Adobe Illustrator CC for Dummies

Get to know your digital drawing board

Adobe Illustrator CC offers a vibrant tool for creating drawings and illustrations in a digital environment. It takes some practice to get a feel for the digital pens, pencils, paintbrushes, and erasers, though. Adobe Illustrator CC For Dummies offers the guidance you need to turn your ideas into real drawings.

Written by an Illustrator trainer and expert, this book walks those new to the tool through the basics of drawing, editing, and applying the unique tools found in this popular program.
* Create illustrations using simple shapes
* Touch up images using pen, pencil, and brush tools
* Import your illustrations into other graphic apps
* Apply special effects and add type

This book is essential reading for new and beginning illustrators who are either adopting a digital tool for the first time, switching from an existing tool to Illustrator, or adding Illustrator know-how to existing Adobe knowledge.

  Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Creating, Navigating, and Saving Projects 5
Chapter 1: Navigating Illustrator's Interface 7
Surveying the Illustrator Universe 8
Launching Illustrator 8
Using and Customizing Toolbars 10
Accessing and Arranging Panels 11
Using the Control Panel or the Properties Panel 12
Choosing between the Control and Properties panels 13
Options on the Control and Properties panels 13
Chapter 2: Creating, Saving, Exporting, and Printing Files 15
Creating Documents 16
Making basic choices for a document 16
Using presets 17
Defining color mode, artboard size, and raster resolution 18
Deploying Artboards 20
Defining artboards 20
Using artboards for a multidimensional project 23
Exporting, Saving, and Printing 27
Saving Illustrator files 27
Exporting files 29
Using artboards and assets for output 29
Communicating with your printer 30
Chapter 3: Placing and Tracing Artwork 31
Placing Artwork 32
Embedding and linking files 32
Placing text in a shape or path 34
Cropping rasters 35
Using clipping masks 35
Importing Sketches from Adobe Illustrator Draw 37
Tracing Raster Images 38
Chapter 4: Drawing Lines and Shapes 43
Building Graphics with Basic Shapes 44
Generating shapes 45
Clicking to generate shapes 46
Drawing shapes interactively 51
Applying Shape Properties from the Control Panel 52
Reshaping Shapes 54
Building Complex Shapes 58
Creating a compound path 58
Using Pathfinder to combine shapes 59
Drawing Shapes with Perspective 63
Applying Isometric Effects to Shapes 66
Chapter 5: Selecting and Arranging Objects 69
Selecting in Illustrator 69
Selecting with tools 70
Using the Select menu 75
Grouping and Isolating Objects 77
Editing objects as groups 78
Editing objects within groups 79
Aligning and Spacing Objects 82
Locating objects with rulers, guides, and grids 82
Aligning with SmartGuides 85
Using the Align panel 85
Arranging Objects Front-to-Back 87
Chapter 6: Organizing Documents with Layers 89
Using a Template Layer 90
Organizing and Arranging Objects in Layers 92
Organizing Content within and between Layers 96
Locating objects in the Layers panel 96
Arranging objects within and between layers 97
Styling with Layers 97
Targeting layers 98
Changing the appearance of objects in layers 99
Applying Layers in Real-World Challenges 99
Part 2: Drawing and Editing Paths 101
Chapter 7: Wielding the Pen and Anchor Point Tools 103
Editing Anchors 104
Selecting and moving anchors 104
Converting open paths to closed paths and vice versa 106
Editing Curves with the Anchor Point Tool 107
Drawing with the Pen Tool 109
Creating curved, combination, and straight anchors with the Pen tool 109
Adding and deleting anchors 111
Wielding the Pen tool with shortcuts 112
Honing Pen tool skills with a waveform 113
Chapter 8: Creating Artwork with the Pencil, Curvature, and Blob Tools 117
Drawing with the Pencil Tool 118
Setting pencil curve smoothness 118
Managing the many modes of the Pencil tool 120
Setting Pencil tool options 121
Ironing Out Wrinkles with the Smooth Tool 122
Drawing and Editing Curves with the Curvature Tool 122
Drawing curves 123
Editing curves 123
Drawing Filled Paths with the Blob Brush Tool 124
Erasing with the Eraser Tool 127
Creating Shapes with the Shaper and Shape Builder Tools 127
Creating shapes with the Shaper tool 128
Combining shapes with Shape Builder 128
Animating with Puppet Warp 129
Fine-Tuning beyond Drawing Tools 131
Chapter 9: Painting with Brushes 133
Unleashing Your Creativity with Brushes 133
Painting with the Paintbrush 135
Applying Brushes to Paths 136
Working with the Brushes panel 136
Navigating the Brush libraries 137
Creating DIY Brushes 139
Editing existing bristle brushes to create new ones 139
Crafting calligraphic brushes 144
Applying or designing art brushes 146
Defining scatter brushes 149
Creating pattern brushes 151
Using Brushes with a Drawing Tablet 155
Chapter 10: Improving Workflow with Symbols 157
Rationalizing Workflow with Symbols 158
Using Illustrator's preset symbols 158
Adding symbols to a document 159
Managing symbols 162
Getting Creative with Dynamic Symbols 163
Creating dynamic symbols 163
Orchestrating dynamic symbol instances 164
Spraying Symbols 166
Setting Symbol Sprayer options 167
Managing sets of sprayed symbols 168
Part 3: Applying Color, Patterns, and Effects 169
Chapter 11: Designing in Living Color 171
Understanding Print versus Screen Color 172
Defining color for print 172
Choosing RGB color for screens 175
Understanding web safe color 176
Configuring grayscale 177
Managing the Color of Strokes and Fills 177
Apply color from the Tools panel 177
Apply color from the Control or Properties panel 179
Using Color Guides and Color Themes 180
Getting color advice 180
Styling with Adobe color themes 182
Managing Color Swatches 185
Adding colors to the Swatches panel 186
Changing the display of swatches 187
Creating and Merging Live Paint Groups 188
Creating Live Paint groups 189
Coloring Live Paint faces 190
Editing Live Paint edges 190
Controlling Live Paint faces and edges 192
Chapter 12: Bringing Graphics to Life with Gradients, Blends, and Transparency 197
Merging Colors with Gradients 198
Applying gradients 200
Unleashing linear gradients 201
Radiating radial gradients 207
Transforming gradients with Gradient Annotator 208
Using freeform gradients 209
Blending for Beauty and Productivity 212
Setting blend options 213
Working with blends 213
Applying Transparency 214
Defining and applying transparency 215
Clipping with opacity masks 218
Chapter 13: Designing with Patterns 221
Applying Patterns 222
Applying a pattern to a fill 223
Applying patterns to strokes 224
Applying patterns to text 225
Creating Your Own Patterns 226
Transforming Patterns 227
Scaling a pattern and object together 228
Scaling patterns and objects separately 229
Rotating and moving patterns 230
Moving a pattern within a shape 230
Stacking patterns 231
Defining Pattern Options 233
Chapter 14: Styling with Effects 237
Navigating the Universe of Effects 237
Getting your money's worth from effects 238
Using Photoshop effects with care 239
Appreciating SVG filters 240
Choosing and Applying Effects 240
Managing Effects 242
Using the Appearance panel 242
Expanding effects 244
Saving graphic styles 246
Generating 3D Effects and Mapping Artwork 247
Mapping artwork 247
Using Adobe Stock images 248
Exploring 3D effects and mapping 248
Part 4: Designing with Type 253
Chapter 15: Formatting Area Type 255
Editing Area Type in Illustrator 256
Generating an area type box 256
Getting type from other apps 258
Using Illustrator's proofing tools 259
Styling Area Type 260
Choosing type font and style 260
Sizing, leading, kerning, and tracking type 262
Sizing headlines to fit 263
Scaling area type 263
Using character styles 264
Formatting Paragraphs 266
Laying Out Area Type in Columns 267
Shaping Area Type 268
Placing area type in a path 268
Wrapping type around an object 270
Flowing Type from Box to Box 272
Converting Area Type to Point Type and Vice Versa 274
Chapter 16: Getting Artistic with Point Type 275
Understanding How Point Type Works 275
Creating and Editing Point Type 276
Contorting Point Type 278
Scaling point type 278
Rotating point type 279
Interactive Styling with the Touch Type Tool 280
Placing Type on Paths 281
Changing baseline shift on aligned type 282
Moving type on a path 283
Applying effects to type on a path 284
Sharing Fonts and Outlining Type 285
Sharing fonts 285
Outlining type 286
Part 5: Handing Off Graphics for Print and Screen Design 287
Chapter 17: Exporting Raster Files 289
Exporting in a Hurry 290
Maximizing Illustrator's Export Options 293
Understanding the vector to raster journey 293
Orchestrating vector to raster workflow 294
Defining raster dimensions 295
Defining raster resolution 295
Navigating Illustrator's Raster Output Options 296
Exporting to Specific Raster Formats 297
Exporting PNGs 297
Optimizing JPEGS 300
Handing off TIFF artwork to print 301
Relying on Your Team 303
Chapter 18: Unleashing the Power of SVGs 305
Understanding the Role of Scalable Vector Graphics 306
Defining an SVG-friendly environment 308
Exporting versus saving 311
Preparing Artwork for SVG Output 312
Simplifying paths for screen output 312
Reducing the file size with symbols 313
Applying Transparency and Effects to SVGs 314
Outputting SVGs with transparent backgrounds 315
Applying transparency effects to SVG 318
Applying SVG filters 321
Creating SVGs with Scalable, Searchable Type 324
Exploiting the value of scalable, searchable type 324
Optimizing type functionality by saving SVGs 326
Adding code snippets to SVG graphics 328
Exporting or Saving SVGs 329
Exporting SVGs for screens 330
Managing raster objects in SVGs 331
Saving SVGs for digital development 332
Part 6: The Part of Tens 335
Chapter 19: Top Ten Illustrator Resources 337
This Book's Unofficial Website 337
Adobe Illustrator Official Documentation 338
Using Illustrator to Create SVG for the Web 339
A Unique Resource for Artistic Fashion Designers 339
Going Crazy with Illustrator 340
Style Tile Templates 341
Follow Jean-Claude Tremblay @jctremblay 341
Technical Drawing in Illustrator 342
Online Tutorials from Adobe 342
Illustrator CC Digital Classroom 343
Chapter 20: Top Ten Productivity Tips 345
Generate Layers 345
Use Shapes for Guides 346
Generate Guides from Rulers 347
Place Multiple Files 348
Import Photoshop Files 349
Edit Placed Objects 350
Import Word Files 351
Crop a Placed Image 351
Play Actions 352
Use Shortcut Keys 353
Index 355