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