Lesson 6 — "Fill, Stroke, and Color" — will show you how to fill paths, stroke paths, and color paths. You will access color libraries and sliders; these include CYMK sliders for print output, and RGB sliders for screen output. You will learn how to paste in back, paste in front, as well as pasting between layers.
Lesson 7 — "Editing and Transforming" — exposes you to the power of transformations. A transformation is any operation that changes a path without affecting its original structure. After a transformation the points in a path retain very similar positions. Rotation, reflecting, and slanting are all transformations. The transform tools don't transform paths, but rather your ability to work with paths.
Lesson 8 — "Working with Type" — shows that with most programs, type is just a simple object for adding words to a document. In Illustrator type is another shape or ornament that is used to decorate the page. Here you will learn about the next generation in text handling, how to place text into a document, scaling and positioning text, flowing text from one block to another and other techniques for working with text.
Lesson 9 — "Using the Pen Tool" — will instruct you on what many think is a difficult tool to use; the Pen Tool. The Pen Tool is all about anchors, handles, and magnets. Here you will learn how to trace a scanned image or photograph, place an image as a template, move, add, and delete points, cut, separate, and close paths, and eye-dropping template colors.
Lesson 10 — "Selecting and Enhancing" — shows that while it is possible that you will never need to edit your artwork, it is probable that you will. Because the addition of a new path will often make you reassess another path, it is important to know how to select and enhance your artwork. You will see how to select through one shape to another, how to select a range of points with the lasso tool, and how to save selections for later use.
Lesson 11 — "Printing a Document" — in Illustrator has always been an important facet. You could always print color separations for commercial reproductions but now you have a separations preview pallet in CS4 that lets you preview how commercial inks mix and knock each other out. You are now also able to print multiple pages for the first time. You can also do the things you use to be able to do like creating custom dynamic crop marks and set general print options
Article comments