Adobe Illustrator

Work Area Tool bar Menu Bar Options Bar Active Image Area Title Bar Palettes New Document

Creating a New Document FILE > New Type in correct size and orientation. Select inches for Units Color Mode MUST be CMYK

Tool Bar Website Selection (V) Magic Wand (Y) Pen (P) Line Segment (\) Paintbrush (B) Rotate (R) Warp (Shift + R) Symbol Sprayer (Shift + S) Mesh (U) Eyedropper (I) Live Paint Bucket (K) Slice (Shift + K) Hand (H) Fill (X) Default Fill & Stroke (D) Color (>) & Gradient ( ) & Gradient (<) None (/) Standard Screen Mode (F) Website Direct Selection (A) Lasso (Q) Type (T) Rectangle (M) Pencil (N) Scale (S) Free Transform (E) Column Graph (J) Gradient (G) Blend (W) Live Paint Selection (Shift + L) Scissors (C) Zoom (Z) Swap Fill & Stroke (Shift X) Stroke (X) Full Screen Mode (F) Full Screen W/ Menu Bar (F)

Type Tool Area Type Type on Path Vertical Type Vertical Area Type Vertical Type on a Path

Type Tool Type Tool (T) ~ Creates normal type ~ Type>Fonts allows you to see the style of font Area Type Tool & Vertical Area Type Tool (Tear off Type Tool) ~ Allows you to click on a shape and type with in it. Very similar to creating a Text Box.

Type Tool Type on Path Tool & Vertical Type on Path Tool (Tear off Type Tool) ~ Allows you to select a shape or line that you want your type to fit to. Vertical Type Tool (Tear off Type Tool) ~ Allows you to type vertically.

Selection Tool Selection Tool (V) ~ Allows you to click on an object with the largest group containing that object. –Can select multiple groups by clicking and dragging over the desired objects OR by using the shift key and clicking on the objects.

Selection Tool The Bounding Box ~ It appears around selected objects when you are using the selection tool and can be used for quick moving, scaling, rotating, or duplicating objects. –To constrain proportions while scaling, hold down the shift key and drag a corner. –If you rotated an object and want to reset the bounding box go to Object>Transform >Reset Bounding Box.

Direct Selection Tool Direct Selection Tool (A) ~ Allows you to select a specific object within a group of objects. –Selecting directly on the stroke line w/ the DST allows you to manipulate the anchor points (they will show up white inside instead of blue) and handles.

Group Selection Tool Group Selection Tool (Tear off DST) ~ Allows you to select sub groupings progressively.

Shape Tool Geometric Shapes (M) & (Tear off rectangle tool) ~ The rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star, and flare tool. –Use the shift key to constrain the object’s proportions. –Use the alt & shift key to create the object from the center out.

Shape Tool –Use up and down arrows to increase or decrease the # of points on a star and sides on a polygon. –Use Option/Alt to increase the angle of the star’s points. –After choosing the shape double click on the active work space to type in exact proportions.

Warp Tool Warp Tool (Shift + R) & Twirl, Pucker, Bloat, Scallop, Crystallize, and Wrinkle Tools (tear off warp tool) –The liquify distort tools allow you to distort objects manually by dragging the mouse over them. Use the Alt key to resize the Liquify brush as you drag.

Freeform Tool Free Transform Tool (E) ~ It is an easy way to transform objects once you have learned the numerous keyboard combinations to take advantage of its functions. –Rotate ~ Click outside the bounding box and drag. –Scale ~ Click on the corner of the bounding box and drag. Alt-drag to scale from the center and shift-drag to scale proportionally.

Freeform Tool –Distort ~ Click on a corner handle of the bounding box and ctrl-drag. –Shear ~ Click on a side handle of the bounding box and ctrl-drag the handle. –Perspective ~ click on a corner handle of the bounding box and ctrl-alt-drag.

Zoom Tool Zoom Tool (Z) ~ Allows you to zoom in 1 level of magnification. –Hold down the Alt key to zoom out 1 level. –You can click-drag to define a specific area you want to zoom in to.

Hand Tool Hand Tool (H) ~ Allows you to move your active work space all around your monitor. –Double clicking on the hand tool will automatically fit your page back to normal view.

Rotate & Reflection Tool Rotate Tool (R) ~ Rotates an object. Double-clicking on the tool allows you to specifically type in the angle. Reflection Tool (tear-off rotate tool) ~ Double-clicking on the tool allows you to type in the reflection angle as well as making a copy of the object.

Fill & Stroke Tool The Fill square is the active color of the selected objected. The Stroke is the color of the outline. The swap arrows switch the Fill color and the Stroke color.

Fill Tool (Color Picker) Fill Color Color Slider Hue Saturation Brightness Color #

Eye Dropper Tool Eyedropper Tool (I) ~ Picks up stroke, fill, color, and text attributes from other objects by simply selecting the object you want to change and clicking on the other object with the eyedropper.

Pencil Tool Pencil Tool (N) ~ Reshapes a selected path when Edit selected paths is checked in the tools preferences. Select a path and draw on or close to the path to reshape it. Smooth Tool (tear off pencil tool) ~ Smooths the points on already-drawn paths by smoothing corners and deleting points. Erase tool (tear off pencil tool) ~ Removes sections of a selected path. You must draw along the path for it to work.

Line Segment Tool Line Segment Tool (\) ~ Creates straight lines w/ a beginning and ending anchor point by simply clicking and dragging.

Line Segment Tool Arc Tool (tear off L.S. Tool) ~ Draws arcs by clicking and dragging. Press the “F” key to flip the arc from convex to concave, and use the up and down arrow keys to adjust the radius of the arc. Pressing the “C” key will close the arc by drawing the perpendicular lines that form the axes, and pressing the “X” key will flip the arc w/out moving the axes.

Line Segment Tool Spiral Tool (tear off L.S. Tool) ~ Draws a spiral. Use the up or down arrow to increase or decrease the amount of anchor points. Rectangular & Polar Grid Tool (tear off L.S. Tool) ~ Draws a round or rectangular grid by click-dragging. Double clicking on the icon will allow you to change the amount of lines in the grid.

Paintbrush Tool Paintbrush Tool (B) ~ Allows you to use various brushes in the Brush Palette. –Brush size ~ Use the stroke Palette. –Transparency ~ Use the transparency Palette. –Angel, roundness, diameter ~ Double click on the Objects of selected Objects icon at the bottom of the brush palette to create custom brushes.

Scissors Tool Scissors Tool (C) ~ Cuts a path where you click by adding 2 disconnected, selected anchor points exactly on top of each other. –To select just 1 of the points, deselect the object, than click with the direct selection tool on the spot where you cut.

Knife Tool Knife Tool (tear off pen tool) ~ Slices through all unlocked visible objects and closed paths. Simply drag the knife across the object you want to slice, then select the object(s) you want to move or delete.

Gradient Tool Gradient Tool (G) ~ Allows you to change the direction and the flow of a gradient by simply selecting the object and clicking and dragging over the selected object. –The longer you drag the cursor over the selected object the more of an even blend will occur.

Pen Tool Pen Tool (P) ~ The main drawing tool in AI and allows you to create multiple anchor points which makes up a vector drawing. –One single mouse click with the pen tool will create an anchor point without a handle allowing you to create straight lines. –Clicking and holding down the mouse button will create handles on your anchor points that will help you create curved lines.

Pen Tool Add Anchor Point Tool (tear off pen tool or hold down the + key) ~ Adds an anchor point to a path. Delete Anchor Point Tool (tear off pen tool or hold down the - key) ~ Deletes an anchor point when you click directly on a path.

Pen Tool Convert Anchor Point Tool (tear off pen tool or hold down the alt key) ~ Converts an anchor point from a smooth tool by clicking on it. –Click-drag the anchor point to turn it from a corner point to an anchor point with handles. –To convert a smooth curve to a hinged curve (2 curves hinged at a point), grab the direction point and hold alt as you drag out to the new position.

Blend Tool Blend Tool (W) ~ Allows you to specify blend options with 2 or more paths. After drawing shapes and filling them with color double click on the blend tool to select either specified steps or smooth color and click on each of the shapes in succession. Click on DST, select where one shape is, notice you can move each shape apart from the others as well as change the path and points.

Gradient Mesh Tool Mesh Tool (U) ~ Allows you to create Gradient Meshes.

Live Paint Bucket Live Paint Bucket (K) ~ Fills Live Traced areas in with color or gradients. Go to the Live Trace Section for further notes on Live Tracing.

Character Palette The character palette allows a designer to change the font: family style size kern leading tracking

Color Palette The Color Palette is a collection of tools that allows you to mix and choose the colors for your artwork. In addition to the sliders and edit fields for locating precise colors, a None button is included. When using the slider, holding the Shift key down as you slide a color keeps everything equal.

Swatches Palette The swatch palette allows you to look at color, gradient, or pattern swatches To save colors you’ve mixed in the Color Palette, drag them to the Swatches palette from the Color palette.

Navigator Palette The Navigator palette allows you to quickly zoom in or out and change the viewing area with the help of the palette thumbnail.

Pathfinder Palette The Pathfinder Palette allow you to combine objects to get the results you want. Add to shape area. Subtract from shape area. Intersect shape area. Exclude overlapping shape area.

Graphic Styles Palette Graphic Styles are saved preset graphics or graphic styles that you have saved.

Gradient Palette The Gradient Palette allows you to choose between radial and linear and the angle of the gradient. To change the color of a gradient click on the color square which will darken the triangle. Choose a new color by either going to the Color Palette and selecting a color or go to the swatch palette and when selecting a color hold down the Alt key.

Symbols Palette The Symbols Palette consists of preset or created artwork that is stored. To change the colors of a symbol, select the symbol, right click on the symbol, and choose Break Link.

Stroke Palette The Stroke is the weight of the outline of an image. End lines can be changed with these options. Corner shapes can be changed with these options. Dashed lines can be created in the Stroke Palette as well.

Transparency Palette The Transparency Palette allows you to decrease the opacity of any object. Color Blending modes gives you different effects depending on the selected layers. Isolate Blending Knockout Group Opacity & Mask

Brushes Palette The Brushes Palette allows you to choose from a variety of preset brushes.

Appearance Palette The Appearance tab allows you to delete or edit a style, stroke, or fill. To edit a style click on the fx icon. To delete a style select on the style and drag it to the trash can.

Layers Palette The Layers Palette acts like a Filing system for your images. The add layer icon allows you to create a new layer.

Create Outlines Creating outlines for type changes the type from a font to an object and allows gradients and type manipulation to occur. To create outlines: –Select the type –Select Type>Create Outlines

Clipping Mask A Clipping Mask gathers all the selected objects into a group and converts the topmost object in that group into a mask. Select the objects you want to “clip” making sure the shape you want is on the top layer and select Object> Clipping Mask>Make.