Adobe Illustrator

Aka: Adobe Illustrator

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II. Precautions: Non-Medical

  1. Not for Medical Care
  2. The author uses several software packages and programming languages to develop FPnotebook content
  3. For convenience, a dozen pages in FPNotebook are dedicated to quick notes on content creation

III. Background: Units

  1. Imperial
    1. Points
      1. 12 points per pica (72 points per inch)
      2. One point is equivalent to 0.35 mm
    2. Picas
      1. 6 picas per inch
      2. One pica is equivalent to 4.23 mm
    3. Inches
      1. One inch contains 72 points or 6 picas
      2. One inch is equivalent to 2.54 cm (or 25.4 mm)
  2. Metric
    1. Millimeters
      1. One mm is equivalent to 2.86 points
      2. One mm is equivalent to 0.24 picas
      3. One mm is equivalent to 0.039 inches
    2. Centimeters
      1. One cm is equivalent to 28.6 points
      2. One cm is equivalent to 2.4 picas
      3. One cm is equivalent to 0.39 inches

IV. Technique: Shortcut Keys

  1. Arrows (each short-cut key is in shape of an arrow)
    1. Black Arrow, Selection Tool (A)
    2. White Arrow, Direct Selection Tool (V)
  2. Drawing Tools
    1. Pen Tool (P)
    2. Pencil Tool (N)
    3. Blob Brush (B)
    4. Paintbrush (Shift-B)
  3. Shape Tools
    1. Rectangle (M)
    2. Ellipse (Shift-L)
    3. Move while drawing (SPACE)
    4. Constrain to same height as width (SHIFT)
    5. Draw from center point (ALT)
  4. Text/Type
    1. Type Tool (T)
  5. Modify
    1. Reflect Tool (O)
    2. Rotate Tool (R)
    3. Free-Transform (Shift-E)
    4. Eraser (E)
  6. Live Tools
    1. Shape Builder Tool (L)
    2. Live Paint Bucket (K)
    3. Live Paint Selection Tool (Shift-L)
  7. Color
    1. Gradient Tool (G)
    2. Eye Dropper (I)
    3. Stroke/Fill Active Toggle (X)
    4. Swap Stroke and Fill Colors (Shift-X)
    5. Default Stroke/Fill (D)
    6. No color (/)
  8. Zoom/Pan
    1. Zoom (ALT + mouse-wheel)
    2. Pan (SPACE + mouse-wheel)
  9. Layers/Objects
    1. Draw Normal, Draw Behind, Draw Inside Toggle (Shift-D)
  10. Draw/Screen Modes
    1. Normal Screen Mode, Full Screen with menu, Full Screen (F)
    2. Outline (Ctrl-Y)
  11. Guides
    1. Hide Guides (Ctrl ;)
    2. Lock Guides (Alt-Ctrl ;)
    3. Smart Guides (Ctrl-U)
  12. Preferences and Document
    1. Art Board Resize (Shift-O)
    2. Preferences (Ctrl-K)
    3. Save (Ctrl-S)

V. Technique: Pen Tool (P)

  1. Select the white arrow, sub-selection tool (A) before using the pen tool
    1. Allows you to modify anchor points and handles without losing the pen tool
    2. Hold CTRL to temporarily access the arrow tool and release to return to pen tool
      1. Uses the last active arrow tool (black or white)
      2. To switch, while not losing pen tool, press "~"
  2. Anchor types
    1. Smooth anchor points (curved lines)
      1. Two anchor handles that move in tandem with one another (relative to their handle length)
    2. Corner anchor points (straight lines)
      1. No anchor handles
      2. Make entering line straight by clicking anchor without dragging out handle
      3. Redirect the exiting line to a corner, by holding ALT and dragging out a handle
    3. Cusp point
      1. Two anchor handles that move independently of one another
      2. Typically with 2 curved segments that meet at a corner
      3. After creating a new point and dragging its initial entering handle
        1. Press the ALT key (while still holding the mouse button)
        2. Drag the exiting handle in its own direction independent of the first handle
  3. Anchor point placement (Clockwork Method, Von Glitschka)
    1. Imagine a clock face rotated and positioned at every curved surface
      1. The clock face is followed until the curve changes direction
    2. Place points as the curve rotates 90 degrees from the last
      1. For a clockwise curve, last point at 12:00, next point at 3:00, then 6:00
  4. Keeping curves smooth
    1. Every SMOOTH curved segment (between anchor points) should have 2 handles affecting it
      1. One handle at the exit of the first anchor and one at the entrance to the second anchor
      2. While drawing curved, smooth lines
        1. Start by clicking the first point and drawing out in the intended direction
        2. Finish by closing the object, and typically redrawing the same initial anchor handle
    2. Keep anchor handles short
      1. Anchor handles should be no more than 1/3 the distance of the curved segment
    3. Keep anchor handles parallel with one another
      1. Parallel curved segments should have parallel anchor handles
      2. Perfect ellipses have anchor handles at 90 degree increments
      3. Constrain handles to 90 degrees by holding the shift-key while drawing out the handle

VI. Technique: Selections

  1. Selection from active layer
    1. Ctrl-Click Layer thumbnail
  2. Convert Path to Selection
    1. Ctrl-Enter
  3. Copy selected to new layer
    1. Ctrl-J
  4. Fill with foreground color
    1. Ctrl-Backspace
  5. Fill with background color
    1. Alt-Backspace

VII. Technique: Compound paths

  1. Breaking the paths
    1. Right click on the fully selected compound path
    2. Choose release compound path
    3. Ungroup the objects

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