Chapter 2 • Illustrator

Basic Layout

Illustrator’s basic layout is similar to Photoshop, with the tools on the left, the palettes on the right, and the basic and option menus at the top. The functions are also largely identical. Here the classic presentation is shown.

Basic Menu

These menus hide the main features of Photoshop, such as: File Open and Save, Preferences, Special Effects, Filters, and more. Some of the most important functions from these menus are described in this guide.

Tools

Only this menu can be used to access important functions such as: path, fill and text tools.

Options menu

Depending on the selected tool, detailed options for each tool can be set here.

Palettes

The palettes on the left side offer a lot of editing and adjustment options. The individual palettes can be arranged freely.

3.1. Preferences

Illustrator offers the user a variety of settings, which will be briefly presented here.

The presets are located in the Edit menu.

Before working on a new workspace with Illustrator, it is a good idea to go through these settings briefly to avoid any nasty surprises and to find the usual behavior and appearance of all elements.

Describing all functions in detail here is beyond the scope of this document. Therefore, the following screenshots are a kind of standard setting.

3.2. Color Settings

Colour Settings have become indispensable in both Photoshop and Illustrator. The Edit menu contains the item Color Settings. This menu item opens the dialog for setting the color profiles and their treatment.

3.3. Tools

As with Photoshop, the tool palette combines some of the most important functions under the same tool. When you click and hold on a tool with an arrowhead at the bottom right corner, another palette opens where you can select more tools.

3.4. Palettes

As with Photoshop, there are a number of palettes on the right side of the Illustrator. In addition to the default palettes, there are other palettes that can be hidden via the menu item “Window.” If all the palettes were displayed at the same time, there would be no room to work, even on the largest monitor.

The checked items are currently displayed. Clicking on these elements hides the relevant palette. Among other things, this list also lists the tool palette that can be shown and hidden using this method.

In order to work with the large volumes of palettes, it is always best to figure out an optimal workspace for simple, even complex work. The palettes can be grouped as desired by clicking and holding the mouse on the tab.

Color

The color palette is very similar to Photoshop. Clicking the parallel line in the upper right corner displays the options menu. Here you can change the color mode in which the colors are mixed together. The option “Hide options” shows or hides the individual color controls.

It can be set like in Photoshop as two colors. On the one hand the fill color and on the other, the stroke depending on which of the two is clicked on.

Swatches

The palette “Swatches” is also similar to the already known Photoshop. However, here are not only the normal mixed colors, but also patterns and gradients.

The first 4 fields are special:

The first field, the white area with the red diagonal, represents a transparency.

The second field, the circle with the cross, is a special color for creating registration marks. An element created with this color appears in all color separations.

WARNING: Although these elements are displayed in black, they have a different effect when creating separations.

The third and fourth fields are white and black respectively.

WARNING: White should not be confused with transparency.

If you have created a color yourself with the color palette or with the color picker, you can also simply save this color as a new color field by dragging the color from top to bottom with the mouse button pressed down.

Special Colors

When creating logos and graphics for printing, spot colors are often used for certain color fans / catalogs, such as HKS or Pantone. Here, the colors are not composed of the primary colors CMYK together, but are already premixed as special inks, for each of which a separate printing unit is needed. These color catalogs are integrated into Adobe Illustrator and can be opened using the small icon at the bottom left of the Swatches palette. You can also save frequently used color fields here.

WARNING:

Special colors should only be used VERY sparingly because each spot color requires a separate printing unit. (No printing presses have been built yet to hold 30 printing units.) More than one or two spot colors should not appear in a logo or graphic.

Spot colors used in the document will automatically appear in the swatches palette, making them easy to apply to other objects.

Brush

By choosing the brush, the appearance of the stroke of any objects can be determined. In addition to round and oval brushes, there are also artistic brushstrokes to make lines look like chalk or a paintbrush. You can also define any brushes yourself, but this is intended for artistic use.

Stroke

The line width can be adjusted via the “Stroke” palette. Normally the line width is indicated in points.

WARNING: The line width is automatically distributed evenly on both sides of the contour.

If further settings are required, you will find them in the options menu under the item “Show options”.

In the extended view, in addition to the orientation of the stroke (center, inside or outside), a dashed line or the representation of corners and end points can be defined.

Lines can also be provided with arrowheads here.

Gradients

Surfaces can of course also be filled with gradients in the Illustrator.

To see the advanced options, click on “Show Options” again.

Normally, a gray gradient is preset here, but by dragging a swatch or a blend color from the color palette onto one of the left and right gradient sliders, a gradient can be assigned to the gradient. You can also create gradients over several colors in this way.

The slider between the color patches controls the weighting of the gradient.

Layers

Like Photoshop and InDesign, Illustrator lets you work with layers. This is especially useful when it comes to creating very complex graphics. As usual, these layers can be moved in their order and show and hide via the “eye” icon. Layers that contain pixel elements instead of vector elements are marked as read-only with the icon symbolized by a padlock. By clicking on the triangle in front of the layer thumbnail, all individual elements of the layer can be made visible.

In Illustrator, in principle, every object is also a layer that lies in the order of their creation. Thus, the order of the individual elements and their visibility can be controlled here.

More about working with layers and templates can be found in the next chapter.

Properties

This new palette combines most options for the currently selected object. What type of options are displayed, change dynamically.

3.5. Create a New Document

While Photoshop usually works on existing images, it is the rule in Illustrator that new graphics or documents are to be created. The “New …” item in the “File” menu opens the dialog for creating a new document.

3.6.1. The EPS File Format

For the transfer of vector-based image data, the encapsulated PostScript (EPS) format  has established itself as a quasi-standard over the years.

The special feature of an EPS file is that it actually consists of 2 parts. First, the postscript code, which is understood by the printer or RIP (Raster Image Processor) and the other from a pixel preview, which can be displayed on the monitor. The preview is a roughly calculated pixel image with 72 dpi resolution, depending on the setting in color or only as a 1-bit black and white image. For reasons of space, the preview can also be completely omitted. However, this leads to the fact that in some layout programs only an empty rectangle is displayed as a placeholder.

Some modern layout programs (e.g., InDesign, QuarkXPress) can interpret the postscript data of an EPS document without preview and display it on the screen in very high quality.

4. Create Graphics with Illustrator

4.1. Create Paths

There are many different ways to create paths in Illustrator, the most important ones are tools in the second section from the top of the tool palette. In addition to the pen tool, lines and brush tool, you will also find the text tool here (for a detailed description of the text tool, see chapter 4.4).

Make sure that if an object is to be filled later with a color, a path must be created that is closed. Placed lines are not automatically connected to each other and so there is not a closed object to fill.

4.1.1. Geometric figure

The easiest way to create geometric shapes is to use the tools that you can find under the Rectangle tool (hold down the left mouse button over the Rectangle tool to see the list of all tools).

A click defines the upper left corner of your new object. By dragging with the mouse button, you can adjust the size of the new object. If you would like to create an object with a certain size, just click on the drawing area and you can enter the size via a dialog box.

If you want to create a square or perfectly round objects, hold the Shift key while creating the object.

If the object is to have its center at the point where you click with the mouse and not its top left corner, hold down the ALT key while you drag it.

With the polygon tool and the star tool, you can also select the number of sides / points by a short click next to the size. The standard has 5 or 6.

With the Rounded Recheck Tool, you can also click to select the thickness of the fillet by defining a corner radius.

4.1.2. The Pen Tool

The easiest way to create an arbitrary path is to use the pen tool. With this tool you can put anchor points to a new path but also new ones to an existing path.

When using the pen tool, the mouse pointer gives some feedback about some features of the tool:

– Creates a new path.

– Complete the path to fill an object defined it is important that the path is closed

– Refreshes the path at this anchor point (only at endpoints) so paths can be extended.

– Add or delete anchor point, so you do not have to switch over the tool when moving the mouse over an anchor point or the path changes the character pen’s properties automatically.

4.2. Merge Objects

Any path can be combined with the Pathfinder to make a common path. Mark both paths to be connected (click on the SHIFT key) and then click on the desired Pathfinder function. If more than 2 paths are to be joined, it is safer to combine only 2 paths and then to proceed step by step.

WARNING:

Once paths are merged, they can not be separated again (Like in groups)!

4.3. Cut Paths and Connect

Paths can be cut at any point with the scissors tool. After selecting the tool, the path can be cut by clicking anywhere. At this point, two superimposed anchor points are generated. These are the new endpoints of the disconnected path.

The endpoints of open paths can be merged with the function “Merge …” in the menu Object, submenu Path. To do this, you must first select both open endpoints using the direct selection tool. After applying the “join” function (CTRL + J), endpoints are connected with a straight line.

4.4. Fill and Stroke Paths

Each path can be given a fill and a type of stroke. A selected path can be edited using the Options palette or the Properties palette in its fill and stroke. Only closed paths should be filled and a stroke should only be given if it is either visually or technically necessary. A cyan-filled path should not have a cyan outline, even if it is not visible, unless you use the outline as a trapping, but this task is usually done by RIP programs.

The Attributes palette can be opened via the menu window. Here, the overprint properties for the fill and stroke can be set. If a stroke of the same color is to be used as trapping, only set the stroke to overfill.

In the illustration above, they can recognize the parts in which the colors are printed one above the other.

To display the print output and overprint, you must open up the Separation preview palette and the preview selections, here you can look at the individual color separations.

4.5. Working with Text

More and more text features, such as hyphenation and paragraph formatting, were only found in layout programs. Now they are integrated into Adobe Illustrator. The tools for creating text frames are in the toolbox. In addition, there is a special menu “font”. In the basic menus and under the Window menu, seven different option palettes can be selected in the “Font” item.

When the Text tool is selected, the most important text properties, such as font, font style, font size, and paragraph orientation, can be made in the options palette below the menus.

Extended settings can be made via the various option palettes. This palette can be found in the “Window” menu, sub-item “Font”. If the text tool or a frame filled with text is activated, further text options can be found in the Properties palette.

Surface Type Tool

When the Text tool is selected, the most important text properties, such as font, font style, font size, and paragraph orientation, can be made in the options palette below the menus.

Extended settings can be made via the various option palettes. This palette can be found in the “Window” menu, sub-item “Font”. If the text tool or a frame filled with text is activated, further text options can be found in the Properties palette.

4.5.1. Convert Text to Paths

Sometimes, for creative reasons, you may want to change the shape of the letters, or passing on the font file will cause problems. For this, the text must be converted into paths. Illustrator simply uses the definition of the font and interprets it as a path.

Find this function in the “Font” menu as “Convert to paths”.

To do this, mark the text frame to be converted with the selection tool and then convert it using the function “Convert to paths”.

When converted to paths, the individual anchor points of the letters can be edited with the direct selection tool like any other path. First, all the letter paths that were previously in a text frame are grouped together. If you want to move the individual letters one by one with the selection tool, the grouping must first be canceled.

WARNING: Once converted into paths, the text can not be converted back into normal text. Editing the text normally, as changing the font and cut or the correction of typos, is no longer possible

4.6. Place Templates

With the “Place …” function in the “File” menu both vector and pixel images can be inserted onto the canvas. This feature is especially interesting if you want to manually vectorize an already existing pixel template. If the “Template” option is selected in the placeholder dialog, the image is automatically inserted as a new layer. This new layer is locked for editing and the image is slightly softened.

Blocking the layer can be overridden by clicking on the “lock” icon, e.g. change the possession and size of the template.

WARNING: After that, do not forget to reactivate the lock.