Illustrator basics

[TBA].

Table of contents

• Introduction

Introduction

While Adobe Illustrator (AI) is a huge program, a little basic knowledge will take you a long way. This chapter will describe how to do some very basic properties of AI, and how to carry out some basic tasks.

Artboards

Every Illustrator file must contain at least one artboard. They are like physical pieces of paper on the desk, or pages in a word processing program. You can organize design elements on different artboards that will be part of the same file when you save them. Artboards can be printed and exported individually.

To add a new artboard, use the Artboard tool (Shift+O) and simply drag to size the artboard.

To delete an artboard, first delete any artwork in it, or move it to another artboard, then:

1. Navigate to Window » Artboards to see a window listing all artboards. Click “Edit Artboards” (under “Properties” tab in right sidebar) or press Shift+O to enter Artboard Edit mode.
2. Select the the artboard you want to delete. You may either select it in the artboards window, or click on it. An edit box, made up of a dashed line with anchor points at its corners and midpoints, surrounds the boundaries of your selected artboard. You'll see the name and number of the artboard in the upper-left corner. In the Artboards panel, the selected artboard's name appears highlighted the way a selected layer highlights in the Layers panel.
3. Click on the trash-can button at the bottom of the artboards window, oe press the Backspace key. AI deletes the artboard (but not any artwork on it).

AI will automatically zoom the workspace and center a selected artboard fill the screen. Zoom out to see other artboards sharing the same workspace.

When you delete an artboard, the artwork on it enters an unprintable state. To regain the ability to print or export the artwork, create a new artboard and add the content to it, or move the artwork to an existing artboard.

Trim whitespace

If an image has excessive whitespace, this sequence of comamnds: Object » Artboards » Fit to Artwork bounds is roughly the equivalent of trim in PS.

Selection

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/selecting-objects.html

The layers panel lets you quickly and precisely select individual or multiple objects. You can select a single object (even if it’s in a group), all objects within a layer, and entire groups. To select, click on the circle to the right pf the object. A square to the right indicate that an object is selected. The selection is also indicated on the artboard.

The isolation mode lets you quickly isolate a layer, sublayer, path, or group of objects, from all other art in your document. When in isolation mode, all nonisolated objects in the document appear dimmed and are not selectable or editable.

Source: webucator.com.

Export SVG

Vector files may be of the types .svg, .ai, .eps and .pdf.

1. Open vector file in Adobe Illustrator.
2. Trim whitespace (“Fit to Artboard bounds”).
3. File » Export » Export As.
4. Type in file name. Click Export.
5. Type in file name.
6. Save as type: “SVG”
7. Make sure that “Use Artboards” is checked.
8. Press “Export”. An SVG options dialogue will appear.
   • Styling: Internal CSS.
   • Fonts: Convert to Outlines.
   • Images: Preserve
   • Object IDs: Layer names
   • Decimal places: 4
   • Minify: Checked (unless you prefer a non-minfied format)
   • Responsive: Unchecked
9. Click “OK”.

Source: WebDogs.com.

Converting a bitmap to a vector image

For simple images, navigate to Window » Image trace.

If this is disabled, it is either because the image contains a vector path, or because it is not a bitmap image.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/image-trace.html

For text, if you have access to the font, andd it as a text object. If it is not a web font, select it and outline it: Type » Create outlines.

https://www.can-design.ca/blogoutlining-text-and-embedding-fonts/

If the image is cpmplex, it might be necessary to recreate it in AI manually.

Understanding layer masks

[TBA]

Layer blend modes

Layer blend modes is part of the layer blending options. They provide different modes for a layer to blend with the layer or layers below it.

As of Illustrator CS5, there were 25 blend modes in total. These fall in six groups, as indicated in the table below:

List of blending modes

Normal Plain Dissolve

Darken Darken Multiply Color Burn Linear Burn Darker Color

Lighten Lighten Screen Color Dodge Linear Dodge (Add) Lighter Color

Overlay Contrast Soft Light Hard Light Vivid Light Linear Light Pin Light Hard Mix

Difference Comparative Exclusion

Hue Composite Saturation Color Luminosity

The plain blend modes (which includes the default Normal mode), just blends with the layers below based upon the settings of the Opacity slider. A setting of 0 % renders the layer invisible. A setting of 100 % renders it opaque. The Normal mode blends each pixel. The Dissolve mode blends by rendering a percetage of pixels invisible or opaque.

The darken and lighten blend modes work by making the underlaying layers darker or lighter. The most used darken mode is Multiply. The most used lighten mode is Screen.

The contrast blend modes increases contrast. The Overlay mode is the most useful of these.

The comparative blend modes provides two different ways to compare pixels between layers. Neither one of them is used very often for photo editing, but they may be used to explore effects of photo editing.

The composite blend modes allows for fine-tuing adjustments to hue, saturation and luminosity, while ignoring other parameters. The Color blend mode let you create selective colour in black and white photographs by let you adjust both hue and saturation while ignoring luminosity. The opposite mode is Luminosity. It allows for adjusting contrast without adjusting colour hue and saturation.

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Last update: 2020-09-25 [gh].