some of ilustrator

8/13/2019 Some of Ilustrator

1/4

Adobe illustrator cs 4

PrerequisitesBefore you start the lessons inIllustrator CS4 Digital Classroom, you should have a working

knowledge of your computer and its operating system. You should know how to use the

directory system of your computer so that you can navigate through folders. You need to

understand how to locate, save, and open fi les. You should also know how to use your mouse

to

access menus and commands.

Before starting the lessons fi les inIllustrator CS4 Digital Classroom, make sure that you

have

installed Adobe Illustrator CS4. The software is sold separately, and not included with this

book.

You may use the 30-day trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS4 available at the adobe.comweb

site, subject to the terms of its license agreement.

System requirementsBefore starting the lessons inIllustrator CS4 Digital Classroom, make sure that your

computer

is equipped for running Adobe Illustrator CS4, which you must purchase separately. The

minimum system requirements for your computer to eff ectively use the software are listed on

the following page.

System requirements for Adobe Illustrator CS4:

Windows OS 2GHz or faster processor

Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or

Windows

Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certifi ed for

32-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista)

512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)

2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required

during installation

1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card DVD-ROM drive

Internet or phone connection required for product activation

Macintosh OS

PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel processor

Mac OS X v10.4.1110.5.4

512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)

2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during

installation

1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card

DVD-ROM drive

QuickTime 7 software required for multimedia features Internet or phone connection required for product activation


2/4

Steps to reset Adobe Illustrator CS4 preferences

1 Quit Illustrator.

2 Locate and rename the AIPrefs (Windows) or Adobe Illustrator Preferences (Mac OS), as

follows.

In Windows: Rename the AIPrefs fi le (for example, to AIPrefs.old) in the Documents

and Settings/(user)/Application Data/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS4 Settings folder. In Windows Vista: Rename the AIPrefs fi le (for example, to AIPrefs.old) in the Users/

(user)/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS3 Settings/(language_location)

folder.

In Mac OS: Rename the Adobe Illustrator Preferences fi le in the Users/(user)/Library/

Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS4 Settings folder.

3 Start Illustrator. Illustrator creates a new preferences fi le.

To restore custom settings, delete the new AIPrefs fi le and restore the original name of the

previous AIPrefs fi le.

Taking advantage of graphic styles

Adobe Illustrator CS4 gives you the ability to save combinations of attributes such as fi lls,strokes, and special eff ects collectively as a graphic style. Graphic styles save you time and

help

keep your styles and colors consistent across a document or series of documents. When using

a

graphic style, you can apply interesting eff ects to multiple objects at once. In this example,

you

will create a graphic style using the Eff ects menu and the Appearance panel.

1 Press the letter D on your keyboard. This reverts you to the default colorsa white fi ll

and a black stroke.

2 Click and hold on the Rectangle tool ( ) in the Tools panel and select the hidden Ellipse

tool ( ).

The Welcome Screen provides you with links to important information about

starting up, and a list of new features and resources that include videos and links to

online support.

You can use the Welcome Screen to access recently opened projects or to create new

projects using the presets on the right.

2 Check theDont show again checkbox in the lower-left corner so that the Welcome

Screen does not appear every time you launch Illustrator. Close the Welcome Screen

by clicking the X in the upper-right corner (Windows) or the circle in the upper-left

corner (Mac OS). You can access the Welcome Screen anytime by selecting Help >

Welcome Screen.

Choosing a workspace

Workspaces defi ne which panels are visible on your screen. Illustrator starts you off with a

number of workspaces: Automation, Essentials, Like FreeHand, Like InDesign, Like

Photoshop,

Painting, Printing and Proofi ng, Typography, and Web. You will learn a little more about

these

later in the lesson.

6 To restore a default workspace, choose Window > Workspace to display both the presetworkspaces and the custom workspace you just saved. Choose Essentials to return to that


3/4

workspace. All panels return to their original appearance.

Now you can see how Illustrator allows you to return to the custom workspace

youve saved.

7 To restore your custom workspace, choose Window > Workspace, noting that your Color

workspace appears at the top of the list. Choose the Color workspace from the list to

return to that workspace. All panels return to the customized appearance you choseto save.

Using the Manage Workspaces dialog boxCustom workspaces can also be saved (and deleted) using the Manage Workspaces dialog

box.

1 To add a new custom workspace using the Manage Workspaces feature, choose Window

> Workspace > Manage Workspaces. The Manage Workspaces dialog box appears.

2 Press the New Workspace button ( ) at the bottom of this dialog box to save the current

panel confi guration as a custom workspace.

3Name the new workspace Color 2 in the fi eld at the bottom and press OK. You are

creating this replica merely to practice deleting an undesired workspace.

Custom shortcutsFor missing or hard-to-remember keyboard shortcuts, Illustrator allows you to add to or edit

its list of defaults. It is highly recommended that you make a copy of the default keyboard

shortcuts fi rst before altering the original shortcut list. To do so, press the Save button and

rename the new listing, then choose that new listing from the Set drop-down menu.

1 To add a custom shortcut, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.

2 In the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box, choose the Menu Commands shortcut type from

the drop-down menu above the shortcut list

If this happens, do one of the following:

Press the Undo button below to withdraw the entry. Press the Go To button to enter a diff erent shortcut for the other command.

Ignore the warning, and Illustrator will delete the shortcut for the other command in

favor of your new one.

7 To edit an existing shortcut, click on the shortcut you want to change in the Shortcut

column of the list, and type a new shortcut.

8 If that shortcut has already been assigned, follow the directions above to Undo or Go To

the other command.

On the left side of the Live Color dialog box is a color wheel that displays the current

active colors from the chosen color group. Each color is represented by a marker on the

color wheel.5 Click on and drag the largest markerrepresenting the color groups base colorin the

color group. Experiment by spinning the colors around on the color wheel and dragging

the markers toward and away from the center of the color wheel. Once you have a

combination of colors that you like, press OK.

6 A dialog box may appear, asking if you want to save the changes to the color group

namedAtomic Region Colors. Choose No. This applies the colors that you chose from the

color wheel to the selected atom graphic without changing the appearance of the saved

color group.

7 Press Shift+Ctrl+A (Windows) or Shift+Command+A (Mac OS) to deselect the atom.

Choose File > Save to save your work. Keep the fi le open.

Using Live Color, you were able to adjust multiple colors at a time while still retaining

their relationship to each other. Live Color gives you great fl exibility when you need to


4/4

alter the appearance of multiple objects in your artwork.

Creating a gradient swatchEarlier in this lesson, you learned how to create and edit swatches in your artwork. Now

you will learn how to add and edit a gradient swatch to apply to the atom artwork in your

document. Lets begin.

1 Press the Gradient button ( ) in the dock on the right side of the workspace, or chooseWindow > Gradient, to open the Gradient panel.

Press the Gradient panel menu button ( ) and choose Show Options to display the entire

Gradient panel with all its options.

2 Click once on the gradient slider in the middle of the Gradient panel to activate it. Once

activated, two gradient stops appear below the gradient slider. Double-click on the black

gradient stop to activate it.

3 Choose one of the orange swatches to apply it to the color stop. You should now have

a white-to-orange gradient in the Gradient panel. If you dont, double-click the other

color stop and apply the white swatch to it.

Self studyIn this lesson, you were introduced to several great new features of Adobe Illustrator CS4, as

well as some features that arent so new, but deserve further investigation nonetheless.

The Appearance panel is a highly underused feature of Adobe Illustrator; practice on your own

by exploring the capabilities harnessed within the Appearance panel. Start by drawing a line

with the Line Segment tool then expanding the weight of the stroke. Add another stroke to it

from within the Appearance panel, setting it to a diff erent weight and color; youll see that youcan apply more than one stroke to a single object!

Explore Live Paint and Live Color in more detail. See Lesson 5, Working with the Drawing

Tools, for information about converting a picture into a vector-based piece of art using the

Live Trace feature and then coloring it using Live Paint. Furthermore, you can experiment with

Color Groups and the Recolor Artwork dialog box to change how your artwork is colorized

in Illustrator.

Youve worked with the Color Guide and its color harmony rules, which allow you to look atvariations of the selected color group. Go to kuler.adobe.com to check out diff erent color themes

that people have created to share with other users. You can even post your own themes to this

web site. Even better: you can download these themes to your computer and import them into

the Creative Suite applications to apply to objects within your documents

Drawing straight linesThe fi rst skill you need to master when working with the Pen tool is creating a straight line.

To do this, you make corner anchor points with the Pen tool. Straight lines are automatically

generated as a result.

1 In Illustrator, choose File > Open. When the Open dialog box appears, navigate to theai05lessons folder and select the ai0501.ai fi le. Press OK. This is a practice fi le containing

several diff erent line templates that you will work through in the following exercises.2 Choose File > Save As. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the ai05lessons folder

and type ai0501_work.ai into the Name text fi eld; then press Save. In the resultingIllustrator Options dialog box, press OK to accept the default settings.

3 In the Control panel at the top of the workspace, select None ( ) from the Fill colordrop-down menu. Select the color black from the Stroke color drop-down menu and

select 2 pt from the Stroke Weight drop-down menu.

4 Select the Pen tool ( ) from the Tools panel and locate the template labeled Exercise 1 onthe artboard. Click and release your left mouse button while hovering over label 1. This

starts the line by creating the fi rst anchor point