Introduction to Adobe Illustrator
An Adobe Illustrator file is encoded in the Postscript programming language. Postscript files (such as, Illustrator), unlike raster files (such as, Photoshop), always print sharp, crisp and clean, when printed to a postscript printer, regardless of the size of the image is printed. By taking advantage of the postscript programming language, the letter "O," for example, can be printed tiny, like this:
Either way the image prints sharp because it uses the mathematical coordinate information that is encoded in the font's postscript code. Postscript type is designed to look great in large quantities, because information about kerning, and hints that accompany text at very small point sizes, are stored in the postscript code.
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| This rasterized image of the letter "o" has an effective resolution of 72dpi |
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| This illustration shows one method of creating the letter "o," which will be encoded in postcript and then printed. Postscript files always print at the highest resolution of the printer, which could be 600, 1200, even 300 dpi. |
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| This is an example of the postscript "o" printed at 1200 dpi. Notice the difference between it and the one at the top of this section. |
Postscript is a programming language designed specifically to create text and graphics on a printed page. It is a page description language that consists of English-like commands that are send to the postscript interpreter, which in turn describes the actual spots on the page using the language of mathematics.
Do you remember back in grade school, learning how to pinpoint information on a graph? Describing a point's location in the 81/2 x 11" image area works in much the same way, except that there are millions (instead of dozens) of possible locations (spots) for the printer to place the dot. Dots are printed, or not, at each one of millions of the exacting X/Y coordinates on the page.
A 300 dpi (dot per inch) printer can describe 90,000 spots in every square inch (300 x 300)—that adds up to 8.5 million spots on a letter sized sheet. Sounds like a lot of spots to me, but an imagesetter that is used for professional quality printouts contains over six hundred million spots! That's a ton of detail, and describing it using postscript, as opposed to describing the bitmap, requires far less disk space.
In order to print, the output device must first interpret the postscript code, and does so by converting it from postscript to a bitmap, creating a raster image. Printers that are capable of interpreting Postscript provided they have the postscript interpreter, also know as RIPs (Raster Image Processors).
Most laser printers, but not all, are sold with the postscript RIPs already in the ROM. Printers like dot-matrix or inkjet printers are also known as QuickDraw printers, and actually take the screen information and print from the screen.
It is important to be sure that Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is installed and turned on in order to properly render all sizes of fonts on the screen. If fonts are not being properly rendered, they will look jagged and will print just as they appear on the screen.
Software RIPs can be purchased separately for most non-postscript printers. Many printers, including high end color copiers can be purchased with a standalone RIP, which is a separate CPU that interprets and passes along to the printing device the processed information about where to image dots on the page.
File Size
Why postscript? Smaller file sizes, reduced processing time, optimum resolution. Unlike a raster file, the file size of a postscript file is determined, not by the resolution of the output device the file is sent to, nor the total number of possible spots that it contains, but instead, by the complexity of the page geometry ultimately used to describe the image file. More anchor points in an Illustrator file creates a larger file size. Gradients and patterns, including the hatch patterns, will increase a file's size significantly.
Comparing file sizes
The size of an Illustrator file does not depend on the page size, but on the number of anchor points and the complexity of the postscript code. If we were to create a file like the one in Fig. xx, that is approximately 3 inches x 2.5 inches and print to a 3,000 dpi imagesetter for maximum quality, here is how the file sizes would stack up.
Illustrator file (postscript) - 10 k (kilobytes)
Photoshop file (bitmap) - 8.05 Mb (megabytes)
In this scenario, the bitmap file is over 800 times larger than the postscript file! The bitmap format is appropriate for those parts of the image that will be photographic or if your intention is to give your image the unique "textural" quality that is achieved by changing each of the pixels in their own color.
Illustrator files are vector. The range of color and form are specified by mathematical formulas based on geometric principals—curves, vectors, etc. You don't need to do the math, but there is a fundamental difference between a vector object and a raster object.
Let's magnify a small circle and take a look at how and why the raster image and the vector image differ by the amount of space they occupy and the way they appear in print. Don't be confused when some vector programs claim to do tricks only raster software can perform. They usually just convert the image to a raster image, never again to know it's true vector self.
What kinds of things can you do with raster that can't be done in vector? Transparencies, for one—real transparencies. Not the fake illustrator kind.
Exercise #12-1
Illustrator Objects
You will be creating the same, simple graphic image like the one at the right, in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. In Photoshop, you will create three separate files at 72, 150, and 300 dpi resolution. In Illustrator, you will create one file.
This exercise is designed to familiarize you with the following:
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Illustrator object stacks on top of the one before it, places some objects
in front, others in the middle, and each successive object on top. This
feature is known as "the stacking order." |
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| The "swatches" at the bottom of the Illustrator tool palette represent the fill and stroke. |
In Illustrator:
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Postscript type
Adobe makes Postscript. Adobe makes Illustrator. Postscript type works best with Illustrator, better than True Type. True Type will sometimes work, but not always, because not all RIPs can process all True Type. If you will be using a service provider to output your files to film or RC paper, they will probably advise you to avoid using True Type fonts in your document, because they do not reliably process on some RIPs.
Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is necessary in order to render fonts on the screen (called screen fonts, by some, and bitmaps by others because the screen display is a bitmap) as accurately as possible at all sizes. In order for Postscript type to print so clean and provide scalability, programmers plot out the coordinates for the font's outlines and store the information in the code. It is the outline information that is fed to RIP and then printed. Because the outlines are described using the language of mathematics, sizes can be increased or decreased without any loss of quality. This part of the font is known as the outline file, or sometimes the printer font.
The part of the code that enables the font to be rendered on the screen is referred to as the screen font or bitmap, and is stored in a separate file. Both parts of the font are necessary in order have use of the font.
Adobe Type Manager
Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is one of those "gotta have" utilities that no one should be without. Rendering fonts to the screen (also know as rasterizing) is the process of converting the code in each of the screen fonts to the computer monitor. Without ATM, any font you choose whose specific size code is not stored in the font suitcase would look hideous. The computer looks for the specific size you choose before rendering it to the screen.
ATM handles the complex task of reading the code in the outline file, scaling it to the precise size you specify in the software and then properly adjusting and rendering it to look great on the screen. ATM is a must-have, even if you don't use a postscript printer. If you have an inkjet printer, ATM will actually render the postscript font at the printer resolution, giving you the best quality printing possible from that printer.
True
Type
True Type is Apple's answer to postscript. Like postscript, True Type draws on an outline code for its information, and therefore is scalable as well, printing smooth and clean at virtually any size. What's more, its far cheaper, more accessible, and there is only a single icon to deal with, when using True Type.
If that's the case, then why use postscript at all? I'm glad you asked. True Type generally takes up more disk space, which is, perhaps a small price to pay for the convenience of a single icon that stores all the information. The biggest drawback to True Type fonts is the fact that they don't work with postscript imagesetters.
In other words, true type fonts may proof fine on your inkjet or laser printer, but when you send your files to a service provider, the job may have problems. If the service provider can't quickly find an appropriate substitute for the true type font, the job might be delayed or it might print with the wrong font.
Converting fonts
PC Fonts to Mac fonts - converters
If you have a font editing program such as Macromedia's Fontographer, you can open a True Type font and convert it to postscript and vice versa. It also comes in very handy if you are working cross-platform and need to use the same font on a PC and Mac. Check the internet for other utility programs that can be used to convert fonts.
Bezier curves
Fhe figure above depicts the "anatomy" of a BŽzier curve, named in the early 1970s for their creator, Pierre BŽzier. In the 70s, BŽzier curves were used as a way of controlling mechanical cutting devices, and were adopted by Adobe and used in the creation and development of the postscript programming language. Illustrator was developed as a software program to show off the amazing capabilities of postscript.
Strategies
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Reset tools to default Mac Command-click any tool to reset all the tools to defaults |
| PC Control-click any tool to reset all the tools to defaults |
When you first see the Illustrator tool palette, you should be immediately struck by the similarities to the Photoshop tool palette. In both programs, the tools are separated by clear divisions which group the tools in various relationships. As you browse the tool palette, you should notice other similarities.
The tool palette itself is already somewhat familiar. At the bottom are the Screen Viewing Mode icons, which can be "toggled through" by pressing the letter, "F," on the keyboard. Press the tab key to toggle the palettes off and on again, just like Photoshop.
Illustrator's tool palette has swatches similar to Photoshop's foreground-background color swatches, except that instead of representing a "foreground" or a "background," Illustrator's swatches represent the fill and stroke colors of the selected object, or path.
The small arrow in the bottom right corner of the tool's icon indicates that the tool is a pop-up. Click and hold the mouse button down to display other related tools.
Other tools that are common to both Photoshop and Illustrator are the pen, paintbrush, pencil, gradient, eyedropper, the hand and the magnifying glass. Seeking out tools that are the same, or similar to those of a program you've already learned, or with which you are familiar, is one strategy to speed the learning process.
A second strategy is to evaluate what you can do in one program, and then figure out if and how it's done in another program. Is it the same, or similar, or is it even possible? For example, if you rotated a selection in Photoshop, ask yourself, how would one rotate an object in Illustrator—not if, but how—because it is almost surely possible.
Which tools are new in Illustrator that you won't find in Photoshop? What are the tools' functions? As you come across features in a new program, make a mental note when their placement, function or keyboard shortcuts mimic another program you know. Making connections with material you've already learned will reinforce your mental data banks, making it easier for you to remember.
With each new graphics program you undertake, the learning curve will become less steep. Begin the kinesthetic exercise of practicing the keyboard shortcuts over and over, and in no time at all, you will find yourself invoking menu items and moving through sequences of commands without giving them a second thought. If you don't practice and decide not to use keyboard shortcuts, you may arrive at the same destination, but you may be late, and your wrists will feel the difference.
The Illustrator work environment
As you examine the Illustrator work environment, you will begin to recognize the similarities between Photoshop and Illustrator.
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| Pop-ups can also be “torn off" by relasing on the end arrow, and then act as standalone palettes. |
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The tool palette
As mentioned earlier, Illustrator's tool palette is similar to Photoshop's in several ways, but Illustrator 9's palette has a "tear-off" feature, which lets you create separate palettes for any of the pop-up tools. To do so, click on the tool, holding the mouse button down and drag the arrow to the right side shown in figure 12-8, top. Release and the tool will appear in its very own palette.You'll have to judge how many palettes you want to keep open at any given time based on how much screen real estate is available. Illustrator's tools are grouped into somewhat logical groupings in the palette.
Illustrator boasts a straightforward set of drawing tools—six to be exact. All drawing is done using either the pen tool, the shape drawing tools, paintbrush or the pencil. The remainder of the tools are for making transformations or otherwise changing or editing Illustrator images.
Illustrator is full of palettes. Not only do a majority of tools have optional tearoffs, which then become palettes in their own right, but check out the number of available palettes under the Window Menu. Just as in Photoshop, the Illustrator palettes are grouped in their logical "docking" arrangement. Illustrator palettes work in essentially the same manner as the Photoshop palettes. If you want to change the positions of the palettes, so that they are docked the way you like to work, do so just as you do in Photoshop. Drag the tab of an open palette over the palette you want to dock it to. Release when you see a bold outline appear around the body of the palette, and you should now have your own, custom docking station.The palettes, in general, offer a convenient way to edit the attributes of a selection. It is important to take some time to begin "exploring" Illustrator. Search the menus for items you recognize. Display the various palettes and look them over. Because a palette is just a tiny window, the palettes have a similar structure to any other window, albeit without all of the same features.
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| Like Photoshop, Illustrator's window menu divides the palettes into logical "docking sets." |
Palettes can be moved by their title bar and collapsed, resized, and some palettes can be scrolled or have an information bar across the bottom. Palettes will always stay "in front" of the Illustrator window, but can be stacked on top of each other, when they behave like windows among themselves.
Notice that some menu items in Illustrator are the same as Photoshop and some may just be in a different place. Because Illustrator is a vector program, the Illustrator toolset and menus are strictly vector, with the exception of the bottom half of the filter and effects menus. Those filters and effects in the lower portion of the menus are designed to convert your selection into a raster image where it is destined to live our the remainder of its life, for once raster, always raster.
Whenever beginning to learn any new program, it is helpful to examine the program's preferences, which allow you to customize many of the program's behaviors. It isn't necessary to memorize anything, but glance back over the preferences frequently to determine how you can create a more efficient and productive working environment.
With each new program or strategy you learn, your creative potential multiplies geometrically. Look at good design. Be open to multi-tasking, using good design principles as you explore and create, moving files to the best program for the job, even if that means working on the same image in several different programs to recreate what you envision.
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| The Illustrator tool palette and the "hot keys" for each tool. Just press the corresponding letter on the keyboard to switch to the desired tool without using the mouse to select it. |
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| Illustrator lets you set your preferences for up to 200 undos. Feel free to experiment, knowing with the multiple undo/redo feature you can get yourself out of a jam. |
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| Practice changing the fill and stroke of objects until you get the hang of it. |
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Shape Drawing Tools
There are two fundamental approaches to creating shapes: click and drag to draw using a freeform visual approach, or click and release to get a dialog box that lets you create the desired shape with mathematical precision. Once the shape is created, you can edit it by changing its fill and stroke, modify its shape or proportions, undo it, or leave it alone.
Modifier Keys
The shift key is a modifier key that works in virtually all environments as a constraining key. In the case of the shape drawing tools, the shift key constrains the proportions of the horizontal and vertical axes, forcing a rectangle to a square, an ellipse to a circle. The shift key forces the polygon and star to a 90-degree angles, keeping them upright on a horizontal axis.
Use the up and down arrows on the keyboard to add or subtract sides on the polygon, or to add or subtract points on the star. Stars have both an inside and outside radius. They can be set with mathematical precision by clicking and releasing the cursor in the image area to call up the dialog box, or use the command key to control the star's size and form visually. Once you have the inside and outside radius the way you like, release the command key to continue sizing the star.
The option key works with the spiral to add and subtract segments to the spiral, otherwise known as the decay rate. Don't worry if you don't remember what all the modifier keys do. If you're not sure what will happen, try it anyway. You may make a mistake, but so what? Sometimes mistakes reveal new information, and other times, you'll just have to press command-Z to undo. Big deal. Set your Illustrator Preferences (Units and Undo) to 200 undos, and Command Z to your heart’s content.
Fill and Stroke
Every Illustrator path, regardless of whether it is an open or closed path, has a fill and stroke assigned to it. The swatches at the bottom of the tool palette display the current fill and stroke, or the fill and stroke of a selected path. The solid swatch represents the fill color, and the outlined swatch represents the stroke color. Clicking on either swatch brings it to the front where it needs to be in order to assign a new attribute.
The double headed arrow exchanges the fill and stroke attributes, and the button at the bottom left resets the fill and stroke to the default, which is a white fill and a black stroke. I suggest you just press the letter "D" on the keyboard to reset the default fill and stroke, just as you would press the letter "D" to reset the foreground, background color swatches in Photoshop.
The press the "/" key to reset the white fill to "none." (That's the key that has the "?" on top.) This short key sequence gives you a path with a black stroke and no fill which is usually my preferred modus operandi.
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Artwork mode
When Illustrator first came out back in 1986 you had to create and edit your path in the artwork mode, which only showed a sort of wireframe of the illustration with no fill or stroke to obstruct the view of the entirety of the path or paths. The "preview mode" let you view the image as it would appear in print, but unfortunately it was back to the artwork mode for editing.
Switching between the artwork mode and the preview mode was the bane of graphic designers, illustrators, and well, anyone with a slow machine, and that was just about everyone. It was a happy day when Illustrator finally introduced the ability to edit in the preview mode. I praised the day when I could finally see what I was doing! It didn't take long before I learned that there really was no one best way to work.
There are different solutions for every problem with variations on a theme. There may be more than one solution for a given problem. Working in the preview mode is all well and good, but be aware that the fill of a path can obscure the path itself, and it is often difficult, if not impossible, to see what you are doing while you are creating a path with an active fill. When I begin an Illustrator image, I usually like to create the initial path with a black stroke and a fill of "none," but you may find that you prefer working in the artwork mode.
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| Specify colors using any one of four color models. | Shows how red is mixed in CMYK. | Displays the optional web-safe swatch color palette. |
Colors
The Illustrator color palette gives you several options for specifying color and is similar to Photoshop's color modes. We also call these color models or color space.
Grayscale - For one-color black and white illustrations, you can specify fill and stroke in percentages.
RGB - Web color is specified using RGB, or anything that will ultimately be displayed on a television or computer monitor should be specified using RGB.
HSB - Hue, saturation and brightness may be useful for adjusting the saturation and brightness of an RGB image.
CMYK - Process printing color is specified using CMYK, or cyan, magenta, yellow, black.
Choosing colors
You can make a quick color choice by clicking in or dragging through the color ramp that stretches across the bottom of the color palette. As you do so, the corresponding values will appear in the color sliders. The color you select is applied to whichever swatch is in the forward position—either the fill or stroke. You can reverse the positions of the swatches either by clicking on the rear-most swatch, bringing it forward, or press the letter "X" on the keyboard.
If you are creating roughs, you may base your color choice on way colors look on the computer monitor. Your Illustrator image may be intended for the internet, interactive CD, video, or four-color process printing. You can be sure that the final color is predictable, no matter what medium, provided you specify color by number, using the appropriate color space.
For example, if you want to use red for an image that going to be printed for a four-color process poster, you should specify red as percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. If, however your Illustrator graphic is going onto a web page on the internet, the red should be specified in web safe RGB values. Using web safe colors is the best way of ensuring that the color you specify is what will appear on the end users monitor. Of course, if the user’s monitor isn't calibrated to yours, which it most probably will not be, there is no way yet of completely controlling color.
Swatches
Think of the swatches palette as if it were an artist's palette. Use the Colors Palette to mix and play with colors, and when you create a color you want to save with this document so that you can use it again, drag the swatch from the color palette to the swatches palette. See Figure xx. Now save the document, which I'll call, "Jim." The only time that custom color set will be available is when "Jim" is open, and every time "Jim" is opened. For the sake of argument, let's say "Jim" has a very attractive color palette, and you would like to use it in other files.
Here's what you need to do:
The Pen Tool
The pen tool is used to create paths, which can be open or closed, filled or not, and stroked, or not. You've probably heard the expression, "The shortest path between two points is a straight line." With Adobe Illustrator it's the same. Creating straight lines and multiple straight line segments is about as basic as Illustrator gets.
Exercise 12.2
BŽzier Curves
At the heart of the Illustrator program is its curves—Bezier curves, to be precise. The curves, named for their creator, Pierre Bezier, are a mathematical, as opposed to an artist's approach, to creating curves. Each Bezier curve consists of four points, with two anchor points, one at the end of each segment, and two control handles, each one connected by a control handle line to the anchor points.
I've always thought that Bezier curves behaved a bit like a marionette. The control handle works like the control handles on the marionette. Pulling and stretching the end of the control handle, which in turn, forces the curve to bend and stretch as if there were a string tied from the control handle to the curve. But the string isn't tied just anywhere on the curveÉit's tied to the shortest distance between it and the curve, and that point is determined by drawing an invisible plane that touches but does not intersect the curve.
How does that help you? You probably never mastered the art of marionettes(neither did I) and if you're like me, the last time you thought about geometry was in the eighth grade, and that probably wasn't even voluntarily. But don't be discouraged. After my first few times using Illustrator, I felt just as clumsy and confused, not to mention stupid as I did the time when I tangled up my friend, Burt's, marionette strings. Don't you feel better now?
The real point is this: you really don't have to understand how BEzier curves are created—just do it over and over until you get a feel for it, like riding a bike or tying your shoes. Truthfully, I never really thought much about BŽzier curves being like marionettes before, but I think the analogy works anyway. And I do have a friend, Burt, who is a puppeteer. The best way to understand how to create elegant BŽzier curves it to spend lots of time practicing them. You didn't learn to handwrite overnight, so don't expect to be able to master BŽzier curves in one or two lessons.
The Pen Tool - Line
To create a straight line, click and release the pen tool where you want the line to begin. Move the cursor to the point on the screen where you want the line to end and click and release to set the second, and last anchor point. In order for the computer to "know" that it is the last anchor point in the path, click the pen tool to indicate you are done. If you prefer to continue using the pen tool for straight lines or beziŽr curves, you can press the command key and click in the image area instead of clicking the pen tool. Command click is the computer's signal that you have completed a path and are ready to begin a new path using the pen tool.
