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home > Tips & Tutorials > Software > Illustrator > BASIC AND ESSENTIAL ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIALS
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Huge List of Adobe Illustrator Plugins and Filters -
If you are an Adobe Illustrator user, then this mega-list of Adobe Illustrator Plug-ins is just what you are looking for.
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Illustrator Tutorials - An Introduction to Illustrator - A look at the very basic aspects of Adobe's superb application for vector graphics - Illustrator.
Illustrator Tutorials - Tracking and Kerning? - Tracking creates an even spacing between multiple characters in a line of text, widening it out, or tightening it up.
Illustrator Tutorials - Save Multiple Versions of Artwork in a Master PDF file - Adobe® Illustrator® CS provides expanded support for Adobe PDF, including the ability to save Illustrator layers as Acrobat layers, customize PDF compression settings, and add PDF file security. The ability to bring your layers into Acrobat means you’ll be able to create a PDF file that includes multiple versions of your design. Your service provider can then use Adobe Acrobat® 6.0 Professional to proof and print all of the final pieces from a single master. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to do just that.
Illustrator Tutorials - Blend Layers With Opacity Mask - Do you ever need to combine areas of different layers to construct a composite image? Use an opacity mask in Adobe® Illustrator® to mask an area of a layer to transparency and reveal the layer right below it. You can even apply feathering to the mask to smoothen its edges so the top layer won't look "cut out." Follow along with this tip as we use an opacity mask to place a pink rose on a bed of yellow petals.
Illustrator Tutorials - Brilliant Colors - As with all digital graphics, you need to ensure that your monitor is correctly calibrated before you can start. Use the Adobe Gamma utility to create an ICC-compatible profile. You can check that this is properly installed by accessing your graphic card's Properties/Advanced/Colour Management section.
Illustrator Tutorials - Transition Between Two Objects - If you're looking for a way to create a smooth transition between objects, try blending the objects in Adobe® Illustrator®. You select starting and ending objects, and Illustrator adds a series of intermediate shapes and colors between them, distributed evenly along a path. Then you can edit the blend path using standard Illustrator editing tools. Follow along with this quick tip to learn how to blend two objects, and to curve the path created by the blend.
Illustrator Tutorials - Transform Again - Transform Again is a cool little trick to do in Illustrator.
Illustrator Tutorials - Rounded Corners - Making rounded corners is EASY in Illustrator. Of course you can make rounded shapes in Illustrator but you can convert line path to rounded corners as well.
Illustrator Tutorials - Envelope Distort - Envelope distort is a pretty cool effect you can do in Illustrator for many logo designs, text effects, and other ways to bring your shapes and text in a stylish way.
Illustrator Tutorials - Adobe Illustrator Basics - In this tutorial we will introduce you to Illustrator by explaining the tools you need to create basic artwork and page design.
Illustrator Tutorials - Use Distortion to Transform an Object - Adobe® Illustrator® provides a vast array of filters and tools that can twirl, tweak, roughen, and otherwise transform an object into something completely different. Start with the simplest of objects — you might be amazed at what you can end up with. In this tip, we'll turn a couple of simple stars into a flower in a few quick steps.
Illustrator Tutorials - Manipulating Guides in Illustrator CS - Alignment, distribution and automatic guide creation
Illustrator Tutorials - The Basics - Learn how to work your way around Adobe Illustrator.
Illustrator Tutorials - The Pen Tool In Depth - Learning how to use the pen tool will give you the essentials to draw your heart's desire in Illustrator.
Illustrator Tutorials - Text And Text Manipulation - Creating and working with text in Illustrator will give you the necessary components to become a world-class designer.
Illustrator Tutorials - Exporting Illustrator Layers to Photoshop (version 8) - Adobe expert works with layers in Illustrator 8, which can now export layers to Photoshop 5 and ImageReady 1.0. This tutorial shows you how to do that for a Web GIF animation.
Illustrator Tutorials - Cool Shape Tips and Tricks - Shape tools are core components of Illustrator. Dave shows you how to get the most out of these tools.
Illustrator Tutorials - Layers Tutorial - Layers can help you organize your artwork- and are a must when creating complex images.
Illustrator Tutorials - Cleaning up the Mesh! - For those who want to know what Mesh is all about, don't miss this column buy Peter Bauer.
Illustrator Tutorials - Working with Primitives (Predefined Shapes) - To facilitate faster construction, Deneba Canvas™, Adobe® Illustrator®, CorelDRAW and Macromedia® FreeHand® include a set of predefined object shapes or "primitives"
Illustrator
Tutorials - Keyboard Shortcuts For The Pen Buy Graphics &
DTP Software! - This tutorial is for applications
that use the pen: Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe Illustrator®
and Macromedia® FreeHand®. When drawing with the pen
you will inevitably have to stop mid-path and make adjustments
to anchor points, control handles or line segments. And
Keyboard Shortcuts For The Pen
Examples and Pen
Tutorial Practice Templates
Illustrator Tutorials - Creating Multiple Page Documents - Adobe Illustrator does not provide for multiple page documents per se. It only recognizes a single page. However, it does provide for tiling printed output if the page size exceeds your printer's paper size. Page tiling is simply where the printed output is divided up into "tiles". Each tile is the size of one sheet of paper. Essentially, you setup the artboard to be a custom page size whose dimensions are in multiples of a single sheet of paper. Then you tell Illustrator to tile the output when printed. Following is a step-by-step example.
Illustrator Tutorials - Applying a Gradient Across Multiple - When applying gradient fills to objects in Illustrator, each object will have the full range of the gradient applied to it.
Illustrator Tutorials - Clipping Masks - Clipping masks is a feature in Illustrator that enables you to mask out an image that you placed within the Illustrator document.
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