Illustrator® CS4 For Dummies®

Illustrator® CS4 For Dummies®

Released November 2009
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470396568

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Book description

Adobe Illustrator is the gold standard for creating exciting, color-rich artwork for print, the Web, or even mobile devices. Whether you're stepping up to Illustrator CS4 or tackling Illustrator for the first time, you'll find Illustrator CS4 For Dummies is the perfect partner.

This full-color guide gives you the scoop on the newest tools, tips on color control and path editing, ways to organize graphics, and how to get your work into print or on the Web. You've heard Illustrator is a bit complicated? That's why you need this friendly For Dummies book! It shows you how to:

  • Manage Illustrator CS4's many tools, commands, and palettes

  • Decide when to choose RGB over CMYK and how to get perfect color when printing

  • Compare path and pixel documents, adjust points on a path, and learn to use the versatile Pen and Pencil tools

  • Use the Character and Paragraph palettes and get creative with type on a path

  • Work in pixel preview mode, create Web-specific vector graphics, and use Flash with Illustrator

  • Set up your pages for printing and work with separations, or save files in Web-friendly formats

  • Create basic shapes, straight lines, and precise curves, then bring it all together into eye-popping artwork

  • Organize with the Layers palette, tweak color, and make the most of styles and effects

  • Use Illustrator together with other elements of the Adobe Creative Suite

With plain-English instructions and colorful examples of what you can achieve, Illustrator CS4 For Dummies will make you an Illustrator pro in no time.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Author
  3. Author's Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. What You Don't Need to Read
    3. Foolish Assumptions
    4. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Driving People Crazy — Illustrator's Bum Rap
      2. Part II: Drawing and Coloring Your Artwork
      3. Part III: Taking Your Paths to Obedience School
      4. Part IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files
      5. Part V: The Part of Tens
      6. But that's not all!: Bonus chapters
    5. About All Those Little Icons
    6. Road Signs along the Way
    7. Where to Go from Here
  6. I. Driving People Crazy — Illustrator's Bum Rap
    1. 1. Introducing the World of Illustrator
      1. 1.1. From Humble Origins to Master of the Graphics Universe
        1. 1.1.1. A brief history of Illustrator
        2. 1.1.2. Illustrator's place in the cosmos
      2. 1.2. Starting Up Illustrator and Revving It a Little
        1. 1.2.1. What's in a Name (field)?
        2. 1.2.2. Artboard options
        3. 1.2.3. Page size, units, and orientation
        4. 1.2.4. CMYK or RGB?
      3. 1.3. Exploring the Illustrator Workspace
        1. 1.3.1. Illustrator tool time
        2. 1.3.2. Panels to suit any artist
        3. 1.3.3. Menus with the finest cuisine
        4. 1.3.4. Mac and Windows issues spring eternal
      4. 1.4. Defining the Document Area
      5. 1.5. Opening Existing Documents
      6. 1.6. Viewing Illustrator Documents
        1. 1.6.1. Zooming in and out of artwork
          1. 1.6.1.1. The Zoom tool
          2. 1.6.1.2. Speed zoom ahead
        2. 1.6.2. Scrolling around your document
        3. 1.6.3. Looking at the guts of your artwork
      7. 1.7. Using Templates
      8. 1.8. Saving Illustrator Documents
      9. 1.9. Changing Your Mind
      10. 1.10. Printing Illustrator Documents
      11. 1.11. Closing Documents and Quitting Illustrator
    2. 2. Following the Righteous Path
      1. 2.1. Whether Paths or Pixels Are Better
        1. 2.1.1. Paths: The ultimate flexibility in graphics
        2. 2.1.2. Pixels: Detail and realism to spare
      2. 2.2. How Paths and Pixels Compare
        1. 2.2.1. A comparison of path and pixel documents
        2. 2.2.2. When to use paths and when to use pixels
      3. 2.3. Paths and Printing
        1. 2.3.1. Which is faster — a square or a square?
        2. 2.3.2. Printing paths: The evolution of Bézier curves
        3. 2.3.3. What's my vector, Victor?
      4. 2.4. Gray's Anatomy of a Path
        1. 2.4.1. In Illustrator, it's polite to point
        2. 2.4.2. You can handle the truth
    3. 3. Doing Everyday Things with Illustrator
      1. 3.1. Picking Up Stuff and Moving It Around
        1. 3.1.1. Comparing the selection tools
        2. 3.1.2. Moving and transforming objects
        3. 3.1.3. Distorting paths
        4. 3.1.4. Organizing objects
      2. 3.2. Using the "Hard" Stuff
        1. 3.2.1. Transparency
        2. 3.2.2. Blends
        3. 3.2.3. Clipping masks
        4. 3.2.4. Compound paths and shapes
        5. 3.2.5. Flares
      3. 3.3. Entering the Wide World of the Web
      4. 3.4. Saving the World
        1. 3.4.1. Save
        2. 3.4.2. Save As
        3. 3.4.3. Save a Copy
        4. 3.4.4. Save for Web
        5. 3.4.5. Export
      5. 3.5. Using Illustrator for What It Does Best
  7. II. Drawing and Coloring Your Artwork
    1. 4. Shaping Up, Basically
      1. 4.1. Creating Basic Shapes
        1. 4.1.1. Drawing rectangles and squares
          1. 4.1.1.1. Rectangle
          2. 4.1.1.2. Square
          3. 4.1.1.3. Rounded-corner rectangle
          4. 4.1.1.4. Rectangle with exact dimensions
        2. 4.1.2. Drawing ellipses and circles
        3. 4.1.3. Creating polygons and stars
          1. 4.1.3.1. Pulling polygons
          2. 4.1.3.2. Seeing stars
        4. 4.1.4. Creating grids
      2. 4.2. Putting Together Shapes
        1. 4.2.1. Shape Modes
        2. 4.2.2. Compound Shapes
        3. 4.2.3. Pathfinders
      3. 4.3. Creating Objects by Using the Pathfinder Panel
        1. 4.3.1. Crescent moon
        2. 4.3.2. Sunrise
      4. 4.4. Legal Graffiti
        1. 4.4.1. Using the Symbol Sprayer
        2. 4.4.2. Creating a custom symbol
        3. 4.4.3. Editing your symbols
        4. 4.4.4. Setting the Symbolism options
    2. 5. Getting Your Fill of Fills and Strokes
      1. 5.1. Understanding Fill and Stroke
        1. 5.1.1. Filling and stroking paths with color
        2. 5.1.2. Making a bold stroke
        3. 5.1.3. Adding multiple strokes to a single path
        4. 5.1.4. Filling crossed and open paths
      2. 5.2. The Swatches Panel
        1. 5.2.1. All the colors in the rainbow and then some
        2. 5.2.2. Swatch options for super colors
        3. 5.2.3. Swatch libraries
      3. 5.3. The Color Panel
        1. 5.3.1. Dissecting the Color panel
        2. 5.3.2. Modes and models
      4. 5.4. Filling with Patterns and Textures
        1. 5.4.1. Applying patterns to paths
        2. 5.4.2. Making patterns
      5. 5.5. Using the Gradient Fill
        1. 5.5.1. The Gradient tool
        2. 5.5.2. Modifying gradients
        3. 5.5.3. Gradient-mania: Color-tweaking made simple
        4. 5.5.4. Radial: The secret gradient
    3. 6. Selecting and Editing Paths
      1. 6.1. Selecting with the Illustrator Tools
        1. 6.1.1. Natural selection
        2. 6.1.2. Direct Selection tool
        3. 6.1.3. Group Selection tool
        4. 6.1.4. Selecting more or less of what you have
        5. 6.1.5. Freeform selections: Lasso tool
        6. 6.1.6. Magic Wand tool
      2. 6.2. Selecting without Tools: The Select Menu
        1. 6.2.1. Select menu options
        2. 6.2.2. Specialized selection functions for important occasions
      3. 6.3. Editing and Adjusting Points
        1. 6.3.1. A relocation bonus for points
        2. 6.3.2. Fine-tuning curves with direction points
        3. 6.3.3. Converting anchor points
        4. 6.3.4. Adding and subtracting points (path math)
    4. 7. Wielding the Mighty Pen Tool
      1. 7.1. Performing with the Pen, the Path, and the Anchor Points
        1. 7.1.1. Smooth anchor points
        2. 7.1.2. Straight-corner anchor points
        3. 7.1.3. Curved-corner anchor points
        4. 7.1.4. Combination-corner anchor points
          1. 7.1.4.1. Starting with a smooth path
          2. 7.1.4.2. Starting with a straight path
      2. 7.2. Creating Straight Lines with the Pen Tool
      3. 7.3. Open and Closed Paths
      4. 7.4. Creating Super-Precise Curves with the Pen Tool
        1. 7.4.1. Taming the draggin'
        2. 7.4.2. Following the one-third rule
        3. 7.4.3. Following rules for the other two-thirds
        4. 7.4.4. Drawing the tricky anchor points with the Pen tool
          1. 7.4.4.1. Curved-corner anchor points revisited
          2. 7.4.4.2. Combination-corner anchor points revisited
      5. 7.5. Drawing Shapes with the Pen Tool
        1. 7.5.1. Drawing a sad, lumpy circle with the Pen tool
        2. 7.5.2. Drawing a heart
    5. 8. Creating Straight and Curved Lines without the Pen Tool
      1. 8.1. Using the Pencil Tool as a Pencil
        1. 8.1.1. Minimal effort and hefty stress reduction
        2. 8.1.2. A few unexpected exceptions to all this bliss
      2. 8.2. Cherishing the Multipurpose Pencil Tool
        1. 8.2.1. Making the Pencil tool work just for you
          1. 8.2.1.1. Hi-fi and lo-fi paths
          2. 8.2.1.2. Now, that is smooth!
          3. 8.2.1.3. Tweaking the Pencil tool: It's your option
        2. 8.2.2. Changing the path not penciled
        3. 8.2.3. Working with the all-natural "Smoothie" tool
      3. 8.3. Using the Pen with the Pencil
        1. 8.3.1. Swapping one tool for another
        2. 8.3.2. Precision versus speed: You make the call
          1. 8.3.2.1. Shapes and paths best drawn with the Pen tool
          2. 8.3.2.2. Shapes and paths best drawn with the Pencil tool
      4. 8.4. Lines Made Quick and Easy
        1. 8.4.1. Working with the Line Segment tool
        2. 8.4.2. Setting the tool options
      5. 8.5. Curvy with the Arc Tool
        1. 8.5.1. Getting the arc you want
        2. 8.5.2. Spiraling out of control
    6. 9. Creating Magnificent Brushstrokes
      1. 9.1. Brushing Where No Stroke Has Gone Before
        1. 9.1.1. Embracing your inner artist
        2. 9.1.2. The Paintbrush tool options
      2. 9.2. Creating a New Brush
      3. 9.3. Working with the Different Brush Types
        1. 9.3.1. Art brushes for times when you're a bit wacky
        2. 9.3.2. Scatter brushes for times when you're a bit wacky
        3. 9.3.3. Pattern brushes — too cool and utterly wacko
          1. 9.3.3.1. Making the artwork for a Pattern brush
          2. 9.3.3.2. Setting Pattern Brush options
          3. 9.3.3.3. Positioning the artwork in the Pattern brush
          4. 9.3.3.4. Testing your new Pattern brush
        4. 9.3.4. Calligraphic brushes for formal occasions
    7. 10. Extreme Fills and Strokes
      1. 10.1. Messing Around with Meshes
        1. 10.1.1. Adding a gradient mesh manually
        2. 10.1.2. Letting gradient mesh do the work for you
        3. 10.1.3. Creating soft bevels with Gradient Mesh
      2. 10.2. Making Objects Partially Transparent and Blending Colors
        1. 10.2.1. Fade away with opacity
        2. 10.2.2. Big fun with math! Blending graphics with blend modes
      3. 10.3. Discovering How Strokes Work
        1. 10.3.1. Caps, joins, and dashes
          1. 10.3.1.1. Caps
          2. 10.3.1.2. Joins
          3. 10.3.1.3. Dashes
      4. 10.4. Clipping Masks
    8. 11. Effectively Keeping Up Appearances, with Style(s)
      1. 11.1. The Effect Menu
        1. 11.1.1. Applying live effects to objects
        2. 11.1.2. 3D Effects
        3. 11.1.3. Removing and changing effects
        4. 11.1.4. Rasterization effects
      2. 11.2. The Appearance Panel
        1. 11.2.1. Reading the Appearance panel
        2. 11.2.2. Adding fills and strokes
        3. 11.2.3. Changing the appearance of groups and layers
        4. 11.2.4. Applying effects to strokes and fills
        5. 11.2.5. Going back to adjust settings
        6. 11.2.6. Removing appearances
        7. 11.2.7. Killing live effects until they're dead
      3. 11.3. Figuring Out Styles
        1. 11.3.1. Applying styles to objects
        2. 11.3.2. Creating and editing styles
        3. 11.3.3. Spotting the difference between graphic and text styles
        4. 11.3.4. Applying graphic styles to text
  8. III. Taking Your Paths to Obedience School
    1. 12. Pushing, Pulling, Poking, and Prodding
      1. 12.1. Understanding the Five Transformation Sisters
        1. 12.1.1. Move
        2. 12.1.2. Scale
        3. 12.1.3. Rotate
        4. 12.1.4. Reflect
        5. 12.1.5. Shear
      2. 12.2. Additional Transformation Tidbits
        1. 12.2.1. The Transform panel
        2. 12.2.2. Copying while transforming
        3. 12.2.3. Transform Each
        4. 12.2.4. Transform Again
        5. 12.2.5. Partial transformations
      3. 12.3. Blending: The Magic Transformation
    2. 13. Organizing Efficiently
      1. 13.1. Stacking Illustrator Artwork
        1. 13.1.1. Stacking order
        2. 13.1.2. Moving art up (front) or back (down) in the stacking order
      2. 13.2. Managing the Mess
        1. 13.2.1. Using the Layers panel
          1. 13.2.1.1. Thumbnails
          2. 13.2.1.2. I call it layer cake . . .
          3. 13.2.1.3. Changing the stacking order of layers
        2. 13.2.2. Lock and Unlock, View and Hide
        3. 13.2.3. Copying layers (quickly and completely)
        4. 13.2.4. Viewing objects and groups
        5. 13.2.5. Using your options on layers, groups, and objects
      3. 13.3. Imposing Slavish Conformity with Groups
      4. 13.4. Lining Up
        1. 13.4.1. Guides that are truly smarter than most of us
        2. 13.4.2. Let the rulers guide you . . .
        3. 13.4.3. I'm a path, I'm a guide
        4. 13.4.4. Alignment
  9. IV. Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files
    1. 14. Introducing Letters and Such (Type 101)
      1. 14.1. Using the Word Processor from Outer Space
        1. 14.1.1. Controlling type in Illustrator
        2. 14.1.2. The Type tool(s)
        3. 14.1.3. The Character panel
        4. 14.1.4. The Paragraph panel
      2. 14.2. Introducing the Strange Land of Type
        1. 14.2.1. Fonts, typefaces, and font families
        2. 14.2.2. Serif and sans serif
        3. 14.2.3. The biggest Don't Do It that I can think of
      3. 14.3. Exploring Size, Leading, and Other Mysterious Numbers
        1. 14.3.1. Measuring can be just plain odd
        2. 14.3.2. Measuring can be just plain annoying
        3. 14.3.3. Spacing out while staring at type
        4. 14.3.4. Putting type on the rack
        5. 14.3.5. Moving on up and down
      4. 14.4. Adjusting Entire Paragraphs
        1. 14.4.1. Changing the alignment of a paragraph
        2. 14.4.2. Changing the space around the paragraph
      5. 14.5. Using Type as a Mask
      6. 14.6. Converting Type to Paths
      7. 14.7. Type Styles
    2. 15. Printing Your Masterpiece
      1. 15.1. Printing Quickly
      2. 15.2. What You See Is Roughly What You Get
      3. 15.3. Setting Up Your Page to Print (You Hope)
        1. 15.3.1. Quick printing
        2. 15.3.2. Changing Artboard size
      4. 15.4. Printing Mechanics
        1. 15.4.1. Printing composite proofs
        2. 15.4.2. Important printing options
      5. 15.5. All about Way-Scary Separations
        1. 15.5.1. Separations are not in color
        2. 15.5.2. Printing separations
    3. 16. Moving Files Into and Out of Illustrator
      1. 16.1. Bringing Files Into Illustrator
        1. 16.1.1. Deciding whether to link or embed
        2. 16.1.2. Managing links
      2. 16.2. Getting Files Out of Illustrator
      3. 16.3. Working with Illustrator and Photoshop
        1. 16.3.1. Making life easy: Copy and paste, drag and drop
        2. 16.3.2. Placing files
          1. 16.3.2.1. Placing Illustrator files in Photoshop
          2. 16.3.2.2. Placing Photoshop files in Illustrator
        3. 16.3.3. Now opening in an application near you
        4. 16.3.4. Exporting a graphic
      4. 16.4. Using Adobe Illustrator with Nearly Everything Else
    4. 17. Putting Your Art on the Web
      1. 17.1. From Illustrator to the Web
        1. 17.1.1. Using Web colors only
        2. 17.1.2. Working in Pixel Preview mode
        3. 17.1.3. Choosing a file format
          1. 17.1.3.1. GIF file format
          2. 17.1.3.2. JPEG file format
          3. 17.1.3.3. PNG file format
          4. 17.1.3.4. Flash (SWF) file format
          5. 17.1.3.5. SVG file format
        4. 17.1.4. So which file format is best, already?
      2. 17.2. Creating Web-Specific Pixel Graphics
        1. 17.2.1. Saving a graphic as a GIF file
        2. 17.2.2. Saving a graphic as a JPEG file
        3. 17.2.3. Saving a graphic as a PNG-8 or PNG-24 file
      3. 17.3. Creating Web-Specific Vector Graphics
        1. 17.3.1. Saving a graphic as a Flash file
        2. 17.3.2. Saving a graphic as a SVG file
      4. 17.4. Slicing and Dicing Your Graphics
  10. V. The Part of Tens
    1. 18. Ten Production-Enhancing Tips
      1. 18.1. Punching Holes
      2. 18.2. Use Photoshop Effects in Illustrator!
      3. 18.3. When White Isn't Nothing
      4. 18.4. Expanding to Get to the Root of the Artwork
      5. 18.5. Quick! Hide!
      6. 18.6. Taking a Tip from Illustrator
      7. 18.7. Changing Your Units Whenever You Want
      8. 18.8. Reusing Your Brushes, Swatches, and Libraries
      9. 18.9. Avoiding Russian Dolls
      10. 18.10. Selecting Type When You Want
    2. 19. Ten (Or So) Ways to Customize Illustrator
      1. 19.1. Positioning Panels
      2. 19.2. The Flexible Tools Panel
      3. 19.3. Changing the Items on the Menu
      4. 19.4. Changing the Default Settings
      5. 19.5. Changing Hidden Commands You Never Knew About
      6. 19.6. Action Jackson
      7. 19.7. Sticky Settings
  11. BC-1. Taking Images Out of the Realm of Reality
    1. BC-1.1. Applying Distortion Effects
      1. BC-1.1.1. Pucker & Bloat
      2. BC-1.1.2. Roughen and Scribble & Tweak
      3. BC-1.1.3. Zig Zag
      4. BC-1.1.4. Free Distort
      5. BC-1.1.5. Twist
      6. BC-1.1.6. Warps
      7. BC-1.1.7. Other effects goodies
    2. BC-1.2. Creating Graphic Ooze with Liquification
      1. BC-1.2.1. Liquifying without a blender
      2. BC-1.2.2. Liquify options
    3. BC-1.3. Pushing the Envelope
      1. BC-1.3.1. At warp speed
      2. BC-1.3.2. What a mesh
      3. BC-1.3.3. Pathways

Product information

  • Title: Illustrator® CS4 For Dummies®
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2009
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9780470396568