Introduction to Illustrator
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What you will learn
1. Documents setup
2. Guides and grids
3. Units & display performance
4. Type
5. Fill and Stroke
6. Cropping
7. Resizing
8. Organizing Layers
9. Alignment
10. Clipping mask
11. Group and ungroup
12. Transform
a. Rotate
b. Reflect
13. Arrange
a. Bring to front
b. Send to back
14. Arrow heads
15. Drop shadows
16. Distort
17. Effect
18. Transparency
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Document setup
Layout for printing
Layout for website
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Guides and grids
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Guides
Configuring Guides:
Edit > Preferences
To create Guides:
View > Show rulers
Drag guide into
position by
positioning left or
top ruler for a vertical Move and delete guides:
and horizontal guide
Deselect view > Guides > Lock Guides and do the
following:
Move the guide by dragging or copying
Delete guide by selecting and clicking on delete key
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Grids
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Units & display
performance
Default unit is a
point = .3528 millimeter
To change units and displays:
Edit > preferences > Units and
display performance >
Mixing picas and points:
12p6 means XpY where X and Y are the number of picas and points
Example: 12p6 = 12 picas and 6 points
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Fill and Stroke Default Fill and stroke
Fill and stroke in red and black White fill and stroke
Fill
Stroke
... and if you switch the red White fill and red stroke
and black fill and stroke
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Cropping artwork for printing
By default, Illustrator crops artwork to the boundaries of the artboard.
Specify how to crop artwork:
File > print > setup > specify what to crop artwork to:
Define crop area:
Draw rectangle to define where you want area to appear ? Select rectangle > Object > crop area > make
Eliminate crop area:
Object > crop area > release > edit or delete rectangle > reestablish area by: Object > crop area > make
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Resizing
artwork
If you would like to change
the image size, highlight the
image you'd like to resize
and go to the transform
palette and make your
specific height and width
changes
Unlocked
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Organizing Layers
Layer 1
Visibility
column
Edit column
Current listing indicator Layer 2
triangle
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More on Layers
Layers Visibility column
palette * Hide/ Unhide items
menu * Eye icon = visible/ unhidden item
* Blank space = invisible/ hidden item
Edit column
* Lock/ unlock items
Click * Lock icon = locked item = item cannot be editted
triangle Edit column * Blank space = unlocked item = item can be editted
to show
or hide Target column Target column
contents * Target items in order to apply effects and edit attributes in
the Appearance palette
* Double ring icon = item is targetted
* Single ring icon = item is no targetted
Selection column
* Selects items in order to edit them
Delete layer * Selection color box indicates that item is selected
* Small selection box = item contains both selected and
Create new layer unselected objects
Create new sublayer * Bigger selection box = If all objects in the item are selected
Make/ release clipping mask
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Even more on Layers
Why use layers?
* To manage and keep track of all items in a complex artwork
* "Think of layers as clear folders, you change the stacking order of the items in your artwork. If you reshuffle the folders, you
change the stacking order of the items in your artwork. You can move items between folders and create subfolders within
folders." ***
To create a new layer
* Decide where you want to position layer
* If want layer above layer 2, select layer 2
* Click on new layer icon
* You will produce layer 3
* Rename layer 3 as necessary by doubleclicking it
* Move cursor inside the layer options box and start renaming
New layer icon
*** Adobe Illustrator CS2 User Guide, 2005 Adobe Systems Incorporated, page 220
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Aligning Objects
To show all
options
Click palette
menu arrow
Click Show
options
Align an object with another object
Select the items you would like to align including the object you would like to align it to by highlighting them all
using the select tool then choosing the type of alignment you would like to use
To align relative to the artboard
From the palette menu arrow, click on the Align to artboard then choose the alignment type you would like to
use
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Distribute lines evenly
Before After
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Clipping Mask
"A clipping mask is an object or group whose shape masks other artwork so that only areas that lie within the
shape of the masking object are visible in effect, clipping the artwork to the shape of the mask.
The masking object and the object that are masked are called a clipping set and are listed as either a group or a
layer in the Layers palette, depending on how the clipping set was made. Objects in the clipping set are
indicated with a dotted line in the Layers palette.
Guidelines for using a clipping mask:
* The objects that you mask are moved into the
clipping mask's group in the Layers palette if
they don't already reside there.
* Only vector objects can be masking objects.
Any artwork can be masked by the masking object.
* If you use a layer or group to create a clipping
mask, the first object in the layer or group masks
everything that is a subset of the layer or group.
* Regardless of its previous attributes, a clipping
mask changes to an object with no fill or stroke.
** From Adobe Illustrator CS2 User Guide, 2005 Adobe Systems Illustrated, page 215, Chapter 10
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More on Clipping Mask
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Group and Ungroup
Objects in a group may be treated as a single unit. You can then move or transform a number of objects
without affecting their attributes or relative positions
How to group or ungroup objects
* Select the objects to be grouped or ungrouped
* Click on Object > Group/ Ungroup
Grouped Layer 2 Ungrouped Layer 2
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Transform
Rotate
* Right click on image
* Choose rotate
* Click on preview to view the image before confirming the change
* Specify your chosen angle
* Click ok or cancel to finalize
* Or click copy to make a copy of the image with the rotated image
Reflect
* Right click on image
* Choose reflect
* Click on preview to view the image before confirming the change
* Choose an axis
* Click ok or cancel to finalize
* Or click copy to make a copy of the image with the rotated image
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Arrange commands
To move an object to the top or bottom position in its group or layer
* Select the object you want to move
* Choose Object > Arrange > Bring to front or object > arrange > send to back
Bring object to front
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Arrow heads
To add arrowheads to lines
* Select an object or group (or target a layer in the Layers palette
* Choose Effect > Stylize > Add Arrowheads
* Or Choose Filter > Stylize > Add Arrowhead
* Choose from various arrowhead designs for the start and
end of the line by clicking the forward and back buttons
below the Start and End arrow boxes. The start and end of
the line refer to the order in which the line was drawn.
* To rescale the size of an arrowhead, enter the percentage
you want in the Scale text box. This scales the arrowhead
relative to the stroke weight of the line.
* Click ok
If applied as a filter, the resulting arrowheads are distinct objects
and moved like any other grouped object. If applied as an effect,
the arrows are similar to brush stroked; that is, the arrows change
location, direction, and color along with the line, but they cannot
be edited separately.
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Drop shadows
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Distort
Before Distort
After Distort
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Effect
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Transparency
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End
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Attachments