Adobe Illustrator CS6 Intermediate Part 4

In this post on Illustrator CS6 I am going to continue from the last post. a is the direct select tool. If you want to select similar objects but they are different letters or numbers it won’t work. cntrl+spacebar is the temporary zoom feature. save / save selection – saves everything on the artboard. It’s particularly good for saving different components. cntrl+8 zooms out. Any effects have a preview tick box that when you select it allows you to preview it prior to applying it. window/ pathfinder – lets you apply simple shapes together and subtract them to get complex shapes. You can also place shapes in front or behind each other prior to applying it. Illustrators job is to simplify and replace the task of drawing. You don’t necessarily need to be a good artist but have to have a good idea what you want. You can draw with the pen tool in freehand though. cntrl+j – joins 2 open lines. This is a particularly good tool. There is a unite button in parhfinder that joins 2 shapes to make 1. alt+clicking on unite creates a compund shape. This is a shape consisting of lots of separate components. You can also drag a component to a different part of the artboard and it will remain a part of the shape.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Intermediate Part 3

To start off with I’m going to look at the tiling within Adobe Illustrator. If you click on Align/ Align to etc it aligns them to something. You need to then select Object/ Group. You can align to artboard which is one option. You can select one item with the mouse and then shift select which selects everything in sequence or control select which selects multiple individual items. cntrl+alt+a selects everything on the artboard. object/ ungroup – ungroups the objects. There is also a groups option. To distribute the tiles evenly you need to distribute with columns frozen then the same with rows frozen. Otherwise they get scattered around. cntrl+shift+g – ungroups objects. cntrl+g – groups objects. shift+o switches to artboard tools. m is the rectangle tool and v the selection tool. To switch out of a mode into a neutral mode is cntrl+o

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Intermediate Part 2

This is the next installment in my blog post series on Adobe Illustrator CS6. If you are using the tiling tool you can specify numerical the number of times you want it repeated and the number of tiles allowed on the page. Typically you repeat something 5 times in both axis. If a pattern isn’t in the bounding box that manipulates the tiles it is exempt from any changes. Only what is with in is changed. You can using the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to fine tune the numeric values. This is useful if you want the bounding box to be an exact size but sure what the values need to be. Cntrl+shift+a can be used to deselect stuff. Cntrl+a selects stuff.  You can also drag the swatches from the side panel to the tiles you are working on to apply patterns and textures. The window/effect command lets you apply various effects like a drop shadow for example. Native illustrator files use the .ai extension. The pattern generator was upgraded in version CS6 and as a result patterns in CS5 and before aren’t directly compatible. If there is a clipping mask in an imported work it needs to be removed to make it compatible. Cntrl+shift+z  starts the pattern generator. Sometimes you have to align an object to another. If one object moves the other moves in relationship to it. The way to do this is to make one a key object. Cntrl+shift+b removes the bounding box and you can the snap to grid feature to initially align the shapes. This prevents any overlaps.

Intermediate Adobe Illustrator CS6 1

I am doing a new series of tutorial posts on this computing blog on Adobe Illustrator CS6 which are roughly carrying on where the last series I did left off. In this lesson I am going to look at tiling and creating linear spirals. linear spirals are different to ordinary in that the circular lines  are equally spaced. To start with create a circle then use the polar grid tool to create however many circles you need. These circles will be transformed into a spiral. You have to highlight and ungroup it twice. Cntrl+a is used to select all. You can use cntrl+an arrow key to separate and move the 2 halves of the circles. Cntrl+j is then used to join them. You then have 2 sets of spirals so delete one. Tiling in old Illustrator was notoriously difficult but in later versions is much easier. You first choose options/ pattern / make. This brings up the pattern tool. Within this tool is the tiling tool. This tool brings up a tiling boundary box. You can change the shape of this box to ie hex or square. You drag the boundaries to create the type of tiling required. If you make it smaller it condenses the tiling and if you make it bigger it spreads everything out. There are diamond handles on the boundary that can drag the shape from side to side as you drag it with the mouse. There is also a central icon within the boundary that drags the entire boundary in one go. You can also change the numerals in the co-ordinates box to change the size of the boundary box with precision.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part H

This is another installment in my blog post series on Adobe Illustrator CS6. The x key toggles the selection between fill and stroke. The i key is the eyedropper tool which lets you click on the color at one source and transfer it. Cntrl+shift+a lets you deselect something. If you deselect the eye symbol next to a layer in the layer panel it hides it. It can be useful if working on intersecting shapes. You can use Select/Next Object Below or Next Object Above to move from one layer to the next one in order. You can right click an image then click Arrange then one of a host of stacking options which also lets you go from one layer to the next. Cntrl+-which is the minus mathematical symbol lets you refresh your screen. You can insert a shape to a different position in the stacking order by choosing Edit/ Paste In Front or Paste In Back. Professional printers often over flow the stroke slightly to prevent gaps between the stroke and the fill. If you use black there is weak black and strong black. Weak black is really a dark grey and slightly lighter and in CMYK the settings are C00 M00 Y00 K100. A more true black has the following settings C50 M50 Y50 K100. A can change what is designated as black in the preferences which can be reached with cntrl+k. There is also an issue with LCD screens like your computer monitor not displaying black properly. Most computer monitors are of this type and they tend to display black as a very dark grey. In Illustrator lineweight is called strokeweight. If you click cntrl+f10 it brings up the strokes palette which controls things like the thickness, colour and endings of strokes. You can change the cap or ending of a stroke so it ends abruptly which is the default or square or rounded cap. Rounded cap is often used with numbers.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part G

This is another installment in my blog post series on Adobe Illustrator CS6. If you click on windows/layers it brings up the layers toolbar if not already displayed. There are also lots of other toolbars that can similarly be displayed. If you click on the create layer button on the panel a layer is created but you don’t have the naming option. They do recommend you give each layer a descriptive name to avoid. The way to do this is click alt and click create layer and then type in a name. If you click cntrl+alt+l you get layer options. You can drag layers with in the panel to re-organise them. Each family of layers is denoted by a color which when you select something with in that layer or group is denoted by a highlight in that color. If you drag the mouse over part of a shape the whole shape is selected. If you click on one layer with in the panel and then click+shift another all the ones in that range are selected. If you click+cntrl only individual ones are selected. This is useful for selecting layers that aren’t next to each other. Cntrl+shift+o converts a layer to a path. This is non-editable and useful for placement of other objects. Cntrl+0 which is the number zero zooms out. Shift+dragging the mouse constrains the drag to predefined amounts normally 45 or 90 degrees. Cntrl+drag copies an item to a new position and using all 3 copies an object to a constrained set position which is very useful. Normally you will want exact placement. You often hide a layer or layers to select stuff which each item being on a separate layer. The eye symbol determines whether a layer is active or displayed or not. The meatball symbol which is so called because it looks like a meatball determines whether what is inside the layer is selected or not. It doesn’t select the outside strokes. R brings up the rotate tool. This is good for copying objects to polar co-ordinates. Cntrl+y brings up the preview mode where everything is visible as a wireframe image. This is particularly good for selecting objects and seeing how they relate to one another. The i key brings up the eyedropper tool. The edit menu often has several options based on what you have just done for selective undo. Alternatively you can click cntrl+z to undo the last item. You can normally apply a swatch by placing the cursor on the target position and then clicking the relevent swatch for it to be applied. Finally if you click on window/new window a new copy of your screen opens and many people have one display it in wireframe view to help them work. What you do in one screen is automatically applied to the other although they can give different views of your work.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part F

This is the 6th installment in my blog post series on Adobe Illustrator CS6. This is mostly shortcuts for working with this program. Control+shift+. increases text by 2 points. You have to select the text first. Control+a selects everything. A triple click with the mouse selects one complete line. Control+shift+, decreases text by 2 points. You can always go into preferences which can be with control+k and adjust the increment. Control+shift+alt+. increases text by 5 points. Of course if you use the comma instead of the . it decreases it by 5 points. If you select your text and choose alt+the up arrow text is moved up. If you use the down it is moved down. Control+shift+l aligns the text to the left. Of course select the text first. If you double click with in the text it starts the text tools or mode. If you click control+shift+r it aligns text to the right and you choose c instead it centres it. If you click escape it takes you out of the mode you are working in. F6 brings up the color panel. Alt+left click after selecting text removes any special formatting that may be applied. P is the shortcut for the pen tool. If you click a line with the pen tool a control point is added which lets you adjust the curvature. Normally a line will have at least 2 control points at either end. The control points have two stems that ideally each one should be about 35% the length of the line. If you click the middle of the line of the control you can move one stem independently of the other. Normally the other side moves in relation to it. You can also moves these control point stems below the line you are adjusting. In the pen tool if you click two points they automatically become joined with a line. This is useful when tracing something in particular. Control+shift+tab lets you go from one program into another. Edit/stylize/rounded corners found on that menu lets you change a shape so it has rounded and is with out anchor points except at the start and finish.

 

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part E

This is the 5th installment in my latest blog post series on Adobe Illustrator CS6. We’re going to start off looking at embedding and linking files. Normally you will copy a file or drawing into it’s own folder. To embed it select file/ open the select the file and double click it. To link it choose file/ place then locate the image then click place. If you embed a file it is brought into illustrator and will have a larger file size. If you link it, it is still left outside illustrator. If you select object/ rasterize it converts an image into a pixel based or rasterized image as opposed to a vector based image which illustrator normally works with. Vectors have solid lines where as rasters have bitmaps or pixels. Sometimes in illustrator it will suggest converting a file already rasterized into a raster image and you shouldn’t do this as it loses detail. The image trace panel button is near the top of the screen. It lets you auto-trace something and it does a good job of this. There is a threshold feature that defines what gets traced with 0 being the absolute color and 256 being everything. If you are doing a greyscale drawing 128 will be a typical setting. Control+shift+g will ungroup something. Useful if you need to break apart a drawing to work on it. Command/ path/ simplify simplifies a pictures detail for reducing its filesize. You adjust the settings in the dialog box to define how much detail is left. The left and right arrow keys are a short cut for moving an image left or right. You can adjust the increments in preferences and the units. Of course you select the drawing first. The shapebuilder tool which fuses 2 shapes together has a shortcut shift+m. You select what needs fusing and fuse it. Of course they may have to overlap slightly if uneven. If you click the create page layer button at the bottom of the layer palette, a new layer layer is formed that you can name. Alt+ dragging the mouse moves an image so it snaps to points or anchor points. If you adapt something but retain the general shape ie scale it you can repeat the process by clicking Object/ Transform/ Transform Again. Transforming something means keeping the general shape but altering it.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part D

This is the 4th installment in my tutorial on Adobe Illustrator CS6. In the layer palette the eye symbol next to a layer when deselected makes a layer inactive. If you select control + drag an ellipse it goes out from a point which is ideal if you want it to remain within a boundary box. If you select alt + drag an ellipse it goes outwards as you drag. To make a compound path select the 1st boundary line. Then select edit/ copy. Then select the 2nd boundary line. Then select object/ compound path/ make. The idea is to create something like an 8 that has an entirely cut off centre that needs to be transparent to keep in with the rest of the design. Not very surprisingly the shortcut for the compound path/ make command is control + 8. If you go into window/ attributes you can set the centre point for something to rotate or be copied around manually. Select the black arrow tool, then you can move a shape into place and the centre point turns white when the object is centred. This happens whether or not you have snap to grid activated or not. This works well with a star with an even number of points but not with an odd number where a different system has to be used. To transfer a shape you are working on from one layer to another. Select the shape with the black arrow. Drag the square button icon from the layer you are in to the layer you want to be in. Each layer you are in should be indicated by a particular color for the layer shown when you do something like select something. The shortcut for the reflect tool is o. If you click on alt + click on the reflection line it changes when you are at the center. You can choose either a horizontal or vertical reflection line to copy something. If you do something like extend a line you will normally draw it at 0 degrees and do the process because it is easier and then rotate it into place. I will try and do another post in this series tomorrow.

 

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part C

This is the 3rd installment in my new tutorial on Adobe Illustrator CS6. The button with a diagonal line is the line tool. It has a flyout with arcs, ellipses and spirals etc. The shift key when used with a tool like arcs constrains the proportions. Normally when you draw something you will use guides and grids to get accurate placement. V is the shortcut for the selection tool and this has a black arrow. This is often used for processes like selecting line prior to lengthening them or deleting them etc. A is the shortcut for the direct selection tool with a white arrow. You can use control handles brought up by adding control points which we’ll come back to, to adjust lines. These control points can be dragged out or lengthened for more precise control. As you move them they will normally bend the line one way or the other. You can move these 360 degrees. The object/ path/ join command will join several selected lines. Edit/ copy will copy a shape or lines. You can use control +c. Edit / paste in front will place a copy of something onto the copied shape for you to move around. Transform / flip horizontal will flip a shape over a horizontal axis. You will often need to select a reference point in the transform tool. Control+j is a shortcut for joining lines. If you right click the screen and choose show guides it brings up guides. When you draw a line the length and co-ordinates are displayed. Stroke / rounded cap rounds off and joins 2 lines. This is useful if 2 lines aren’t joined conventionally like if their ends don’t actually touch. Alt + drag will create a duplicate. Alt + shift + drag will create a duplicate constrained to the same proportions. Control + f pastes something over what needs to be copied so you can drag it into place. Edit / control point places a control on a line. There is a dialog box where you specify where and how many control points you want. To rotate something choose transform/ select figure/ then choose point of rotation, make sure preview is selected and select ok when happy. Object/ group – groups shapes together. The tool to select a shape without its interior is called the meatball tool and is in the layers palette. It is a circular icon on the right of the relevant layer. Simply turn off the button to select it. I will do another post in this tutorial in a bit.