Chapter 10

Chapter 10 is all about Illustrator and tips that will help you understand.

An artboard is like an empty drawing board. Its a white, blank background waiting for you to start creating a design. When you create a a new artboard, one is always created for you automatically. You can create up to 100 boards manually. How do you do that? Simply using the artboard tool. You can also modify an artboard. To change the dimensions, drag the handles of the artboard to open the Artboard Options dialog box. To delete, press the delete key. To reposition, select it with the artboard tool and then drag to the new position. Never ever call an artboard "pages."



When creating an artboard, you should always change the bleed settings. You can either have the bleed settings asymmetrical or symmetrical. They should never exceed over one inch in depth.

Even though today's computers are fast, there are still some benefits to help the complexity. Here are some helpful tips:

•  When using the pen tool, try not to add too many points because that shows the design as lumpy and rough

• Don't add too little points because that gives the design incorrect boundaries for artwork

Illustrator gives you the option to clean up your drawing. Choose object > path > clean up. This deletes the stray points, objects with no fill or stroke, and text paths that you didn't now you had.
Just remember clean up deletes and simplify modifies your drawing. 

Illustrator provides live effects that allow you to transform an object with just a click few clicks. Effects are "live" which means that you can modify how the object looks. The effects menu is divided into two sections. There is Illustrator and Photoshop. The Illustrator effects are applied to the interiors and edges of vector objects. Photoshop effects are applied only to the interior of vector objects. Document raster effects settings controls the effect resolution. It governs all pixel based effects like drop shadows and feathering. If your document has lots of effects, your computer will be slower. Use a document raster effects of 72 ppi. It will speed up performance.

Now I will tell you about transparency in Illustrator this time instead of Photoshop. Transparency allows you to create the opacity and blending mode options. Spot color objects using transparency may not work well in other applications.

Linked and embedded images is placing raster images in Illustrator. Linking an image results in smaller file than embedding. To open an image linked, hold down the option key and then double click the image. It will open in Photoshop where you can start editing. Make sure you modify the image once you are back in Illustrator.
Embedding an image increases the Illustrator file size. Embedding makes it easier to keep track of all components of a file. If the original image is still available, you can choose to relink it from the links panel. Saving an Illustrator file in EPS format automatically embeds images and fonts.

Source: "Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Application" by Claudia McCue.