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Illustrator
10 For Dummies
"A
Great Tutorial and Reference Book Written with a Dash of Humor!"
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Title:
Illustrator 10 For Dummies
Author: Ted Alspach and Barbara Obermeier
Publisher: Hungry Minds, Inc. http://www.hungryminds.com
Book Web Site: http://www.dummies.com/extras/illustrator10.
Publication Date: 2002
Pages: 366
ISBN: 0-7645-3636-2
Price: $21.99
Illustrator
10 For Dummies, by Ted Alspach and Barbara Obermeier,
covers Adobe's latest version of Illustrator, which is the industry-standard
drawing tool for print and the Web. It covers the basics you need to know
to use the program, as well as information on the new features. Since
Illustrator 10 has 25+ palettes, 70+ tools, and scores of menu items,
its sheer depth is enough to make the most hardened graphics expert a
little queasy. So the book is written for those of you who might be intimidated
by these powerful features. It should make your venture into Illustrator
flexible and self-paced as each chapter is as self-contained as possible.
You can hop in anywhere you want, with a minimum of flipping to other
parts of the book to find out what you missed. If you want to find out
more about the Pencil tool, for example, you can skip everything else
and go directly to that chapter. Yet if you're determined to find out
as much about the program as possible, you can read the book from cover
to cover. The book is organized so that the chapters move from simple
to more complex concepts. The early chapters make a good base for understanding
the latter ones.
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Beginning to advanced computer users.
The book is great for beginners as it has step-by-step instructions on the
major features of Illustrator 10. Yet it can be used as a reference manual
for more advanced users who need information on new features or want a juicy
brush-up course. |
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Features
I like include:
-
Explanations in plain English;
- Get
in, get out information;
- Icons
and other navigational aids;
- Tear-out
cheat sheet;
- Top
ten lists;
- A
dash of humor and fun.
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How
The Book Is Organized |
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Illustrator
10 For Dummies has five parts which are organized into 20 chapters. Each
part reflects a major Illustrator concept which is divided into digestible
segments.
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Part
I: Driving People Crazy--Illustrator's Bum Rap |
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Chapters
1 through 3
give you the absolute basics of Illustrator. What it is, what it does,
and why it's worth the effort. The wonders of blank pages, paths, and
the beguiling Pen tool all make their debut here.
- Chapter
1: Introducing the World of Illustrator:
From Humble Origins to Master of the Graphics Universe; Starting Up
Illustrator and Revving It a Little; Exploring the Illustrator Workspace;
Defining the Document Area; Opening Existing Documents; Viewing Illustrator
Documents; Saving Illustrator Documents; Changing Your Mind; Printing
Illustrator Documents; Closing Documents and Quitting Illustrator.
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Chapter 2: Following
the Righteous Path: Whether Paths or Pixels Are Better; How
Paths and Pixels Compare; Paths and the PostScript Language; Gray's
Anatomy of a Path; Drawing Basics.
- Chapter
3:
Doing Everyday Things with Illustrator:
Picking Up Stuff and Moving It Around; Using the Fun Stuff; Entering
the Wide World of the Web; Saving the World; Using Illustrator for What
It Does Best.
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Part
II: Drawing and Coloring Your Artwork |
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Chapters
4 through 11
are the fun chapters. You roll up your sleeves and start creating illustrations.
- Chapter
4:
Shaping Up, Basically: Creating
Basic Shapes; Putting Shapes Together; Creating Objects Using the Pathfinder
Palette.
- Chapter
5:
Getting Your Fill of Fills and Strokes:
Understanding Fill and Stroke; The Swatches Palette; The Color Palette;
Filling with Patterns and Textures; Using the Gradient Fill.
- Chapter
6:
Selecting and Editing Paths: Selecting
with Different Methods; Selecting Magically with the Magic Wand; Selecting
Without Tools: The New Select Menu; Editing and Adjusting Points.
- Chapter
7:
Wielding the Mighty Pen Tool: Performing
with the Pen, the Path, and the Anchor Points; Creating Straight Lines
with the Pen Tool; Open and Closed Paths; Creating Super-Precise Curves
with the Pen Tool; Drawing Shapes with the Pen Tool.
- Chapter
8:
Wielding the Versatile Pencil, Line Segment,
and Arc Tools: Using the Pencil Tool as a Pencil; Cherishing
the Multipurpose Pencil Tool; Using the Pen with the Pencil; Lines Made
Quick and Easy; Getting Curvy with the New Arc Tool.
- Chapter
9:
Creating Magnificent Brushstrokes:
Brushing Where No Stroke Has Gone Before; Creating a New Brush; Working
with the Different Brush Types.
- Chapter
10:
Extreme Fills and Strokes: Messing
Around with Meshes; Making Objects Partially Transparent and Blending
Colors; Discovering How Strokes Work; Caps, Joins, and Dashes; The Effect
Menu; Clipping Masks.
- Chapter
11:
Keeping Up Appearances, with Style(s):
The Appearance Palette; Figuring Out Styles.
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Part
III: Taking Your Paths to Obedience School |
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Chapter
12 through 14
look at how to tame the mess of unleashed creativity through changing
parts of graphics, organizing graphics into separate layers, and using
many other techniques that prove that organization and creativity are
not mutually exclusive.
- Chapter
12:
Pushing, Pulling, Poking, and Prodding:
Understanding the Five Transformation Sisters; Additional Transformation
Tidbits; Blending: The Magic Transformation.
- Chapter
13:
Taking Images Out of the Realm of Reality:
Applying Simple Distortions; Creating Graphic Ooze with Live Distortions;
Pushing the Envelope; Inflicting Warps without Harm.
- Chapter
14:
Organizing Efficiently: Stacking
Illustrator Artwork; Managing the Mess; Imposing Slavish Conformity
with Groups; Lining Up.
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Part
IV: Practically Speaking: Type, Print, and Files |
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Chapters
15 through 18
introduce you to the world of type and getting your creations to print.
These chapters cover everything from the most basic formatting to complex
type treatments, as well as how to post your art to the Web and how to
move files in and out of Illustrator.
- Chapter
15:
Introducing Letters and Such (Type 101):
Using the Word Processor from Outer Space; Introducing the Strange Land
of Type; Exploring Size, Leading, and Other Mysterious Numbers; Adjusting
Entire Paragraphs.
- Chapter
16:
Printing Your Masterpiece: Printing
Quickly; What You See Is Roughly What You Get; Setting Up Your Page
to Print (You Hope); Printing Mechanics; All About Way-Scary Separations.
- Chapter
17:
Putting Your Art on the Web: From
Illustrator to the Web; Creating Web-Specific Pixel Graphics; Creating
Web-Specific Vector Graphics; Legal Graffiti; Slicing and Dicing Your
Graphics.
- Chapter
18:
Moving Files into and out of Illustrator:
Bringing Files into Illustrator; Getting Files out of Illustrator; Working
with Illustrator and Photoshop, Using Adobe Illustrator with Nearly
Everything Else.
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Part
V: The Part of Tens
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Chapters
19 through 20
give you lots of tips to help you use Illustrator more effectively and
ways to customize Illustrator.
- Chapter
19:
Ten Production-Enhancing Tips: Punching
Holes; Whoa! Don't Use That Photoshop Filter!; When White Isn't Nothing;
Expanding for Simplicity; Quick! Hide!; Taking a Tip from Illustrator;
Changing Your Units Whenever You Want; Reusing Your Brushes, Swatches
and Libraries; Avoiding Russian Dolls; Selecting Type When You Want.
- Chapter
20:
Ten (Or So) Ways to Customize Illustrator:
Positioning Palettes; Changing the Items on the Menu; The Flexible Toolbox;
The Start-up Document; Changing the Default Settings; Changing Hidden
Commands You Never Knew About; Using a Master Document; Action Jackson;
Sticky Settings.
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Bonus
Chapters: Advanced Typography & Killer Effects Tips |
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Illustrator
10 For Dummies
is both a tutorial and a reference book. It is a very good book for beginners
with its introduction to Illustrator, yet it's in-depth techniques makes
it a good choice for users who want to polish up their skills or learn about
the new features in Version 10. It's full of tips and is fun to read as
it's written with a great sense of humor. |
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For
running Adobe Illustrator 10 you need:
PC:
- Intel
Pentium II, III, or 4 processor
- Microsoft
Windows 98, 98 Special Edition, ME, 2000 with Service Pack 2, or Windows
XP
- 128
MB of RAM
- 180
MB of available hard-disk space
- For
Adobe PostScript printers: Adobe PostScript Level 2 or Adobe PostScript
3
- CD-ROM
drive
Mac:
- Power
PC processor: G3, G4 or G4 dual
- Mac
OS software version 9.1, 9.2 or Mac OS X version 10.0
- 128
MB of RAM
- 180
MB of available hard-disk space
- CD-ROM
drive
- For
Adobe PostScript printers: Adobe PostScript Level 2 or Adobe PostScript
3
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Graphics:
Adobe Photoshop 6.0
Web Page Design: Macromedia Dreamweaver
4.0
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