Illustrator

What You Will Learn

  • Vector Versus Bitmap Graphics
  • Drawing with the Pen Tool
  • Using the Trace Tool
  • Type Basics
  • Transform Tools
  • Fill and Stroke
  • Using Layers
  • Transparency
  • Exporting to EPS and PDF

Lesson Outline

The fol­low­ing is a list of pos­si­ble top­ics for you to use as a guide. Your course will be ful­ly cus­tomized to your unique goals, work­flow, and learn­ing pace. Because every course we teach is ful­ly cus­tomized to each group, the fol­low­ing list of top­ics to be learned should be con­sid­ered a guide­line, one that will be expand­ed or altered as required to fit your needs.

Introducing the Workspace

  • Looking At the Workspace
  • Working with Panels
  • Customizing the Workspace
  • Adjustable user inter­face brightness
  • Using Context Menus
  • Changing the Magnification of A Document
  • Navigating Through A Document

Drawing with the Pen and Pencil Tools

  • Starting with the Pen tool
  • Creating straight lines
  • Creating curved paths
  • Editing a curve
  • Converting between smooth points and cor­ner points
  • Splitting a path
  • Deleting and adding anchor points
  • Drawing with the Pencil tool
  • Editing with the Pencil tool
  • Adding arrow­heads
  • Creating a dashed line

Creating and Editing Shapes

  • Working with basic shapes
  • Understanding draw­ing modes
  • Creating rec­tan­gles, round­ed rec­tan­gles, and ellipses
  • Creating poly­gons, tri­an­gles, and stars
  • Working with Draw Behind mode
  • Changing stroke width and alignment
  • Working with line segments
  • Joining paths
  • Using the Width tool
  • Outlining strokes
  • Combining and edit­ing shapes
  • Working with the Shape Builder tool
  • Working with Pathfinder effects
  • Working with shape modes
  • Using Draw Inside mode
  • Editing con­tent drawn inside
  • Using the Eraser tool
  • Using Image Trace to cre­ate shapes
  • Cleaning up traced artwork

Color and Painting

  • Understanding col­or
  • Color modes
  • Creating col­or
  • Building and sav­ing a cus­tom color
  • Editing a swatch
  • Using Illustrator swatch libraries
  • Creating a spot color
  • Using the Color Picker
  • Creating and sav­ing a tint of a color
  • Copying appear­ance attributes
  • Working with the Color Guide panel
  • Creating col­or groups
  • Editing a col­or group
  • Working with the Kuler panel
  • Editing col­ors in artwork
  • Assigning col­ors to your artwork
  • Painting with patterns
  • Applying exist­ing patterns
  • Creating your own pattern
  • Working with Live Paint
  • Creating a Live Paint group
  • Editing Live Paint regions
  • Working with gap options

Working with Type

  • Creating point type
  • Creating area type
  • Formatting type
  • Importing a plain text file
  • Working with over­flow text and text reflow
  • Threading text
  • Creating columns of text
  • Working with glyphs
  • Resizing type objects
  • Changing para­graph attributes
  • Creating and apply­ing a para­graph style
  • Editing a para­graph style
  • Creating and apply­ing a char­ac­ter style
  • Editing a char­ac­ter style
  • Sampling text formatting

Selecting and Aligning

  • Selecting objects
  • Using the Selection tool
  • Using the Direct Selection tool
  • Aligning objects
  • Aligning to a key object
  • Aligning points
  • Distributing objects
  • Aligning to the artboard
  • Working with groups
  • Grouping items
  • Working in Isolation mode
  • Adding to a group
  • Arranging objects
  • Selecting objects behind
  • Hiding objects
  • Applying selec­tion techniques

Working with Artboards

  • Multiple pages in Illustrator
  • Working with artboards
  • Adding art­boards to the document
  • Editing art­boards
  • Renaming art­boards
  • Reordering art­boards

Transforming Objects

  • Transforming con­tent
  • Scaling objects
  • Reflecting objects
  • Rotating objects
  • Distorting objects
  • Shearing objects
  • Positioning objects precisely
  • Applying mul­ti­ple transformations
  • Using the Free Distort effect

Working with Layers

  • Creating lay­ers
  • Selecting and mov­ing objects and layers
  • Duplicating lay­er content
  • Moving lay­ers
  • Locking lay­ers
  • Viewing lay­ers
  • Pasting lay­ers
  • Merging lay­ers
  • Locating lay­ers
  • Applying appear­ance attrib­ut­es to layers
  • Isolating lay­ers

Working with Brushes

  • Working with brushes
  • Using Calligraphic brushes
  • Using a fill col­or with brushes
  • Removing a brush stroke
  • Using Art brushes
  • Drawing with the Paintbrush tool
  • Editing paths with the Paintbrush tool
  • Using Bristle brushes
  • Changing Bristle brush options
  • Painting with a Bristle brush
  • Using Pattern brushes
  • Editing with the Eraser tool

Working with Symbols

  • Working with symbols
  • Using exist­ing Illustrator sym­bol libraries
  • Creating sym­bols
  • Editing a symbol
  • Replacing sym­bols
  • Breaking a link to a symbol
  • Editing sym­bol options
  • Working with the Symbolism tools
  • Spraying sym­bol instances
  • Editing sym­bols with the Symbolism tools
  • Copying and edit­ing sym­bol sets
  • Storing and retriev­ing art­work in the Symbols panel