Updated 12/27/2005
Adobe Illustrator CS2 – Module 1
Adobe
Illustrator CS2
Module 1
(Drawing Basic Shapes)
Interface Elements
Changing Views
Drawing Shapes
Scaling Shapes
Fill and Stroke
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Contents
1.) Interface Elements
The Illustrator Workspace
Artboard
The Toolbox
Line
Field
Palettes
2.) Changing Views
Preview and Oultine Modes
Screen Modes
3.) Drawing Shapes
Simple Shapes
The Rectangle Tool
The Rounded Rectangle Tool
The Ellipse Tool
The Polygon Tool
The Star Tool
Lines
The Line Segment Tool
The Arc Tool
The Pencil Tool
Custom Shapes
The Pen Tool
Editing Anchor Points
4.) Scaling Shapes
The Scale Tool
Numerical Scaling
6.) Fill and Stroke
About Fills and Strokes
Applying Fills
Applying Strokes
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The Illustrator Workspace
Toolbox Control Palette Palettes
Zoom Field
Status Line
Scratch Area Artboard
Figure 1 – Illustrator CS2 Workspace
Artboard
The Artboard represents the entire region that can contain printable artwork. This is where you create your art. Everything visible inside the Artboard will be printed. The Artboard is represented by the black rectangle displayed by default in your document.
Scratch Area
The scratch area is the area outside the Artboard that extends to the edge of the window. The scratch is a space on which you can create, edit, and store elements of artwork before moving them onto the
Artboard. Objects placed on the scratch area are visible on‑screen, but they do not print.
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Status Line
The status line at the bottom left edge of the window can show you various pieces of information: the current tool in use, the current date and time, or the number of actions you can undo or redo.
Zoom Field
The Zoom field at the left of the status line indicates a document’s current magnification level. You can type any magnification level from 3.13% to 6400% or choose a preset magnification level by clicking on the Zoom drop-down list.
Palettes
Illustrator has a number of floating palettes that give you information about your objects and allow you to perform various editing and formatting tasks. The palettes can be docked, regrouped, repositioned and hidden at your discretion.
Control Palette
The Control palette displays options based on the type of object you select. For example, when you select a text object, the Control palette displays text-formatting options in addition to options for changing the color, placement, and dimensions of the object.
The Toolbox
The Toolbox (See Figure 2) contains tools for creating and
Main Selection manipulating Illustrator objects, as well as icons for applying colors options for displaying the
Magic Wand
Direct Selection
Lasso
Illustrator window.
Some of the tools in the Toolbox
Pen
Line Segment
Paintbrush
Rotate
Type
Rectangle
Pencil hide other tools of a similar nature. These are represented with a small black triangle to the lower right of the tool icon. Hold
Warp
Symbol Sprayer
Mesh
Scale
Free Transform
Column Graph
Gradient your mouse button down with your cursor over one of these tools to see the other tool choices.
Eyedropper
Live Paint
Slice
Blend
Live Paint Selection
Scissors
You can also display tool groups as individual tear-off toolbars by
Hand
Fill Color
Zoom
Swap Fill/Stroke
Default Colors Stroke Color holding down the mouse button on a tool in the Toolbox then
Color
Gradient
Screen Mode
None dragging to select the tear-off tab at the end of the group of tools.
Figure 2 – The Toolbox
You can select any tool by typing a keyboard shortcut. Simply point the cursor to any tool in the
Toolbox, and Illustrator displays a tool tip containing the tool’s name and shortcut letter.
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Preview and Outline Modes
By default, Illustrator sets the view so that all artwork is previewed in color. However, you can choose to display artwork so that only its outlines (or paths) are visible. Viewing artwork without paint attributes speeds up the time it takes to redraw the screen when working with complex artwork.
In Outline mode, linked files are displayed by default as outlined boxes with an X inside. To view the contents of linked files, choose File > Document Setup, choose Artboard at the top of the dialog box, and select Show Images In Outline.
• To view all artwork as outlines, choose View >
Outline.
• To return to previewing artwork in color choose View > Preview.
To view all artwork in a layer as outlines,
Ctrl‑click the eye icon for the layer in the Layers palette. Ctrl‑click it again to return to previewing artwork in color. The eye icon has a hollow center when Outline view is enabled and a filled center when Preview view is enabled.
To view all unselected items in the Layers palette as outlines, Alt+Ctrl‑click the eye icon for the selected item. Alternatively, select Outline Others from the Layers palette menu.
You can return all items in the Layers palette to
Figure 3 – An Image Viewed in Outline Mode
Preview mode by choosing Preview All Layers from the Layers palette menu.
Screen Modes
The Illustrator work area consists of an illustration window (Artboard and Scratch area) where you do your work, a toolbox, menus and palettes.
You can rearrange the work area to best suit your needs by moving, hiding, and showing palettes; zooming in or out of artwork; scrolling to a different area of the illustration window; and creating multiple windows and views. You can also change the visibility of the illustration window and menu bar using the Screen Mode buttons at the bottom of the toolbox:
• Standard Screen Mode displays artwork in a standard window, with a menu bar at the top and scroll bars on the sides.
• Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar displays artwork in a full-screen window with a menu bar but with no title bar or scroll bars.
• Full Screen Mode displays artwork in a full-screen window, with no title bar, menu bar, or scroll bars
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Simple Shapes
The Rectangle Tool
The Rectangle tool draws squares and rectangles. Simply select the tool (your cursor will display a crosshairs) and drag out a rectangle on the Artboard.
• To create a square, hold the Shift key when dragging out your rectangle to constrain the vertical and horizontal proportions.
• To draw your rectangle or square from the center rather than from a corner, hold the Alt key as you drag.
• To re-position the shape as you are creating it, press the Space Bar on your keyboard as you are creating the shape. Release the Space Bar to continue resizing the shape.
The Rounded Rectangle Tool
The Rounded Rectangle tool works just the same as the Rectangle tool except you can control the roundness of the corners as you create the shape.
• To adjust the roundness of the rectangles corners while you are dragging out the shape, use the up/down arrow keys on your keyboard to increase/decrease the roundness of the corners.
The Ellipse Tool
The Ellipse tool allows you to easily create circles and ellipses. Simply select the tool (your cursor will display a crosshairs) and drag out an ellipse on the Artboard.
• To create a circle, hold the Shift key when dragging out your shape to constrain the vertical and horizontal proportions.
• To draw your ellipse or circle from the center rather than from a corner, hold the Alt key as you drag.
• To re-position the shape as you are creating it, press the Space Bar on your keyboard as you are creating the shape. Release the Space Bar to continue resizing the shape.
The Polygon Tool
The Polygon tool allows you to easily create shapes with any number of sides. Simply select the tool
(your cursor will display a crosshairs) and drag out your shape on the Artboard.
• While dragging out the shape, use the up/down arrows on your keyboard to increase/decrease the number of sides in the shape.
• Polygon shapes are automatically created with constrained dimensions between all sides. They can later be altered to distort or scale individual axis.
• Polygon shapes are always drawn from the center point.
• To re-position the shape as you are creating it, press the Space Bar on your keyboard as you are creating the shape. Release the Space Bar to continue resizing the shape.
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The Star Tool
The Star tool allows you to create stars with any number of points. Simply select the tool (your cursor will display a crosshairs) and drag out your shape on the Artboard.
• While dragging out the shape, use the up/down arrows on your keyboard to increase/decrease the number of points to the star.
• Stars are automatically created with constrained dimensions between all points.
• Stars are always drawn from the center point.
• To re-position the shape as you are creating it, press the Space Bar on your keyboard as you are creating the shape. Release the Space Bar to continue resizing the shape.
Lines
The Line Segment Tool
The Line Segment tool draws individual straight line segments. There are two easy ways to create lines with this tool:
1. With the tool selected, click and drag on the Artboard to create your line. Holding the Shift key down will lock the angle of the line in to 45° increments.
2. With the tool selected, click once on the Artboard to display the Line Segment dialog box. Fill in the length and angle you wish for the line and click OK (See Figure 4).
Figure 4 – Ling Segment Options
The Arc Tool
The Arc tool draws individual concave or convex curve segments. There are two easy ways to create smooth curve segments with this tool:
1. With the tool selected, click and drag on the Artboard to create your arc. Holding the Shift key down will constrain the lengths of both sides of the curve.
2. With the tool selected, click once on the Artboard to display the Line Segment dialog box. Fill in the X and Y axis lengths, the base axis and the amount of Concave or Convex curve you wish, and click OK (See Figure 4).
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Figure 5 – Arc Segment Options
The Pencil Tool
The Pencil allows you to draw and edit freehand lines. To draw lines simply select the Pencil tool and draw freely on the Artboard. You will create a line that follows your cursor position.
Custom Shapes
The Pen Tool
The Pen tool draws straight or curved lines to create objects. The Pen tool is used by clicking to create individual anchor points which are automatically connected by line segments. When you are finished creating your shape and want to create a new one, click on the Pen tool again in the Toolbox or press P on your keyboard.
To create curved line segments, click and drag to create an anchor point, rather than just clicking. As you drag, you will create Bezier handles which will be used to control the length, amount and direction of curve in the line segment. A point with a Bezier curve applied to it is called a smooth point, as opposed to corner points which have hard angles. Smooth points and corner points can be combined in a single line segment (i.e. – the first point is smooth and the second one is not, or vice-versa).
Editing Anchor Points
The Add Anchor Point tool adds anchor points to a path simply by clicking on a segment of the path with the tool selected.
The Delete Anchor Point tool deletes anchor points from a path by clicking on an anchor point with the tool selected.
The Convert Anchor Point tool changes smooth points to corner points and vice-versa simply by clicking (if converting from smooth to corner) or click-dragging (if converting from corner to smooth) on an existing anchor point.
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When an existing object is selected, Illustrator displays a Bounding Box around the object. The bounding box contains eight handles (one on each corner and one in the middle of each span) which allow you to resize the object vertically, horizontally or diagonally by simply dragging on the appropriate handle.
Figure 6 – An object’s Bounding Box
When you resize by dragging any of the bounding box handles, you can change the relationship of the horizontal and verticals scales, or distort the shape. If you whish to constrain proportions while scaling hold the Shift key while dragging from any of the handles.
The Scale Tool
Select an object and choose the Scale tool from the Toolbox.
• To scale relative to the object’s center point, drag anywhere in the document window until the object is the desired size.
• To scale relative to a different reference point, click where you want the reference point to be in the document window, move the pointer away from the reference point, and then drag until the object is the desired size.
• To maintain the object’s proportions as it scales, hold down Shift as you drag diagonally.
• To scale the object along a single axis, hold down Shift as you drag vertically or horizontally.
• For finer control over scaling, start dragging farther from the reference point.
Reference Point
Figure 7 – An object selected with the Scale tool active
By default, strokes and effects are not scaled along with objects. To scale strokes and effects, choose Edit > Preferences > General, and select Scale Strokes & Effects. If you want to choose whether to scale strokes and effects on a case-by-case basis, use the Transform palette or the Scale command to scale objects.
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Numerical Scaling
Using the bounding box handles or the Scale tool are both good methods for scaling an object visually. However, there may be times when you wish to resize an object numerically to a specific unit value or percentage. The Transform palette is a convenient place to do this.
• Select the shape you wish to resize.
• Open the Transform palette – Window
Æ
Transform
• The X and Y fields indicate the object’s horizontal and vertical distance from the ruler origins (zeros).
• The W and H indicate the object’s current width and height.
• Simply type the desired values into the Width and Height boxes and press Enter.
Figure 8 – The Transform Palette
5.) Fill and Stroke
About Fills and Strokes
A Fill is a color, pattern, or gradient inside an object. You can apply fills to open and closed objects and to faces of Live Paint groups.
A Stroke is the visible outline of an object and the edges of a Live Paint group. You can control the width and color a stroke. You can also create dashed strokes and paint stylized strokes using brushes.
Figure 9 – An object with Fill only (left), Stroke only (center), and both Fill and Stroke (right) applied
Every object in your artwork can have one or more fills and strokes, or none at all. The current fill and stroke colors are displayed in the toolbox.
Fill Box
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Stroke Box
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Applying Fills
• Select an object using the Main Selection tool
• Click the Fill box in the Toolbox or in the Color palette. Note that when you select Fill or Stroke from the Toolbox it is also reflected in the Color palette and vice-versa.
• Select a color from the Color bar at the bottom of the Color palette. The object will automatically be filled with the color.
• You can also choose a color from the Swatches palette.
• Alternatively, you can double-click a Fill box to select a color using the Color Picker. Click the
“Unh-uh” or None button in the Toolbox or in the Color palette to remove the fill from an object.
Applying Strokes
• Select an object using the Main Selection tool
• Click the Stroke box in the Toolbox or in the Color palette. Note that when you select Fill or Stroke from the Toolbox it is also reflected in the Color palette and vice-versa.
• Select a color from the Color bar at the bottom of the Color palette. The object will automatically be stroked with the color.
• You can also choose a color from the Swatches palette.
• Alternatively, you can double-click a Stroke box to select a color using the Color Picker. Click the
“Unh-uh” or None button in the Toolbox or in the Color palette to remove the stroke from an object.
Once a stroke is applied to an object, you can use the Stroke palette to customize the stroke properties including the stroke weight, dashed line options, and the styles of joins and line caps (See
Figure 11).
Line Cap Style
Join Style
Figure 11 – The Stroke Palette
More about Stroke and Fills will be covered as we get deeper into modifying objects. For example, in the next module we will learn how to stroke and fill objects with custom effects such as gradients, textures and patterns.
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