Download Wiley Illustrator CS4 For Dummies

Contents at a Glance
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Introduction ................................................................ 1
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Part I: Driving People Crazy — Illustrator’s Bum Rap........ 7
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Chapter 1: Introducing the World of Illustrator ............................................................. 9
Chapter 2: Following the Righteous Path ..................................................................... 37
Chapter 3: Doing Everyday Things with Illustrator ..................................................... 51
Part II: Drawing and Coloring Your Artwork ................. 73
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Chapter 4: Shaping Up, Basically ................................................................................... 75
Chapter 5: Getting Your Fill of Fills and Strokes .......................................................... 97
Chapter 6: Selecting and Editing Paths ....................................................................... 119
Chapter 7: Wielding the Mighty Pen Tool ................................................................... 133
Chapter 8: Creating Straight and Curved Lines without the Pen Tool .................... 149
Chapter 9: Creating Magnificent Brushstrokes .......................................................... 165
Chapter 10: Extreme Fills and Strokes ........................................................................ 185
Chapter 11: Effectively Keeping Up Appearances, with Style(s) ............................. 199
Part III: Taking Your Paths to Obedience School......... 223
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Chapter 12: Pushing, Pulling, Poking, and Prodding ................................................. 225
Chapter 13: Organizing Efficiently................................................................................ 239
Part IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files .....255
Chapter 14: Introducing Letters and Such (Type 101).............................................. 257
Chapter 15: Printing Your Masterpiece ...................................................................... 277
Chapter 16: Moving Files Into and Out of Illustrator ................................................. 287
Chapter 17: Putting Your Art on the Web .................................................................. 305
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 323
Chapter 18: Ten Production-Enhancing Tips ............................................................. 325
Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) Ways to Customize Illustrator ........................................... 335
Index ...................................................................... 343
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Book .............................................................................................. 1
What You Don’t Need to Read ....................................................................... 2
Foolish Assumptions ....................................................................................... 2
How This Book Is Organized .......................................................................... 3
Part I: Driving People Crazy — Illustrator’s Bum Rap ....................... 3
Part II: Drawing and Coloring Your Artwork ...................................... 3
Part III: Taking Your Paths to Obedience School ............................... 3
Part IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files.......................... 3
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................ 3
But that’s not all!: Bonus chapters ...................................................... 4
About All Those Little Icons ........................................................................... 4
Road Signs along the Way .............................................................................. 4
Where to Go from Here ................................................................................... 5
Part I: Driving People Crazy — Illustrator’s Bum Rap ..... 7
Chapter 1: Introducing the World of Illustrator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
From Humble Origins to Master of the Graphics Universe ........................ 9
A brief history of Illustrator................................................................ 10
Illustrator’s place in the cosmos ....................................................... 11
Starting Up Illustrator and Revving It a Little ............................................ 12
What’s in a Name (field)? .................................................................... 14
Artboard options ................................................................................. 14
Page size, units, and orientation ........................................................ 14
CMYK or RGB? ...................................................................................... 15
Exploring the Illustrator Workspace ........................................................... 19
Illustrator tool time ............................................................................. 19
Panels to suit any artist ...................................................................... 20
Menus with the finest cuisine............................................................. 22
Mac and Windows issues spring eternal .......................................... 23
Defining the Document Area ........................................................................ 25
Opening Existing Documents ....................................................................... 26
Viewing Illustrator Documents .................................................................... 27
Zooming in and out of artwork........................................................... 28
Scrolling around your document ....................................................... 30
Looking at the guts of your artwork .................................................. 30
Using Templates ............................................................................................ 31
Saving Illustrator Documents....................................................................... 33
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Changing Your Mind...................................................................................... 34
Printing Illustrator Documents .................................................................... 34
Closing Documents and Quitting Illustrator .............................................. 35
Chapter 2: Following the Righteous Path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Whether Paths or Pixels Are Better ............................................................ 38
Paths: The ultimate flexibility in graphics ........................................ 39
Pixels: Detail and realism to spare .................................................... 40
How Paths and Pixels Compare ................................................................... 41
A comparison of path and pixel documents .................................... 42
When to use paths and when to use pixels ...................................... 44
Paths and Printing ......................................................................................... 44
Which is faster — a square or a square? .......................................... 45
Printing paths: The evolution of Bézier curves ............................... 45
What’s my vector, Victor? .................................................................. 46
Gray’s Anatomy of a Path ............................................................................. 46
In Illustrator, it’s polite to point......................................................... 47
You can handle the truth .................................................................... 47
Chapter 3: Doing Everyday Things with Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Picking Up Stuff and Moving It Around ....................................................... 51
Comparing the selection tools ........................................................... 52
Moving and transforming objects ...................................................... 53
Distorting paths ................................................................................... 55
Organizing objects ............................................................................... 57
Using the “Hard” Stuff ................................................................................... 59
Transparency ....................................................................................... 59
Blends .................................................................................................... 60
Clipping masks ..................................................................................... 60
Compound paths and shapes ............................................................. 62
Flares ..................................................................................................... 64
Entering the Wide World of the Web .......................................................... 66
Saving the World............................................................................................ 67
Save........................................................................................................ 68
Save As .................................................................................................. 68
Save a Copy........................................................................................... 69
Save for Web ......................................................................................... 69
Export .................................................................................................... 69
Using Illustrator for What It Does Best ....................................................... 71
Part II: Drawing and Coloring Your Artwork ................. 73
Chapter 4: Shaping Up, Basically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Creating Basic Shapes ................................................................................... 76
Drawing rectangles and squares ........................................................ 76
Drawing ellipses and circles ............................................................... 78
Table of Contents
Creating polygons and stars ............................................................... 78
Creating grids ....................................................................................... 82
Putting Together Shapes .............................................................................. 84
Shape Modes ........................................................................................ 85
Compound Shapes ............................................................................... 86
Pathfinders............................................................................................ 87
Creating Objects by Using the Pathfinder Panel ....................................... 89
Crescent moon ..................................................................................... 89
Sunrise ................................................................................................... 90
Legal Graffiti ................................................................................................... 91
Using the Symbol Sprayer................................................................... 91
Creating a custom symbol .................................................................. 93
Editing your symbols........................................................................... 94
Setting the Symbolism options .......................................................... 95
Chapter 5: Getting Your Fill of Fills and Strokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Understanding Fill and Stroke...................................................................... 97
Filling and stroking paths with color............................................... 100
Making a bold stroke ......................................................................... 100
Adding multiple strokes to a single path ........................................ 102
Filling crossed and open paths ........................................................ 102
The Swatches Panel..................................................................................... 103
All the colors in the rainbow and then some ................................. 103
Swatch options for super colors ...................................................... 105
Swatch libraries ................................................................................. 106
The Color Panel ........................................................................................... 106
Dissecting the Color panel ................................................................ 107
Modes and models ............................................................................. 108
Filling with Patterns and Textures ............................................................ 112
Applying patterns to paths ............................................................... 112
Making patterns ................................................................................. 113
Using the Gradient Fill ................................................................................ 114
The Gradient tool ............................................................................... 114
Modifying gradients ........................................................................... 115
Gradient-mania: Color-tweaking made simple ............................... 116
Radial: The secret gradient............................................................... 117
Chapter 6: Selecting and Editing Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
Selecting with the Illustrator Tools ........................................................... 120
Natural selection ................................................................................ 121
Direct Selection tool .......................................................................... 122
Group Selection tool .......................................................................... 123
Selecting more or less of what you have ........................................ 124
Freeform selections: Lasso tool ....................................................... 125
Magic Wand tool ................................................................................ 125
Selecting without Tools: The Select Menu ............................................... 126
Select menu options .......................................................................... 126
Specialized selection functions for important occasions ............. 128
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Editing and Adjusting Points ...................................................................... 128
A relocation bonus for points .......................................................... 129
Fine-tuning curves with direction points ........................................ 129
Converting anchor points ................................................................. 130
Adding and subtracting points (path math) .................................. 131
Chapter 7: Wielding the Mighty Pen Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
Performing with the Pen, the Path, and the Anchor Points ................... 134
Smooth anchor points ....................................................................... 134
Straight-corner anchor points .......................................................... 135
Curved-corner anchor points ........................................................... 135
Combination-corner anchor points ................................................. 136
Creating Straight Lines with the Pen Tool................................................ 139
Open and Closed Paths ............................................................................... 140
Creating Super-Precise Curves with the Pen Tool .................................. 140
Taming the draggin’ ........................................................................... 140
Following the one-third rule ............................................................. 142
Following rules for the other two-thirds ......................................... 143
Drawing the tricky anchor points with the Pen tool ..................... 145
Drawing Shapes with the Pen Tool............................................................ 146
Drawing a sad, lumpy circle with the Pen tool .............................. 146
Drawing a heart .................................................................................. 147
Chapter 8: Creating Straight and Curved Lines
without the Pen Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Using the Pencil Tool as a Pencil ............................................................... 150
Minimal effort and hefty stress reduction ...................................... 150
A few unexpected exceptions to all this bliss ................................ 151
Cherishing the Multipurpose Pencil Tool ................................................ 152
Making the Pencil tool work just for you ........................................ 152
Changing the path not penciled ....................................................... 157
Working with the all-natural “Smoothie” tool ................................ 157
Using the Pen with the Pencil .................................................................... 159
Swapping one tool for another ......................................................... 159
Precision versus speed: You make the call .................................... 159
Lines Made Quick and Easy........................................................................ 160
Working with the Line Segment tool ............................................... 160
Setting the tool options ..................................................................... 161
Curvy with the Arc Tool ............................................................................. 162
Getting the arc you want................................................................... 162
Spiraling out of control ..................................................................... 163
Chapter 9: Creating Magnificent Brushstrokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Brushing Where No Stroke Has Gone Before ........................................... 165
Embracing your inner artist ............................................................. 167
The Paintbrush tool options ............................................................ 168
Creating a New Brush.................................................................................. 168
Table of Contents
Working with the Different Brush Types .................................................. 170
Art brushes for times when you’re a bit wacky ............................. 170
Scatter brushes for times when you’re a bit wacky ...................... 172
Pattern brushes — too cool and utterly wacko ............................. 176
Calligraphic brushes for formal occasions ..................................... 181
Chapter 10: Extreme Fills and Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Messing Around with Meshes .................................................................... 185
Adding a gradient mesh manually ................................................... 187
Letting gradient mesh do the work for you .................................... 188
Creating soft bevels with Gradient Mesh........................................ 189
Making Objects Partially Transparent and Blending Colors.................. 191
Fade away with opacity..................................................................... 191
Big fun with math! Blending graphics with blend modes ............. 192
Discovering How Strokes Work ................................................................. 193
Caps, joins, and dashes ..................................................................... 194
Clipping Masks ............................................................................................. 197
Chapter 11: Effectively Keeping Up Appearances, with Style(s). . . .199
The Effect Menu ........................................................................................... 200
Applying live effects to objects ........................................................ 201
3D Effects ............................................................................................ 203
Removing and changing effects ....................................................... 204
Rasterization effects .......................................................................... 205
The Appearance Panel ................................................................................ 206
Reading the Appearance panel ........................................................ 207
Adding fills and strokes..................................................................... 209
Changing the appearance of groups and layers ............................ 211
Applying effects to strokes and fills ................................................ 214
Going back to adjust settings ........................................................... 215
Removing appearances ..................................................................... 215
Killing live effects until they’re dead ............................................... 216
Figuring Out Styles ...................................................................................... 217
Applying styles to objects ................................................................ 217
Creating and editing styles ............................................................... 218
Spotting the difference between graphic and text styles ............. 221
Applying graphic styles to text ........................................................ 221
Part III: Taking Your Paths to Obedience School......... 223
Chapter 12: Pushing, Pulling, Poking, and Prodding . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Understanding the Five Transformation Sisters...................................... 225
Move .................................................................................................... 226
Scale..................................................................................................... 227
Rotate .................................................................................................. 230
Reflect .................................................................................................. 230
Shear .................................................................................................... 232
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Additional Transformation Tidbits ........................................................... 233
The Transform panel ......................................................................... 233
Copying while transforming ............................................................. 234
Transform Each .................................................................................. 234
Transform Again ................................................................................ 235
Partial transformations ..................................................................... 236
Blending: The Magic Transformation ....................................................... 237
Chapter 13: Organizing Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Stacking Illustrator Artwork ....................................................................... 239
Stacking order .................................................................................... 240
Moving art up (front) or back (down) in the stacking order ....... 241
Managing the Mess ...................................................................................... 242
Using the Layers panel ...................................................................... 242
Lock and Unlock, View and Hide ..................................................... 245
Copying layers (quickly and completely) ....................................... 246
Viewing objects and groups ............................................................. 246
Using your options on layers, groups, and objects ....................... 246
Imposing Slavish Conformity with Groups............................................... 248
Lining Up ....................................................................................................... 248
Guides that are truly smarter than most of us............................... 249
Let the rulers guide you . . . .............................................................. 249
I’m a path, I’m a guide ....................................................................... 252
Alignment ............................................................................................ 252
Part IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files .....255
Chapter 14: Introducing Letters and Such (Type 101) . . . . . . . . . . . . .257
Using the Word Processor from Outer Space .......................................... 258
Controlling type in Illustrator .......................................................... 258
The Type tool(s) ................................................................................ 258
The Character panel .......................................................................... 260
The Paragraph panel ......................................................................... 261
Introducing the Strange Land of Type ...................................................... 262
Fonts, typefaces, and font families .................................................. 262
Serif and sans serif ............................................................................. 264
The biggest Don’t Do It that I can think of ...................................... 264
Exploring Size, Leading, and Other Mysterious Numbers...................... 265
Measuring can be just plain odd ...................................................... 265
Measuring can be just plain annoying............................................. 267
Spacing out while staring at type..................................................... 268
Putting type on the rack.................................................................... 269
Moving on up and down.................................................................... 269
Adjusting Entire Paragraphs ...................................................................... 270
Changing the alignment of a paragraph .......................................... 270
Changing the space around the paragraph .................................... 270
Table of Contents
Using Type as a Mask .................................................................................. 272
Converting Type to Paths ........................................................................... 274
Type Styles ................................................................................................... 276
Chapter 15: Printing Your Masterpiece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .277
Printing Quickly ........................................................................................... 277
What You See Is Roughly What You Get................................................... 278
Setting Up Your Page to Print (You Hope) ............................................... 279
Quick printing..................................................................................... 279
Changing Artboard size..................................................................... 280
Printing Mechanics ...................................................................................... 281
Printing composite proofs ................................................................ 282
Important printing options ............................................................... 283
All about Way-Scary Separations............................................................... 283
Separations are not in color ............................................................. 285
Printing separations .......................................................................... 285
Chapter 16: Moving Files Into and Out of Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
Bringing Files Into Illustrator ..................................................................... 288
Deciding whether to link or embed ................................................. 290
Managing links.................................................................................... 291
Getting Files Out of Illustrator ................................................................... 294
Working with Illustrator and Photoshop .................................................. 296
Making life easy: Copy and paste, drag and drop .......................... 296
Placing files ......................................................................................... 298
Now opening in an application near you ........................................ 298
Exporting a graphic ........................................................................... 299
Using Adobe Illustrator with Nearly Everything Else ............................. 301
Chapter 17: Putting Your Art on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305
From Illustrator to the Web........................................................................ 305
Using Web colors only ...................................................................... 307
Working in Pixel Preview mode ....................................................... 308
Choosing a file format ....................................................................... 309
So which file format is best, already? .............................................. 312
Creating Web-Specific Pixel Graphics ....................................................... 313
Saving a graphic as a GIF file ............................................................ 315
Saving a graphic as a JPEG file ......................................................... 317
Saving a graphic as a PNG-8 or PNG-24 file ..................................... 319
Creating Web-Specific Vector Graphics .................................................... 319
Saving a graphic as a Flash file ......................................................... 320
Saving a graphic as a SVG file ........................................................... 320
Slicing and Dicing Your Graphics .............................................................. 321
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Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 323
Chapter 18: Ten Production-Enhancing Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325
Punching Holes ............................................................................................ 325
Use Photoshop Effects in Illustrator! ........................................................ 327
When White Isn’t Nothing........................................................................... 327
Expanding to Get to the Root of the Artwork .......................................... 329
Quick! Hide! .................................................................................................. 330
Taking a Tip from Illustrator ...................................................................... 331
Changing Your Units Whenever You Want .............................................. 331
Reusing Your Brushes, Swatches, and Libraries ..................................... 332
Avoiding Russian Dolls ............................................................................... 332
Selecting Type When You Want................................................................. 333
Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) Ways to Customize Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . .335
Positioning Panels ....................................................................................... 336
The Flexible Tools Panel............................................................................. 336
Changing the Items on the Menu ............................................................... 337
Changing the Default Settings .................................................................... 338
Changing Hidden Commands You Never Knew About ........................... 339
Action Jackson ............................................................................................. 340
Sticky Settings .............................................................................................. 342
Index ....................................................................... 343