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About Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is one of the leading Vector Editors, and belongs to the same Creative Suite Family as Adobe Photoshop.
Vector editors are often contrasted with bitmap editors, and their capabilities usually complement each other.
VECTORS are basically simple shapes, made up of PATHS. Paths are usually a combination of straight and/or curved lines, and a set of co-ordinates. The computer uses these co-ordinates to calculate the figure and size of a shape. For example, a path with four points connected by four equal lines, tells the computer to draw a square.
Vector editors are traditionally better for graphic design, page layout, typography, logos, sharp-edged artistic illustrations (e.g. cartoons, clip art, complex geometric patterns), technical illustrations, diagramming and flowcharting.
Why use Illustrator?
Graphic designers may use both bitmap and vector editors when completing a project.
For example a series of digital banners, images or photographs may be created or manipulated in Photoshop (the bitmap editing program.) The same designer may then bring these together into a magazine spread or poster, using Illustrator (the vector editor) to organise shapes, layout, text and the overall composition.
You would typically use Illustrator to organise the layout or composition of a print based project, such as a flyer, a magazine spread, a poster or letterhead. It can also be used to make simple signs or labels.
Like Photoshop, Illustrator enables you to arrange many different image elements on separate LAYERS which allows you to move things around the canvas feely, altering the composition or stacking order for effect. This also helps with the organisation of a project, particular when you have a large amount of text/image based elements making up one project.
Illustrator projects are then typically exported and saved as PDF documents, a commonly accepted file type for viewing large, high-res documents.
Further Illustrator Resources
About Adobe Illustrator
The Basics - Getting Started
Illustrator Interface
Keyboard Shortcuts
Tool by Tool
Using Filters and Effects
Download
Download the full Illustrator Help File as a PDF
