Day One

Essential Illustrator Concepts

• Overview of Programme

• What are Vector Graphics?

Creating a Document

• Colour Space RGB & CMYK

• Resolution

• Pasteboard

• Multiple Artboards

• Tabbed open documents

The Illustrator Interface

• The Tool Bar (including shortcuts)

• Using the Control Panel

• Intro to Panels

• View Options

• Basic Shortcuts

• Basic Navigation

• Preview/Outline Options

• Preferences

Guides

• Rulers

• Creating Guides

• Hiding/Showing Guides

• Locking/Unlocking Guides

• Making/Releasing Guides

• Smart Guides

• Grids

• Snap-to Features

Panel and Workspaces

• In-Depth Functions

• Customising

• Saving a Workspace

• The Options Button

Creating Objects

• Exploring Object Options

• Shortcuts

• The Bounding Box

• Altering Objects

Lines, Arcs, Spirals & Grids

• Exploring Object Options

• Shortcuts

Moving, Duplicating & Groups

• Moving & Copying

• Transform Again

• Multiple Copies

• Duplicating Shortcuts

• Group/Ungrouping

Object Hierarchy

• Send to Back/Send to Front

• Send Backward/Send Forward

• Shortcuts

• Intro to Layers and Sub Layers

Transformations

• The Reference Point

• Scaling

• Rotating

• Shearing

• Reflecting

• Shortcuts

• Free Transform Tool (Perspective)

• Transform Each

Selection Tools

• Exploring the difference

• Methods of Selection

• The Bounding Box

• Editing Objects with the Direct

• Selection Tool

• Selecting Objects within Groups

• Undo/Redo

• Multiple Undo/Redo

Open Paths

• Joining Points

• Averaging Points

Working with Colour

• Fill & Stroke Tool overview

• Shortcuts

• Colour Panel (for Custom Colour)

• Swatches Panel (for Saved Colour)

• Creating and Saving Colours

• Editing Colours

• Global Colours

• Pantone and Spot Colours

• Creating Swatch Groups

• Using Libraries

• Adobe Swatch Exchange

Gradients

• The Gradient Panel

• Introducing Gradients

• Editing Gradients

• The Gradient Tool

• Working with Gradient Libraries

• New Gradient Features

Day Two

Patterns

• Introducing Patterns

• Working with Patterns Libraries

Strokes and Paths

• The Strokes Panel

• Corners and Caps

• Alignment

• Custom Dash Options

• Outlining Paths

• Offsetting Paths

• Using & Creating Profiles

• Using Borders (through Brushes)

• Profiles

Basic Text Editing

• Creating Point Text

• Creating Area Text

• Text Formatting

• Area Type Options

• Creating Text Threads

• Using the Glyphs panel

• Checking spelling

• Using the Change Case function

• Convert Text to Outlines

• Style Sheets

• Text on a Path

Working with Images

• Placing images

• Image Masks

• Making/Releasing Masks

• Using the Links panel

• Rasterizing artwork

Working with Layers

• Overview, Purpose and Function

• Looking at Layered Files

• Working with layers

• Layers and object hierarchy

• Sub Layers

• The Layers Panel Explained

• Creating Layers

• Duplicating Layers

• Layer Groups

• Layer Shortcuts

The Pen Tool

• Drawing Paths with the Pen Tool

• Mastering the Pen Tool

• Editing Paths

• Editing Anchor Points

• Direct Selection Tool Shortcuts

• Shortcuts for Related Tools

• Pencil & Eraser Tools

The Align Panel

• Aligning objects

• Distributing objects

Pathfinder

• Combining Objects etc

• Shape Modes

• Pathfinder Modes

• Using Align & Pathfinder Together

Transparency & Blends

• The Transparency Panel

• Blend Options

Compound Paths

• Making Compound Paths

• Releasing Compound

• Paths Do’s and Dont’s of Compound Paths

The Corner Widget

• Overview

• Custom Settings

Saving and Printing

• Saving in Illustrator

• File types

• Printing in Illustrator

• Exporting in Illustrator

• PDF options

• Setting up page tiling

• Using the Crop Area tool

Questions and answers