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1. Digital Paste-Up 2
2. What Illustrator does 3
3. A tour of Illustrator’s workspace 4
4. Importing bitmap images 6
5. Drawing boxes 8
6. Changing fill & stroke colors 9
7. Drawing straight lines 10
8. Working with text 11
9. Drawing more complex shapes 12
10. Applying effects 13
11. Organizing objects in groups and layers 14
12. Tips! 15
Academic Computing
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Introduction to Adobe Illustrator page 2 of 14
Using Adobe
Digital Paste-Up Illustrator
Proximity
• Clump associated content.
It’s a win-win tactic. Visual flow will be improved,
as well as comprehension and retention.
Art 397H
Academic Information
Computing Design of Massachusetts, Amherst
/ OIT University 020207_mt
Introduction to Adobe Illustrator page 3 of 14
Help!
Excellent on-screen help opens in a Web browser (no Internet
connection needed) when you choose Help > Illustrator Help.
Menus
The main application menu
The main menu includes controls for your page and provides
commands you can apply to selected objects.
Palette Menus
Each palette has a pop-out menu of special options. Click on the
black triangle at the top-right corner off each palette to open its
menu.
Palettes
The palettes contain additional controls for manipulating objects and
tools. To arrange a comfortable work space drag the palettes around
the screen by their top bars. Controls are grouped together in sets of
two or three on each palette. Click on the name tabs to bring a palette
to the front of its group.
Character
If you do not see the Character palette go to the main menu and
choose Type > Character from the main menu.
Appearance
The Appearance palette also helps you to manage your artwork. It
keeps track of every effect you apply to an object..
Hand
The Hand tool (H) moves the page inside the window when you
Hand tool (H) Zoom tool (Z) drag the mouse.
There are also controls for changing your view in the main menu
(View > Zoom in, View > Zoom out, View > Fit in window, View
> Actual Size), and on the Navigator palette.
Link or embed?
The advantage of using linked artwork is that an image file can be
modified outside of illustrator, then updated, whereas you can only
change an embedded image inside Illustrator.
• Cut & paste/ drag & drop embeds images To embed a linked file already on the page
1. Open the Links palette.
IMPORTANT! When working with linked 2. Click on the icon for the linked image.
images keep the bitmap in the same folder
as the Illustrator document! 3. Use the pop-out menu at the top right of the palette to choose
> Embed Image.
Selecting an object
Before you can alter an object, you need to select it. There are two
ways to do that:
Filters are for bitmap images, Effects are for vector objects
Explore the Filter menu. You’ll find rudimentary tools for adjusting
color, and most of the common Photoshop filters for adding textures.
Masking
1. In the layers palette, click on the icon for the object you want
to mask: this way the masking shape will appear above the
A note about pasting “cut outs” image in the Layers palette.
from Photoshop...
• If you cut and paste a selection or a 2. Start drawing the shape of the mask using illustrators drawing
transparent layer from Photoshop, it will tools.
not appear “cut out” in Illustrator. A 3. Select both the drawing for the mask and the image.
rectangular area of background color will
SHIFT + CLICK to select multiple objects.
show around the selection.
4. Choose Object > Clipping mask > Make.
• Transparent GIFs or PNG files will Place
Everything under the “mask” will be visible, everything
with transparency, producing a “cut out”
effect. outside it will be masked.
Drawing boxes
How to draw a box
1. Get the Rectangle tool from the Tool bar (or press M).
2. Position the cursor where you want the upper right corner of the
box to be.
3. Hold down the mouse button and drag to where you want the
lower left corner of the box to be.
To make a perfect square press the SHIFT key while you drag.
4. Draw several boxes.
1 2 How to change a box
First, select the box:
Delete a box
Move with Selection tool Select the box then press the Backspace or Delete key.
Move a box
Still using the Select tool, position the arrow over the box and drag.
The cursor should look like this:
Resize a box
Still using the Selection tool, position the cursor over one of the
Resize with Selection tool
anchors at a corner or side of the box and drag. The box will resize
from the top left corner.
The cursor should look like this:
Constrain proportions
Hold down the SHIFT key to constrain proportions.
Scale with Scale tool
Scale a box
The Scale tool works something like resizing with the select tool, but
the Scale tool works symmetrically, and, by default, from the center
point rather than “handles.”
1. First, use the Select tool to select the box you want to scale.
Scale, pressing SHIFT
Say you draw a simple box, and apply a blur effect to it. Then you go to
the toolbar and switch to the oval tool. When you draw with the oval
tool, it will use the same color as you made the box, and will have the
blur effect applied.
Glow & shadow effects
Effect > Stylize > Inner glow To prevent “inheriting” the last effect settings used:
Organizing objects
in groups and layers
You can end up with a huge number of separate objects on your page.
Using groups and layers will help you to keep objects organized.
Note: Layers and objects stack one above each other in the picture
space. Items at the top of the list will “cover” items at the bottom.
To create a group
1. SHIFT-CLICK to select the objects you want to group.
This is easiest to do in the Layers palette (click on the select
button for each object).
2. Chose Object > Group. (Or press CONTROL + g)
Note how the objects now appear in a submenu of the Layer
called <group>.
To ungroup objects
You can still edit the individual objects of a group by using the select
buttons on the object palette to select them, but sometimes you may
find that you want to ungroup the objects:
Tips!
Tip #1: Duplicate objects to reuse them
1. Select an object or group.
2. Hold down the ALT key (Option Mac) and drag.
3. Let up on the mouse, then the key: A copy will appear.
(If the original disappears, try again.)
When you want several box combos in
the same size & style, clone the first
one, then edit the text.
Tip #2: Use the Align palette to organize elements
1. Select several objects on the page (SHIFT-CLICK).
2. Use the Align palette to align their edges, center them on an
axis, or distribute them evenly across the page.