Shape CC, Brush CC and Hue CC are now available in Adobe Capture CC.

Creative Cloud

Adobe

Creative Cloud

Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts

If there are menu commands that don’t have an Illustrator shortcut you can assign your own through

Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

. Simply locate the item you’d like to give a shortcut to, click on it, then click in the column below shortcut. Now hit the desired key or keys on your keyboard. The Function keys across the top of the keyboard are good for this. F1, F2, F3, F4, etc. If they aren’t taken for other panels or menu commands.

It is always a good idea to save a new Shortcut Set (Keyset) before changing or adding any shortcuts to Illustrator.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Illustrator

Stroke Options

Stroke Placement

Stroke placement was added to Illustrator CS2, strokes can now be aligned

Center

Inside

Outside

an object. To change the stroke alignment, go to the

Stroke Panel

and change the Align stroke placement (or do this on the Control

panel at the top of the screen).

(the default)

Inside Outside

Note: Changing the stroke placement does not affect

Illustrator’s trapping method, it will still perform a centerline trap. If your stroke weight is 2 points, you will get a 1 point trap when the stroke is set to overprint.

Illustrator

3D Extrude & Bevel

Illustrator makes it very easy to add 3D effects to your artwork. Type and other shapes can be made into 3D objects, rotated in 3D wrap artwork around the shape.

1. Start by creating a simple shape, (in this example we built a 2 x 2 inch square).

2. Choose

Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel

. In the example below the

Extrude Depth

was increased to

120

, also

check Preview

to see the effect as you make changes. In the

lower left corner

under

Surface

you can choose

Wireframe

, instead of

Plastic Shading

3. To

Edit

the Effect choose

Window > Appearance

and

double click Extrude & Bevel

Warning: Do NOT

go back to

Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel

, this will apply the Effect again and

dramatically slow down your machine

Illustrator

3D Revolve

In order to give depth to a custom shape use

Effect > 3D > Revolve

1. Start by creating a custom shape, then use the

Knife

tool to

cut the shape in half

(hold down

Option

Alt to create a line, use

Shift

to keep the line straight).

Note: the

Knife

tool is hidden under the Scissors tool.

Effect > 3D > Revolve

Illustrator

Wrapping Artwork Around a Shape

3. Once the 3D Effect has been applied, click

Map Art

(in the Revolve dialog box). Make sure to click the

arrow

next to

Surface

until

red lines

appear around the base of the object.

Rotate

the art,

grab the cube

in the

Revolve dialog

box and as you drag the artwork will re-draw.

Illustrator

5. Once the Artwork is finished (and there are

no more changes

to be made) you may want to choose

Object > Expand Appearance

. This

Permanently applies

the 3D Effect.

Drop Shadow Effect

One of the most popular effects is a Drop Shadow

Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow

. Be sure that your object is selected first and when you look at the Effect menu, there are two sections. The items at the top relate to Illustrator artwork and the ones below the Photoshop Effects line relate to placed raster images.

Effects

Click Preview on and use your up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to adjust the X & Y offset , Opacity or Blur.

Illustrator

Document Raster Effects Settings

Older versions of Illustrator used to default to a low resolution (72 ppi) raster effect setting, to speed up screen redraw on Effects or Filters. This caused some issues for designers who didn’t know to up the resolution before they printed the illustration. Newer versions default to 300 ppi for print documents. If you’re finding performance slow or you are doing web & mobile layout you can lower this resolution to 72 ppi, but remember to set it back to 300 ppi before you print.

Effects

Illustrator

Appearance Panel

If you run something under the

Effects menu

, to edit that Effect, choose

Window > Appearance

. Remember, Effects are editable, Filters are permanent.

Objects can also have

multiple fills

and

strokes

. The Appearance panel is also used to modify anything done under the

Effects

menu. To keep the fill and stroke of the last object created,

de-select New Art Has Basic Appearance

by clicking be button in the lower left corner of the panel.

Object with two strokes

New Art Has Basic Appearance

Expanding Effects

After an Effect has been applied to an object, individual points can be edited through

Object > Expand Appearance.

Illustrator

Effects

Warping

Effect > Warp

Object >Envelope Distort > Make with Warp

Illustrator

Templates

Illustrator includes several document layout templates which can help you start projects quickly. Illustrator also has a template file format, so you can save your own corporate or design templates. To create a new document from a

Template Choose

File > New From Template

(

Command Shift N

Ctrl Shift N). The Tshirt.ait template is shown below.

Introduction

Illustrator

Cut Path at Selected Points Feature

When you select 2 points on a shape, you can now create a cut between them. This is located on the Control panel when you have two points selected with the Direct Selection tool.

Introduction

Illustrator

Image Trace

Live Trace and Live Paint were two of the most exciting new features of Creative Suite 2. The Live Paint feature was

improved

in Creative Suite 3.

Live Trace

automatically turns placed

raster

(pixel-based)

images

into

scalable vector

(point based)

graphics

. Many artists have not mastered the pen tool, and can create artwork more easily with pen and paper. If you have a scanner, virtually any image (color or black and white) can be turned into Illustrator artwork. The results of a Live Trace object can be easily manipulated with tools such as preprocessing, tracing gap options, and overlay settings.

1. To start, choose

File > Place

and locate a raster (scanned) image (it’s best to start with a black and white Line

Art drawing).

2. With your image selected, click on the

Live Trace button

, located on the new

Control Panel

. Once the image is traced the original placed image is gone from the page, there is no need to look for it or delete it.

Vector = Points

Introduction

Illustrator

Image Trace Panel

When tracing color images, the settings may need to be adjusted. The default settings work well for Line Art or

Bitmap images.

1. Choose

File > Place

and import a color raster image (you may also drag and drop from Bridge into an Illustrator

document).

2. Next to the

Live Trace button

on the

Control Panel

is a

downward-facing arrow

that you can use to change the default tracing options.

Introduction

Illustrator

3. If you are still not satisfied with the result, you can click the

Tracing Options button

on the

Control Panel

. This will allow you to customize your settings. You may want to change some of the settings then click

Preview

, on the right of the dialog box.

Introduction

4. By clicking

Output to Swatches

, the colors from the scan that were used to make the tracing are added to the

Swatches Panel as

Global Colors

Illustrator

Improved Live Paint Features

Once an object is traced, you can use the new

Live Paint tool

to fill the shapes.

5. Click on the

Live Paint

tool.

6. Select a

color

from the

Control Panel

Color Panel

Swatches Panel

7. Move over the object and

click

on the areas you would like to fill.

8. Select a new color and click on the area to fill with that color.

Illustrator

Introduction

Live Paint Selection Tool

If you use the Live Paint tool, the

Direct Select

and

Select

tool will not work for selecting a shape and changing the fill or stroke. You can tell that you have a Live Paint group by the Stars over the Selection points. If this is the case you can use the

Live Paint Selection Tool

, to grab a piece of the art and re-color it.

Offset Path

Sometimes you’d like an object to have a stroke that is set away from the fill, to do this, choose

Object > Path > Offset Path...

Magic Wand

The Magic Wand tool can select objects of the same color, or objects within 10% (for example) of that color.

Introduction

Illustrator

Pathfinder

In the Pathfinder panel,

avoid

the top row (shapes) and use the bottom row (pathfinders).

Page Tool

When you open a document that has been created on another machine, the printable area may be off. To reset the

Page tiling

Double click

the

Page

tool (located under the Hand tool) to re-set the 0 point to the lower left corner of the document.

Introduction

Illustrator

Eyedropper Tool

Adobe has dramatically changed how the eyedropper tool functions. To make it behave like the earlier version of

Illustrator, double click the tool for options.

Introduction

Illustrator

Introduction

Colorize Grayscale Tiffs

Now Illustrator can colorize Grayscale tiff images, even with Pantone® Swatches.

9. Start by going to

File > Place

, and select a Grayscale Tiff image.

10. Now choose

Window > Swatches

, you can select one of the built in CMYK or RGB swatches and you are finished at this step.

11. To select a Pantone® Color go to

Window > Swatch Libraries > Pantone Solid Coated

. The default view is icons, which makes it hard to select your desired color. To see the swatch numbers, go to the

pop-up menu

and choose

List View

Illustrator

12. This makes it slower to select the Pantone® number, you have to scroll until you come across the correct one. If you would like to type in a

PMS

(Pantone Matching System) number, go to the Pantone solid coated pop-up menu and choose

Show Find Field

Introduction

13. Now type the number of the Pantone you would like, I used

Pantone® 470

Illustrator

Links

Window > Links

shows all the placed or embedded images in your Illustrator file. The icon to the right of g4_front.psd means the image is

embedded

, not

linked

To EPS or Not to EPS

In the past, most people worked with

EPS

as their primary format for placing Illustrator files into other applications.

This is now introducing some

issues

with

Transparency

and

Spot colors

, especially when using

InDesign

. If you are having problems, try

re-linking

to a native

(Adobe Illustrator) file, instead of EPS. The

preferred formats

are

PSD

TIF,

not

EPS

Output

Illustrator

Document Info

Illustrator has no built in Preflight, but one way to get some important information is with

Window > Document Info

In order to see all the fonts used in a document:

Select All

(

Command A

Ctrl A).

2. Go to the

Document Info pop-up menu

and choose

Fonts

3. If you would like to save a

text file

with

all the document info

, go back to the

Document Info pop-up menu

and choose

Save

Output

Illustrator

Photoshop to Illustrator

When saving as

PSD

, be sure there is a

locked Background layer

, otherwise Illustrator may perform Transparency flattening and create

huge

files.

Illustrator to Photoshop

When exporting files from

Illustrator

Photoshop

Layers

may not always import properly. If this occurs, go to the

Transparency panel

and choose

Isolate Blending

Output

Illustrator

PDF Font Embed Status

The advantage of a PDF (Portable Document Format) is that you can

embed

the fonts that you use in your layouts, so you don’t have to use Arial or Times, or be dependent on the fonts the end user has loaded on their machine. Once a PDF has been created, it is important to check that the fonts made it into the document, fully. To do this, open the

PDF and choose

File > Properties

(

Command D

Ctrl D) then click the Fonts section at the top. Ideally it should say

(Embedded Subset)

or for high-end print

(Embedded)

next to every font in the list. In many cases, because of licensing restrictions, TrueType fonts may not fully embed (more often on a Windows machine than a Macintosh™). If you don’t see either. The font didn’t make it in. The Standard settings from Adobe don’t embed

ANY Microsoft Fonts

Font Embed Status

PDF & Fonts

PDF

Acrobat & Adobe Reader Font Substitution

In some cases, fonts may not be able to be embedded because of licensing restrictions. In this case, the person receiving the PDF will need to have the font installed on their machine for it to display properly. The text below can only be viewed on a PC with the TrueType Font loaded. The Mac and Unix users are out of luck, it is simply not available. Here is the example:

American Dream PDF on a Machine with the Font Loaded

Same PDF file on a Macintosh™

When a font is not fully embedded or subset, Acrobat or Adobe Reader will substitute

Adobe Sans MM

Adobe Serif MM

. They are loaded from a resource folder inside Acrobat and will not show up as a selection in any other application.

Loading PDF Settings

You can use the PDF settings on our class files page under

PDF Settings (.joboptions)

: onlineinstruct.com/class_files.html

Download the file, de-compress the zip and double click the .joboptions file to load (it will launch Distiller

and put the file in the proper place). Once you de-compress the zip file (from above), I recommend using the

Proof_UnFlattened.joboptions

as a good laser printer or email proof quality default PDF settings file. You might have to click Save As, then OK if you are on a PC (don’t change the location where it is saving).

PDF

PDF & Fonts

Direct Export to PDF

Users do not need to own Acrobat to create PDF (Portable Document Format) files, simply choose

File > Export

Choose

Adobe PDF (Print)

. Always check with the Print provider for recommended settings. The native export to a

PDF Document now supports Acrobat 6.0 (Adobe PDF 1.5). In this version,

document layers

are now maintained and

Multimedia

, such as movies and sounds, can be embedded.

PDF & Fonts

Bookmarks & Buttons in Richly Interactive PDFs

Bookmarks and interactive buttons can now be created that playback movies and sounds, turn pages and more.

PDF

General PDF Settings

In the

General

tab, PDF authors can select version

Compatibility

with Acrobat 4, 5 or 6. The current recommended setting is

Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3)

. Most print shops and high-end production workflows are still based on Acrobat 4.

Additionally, web users viewing PDF links or email attachments, may not upgrade their software very often, this will ensure that most of the population can read the PDF that is being created.

Acrobat 4

compatibility also forces the

Transparency

to be

Flattened

, if you choose Acrobat 5, 6 or 7, your transparency is unflattened, which may produce unpredictable files.

When in doubt, most printers used to recommend using PDF/x-1a. This does 4 very important things to the file:

Acrobat 4 Compatibility

(which means the Transparency is flattened)

300 PPI resolution (not part of the spec)

All RGB is converted to CMYK and

Spot colors are preserved

Fonts are at least Subset

(but not fully Embedded)

PDF Settings

PDF

Compression Settings

For most office printers, a resolution of

150 – 225 ppi

(pixels per inch) is sufficient for color or grayscale photos. Line

Art (Monochrome or Bitmap meaning no shades of gray) is typically acceptable between

300 - 450 ppi

. For high end printing,

2 x lpi

(lines per inch) is the best resolution for color and grayscale, typically

600 - 1200

ppi is recommended for Line Art, always check with your print shop for recommended settings. For Web based PDFs

72 & 72 ppi

is standard and

300 ppi

is sufficient for Line Art.

For

Image quality

Color

and

Grayscale

images, a setting of

High

Maximum

is recommended, so that too much data is not thrown away.

PDF Settings

PDF

Marks & Bleeds

If the print shop requests that marks & bleeds be included in the document, you can turn them on here. Be aware that including Slug Area may cause some problems with electronic imposition programs. For some reason Adobe keeps getting the offset value for marks wrong. Be sure if you include any marks they are offset at least p9 or 0.125.”

PDF Settings

PDF

Output

The

Output

tab was added to InDesign to enable you to select

Color Management

Policies. Color Management is on by default. If you are not familiar with the settings, it is safest to select

Convert to Destination (Preserve Numbers)

and select

Don’t Include Profiles

. In the shot below, I chose

No Color Conversion

, because I’m doing Print on Demand (POD) and the images do not need to be

CMYK

PDF Settings

PDF

Advanced

InDesign has an

RGB to CMYK conversion engine built in

, so in the Advanced section of you select CMYK all RGB images will be converted to CMYK in the final PDF file.

Subset

% refers to the maximum percentage of characters (glyphs) in a font that can be used before the entire font is Embedded instead of

Subset. The range is 1 through 100. For example, a value of 50 means that a font will be embedded in full (not subset) if more than 50% of characters are used; a value of 100 means all fonts will be subset no matter how many characters are used (because more than 100% of

characters can’t be used). For

Web based PDFs

, embedding all the fonts causes the file to become to large, therefore

Subset at 100%

is recommended. This means that InDesign will

Subset all fonts (write in the unique characters

used) and not fully Embed all characters in the font. This will keep the file size down.

The value for

Subset

should be

to ensure that all fonts are

fully embedded

, not Subset. This means Subset 0% of the time.

Transparency Flattening also occurs here,

High Resolution

is recommended for all non webbased PDFs. If Acrobat 5, 6 or 7 is selected in general this option will not be available.

PDF

PDF Settings

PDF Security

To prevent content copying or extraction, users may want to enable PDF security. Security can not be saved in a set, it must be enabled every time you Export the PDF.

PDF Settings

PDF

PDF Settings

PDF Summary

Finally, InDesign provides a summary of all the selected PDF options.

Save Preset

For frequent PDF exports, you may save all the selected PDF options for quick access. These will be available for future use under the Preset menu at the top of the export dialog box.

PDF

Printing a PDF

When you choose

File > Print

, then click the

Advanced button

. Often, users will complain that the

color changes

from the

Original file

to the

PDF

and/or they have issues with

Transparency

when doing

digital proofs

. There are many reasons why this can happen. One of the most common causes is Acrobat’s default Printer/PostScript Color management setting and the

Simulate Overprint Setting

. To access this setting in the Print dialog,

click Advanced

PDF Settings

Click to check

Output Settings

Turn Off

PDF

Turn On

Printing Controls

In this dialog, you can

print Visible Guides

and

Baseline Grids

, Blank Pages or Non-printing objects.

Setup

In the Setup section of the print dialog, it is a good idea to choose

Custom

for

Page Size

when writing

PostScript

files.

This dialog also offers

Thumbnails

and

Tiling

PDF Settings

PDF

PDF Settings

Marks & Bleeds

In the

Marks

section dialog you can include

Bleed

and

Slug

area.

Output

In the

Output

section you can access the

Ink Manager

for

re-mapping

(aliasing) colors, set your

Line Screen

, choose color output options and more.

Ink Manager

The new Ink Manager is intended to control the number of separations without altering the document. In this dialog, print shops can re-map (which

InDesign calls alias) spot colors without touching the Swatches panel.

Spot colors can also be converted to process here. Finally, trapping characteristics of inks, including their type (Normal, Transparent, Opaque, and

Opaque Ignore), neutral density, and trapping sequence can be viewed and controlled.

PDF

Graphics

There are a few important items in the

Graphics

section. Always Download

Complete fonts

and

check Download PPD Fonts

. When writing PostScript files, you can choose Level 2 and Binary, unless there is a requirement for ASCII or Level 1 PostScript.

PDF Settings

Color Management

Color Management is off by default, if you are not working with

ColorSync™

ICC profiles

, leave this

off

PDF

Key features

Pen tool mastery
Typography options
Creative Cloud Libraries
Image Trace Conversion
3D Effects
Appearance panel Editing

Frequently asked questions

Choose Illustrator > Preferences > User Interface (Mac) or Edit > Preferences > User Interface (PC) to adjust the Brightness setting.

You can create your own shortcut through Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Simply locate the item you’d like to give a shortcut to, click on it.

The heart of the Illustrator application is the Pen tool. All good computer artists should master it. It makes it easy to draw shapes.