Adobe Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom

By Jennifer Smith and AGI Creative Team

A highly accessible, step-by-step guide to Adobe Illustrator CS6

Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom includes 12 self-paced lessons that contain essential skills and explore new features and capabilities of Adobe Illustrator. Every lesson is presented in full color with step-by-step instructions. Learning is reinforced with video tutorials and lesson files on a companion DVD that was developed by a team of expert instructors and Illustrator experts. Each video tutorial demonstrates and explains the concepts and features covered in the lesson.

This training package shows how to create and produce vibrant graphics using this robust vector drawing application.

• Offers a complete training package combining a full-color, step-by-step instructional book with lesson files and video training from expert instructors
• Offers the basics for tapping into the power of Adobe Illustrator to create and produce brilliant art for all types of media
• Contains full-color, step-by-step instructions that make learning complicated tasks less intimidating
• Demonstrates how to quickly get up to speed using Illustrator to create sophisticated page layouts and work in a dynamic publishing environment

Jam-packed with information, the book and DVD take you from the basics through intermediate level topics. You'll get the information you need in a clear, approachable manner.

NOTE: DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Oct 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781118238264

Jennifer Smith

Jennifer Smith married Aaron, her best friend, in 2007. Their first few years of marriage were challenging in many ways; however, God helped reconcile their marriage relationship. Jennifer began sharing positive encouragement for marriage through UnveiledWife.com in March 2011. With her husband’s support and help, she has traditionally published The Unveiled Wife and self-published a thirty-day marriage devotional titled Wife After God, as well as 31 Prayers for My Husband, 31 Prayers for My Future Husband, and 31 Prayers for My Son and Daughter. Aaron and Jennifer have been working together as a team for the last decade, using their giftings to produce over ten books and help others draw closer to God through their website marriageaftergod.com. The Smiths are eager to continue working together to fulfill God’s purpose for their marriage by publishing Christian marriage books and resources and hosting a weekly Marriage After God podcast as a means to inspire others in their marriage and faith journey. They live with their five young children in central Oregon.

Book preview

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Adobe® Illustrator® CS6

Digital Classroom

AGI Creative Team

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Contents

Starting up

Lesson 1: Adobe Illustrator CS6 Jumpstart

Lesson 2: Getting to Know the Workspace

Lesson 3: Illustrator CS6 Essentials

Lesson 4: Adding Color

Lesson 5: Working with the Drawing Tools

Lesson 6: Exploring Additional Color Options

Lesson 7: Working with and Formatting Text

Lesson 8: Organizing your Illustrations with Layers

Lesson 9: Working with Symbols

Lesson 10: Using Effects and Transparency

Lesson 11: Exporting and Saving Files

Lesson 12: Advanced Blending Techniques

Lesson 13: Adobe Illustrator CS6 New Features

Appendix: Adobe Illustrator Tools

Contents

Starting up

About Digital Classroom

Adobe® Illustrator® CS6 lets you create artwork for a variety of uses. Illustrator’s drawing tools let you take advantage of many ways to control color, text, and artwork in your designs. Illustrator provides you with ways to express your creative ideas and experiment with the presentation. Illustrator CS6 is also tightly integrated with other Adobe products such as Photoshop® CS6 and Flash® Professional CS6.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom is like having your own personal instructor guiding you through each lesson while you work at your own speed. This book includes 13 self-paced lessons that let you discover essential skills and explore the new features and capabilities of Illustrator CS6. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions, lesson files, and video tutorials, all of which are available on the Digital Classroom website: www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/illustratorcs6. This book has been developed by the same team of Adobe Certified Instructors and Illustrator experts who have created many of the official training titles for Adobe Systems.

Prerequisites

Before you start the lessons in Illustrator CS6 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 files. You should also know how to use your mouse to access menus and commands.

Before starting the lessons files in Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom, make sure that you have installed Adobe Illustrator CS6. The software is sold separately, and not included with this book. You may use the 30-day trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS6 available at the adobe.com web site, subject to the terms of its license agreement.

System requirements

Before starting the lessons in Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom, make sure that your computer is equipped for running Adobe Illustrator CS6, which you must purchase separately. The minimum system requirements for your computer to effectively use the software are listed on the following page.

System requirements for Adobe Illustrator CS6

Windows

•  Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor

•  Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 3 or Windows 7 with Service Pack 1

•  1GB of RAM for 32 bit; 2GB of RAM for 64 bit

•  2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash-based storage devices)

•  1024 × 768 display (1280 × 800 recommended) with 16-bit video card

•  Broadband Internet connection required for software activation and access to online services.

Mac OS

•  Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support

•  Mac OS X v10.6.8 or v10.7

•  2GB of RAM

•  2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash-based storage devices)

•  1024 × 768 display (1280 × 800 recommended) with 16-bit video card

•  Broadband Internet connection required for software activation and access to online services.

Starting Adobe Illustrator CS6

As with most software, Adobe Illustrator CS6 is launched by locating the application in your Programs folder (Windows) or Applications folder (Mac OS). If necessary, follow these steps to start the Adobe Illustrator CS6 application:

Windows

1 Choose Start > All Programs > Adobe Illustrator CS6. If you have the Creative Suite installed, you may have to select Adobe Illustrator from within the Creative Suite folder.

2 Close the Welcome Screen when it appears. You are now ready to use Adobe Illustrator CS6.

Mac OS

1 Open the Applications folder, and then open the Adobe Illustrator CS6 folder. If you have the Creative Suite installed, you may have to select Adobe Illustrator from within the Creative Suite folder.

2 Double-click the Adobe Illustrator CS6 application icon.

3 Close the Welcome Screen when it appears. You are now ready to use Adobe Illustrator CS6.

Fonts used in this book

Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom includes lessons that refer to fonts that were installed with your copy of Adobe Illustrator CS6. If you did not install the fonts, or have removed them from your computer, you may substitute different fonts for the exercises or re-install the software to access the fonts.

Resetting Adobe Illustrator CS6 preferences

When you start Adobe Illustrator, it remembers certain settings along with the configuration of the workspace from the last time you used the application. It is important that you start each lesson using the default settings so that you do not see unexpected results when working with the lessons in this book. Choose one of the following methods to reset your Adobe Illustrator CS6 preferences to their defaults.

Steps to reset default Adobe Illustrator CS6 preferences

1 Quit Adobe Illustrator CS6.

2 Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Illustrator. Your current settings are deleted.

Steps to save and then create new default Adobe Illustrator CS6 preferences

1 Quit Adobe Illustrator CS6 Illustrator.

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

•  In Windows XP: Rename the AIPrefs file (for example, to AIPrefs_old) in the Documents and Settings/(user)/Application Data/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings folder.

•  In Windows Vista or Windows 7: Rename the AIPrefs file (for example, to AIPrefs_old) in the Users/(user)/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings/(language_location) folder.

•  In Mac OS: Rename the Adobe Illustrator Preferences file in the Users/(user)/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings folder.

3 Start Illustrator. Illustrator creates a new preferences file.

To restore custom settings, delete the new AIPrefs file and restore the original name of the previous AIPrefs file.

Loading lesson files

Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom includes files that accompany the exercises for each of the lessons. These files are available for download at www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/illustratorcs6. You may download all the lessons at one time or you may choose to download and work with specific lessons.

For each lesson in the book, the files are referenced by the file name of each file. The exact location of each file on your computer is not used, as you may have placed the files in a unique location on your hard drive. We suggest placing the lesson files in the My Documents folder (Windows) or at the top level of your hard drive (Mac OS).

Downloading and copying the lesson files to your hard drive:

1 Use your web browser, navigate to www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/illustratorcs6. Follow the instructions on the web page to download the lesson files to your computer.

2 On your computer desktop, navigate to the location where you downloaded the files and right-click (Windows) the .zip file you downloaded, then choose Extract All or double-click on the .zip file (Mac OS).

Working with the video tutorials

The www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/illustratorcs6 site provides Adobe Illustrator CS6 Digital Classroom book readers with video tutorials that enhance the content of this book. The videos use the popular Silverlight player for viewing on your desktop or notebook computer, or use iPad-compatible video if you are using an iPad to read an electronic version of this book. Most other ePub devices are not optimized for playing video, and you should use a notebook, desktop, or tablet computer for viewing the video tutorials if you are using a dedicated e-reader such as a nook, Kindle, kobo, or Sony e-reader. An internet connection is necessary for viewing the supplemental video files.

The videos enhance your learning as key concepts and instructions are discussed by the book’s authors. The video tutorials supplement the book’s contents, and do not replace the book. They are not intended to cover every item discussed in the book, but will help you gain a better or more clear understanding of topics discussed in many lessons of the book.

Additional resources

The Digital Classroom series goes beyond the training books. You can continue your learning online with training videos, or at seminars, conferences, and in-person training events.

Training from the Authors

The authors are available for professional development training workshops for schools and companies. They also teach classes at American Graphics Institute including training classes and online workshops. Visit agitraining.com for more information about Digital Classroom author-led training classes or workshops.

Book series

Expand your knowledge of creative software applications with the Digital Classroom training series. Books are available for most creative software applications as well as web design and development tools and technologies. Learn more at DigitalClassroom.com.

Seminars and conferences

The authors of the Digital Classroom seminar series frequently conduct in-person seminars and speak at conferences, including the annual cre8 Conference. Learn more at agitraining.com and cre8summit.com.

Resources for educators

Visit DigitalClassroom.com to access resources for educators, including an instructors’ guide for incorporating Digital Classroom into your curriculum.

Lesson 1: Adobe Illustrator CS6 Jumpstart

ai01.psd

In this lesson, you have the opportunity to dive right into Adobe Illustrator CS6 and create an exciting illustration. This lesson helps you quickly discover some of the essential features available in CS6. If you are a completely new user, you may want to start with Lesson 2, Getting to know the Workspace, and then return to this lesson.

What you’ll learn in this lesson:

•  Setting up an artboard

•  Creating and combining shapes

•  Applying color and effects

•  Adding text

•  Importing an image

•  Cloning objects

Starting up

Before starting, make sure that your tools and panels are consistent by resetting your workspace. See Resetting Adobe Illustrator CS6 Preferences in the Starting up section of this book.

You will work with several files from the ai01lessons folder in this lesson. Make sure that you have loaded the ailessons folder onto your hard drive from www.digitalclassroombooks.com/epub/illustratorcs6. See Loading lesson files in the Starting up section of this book.

The project

In this lesson you will create a comp (rough design) of an ad using some features that have been around for years, as well as newer features recently added to Adobe Illustrator CS6.

1 Launch Adobe Illustrator CS6.

2 Choose File > Browse in Bridge or press the Go to Bridge button ( 15453.jpg ) in the Application bar at the top of the workspace.

By pressing the Go to Bridge button, you launch a separate application called Adobe Bridge. Bridge is an indispensable application that acts as the central command center for all your CS6 applications, and helps you to organize your Adobe Illustrator projects. You can use Bridge to help you easily locate files, as it provides a preview of every file within any folder.

3 Once Bridge opens, navigate to the ai01lessons folder within the ailessons folder that you copied to your computer, and double-click ai0101_done.ai to open it. If an embedded Profile Mismatch dialog box appears, leave it at the defaults and press OK. The artwork for a rough design of an ad appears. You can keep this completed file open for reference, or choose File > Close to close it. If you are asked to save the file, choose No (Windows) or Don’t Save (Mac OS).

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The completed rough design of an ad.

4 For this lesson, you want to have multiple panels showing at the same time. To make sure that you can follow the lesson more easily, choose Window > Workspace > Essentials, or choose Essentials from the drop-down menu on the right side of the application bar.

Setting up the artboard

You will now set up the artboard to create your comp for an ad.

1 Choose File > New. The New Document dialog box appears. Type ai0101_work into the Name text field.

2 Choose Print from the New Document Profile drop-down menu. By choosing the Print preset your default colors, patterns, and gradients are built from CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) colors.

3 Make certain that Letter is selected from the Size drop-down menu, and select Inches instead of Points in the Units drop-down menu. Set the document to Landscape by clicking on the Orientation button on the right ( landscape_orient.tif ). Press OK; the new document is created. The document window contains a blank artboard, which represents the region that contains printable artwork.

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Define the settings in the New Document dialog box.

Creating the background shape

You will now create the fundamental shape that will be used as the background of the ad. You will use two separate shapes and then combine them using the Shape Builder tool ( 15462.jpg ).

1 Click and hold on the Rectangle tool in the Tools panel to select the Rounded Rectangle tool ( 15487.jpg ) and click once on the artboard; the Rounded Rectangle dialog box appears.

2 Enter 9 into the Width text field, 7 into the Height text field, and 2.5 into the Corner Radius text field. Press OK.

3 Use the Selection tool ( 15448.jpg ) to reposition the new shape in the center of the artboard. No exact position is necessary.

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Enter the values for the Rounded Rectangle.

The result.

Combining shapes

You will now use the Shape Builder tool to combine two shapes to create your own unique shape.

1 Smart Guides offer assistance when aligning one shape with another and also tracking the size and position of your objects as you are creating them. Verify that Smart Guides are turned on by looking under the View menu. If the Smart Guides command does not have a checkmark on the left, select it now.

2 Click and hold the Rounded Rectangle tool ( 15494.jpg ) and select the Rectangle tool ( 15503.jpg ). Click and drag from the center of the rounded rectangle shape and release when the rectangle is flush with the bottom and right sides of the rounded rectangle. You are essentially creating the sharp corner that will be in the lower-right of this shape. The shape will also take on the current white fill color.

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Click and drag to create a rectangle.

3 Using the Selection tool, Shift+click on the rounded rectangle shape. Both the rectangle and the rounded rectangle are selected.

4 Select the Shape Builder tool ( 15506.jpg ) from the Tools panel.

5 With the Shape Builder tool, click and drag from the larger rounded rectangle all the way down into the lower-right corner of the rectangle shape and release. (Make sure your cursor reaches the extreme lower-right hand corner of the rectangle.) The shapes are now combined into one shape.

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Click and drag through the shapes.

The result.

Sampling a color

The spectrum in the Color panel has been improved for Illustrator CS6, allowing you access to a larger library of colors for sampling and applying to objects. You will now use this feature to add a fill and stroke to the background shape you’ve created.

1 Using the Selection tool, click on the new background shape to select it.

2 Click on the Color icon ( 15522.jpg ) in the dock to open the Color panel. Notice the spectrum at the bottom of the panel, which allows you to click and sample a color to apply without knowing its component percentages.

3 Position your cursor over the expansion handle at the bottom-right of the Color panel, and click and drag downward. The cursor will change to an up-down arrow as you expand the spectrum, and expose more colors for sampling.

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Expand the spectrum in the Color panel.

Applying a fill and stroke

1 At the bottom of the Tools panel, click on the Fill color icon ( 15531.jpg ). Any color you sample from the spectrum will now be applied to the fill, or interior color, of the selected background shape.

2 Click in the expanded spectrum to sample a yellow color for the fill of the background shape. An exact color choice is not necessary for this exercise.

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Apply a sampled fill color to your background shape.

3 Now click on the Stroke icon at the bottom of the Tools panel. You will add a gradient stroke to your background shape, which is a new capability in Illustrator CS6.

4 In the Control panel at the top of your workspace, choose 14 pt from the Stroke pull-down menu to increase the weight of the background shape’s stroke. This will make the gradient stroke easier to see.

5 In the Tools panel, click on the Gradient button beneath the Fill and Stroke icons to apply the default gradient to the background shape’s stroke. This was not possible in previous versions of Illustrator.

Creating the smaller combined shape

You will now create the smaller shape used on the left side of the page. You will create a new rounded rectangle shape so that you can visually set how rounded you would like the corners to be.

1 Click and hold on the Rectangle tool to select the hidden Rounded Rectangle tool.

2 Click and drag (but don’t release!) to start creating the new rounded rectangle shape. While dragging, press the down arrow key repeatedly to reduce the size of the rounded corner. You might have to press the down arrow many times to see the difference. Keep in mind that this shortcut will not work if you release the mouse; it only works while you are initially clicking and dragging out the shape. Experiment by pressing the up arrow key (repeatedly) to increase the corner radius. Adjust the corner radius to a point where you are visually happy with it but do NOT release the mouse yet.

3 An exact height and width are not important for this shape. In the example in this lesson, the mouse was released when the measurement reached approximately 2.5 inches in width and 1.75 inches in height.

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Press the down arrow while dragging the rounded rectangle shape to reduce the corner values.

4 Select the Rectangle tool ( 15537.jpg ), and (repeating what you did with the large background shape) click and drag from the center point down to the lower-right of the small rounded rectangle.

5 Select the Selection tool ( 15543.jpg ) and Shift+click to select the smaller rounded corner shape. Both the rectangle and the rounded rectangle are selected.

6 Select the Shape Builder tool ( 15548.jpg ), and then click and drag from the rounded rectangle all the way down into the lower-right corner of the rectangle shape and release. The shapes are now combined into one shape.

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Combine the newly created shapes.

7 Choose File > Save to save this file. In the Save As dialog box, leave the File name the same and make sure Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) is selected for the type. Using the Save in text field, navigate to the ai01lessons folder, and then press Save. In the Illustrator Options window, leave the settings at their default and press OK. Keep the file open for the next part of this lesson.

Applying color and effects

You will now apply a different color and use the Zig Zag effect on just the stroke of this shape. Using the Appearance panel you can apply a different effect to either the stroke or fill, offering more options for you to create unique artwork.

1 Select the new combined shape and then click on Fill in the Control panel and select the CMYK Green color in the first row of the swatches.

2 Click on the Appearance icon ( 15560.jpg ) in the panel docking area, or choose Window > Appearance to show the Appearance panel.

3 Using the Appearance panel, click on the Stroke color menu and select Black, and then click on the Stroke Weight drop-down menu to the right and change the value to 1.

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Make sure that you have a 1-point black stroke.

4 Click on Stroke in the Appearance panel, and then choose (from the main menu) Effect > Distort and Transform > Zig Zag. The Zig Zag dialog box appears.

Using the Zig Zag effect you can apply this effect with sharp corners or points, or smooth waves. In this example, you will create a smooth wavy effect.

5 In the Zig Zag dialog box, check Preview.

•  In the Size text field, enter .07.

•  Type 4 in the Ridges per segment text field.

•  Select Smooth in the Points section of the dialog box.

•  Press OK.

The stroke is now wavy, but the fill in the shape remains unchanged.

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Add an effect to only the stroke.

The result.

Cloning the small shape

You will now clone (or copy) the shape two times and then apply different colors to each shape.

1 Make sure that the smaller shape you just created is selected.

2 Choose the Selection tool and then position your cursor over the smaller shape that you created.

3 Hold down the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key, and when the double cursor ( 15564.jpg ) appears, click and drag down to create a copy of the original shape directly underneath