Illustrator Part 3: Output from Illustrator

Illustrator can output files in numerous ways. Preparing your artwork for output is the final stage of a project in Illustrator. The type of output you choose will depend on the nature of your project and the intended use of your output files. For your Small Packages project, the two types of output you need to employ are printing directly from an Illustrator document, and creating a PDF document of your poster.

Printing from Illustrator

The print dialogue in Illustrator differs from the print interface in Photoshop. Still, some of the information in the printer’s print dialogue is similar. Your main concern is ensuring that your document is properly oriented on the paper you will be using. Make sure to click the vertical or horizontal icon as appropriate, so that your document is properly aligned. Once this is done, hit Print. This will bring up the printer’s print settings dialogue. Under Print Settings, make sure to set the media type to the appropriate type for the paper you’re using. If your poster has large bitmap images in it, use the ‘top-quality photo’ setting under ‘advanced’, if not, use the ‘text and graphics’ setting in the Print Settings dialogue. Double-check that you’ve got the settings right, then hit print.

Saving PDFs from Illustrator.

A PDF is a fairly universal document format that accommodates both text and images in a compact, read-only form that can be viewed on most computers. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. You will need to create a PDF of your box layout at a web-friendly size in order to email it to me.

Creating a PDF in Illustrator is a little more complex than simply hitting Print and then PDF (for those used to Mac PDF output). To create a PDF, go to File: Save As. When the dialogue pops up, select Adobe PDF from the drop-down menu. Name your file, and select a location to save it. Click Save.

This will bring up the PDF dialogue, which allows you to adjust the settings and size of your PDF. Under General, there are a few settings to adjust. Make sure ‘Preserve Illustrator Editing Capacities’ and ‘Embed Page Thumbnails’ are unchecked- you don’t need them for a one-page PDF, and they will increase your file size.

Click on Compression. This is the most important setting for getting your poster down to web size. Under Compression, you can set the resolution for bitmap images in your poster. Under Color Bitmap Images, select “Bicubic Downsampling To” and set the resolution to 72 dpi for images over 100 dpi. This will ensure that the images in your poster are close to 72 dpi, the standard for web viewing. Then, select JPEG under Compression.

If you have grayscale images in your poster, use the same settings under Grayscale Images. Do the same for monochrome images if you have them.

Finally, make sure the “Compress Text and Line Art” box is checked at the bottom of the dialogue. This will ensure that your text is compressed, minimizing the size of your final file.

Hit Save PDF.

This should generate a PDF that’s of a reasonable size for web viewing.

Please note that a web PDF with images in it will not give good results if printed: if you intend to print your PDF, you need to have all of the images in at 300dpi, just like printing from Photoshop. When saving the PDF, select Do Not Downsample in the Compression window- this means all your images will stay at 300 dpi.

For Next Week:

1) Print two copies of your box for critique on November 4th

2) Cut out and assemble one copy of your box layout (Use glue, not tape, please!)

3) Email me a web-friendly PDF of your box layout by Thursday the 3^rd at 8pm.

4) Bring both the flat layout of your box, and the assembled version with your object inside to critique on Friday the 4^th.

Illustrator Part 2: Images, Background, Arrangement of Objects

Now that you are familiar with the basic drawing tools in Illustrator, it’s time to discuss some of the tools Illustrator has for layout and arranging the objects you produce, as well as for adding raster images from other sources to your layouts in Illustrator.

Layers in Illustrator

Layers in Illustrator function much like layers in Photoshop. You can create a new layer using the icon shaped like a page of paper at the bottom of the Layers menu. Each layer has a color swatch beside it: objects on that layer are outlined in that color when they are selected. Unlike Photoshop, you can edit objects in all layers at once in Illustrator. This can become confusing: in Illustrator it is generally more important to lock layers you’re not using to make layout simpler. This can be done by clicking in the empty box next to the Eye icon in the layer menu. If a padlock icon shows up in this space, that layer is locked. Click it again to unlock and edit that layer. I generally advise having at least three layers in Illustrator: a background layer with a base image, a layer for your Illustrator graphics, and a top layer for text if you’re using text.

The Arrange Tool

It is easy to move objects from layer to layer in Illustrator. To do so, simply select the object you’d like to move, then select the layer you’d like to move it to in the Layers menu. Then go to Object: Arrange: Send to Current Layer. This moves your object to the active layer. You can also use the Move Forward or Move Backward commands: these move your object forward or backward within the current layer.

The Align Menu

Illustrator can also precisely align objects for you. Go to Window: Align to get the Align palette. This palette shows you a series of rectangles, indicating how you can align objects. Try selecting two or more objects, then clicking on these options. Illustrator will then automatically align the tops, sides, bottoms, middles, centers, etc. of your objects.

Grouping Objects

Another useful tool we touched on last class is the Group function. Grouping objects locks them together, so you can move multiple graphics or text blocks at once. To group objects, simply select the objects you’d like to group (by dragging a marquee over all of them, or clicking on them and holding down Shift) then go to Object: Group. Once objects are grouped, they will all automatically be selected when you click one of them. To ungroup objects, simply go to Object: Ungroup.

Placing Raster Images

You can also easily add bitmap images to layouts in Illustrator. Make sure you do not copy and paste them from another program, however: this gives poor results. To place an image in Illustrator, go to File: Place. This will bring up a menu which allows you to select an image from your computer to place in Illustrator. Illustrator then lets you scale and transform the image in your layout. Bear in mind that an image must be at 300dpi resolution at the size you’ll print it to look good: the same resolution rules apply for raster images in Illustrator as in Photoshop. So, this function would allow you to use a photograph as a background image with your letters or graphics over it.

The Live Trace Tool

Once you’ve placed a raster image in Illustrator, you can also easily convert it to a vector image. Converting full-color photographs in Illustrator can be done, but I generally advise using the Live Trace tool with more graphic, monochrome images: it produces more consistent, editable results. The Live Trace tool has many settings: generally, it is necessary to play with the settings and preview their results before producing a final vector graphic. It may also be necessary to edit your image in Photoshop before converting it for better results. In particular, increasing the contrast in an image can help before converting it. To use the Live Trace tool:

1. Place a raster image for conversion in your working Illustrator file, using File: Place

2. Go to Object: Live Trace: Tracing Options. This will bring up a dialogue that allows you to adjust settings for tracing.

3. Adjust settings.  Select the Preview box, as this will allow you to see what your final traced image will look like. There are numerous preset tracing options in the drop-down menu, which allow you to select for color and some basic settings. Move through them to see which might work best for you. Once you’re close, you can adjust the settings manually.

4. Adjust the Threshold number. Higher numbers capture more information and produce denser vector images.

5. Select whether you’d like to create Fills, Strokes or both- this will determine whether you’re creating shapes as well as outlines (remember paths and fills from last week?) These settings change the look of your image dramatically.

6. Adjust Path Fitting and Minimum Area: these settings control how accurately your tracing follows the pixels of your raster image.

Generally, you want adjust your settings until you have a vector graphic that looks good to you. Converted vector graphics are generally messy in terms of the paths they create, and become very big very fast. Once an image is converted, you can go to Object: Expand, and then select portions of it to edit individually. Still, this editing is tedious and complex: feel free to try it, but generally I would advise getting as close as you can with Live Trace and minimizing editing. Once you see what your image looks like traced, you can also go back in Photoshop and alter the original to produce better tracing results.

Editing and Joining Paths

Going back to our discussion of paths, you can also ‘build’ paths from multiple shapes. For example, you can join segments of a circle and a square to produce a complex shape. To do this, draw out a circle and a square as paths, with ‘no fill’ selected. (do this from the shape tool). Then, select the Scissors Tool (under the Eraser Tool). The Scissors Tool allows you to ‘cut’ a path in sections. Click on a section of your circle to cut it- click again on another point to cut it into two sections. You can then take the Move Tool, and select part of your object- move it away or delete it of you don’t need it. Do the same cutting process with your square. Move your circle next to your square. Then, take the Direct Selection tool, and click on one of the end points of your circle, hold down Shift, and then click on an end point of your square. Go to Object: Path: Join. This should join the two paths into one long path. You can use this process to produce complex and precise paths.

The Pathfinder Menu

Go to Window: Pathfinder to activate the Pathfinder palette. The Pathfinder is another method for creating single paths around complex objects. By experimenting with the different settings, you can trace the outline of shapes you have drawn, add shapes to a path, or subtract them from a path. Experiment with layering objects and selecting the various results. The Pathfinder comes in particularly handy when designing paths for output to machines other than regular inkjet printers.

Gradients

Finally, you can also create gradients to as fills for your objects. To do this, click on the Gradient box beneath the Stroke/Fill menu. You can then select the two endpoints and select colors to fill them. This creates a gradient between the two colors.

For Next Week:

Make a final Illustrator line drawing for your box. Plan graphics for your box, and locate any images you will be using for your layout.  

Illustrator Basics

Vector vs. Raster (bitmap) graphics

Instead of a grid of pixels, Illustrator works by creating vectors, or mathematical equations which represent the shapes you draw. This means that it is poorly suited for work with photographs, but works well for graphic design and creating drawn illustrations. Any image or shape you draw in Illustrator can be scaled infinitely up and down, because there is no pixel-based information associated with it. Your shapes will stay crisp through any transformation. Additionally, text is represented as a vector in Illustrator, making it easy to graphically transform text in Illustrator. Vectors can be used for different types of output- laser cutters, or other CNC (computer-numeric-control) machinery. Finally, vector graphics are easy to move around, take apart, and re-assemble, without all the messy pixel-based work that these transformations would require in Photoshop.

Making a New Document

When you open Illustrator, the first thing you’ll need to do is to create a new document.  Go to File: New, and then input the size of the document you’d like. You can select Letter to create an 8.5”x11” sheet of paper. Use the horizontal and vertical images to select the orientation. Finally, verify that you are working in inches (or millimeters if you’d prefer), and hit OK.

The Anatomy of Illustrator

While Illustrator works very differently than Photoshop, the interfaces are largely similar. Across the top of the window you’ll find menu bars, which make global adjustments to your work. Immediately beneath the menu bars you’ll find a second tool area, with buttons that change based on the tool you have selected. Along the left side of the window you’ll find a toolbar just like Photoshop (but with some different tools). Finally, on the right, you’ll find a series of palettes which you can show or hide based on the tools you’re currently working with. Illustrator also has layers, though unlike Photoshop, you can edit objects on multiple layers at once in Illustrator.

The Artboard

In Illustrator, you have a bounded box which is the size of your finished product- for example, an 8.5 x 11” sheet of paper. This is the artboard. Illustrator CS5 allows you to have multiple artboards to lay out multiple pages of a document at the same time- you’ll stick to one artboard for now. Outside your artboard is space to store objects and images in progress, because working in Illustrator typically involves assembling many components into a finished product. When you print from Illustrator, only the area inside your document bounds will print. However, Illustrator does save the entire area and anything on it in your working Illustrator file. So, think of the area outside your artboard as ‘scratch paper.’

Illustrator supports multiple artboards. This is much like working on several sheets of paper at once. You will likely not have need for this function this semester, but it comes in handy when working on large projects.

Paths and Anchor Points

On the simplest level, an Illustrator drawing consists of a large number of lines, or paths. These are lines which can be joined to make up shapes. Any path you work with in Illustrator has a series of anchor points along it. Usually these occur at corners (say the corner of a square), but they can exist along straight or curved lines as well. Think of anchor points as ‘handles’- you can grab them with the Direct Selection tool to distort or change an object’s shape.  My favorite metaphor for paths is a rubber band stretched over pegs. If you remove a peg, the band will snap straight between the two pegs nearest to the one you removed. Anchors work just like these pegs, creating hard corners or curved corners.

A path has a ‘stroke’ or line weight, which you can change. With a path selected, look in the upper toolbar. You’ll see a drop down menu, from where you can select various line weights to create a thin or a fat line. Bear in mind, however, that this is just a ‘graphic’- the path itself is just the line at the center of your stroke. Think of the stroke as decoration applied to the path.

Path vs. Fills

When you create a shape in Illustrator, it has two basic parts: a Stroke and a Fill. A Stroke functions like an outline. Once you have closed off an area using a path, you can fill it with a color or texture from the Color Picker- in the lower left hand corner of the toolbar. Shapes that Illustrator creates also have stroke and fill information. You can select the colors of your strokes and fills at the bottom of the tool palette. Every shape, letter, or object in Illustrator has a path which outlines it. There are two boxes in the lower left of the tool palette: one is solid, the other is open inside.  The solid box selects your fill color, and the open box selects your stroke  color. By using the three boxes beneath them, you can pick colors, gradients (more on this later) or ‘no fill’. The ‘no fill’ selection makes your shape empty (this is different from ‘white’, because you can see objects below an object with ‘no fill’, but not a white one). Making your paths ‘no fill’ reduces them to a line which is only visible when you select it. You can select the thickness of your strokes from the top menu bar- but bear in mind that this will simply expand your stroke on both sides of the actual path line.

Selection Tools

The Move Tool

The first tool to become familiar with is the ‘move tool’- this is the first arrow tool in the palette- a solid black arrow. This tool selects entire objects by clicking on them (notice how an object becomes outlined when it is selected), and can be used to move objects around the artboard.

The move arrow tool can also be used to transform objects- try grabbing a corner of a rectangle or circle and distorting it with the move tool. The Move Tools the first and simplest of the selection tools. It is generally used to select and move an entire object at once.

The Direct Selection Tool

Next to the Move Tool is another arrow tool, but this one is hollow. This tool lets you select and alter individual ‘anchor points’ on an object. This is useful mostly when editing a specific path, or moving one anchor point on the path. Use it when you’d like to distort a shape from one specific point.

Drawing Tools

The Shape tool

Find the tool in the tool palette that looks like a rectangle. Click on it. It defaults to a rectangle, but you can also select the Rounded Rectangle, Circle, etc. from the menu. This tool produces a closed path with a fill inside it- just click and drag until it’s the size you’d like. Now that you have this path drawn, try altering it. Get the Move tool, and grab one of the corner anchor points. This will scale the entire rectangle up or down. Try grabbing a side anchor point- this will stretch the rectangle up or down. You can do the same thing with any object in Illustrator.

The Pen Tool

The Pen Tool is probably the most important tool you’ll use in Illustrator. It is the simplest tool for editing paths. When you’re drawing a path, the Pen Tool puts down an anchor point every time you click your mouse- but it tends to generate jagged paths, as it draws straight lines from point to point. However, you can use the Pen Tool to add anchor points to a line (place the cursor over a path segment without an anchor point), or delete anchor points from a line (place the Pen Tool over an anchor point). Deleting points will radically change the shape you’re working on, but adding points will not- they just become additional points for you to use in distorting or editing your object. Try using the Pen Tool to create an irregular shape, and make sure you connect your shape with its starting point. You can then fill the shape with any color you’d like. If you have a Fill color selected, the Pen Tool will attempt to fill in your lines as you go- it is often better simply to set it to No Fill when you’re drawing and then fill your shape when you’re done.

The Pencil Tool

The Pencil Tool is a simpler version of the Pen Tool, which lets you draw curves freehand. Instead of putting down anchor points individually, the Pencil Tool simply ‘guesses’ and puts down anchor points along the curve you drew with it. You can then edit these points with the Pen Tool.

The Type Tool

Illustrator is great for type, because it not only lets you type normally, but also lets you edit your letters as vector graphics. Click on the Type tool (the large T) and you can type anywhere on your page. Just for an example, because this will be useful as you’re working with letters, type one word in a large font (you can either stretch an already typed word, or select a large font size from the menu above). Then go to Type: Create Outlines. Once you do this, you can’t edit your text anymore with the Type tool, but it transforms your text into a shape you can edit with your Pen tool- see the anchor points? This is very useful for transforming letters.

For Next Week:

Make a final paper prototype for your box.