Illustrator

  BD Technologies

        Graphic Design Part-1 (Illustrator)

TOOLS

The first time you start Illustrator, the toolbox appears on the left side of the screen. The tools in the toolbox let you create, select, and manipulate objects in Illustrator.

When you select most tools, the mouse pointer matches the tool's icon. For example, choosing the paintbrush tool changes the pointer to a paintbrush. You can also change a tool pointer to a precision pointer, such as a cross hair , for greater precision when aligning or working with detailed artwork.

To change the pointer to a precision pointer:

Do one of the following:

• While the tool is selected, press Caps Lock on the keyboard.
• Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows and Mac OS 9).

 

Using palettes

Adobe Illustrator includes a number of palettes to help you monitor and modify your work. By default, these palettes appear stacked together in several groups. You can also dock palettes so that you can move them together.

Showing and hiding palettes

Do one of the following:

• Choose Window > (window name). A check mark appears before a window that is currently open.
• Press Tab to hide or show all palettes and the toolbox.
• Press Shift+Tab to hide or show all palettes except for the toolbox.

Fill and Stroke Colors

 

Fill & Stroke colors of an object:

Here the inside colour of an object is called Fill colour and the border colour is called Stroke colour.

Toolbox overview

The selection tool (V) selects entire objects.

The selection tool  lets you select entire paths, objects, and groups by selecting any spot on them (or within them if the path, object, or group is filled). When the selection tool is over an unselected path, object, or group, it changes to . When it is over a selected path, object, or group, the tool changes to . When it is over an anchor point, a hollow square appears next to the arrow  or , depending on whether the path, object, or group is selected or not.

The direct-selection tool (A) selects points or path segments within objects

The direct-selection tool  lets you select individual anchor points or segments on a path. All direction lines then appear on that part of the path for adjusting. When the direct-selection tool is over an unselected path or object, it changes to . When it is over the anchor point of a selected path or object, it changes to .

The group-selection tool selects objects and groups within groups. The group-selection tool  lets you select an object within a group, a single group within multiple groups, or a set of groups within the artwork. Each additional click adds all objects from the next group in the hierarchy.

The magic wand tool (Y) selects objects of similar attributes. The magic wand tool  lets you select objects of the same color, stroke weight, stroke color, opacity, or blending mode by clicking in a colored area.

The direct-select lasso tool (Q) selects points or path segments within objects. The direct-lasso tool  lets you select individual anchor points or segments on a path by dragging around parts of a path. All direction lines then appear on that part of the path for adjusting.

The lasso tool selects entire objects. The lasso tool  lets you select entire paths and objects by dragging around any part of the path.

The pen tool (P) draws straight and curved lines to create objects.

The add-anchor- point tool (+) adds anchor points to paths.

The delete-anchor- point tool (-) deletes anchor points from paths.

The convert-anchor-point tool (Shift+C) changes smooth points to corner points and vice versa.

The type tool (T) creates individual type and type containers and lets you enter and edit type.

The area type tool changes closed paths to type containers and lets you enter and edit type within them.

The path-type tool changes paths to type paths, and lets you enter and edit type on them.

The vertical type tool creates vertical type and vertical type containers and lets you enter and edit vertical type

The vertical area-type tool changes closed paths to vertical type containers and lets you enter and edit type within them.

The vertical path-type tool changes paths to vertical type paths and lets you enter and edit type on them.

The line segment tool (\) draws individual straight line segments.

• Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to extend the line from both sides of the origin point.
• Press the spacebar to move the line as you draw.
• Press `(grave accent) to create multiple line segments as you move the mouse.
• Press ~ (tilde) to constrain multiple lines to 45° angles.
• Press Shift to constrain a single line to 45°.

The arc tool draws individual concave or convex curve segments

·  Press `(grave accent) to create multiple arc segments as you move the mouse.

·  Press C to switch between an open and closed arc.

·  Press F to flip the arc, keeping the origin point constant.

·  Press Up Arrow or Down Arrow to increase or decrease the arc's angle.

The spiral tool draws clockwise and counterclockwise spirals.

•  Drag the pointer in an arc to rotate the spiral.
• Shift-drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees or to the angle specified in the Constrain Angle text box in the General Preferences dialog box.
• Hold down the spacebar to move the spiral.
• Press or hold down Up Arrow or Down Arrow to add or delete winds.
• Press ~ (tilde) to create multiple spirals.

The rectangular grid tool draws rectangular grids.

•  Press Up Arrow or Down Arrow to add or remove horizontal lines.
• Press Right Arrow or Left Arrow to add or remove vertical lines.
• Press F to decrease the logarithmic skew value for the horizontal dividers by 10%.
• Press V to increase the logarithmic skew value for the horizontal dividers by 10%.
• Press X to decrease the logarithmic skew value for the vertical dividers by 10%.
• Press C to increase the logarithmic skew value for the vertical dividers by 10%.

The polar grid tool draws circular chart grids.

• Press Up Arrow or Down Arrow to add or remove concentric circles.
• Press Right Arrow or Left Arrow to add or remove radial lines.
• Press X to change the logarithmic skew value for the concentric dividers inward by 10%.
• Press C to change the logarithmic skew value for the concentric dividers outward by 10%.
• Press F to change the logarithmic skew value for the radial dividers counterclockwise by 10%.
• Press V to change the logarithmic skew value for the radial dividers clockwise by 10%.

The rectangle tool (M) draws squares and rectangles.

•  To constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees, creating squares with the rectangle tool and circles with the ellipse tool, Shift-drag.
• To move a rectangle or ellipse as you draw it, hold down the spacebar.
• To create multiple rectangles or ellipses, hold down ~ (tilde).

The rounded- rectangle tool draws squares and rectangles with rounded corners.

•  Press or hold down Up Arrow or Down Arrow to change the corner radius. When the corners are the desired roundness, release Up Arrow or Down Arrow.
• Press Left Arrow to change to the minimum radius (most angular corners).
• Press Right Arrow to change to the maximum radius (most rounded corners).

The ellipse tool (L) draws circles and ovals.

•  Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) with the rectangle tool, rounded-rectangle tool, or ellipse tool selected.
• Position the pointer where you want the center of the shape to be, and drag diagonally to any corner or edge until the shape is the desired size. Shift-drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees.

The polygon tool draws regular, multi-sided shapes.

•  Drag the pointer in an arc to rotate the polygon.
• Shift-drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees or to the angle specified in the Constrain Angle text box in the General Preferences dialog box.
• Hold down the spacebar to move the polygon.
• Press or hold down Up Arrow or Down Arrow to add or delete sides to the polygon.
• Hold down ~ (tilde) to create multiple polygons.

The star tool draws stars.

• Drag the pointer in an arc to rotate the star.
• Shift-drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees.
• Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to hold the inner radius constant.
• Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to keep the sides of the star straight.
• Hold down the spacebar to move the star.
• Press or hold down Up Arrow or Down Arrow to add or delete sides to the star.
• Hold down ~ (tilde) to create multiple stars.

The flare tool creates lens-flare or solar-flare-like effects.

•  Press Shift to constrain the rays to a set angle.
• Press Up Arrow to add rings.
• Press Down Arrow to remove rings.
• Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you drag to hold the center of the flare constant.
• Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) as you drag to hold the center of the flare constant.
• Press ~ (tilde) as you drag to redraw the rings in a different random arrangement.

The paintbrush tool (B) draws freehand and calligraphic lines, as well as art and patterns on paths.

The pencil tool (N) draws and edits freehand lines.

The smooth tool smoothes Bezier paths.

The rotate tool (R) rotates objects around a fixed point.

• Drag to rotate around the object's center point.
• Click once to set the point of origin around which you want the object to rotate. Then move the pointer away from the point of origin and drag in a circular motion. Shift-drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45 degrees.
• To rotate a copy of the object instead of the object itself, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) after you start to drag.
• For finer control, drag farther from the object's point of origin.

The reflect tool (O) flips objects over a fixed axis.

The scale tool (S) resizes objects around a fixed point.

• Drag the object to resize it around the center point.
• Click to set a new point of origin, move the pointer away from the new point of origin, and then drag to scale the object.
• Shift-drag along a diagonal to scale the object uniformly. Shift-drag vertically or horizontally to scale the object along a single axis.
• To scale a copy of the object instead of the object itself, start dragging and then hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS).
• For finer control over scaling, start dragging farther from the point of origin.

The shear tool skews objects around a fixed point.

The reshape tool smooths or changes a path while retaining the path's overall shape.

The warp tool (Shift+R) molds objects with the movement of the cursor (like molding clay, for example).

The twirl tool creates swirling distortions within an object.

The pucker tool deflates an object.

The bloat tool inflates an object.

The scallop tool adds many curved details to the outline of an object.

The crystallize tool adds many spiked details to the outline of an object.

The wrinkle tool adds wrinkle-like details to the outline of an object.

The free transform tool (E) scales, rotates, or skews a selection.

The symbol sprayer tool (Shift+S) places multiple symbol instances as a set on the art board

The symbol shifter tool moves symbol instances.

The symbol scruncher tool moves symbol instances away from each other.

The symbol seizer tool resizes symbol instances.

The symbol spinner tool applies opacity to symbol instances.

The symbol screener tool colorizes symbol instances.

 

The symbol stainer tool change symbol color instances.

The symbol styler tool applies the selected style to symbol instances.

The column graph tool (J) positions columns vertically.

The stacked column graph tool stacks columns on top of one another.

The bar graph tool positions columns horizontally.

The stacked bar graph tool stacks columns and positions them horizontally.

The line graph tool shows the trend of one or more subjects over time.

The area graph tool emphasizes totals as well as changes in values.

 

The scatter graph tool plots data as paired sets of x and y coordinates.

The pie graph tool creates a circle graph with wedges showing relative percentages of the compared values.

                

The radar graph tool uses a circle to compare sets of values at given points in time or in particular categories.

The mesh tool (U) creates and edits meshes and mesh envelopes.

The gradient tool (G) adjusts the beginning and ending points and angle of gradients within objects.

The eyedropper tool (I) samples color or type attributes from objects.

The measure tool measures the distance between two points.

The paint bucket tool (K) fills objects with the current paint or type attributes.

The measure tool measures the distance between two points.

The blend tool (W) creates a blend between the color and shape of multiple objects.

The auto trace tool traces the outlines of objects in raster images.

The slice tool (Shift+K) creates Web slices.

The slice select tool selects Web slices.

The scissors tool (C) cuts paths at specified points.

The knife tool cuts objects and paths.

The hand tool (H) moves the Illustrator art board within the illustration window.

The page tool adjusts the page grid to control where artwork appears on the printed page.

The zoom tool (Z) increases and decreases the view magnification in the illustration window.

To create a gradient:

Select an object with a selection tool, and click the Fill box in the toolbox to select the object's fill. To apply a gradient, do one of the following:

Choose Window > Gradient >>>>>

and click the Gradient Fill box at the upper left of the Gradient palette.

(If the Gradient Fill box is not displayed, choose Show Options from the pop-up menu in the Gradient palette.)

                                                                     

	To define the starting color of a gradient, click the left square below the gradient slider in the Gradient palette, and then do one of the following: Alt-click a color swatch in the Swatches palette. Create a color using the sliders or the color slider in the Color palette. Drag a color from the Color palette or the Swatches palette to the square below the gradient slider.
	To define the ending color of the gradient, click the right square below the gradient slider. Then choose the color you want as described in step 3.

 

Choose Linear or Radial from the pop-up menu to indicate the type of gradient you want. With a radial gradient, the beginning point of the gradient defines the center point of the fill, which radiates outward to the endpoint.

To adjust the midpoint of the gradient (the point at which the colors are at 50%), drag the diamond icon located above the slider.

	Enter the angle of direction for the gradient in the Angle text box. The angle can range from -180 to 180 degrees. (The angle option is not available when a radial gradient is chosen.)

 

To save the gradient, do one of the following: Drag the completed gradient from the Gradient palette to the Swatches palette. Drag the gradient from the Fill box in the toolbox to the Swatches palette. Click the New Swatch button in the Swatches palette.

Compound Path: When two paths appear as they both have a single fill color and the fill color of the overlapping shape area disappears, it is called Compound Path.

To create a compound path: Draw two shapes. One of them should be in the inner side of another like the above picture. Now select both of the shapes.

2. Then go to    Object/Compound Path/Make or press Ctrl+8.

3. And finally, you should get the compound path.

Clipping Mask:

With the Clipping Mask option we can make the parts of the objects in the inner side of a path visible and the others invisible.

To make a Clipping Mask:

·        At first, draw some shapes. Then, draw a path/shape above the earlier shapes. Now, click Object/Clipping Mask/Make or press Ctrl+7. And enjoy!

Working With Pathfinder:

To get the Pathfinder options go to Window > Pathfinder or press Shift + F9.

­

*And you would get the following window which is called Pathfinder:

       Here, you would have some options as ‘Add to shape area’, ‘Subtract from shape area’, ‘Intersect shape areas’, ‘Exclude overlapping shape areas’, ‘Divide’, ‘Trim’ and so on.

Add to shape area

By this option we can add different kinds of shapes with one-another and thus we can convert those shapes into a single shape.

Follow the tutorial:

1. Draw two shapes as shown below. Select both of the shapes. And click on the ‘Add to shape area’ option:

2. Then click on the ‘Expand’ option. You would find that both of the shapes get the same colour as they have become a single shape:

3. Finally, you should get the following result:

Subtract from shape area:

Follow the same steps using the ‘Subtract from shape area’ option and you get the following result:

Intersect shape areas:

Do the same with the ‘Intersect shape areas’ option to get the result shown below:

Exclude overlapping shape areas:

Doing the same steps with ‘Exclude overlapping shape areas’ option would make the following result:

Divide:

Same steps with ‘Divide’ option would make the result shown below. With the option we can divide some shapes into many pieces and can give them different colours:

Trim:

Following the same steps we can trim the overlapping shape area with the ‘Trim’ option:

Outlining Text:

To work with texts as if they are shapes we have to create the outlines of the texts. For this, we have to select the text of which we want to create outline. Then, we have to right click on the selected text and left click on the ‘Create Outlines’ option; or after selecting the text we can click   Type >Create Outlines   or  we can press  Shift + Ctrl + O.  

Now watch those steps graphically:                                                       Right Click on the selected text:

1. Select:

 

3.Click on ‘Create Outlines’:

  

Or after selecting the text click Type >Create Outlines:

Tutorials

Reflecting Text:

1. Draw a box and fill it with gradient colour. Now type some text on it.
   
   
   
2. Select the text and ‘Create Outlines’ of that.
   
   
   
3. Copy the text and reflect it horizontally.
    
   
   
4. Gradient the reflected text with the text colour and the background colour.
   

Blend Effect:

1. Draw two different coloured curve lines excluding fill colours.

2. Double click on the ‘Blend Tool’ and a window should appear. Now change the Spacing mode to ‘Specified Steps’ and adjust the step amount.
   

3. Click on both of the lines one by one and you would get the following result.
   

Flipping Page:

1. Draw a rectangle box and split a corner of the box.
   
   
   
2. Move the split part as shown below and Gradient it with black & white colours.
    

Chess Board:

1. Draw a black rectangle of 5" wide and 0.50" height. Copy the box for four times as they are 0.50" far from one-another.
   
   
   


2. Copy one of the boxes; rotate it at 90° angle and place it as shown below.
   
   
   

3. Copy it horizontally like step 1. Now use the ‘Exclude overlapping shape area’ tool from ‘Pathfinder’ option.
   
   
   

4. Finally you should get the following result:
   
   
   
   

Drawing Grass:

1. Draw some shape with the ‘Pen Tool’ like the picture below.
   
   
   
2. Place them and draw a path across them as the following picture.
   
3. Use the ‘Divide’ tool from the ‘Pathfinder’ window and you would find the shape of grass from one of the parts.
   

Dazzling Reflection:

1. Draw the shapes and gradient the one like the picture.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the round shape and go to Effect > Distort & Trnsform > Pucker & Bloat.
   
   
   
   
3. Change the value to -78% or -80%.
   
   
   
   


4. Place the modified shape at the lightest area of the shape which has the gradient effect. Draw another round shape, place it on the modified shape and give it the ‘Gaussian Blur’ effect.
   

Dropping Sphere:

1. Draw a round shape. Select it and go to Effect > Stylize > Inner Glow. A window would appear.
   
   
   
2. Adjust the values in the window as shown:  
   
   
   


3. Draw a round shape on the sphere like the picture:
   

4. Now give it the ‘Gaussian Blur’ effect.
   

5. Select the sphere, go to Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow  and change the values as shown below.
   

6. Finally you should get your dropping sphere.
   

3D Spiral:

1. Draw the following shapes exactly as shown.
   
   
   
2. Use the ‘Divide’ tool from ‘Pathfinder’ option and delete some parts to get the following result.
   
   
   
3. Drag the shape to ‘Symbols’ as shown:
   
   
   


4. Delete the shape and draw half of a round shape.
   

5. Select it and go to Effect > 3D > Revolve > Map Art.
   

6. Now select the saved Symbol from the window:
   
   
   


7. Change the values/options in the window as shown:
   

 

8. Finally, we should get this shape: