Illustrator is great for creating logos, illustrations, identity packages and much more. After you have created your project in Illustrator it is super simple to save it in PDF format, making it easy for proofing with clients. When proofing projects with clients, you usually don’t want the client to have access to editing or copying the files until you have received payment for the project.
Illustrator CS5 is here! The Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Global Online Launch Event will happen at 8am PDT/11amEDT/ 5pm CEST April 12, 2010 on Adobe TV, but you can already check out some of the new features in Illustrator.
When ever I would install a new version of Illustrator, I would quickly turn off the Smart Guides. They always seemed confusing to me, but after working with Illustrator for a while, I have become reliant on Illustrator’s Smart Guides. If you don’t use Smart Guides, you should! It will help you create cleaner files, speed up productivity, and be more precise when creating artwork in Illustrator.
When creating vectors, I sometimes need to delete large areas of artwork. Sometimes I just mask the artwork, but other times I want to get rid of it all together. This is were the Eraser tool comes in handy. Holding down the Option / Alt key with the Eraser tool creates a marquee area and anything within this area will be deleted.
I’m not that great at math, but luckily, Illustrator is. Illustrator uses points, lines, curves, and shapes all based on mathematical equations to create artwork. Even with its complicated computations on the back-end, Illustrator also has some basic mathematical functionality to adjust objects within panels and dialogs.
I love coming across a plugin or script I haven’t used before that really solves a problem for me. I figure if I get frustrated with something in Illustrator, there is probably someone else out there that has the same problem. A recent frustration of mine was selecting Effects in Illustrator. Luckily I stumbled across the Select Effects Plugin from Worker 72a.
If you have read some of my Tips & Tricks before, you know that I am all about saving time and increasing productivity when using Illustrator. Creating custom views in Illustrator is another trick I use to save time. Custom views are great for viewing complicated illustrations, documents with many Multiple Artboards, or sections of an Illustrator document you are constantly revisiting.
