Introduction
Welcome to Adobe Illustrator, the industry-standard vector graphics application. Illustrator’s tools and features provide artists, designers, and illustrators endless possibilities for creating logos, icons, drawings, typography, and complex illustrations for any printed or digital purpose.
Here, we’ll share some thoughts to help you get the most from this book. Then you can be on your way to perfecting using the simple, fun, and sophisticated graphics tools in Illustrator.
How to Use this Book
This Visual QuickStart Guide, like others in the series, is a task-based reference. Each chapter focuses on a specific area of the application and presents it in a series of concise, illustrated steps.
This book is meant to be a reference work, and although it’s not expected that you’ll read through it in sequence from front to back, we’ve made an attempt to order the chapters in a logical fashion.
The first chapter covers an overview of the Illustrator application interface and walks you through creating a new document. The next two chapters steps you through customizing the application and documentss to best suit your needs.
From there you dive into the rich features Illustrator provides for creating colorful and visually interesting designs. The last chapter teaches you a variety of techniques for saving and exporting your artwork.
This book is suitable for the beginner just starting in vector drawing and design, as well as hobbyists, intermediate-level designers, and illustrators.
Sharing Space with Windows and macOS
Illustrator is almost exactly the same on Windows and macOS, which is why this book covers both platforms.
In the few places where a feature is found in one environment but not the other, or if the steps are different for each, we make it clear which version is being discussed.
You’ll also see that the screenshots are macOS—but despite a few cosmetic differences such as title bars and menu bars, everything pretty much tracks the same within the user interface itself.
We also include keyboard shortcuts for both platforms as an appendix at the end of the book. Keyboard shortcuts are faster methods of accessing commands compared to choosing items from menus. They are also used and described often in the supplemental video tutorials.
Speaking of...this video icon makes it easy to find the videos to watch in the Web Edition:
VIDEO X.X
Sample video title
Tip
To better view the interface onscreen or in print, the screen captures in this book reflect the Medium Light interface rather than the default setting of Dark. You can modify interface settings in Preferences.
Online Content
Your purchase of this Visual QuickStart Guide includes a free online edition of the book, which contains the videos and is accessed from your Account page on www.peachpit.com.
Web Edition
The Web Edition is an online interactive version of the book, providing an enhanced learning experience. You can access it from any device with a connection to the internet, and it contains the following:
The complete text of the book
Over 40 instructional videos keyed to the text
Accessing the Web Edition
Tip
If you encounter problems registering your product or accessing the Web Edition, go to www.peachpit.com/support for assistance.
You must register your purchase on peachpit.com in order to access the online content:
Sign in or create a new account.
Click Submit.
Answer the question as proof of purchase.
Access the Web Edition from the Digital Purchases tab on your Account page.
Click the Launch link to access the product.
If you purchased a digital product directly from peachpit.com, your product will already be registered. However, you still need to follow the registration steps and answer the proof-of-purchase question to access the Web Edition.