This week we cover the very basics of Illustrator - the interface and the tools. There's also a downloadable PDF tutorial, and an RTF file. (see at the end of the list below)
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- Getting Started With Adobe Illustrator 10
This website does give an overview of what a new person to Illustrator needs. It tells what the program is and what it is used for. He describes how to create a new document, how to explore the workspace, how to create shapes, how to select and align objects, and use direct selections. The art board is the area bounded by the solid line in which art is created. The toolbox palette contains tools that are used to create, select, and manipulate objects. The scale tool resizes the object whilethe rotate tool rotates that object that is desired. The reflect tool flips the objects over imaginary axis. The direct selection tool uses anchor points much like PhotoShop. It would have been nice to see some graphics of what these tools or more direction on how to use these beginning tools, but for a beginner you have to start with the basics. Posted on 3/15/2004 - Learning About Illustrator (Furman.edu)
Illustrator is mostly used to create and edit "outline art" or vector graphic images, which are generally logos. Illustrator can also handle bit-mapped images as well. These images can be imported into illustrator and used as backgrounds for tracing or creating objects. The latest version of Illustrator has been reorganized to look and feel more like other Adobe products--such as Adobe Photoshop. In fact, projects may now be easily interchanged between Illustrator and Photoshop. This tutorial is compiled of 7 easy lessons dealing with very basic Illustrator tools. It teaches the user how to use basic shapes to create more complicated shapes with the shape tool, how to use layers, color fills, etc., the pen tool, and much more. It is a very comprehensive site and extremely useful for the Illustrator beginner like me. Posted on 3/15/2004 - ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR tutorial
Adobe Illustrator is a program primarily used to create what is often called "outline art." Examples of outline art are everywhere: some examples are a typical company logo, or a technical drawing, or the customized lettering on virtually any commercial product. It is called outline art because you simply draw the outline of a shape, assign it a fill and the drawing program automatically fills in the shape as a solid. Outline art is also known as a vector graphic. TOOLS: Solid arrow - Object select * Hollow arrow - point select * Bezier tool - create Bezier curves and/or straight line segments * Hand tool - change your view position * Zoom tool - change magnification level * Scissors - cut object outline(s) * Paintbrush - draw wide lines * Freehand tool - draw freehand shapes * Oval - create ovals * Rectangle - create rectangle * Ruler - displays dimensions, coordinates * Rotate - rotate object(s) * Resize - resize object(s) * Reflect - flip object * Skew - skew object(s) * Eyedropper - Choose color * Gradient - Blends color from foreground to background * Blend - "morphs" objects, lines, colors from one to another * Chart - makes a bar, scatter or pie chart. Bar charts can be pictorial. * Page - drag to set printable area. * Text tool - click on page to create headline text; click/drag to create paragraph text. Existing text can also be edited with this tool.
This website specifically went through steps on the basic tools of adobe illusrator, expalined them, and gave tutorials on how to use them. Other subjects mentioned were vectors, bitmaps, fills, strokes, gradients, layers, masks, importing/exporting, saving, and more. Posted on 3/15/2004 - The Anatomy of Vector Illustration
Mike's sketchpad has been a favorite of mine. Here he has outlined the uses of vector techniques in Adobe Illustrator. The tutorial has 4 parts, gradually stepping the user up in difficulty. I liked it because it exposes you to the basics, but in an applicable way. The progression through the different steps is very similar to Fred's tutorials. Posted on 3/15/2004 - Adobe Illustrator for Beginners
This is a great tutorial for beginners (like me) in Adobe Illustrator. It is extremely thorough, and covers all the tools, as well as more advanced functions. It explains the pen tool, file details, and well as giving helpful comparision and hints on how to use photoshop and illustrator together for a project. There is also a PDF version available. Posted on 3/15/2004 - Adobe Illustrator Tool box
This site had simple guidelines on beginner tutorials, plus tricks and tips on how to set up to begin Adobe Illustrator. It over viewed vector graphics and explored preview and edit modes. It gave a guide to how to use bit maps and clip art to make logos. The toolbox tools are all depicted in the tutorial along with their keyboard commands. Other topics covered are basic fills, adding strokes, masks, layers , and how to save. Posted on 3/15/2004 - Quickstart: Adobe Illustrator (CalPoly.edu PDF)
The pen tool draws straight and curved lines to create objects. The type tool creates individual type and type containers and lets you enter and edit type. The direct-selection tool selects points or path segments within objects. The group-selection tool selects objects and groups within groups. (this is a PDF file) Posted on 3/15/2004 - Creating a Sample Page in Illustrator (IAState.edu)
This page is set up by the Iowa State University's college of design.. This page is a good resource to basically inform you of how to get situated and become familiar with how the program works in comparison to photoshop. This page will quickly acquaint you with how to do layout and resizing with multiple pages, as compared to the layers being used in photoshop. Posted on 3/15/2004
DOWNLOAD PDF
- Text in Illustrator (UMICH.edu)
The information about text wrap and column making is found in the pages named Text in Illustrator and Saving Your Illustrator File. It talks about the text box, how to warp, and how your text can wrap around an object. It also describes with images how a person can use the path type tool. Posted on 10/4/06
See others at:
* www.lib.umich.edu/guides/ - [RTF] Adobe Illustrator Intro 10.0 (UMD.edu)
This is a great summary about Adobe Illustrator, showing how it uses vector applications to stetch, rotate, and create mirror images or scale objects. It also explains how Photoshop and Illustrator go hand in hand to help both casual and professional graphic artists. It explains the toolbox, colors, stroke, navigator and the layer tools within the program. It has pictures of every tool in Illustrator, which becomes very useful while following the textual information and descriptions. (This is a "rich text" file) Posted on 3/15/2004
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