Custom workspaces

Once you start working in Illustrator CS3, you will likely want to customize your workspace to meet you needs.

Save custom workspaces.

You will now make a simple change to your workspace and save the custom workspace so you can use it for more or all of your future projects.

Notice the gray bar on the left side of the Control panel at the top of your workspace. You will use this bar to relocate the Control panel. This is particularly helpful for those users who like to use tablets for creating artwork, since it allows them to position the panel at the bottom of the workspace, giving them easier access to its options.

1 Click on the slim, vertical gray bar to the left of the Control panel and drag it to the bottom of the Illustrator workspace. Release when you see a blue highlight bar at the bottom of the workspace.

Click on the gray bar to the left of the Control panel and drag to reposition it.

2 Choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace. The Save Workspace dialog box appears.

3 Type myworkspace into the Name text field and press OK. Your custom workspace has been added to the Window > Workspace menu.

Check out Lesson 3, “Getting to Know the Workspace,” to find out more about customizing Illustrator’s icons and panels to fit your comfort and needs, and make working in Illustrator as easy as possible. For the remainder of this lesson, you will return to the default Panel workspace.

4 Choose Window > Workspace > [Panel]. Illustrator reverts to the default Panel workspace, which has the Control panel at the top of the work area.

5 Choose File > Save to save your work. Keep the file open for the next part of the lesson.

Find stored colors and libraries

Illustrator boasts a number of prebuilt libraries of colors, patterns, graphic styles, symbols and interesting brushes that you can access directly through the panels.

Access prebuilt libraries right from their respective panels.

With ai01_work.ai still open, take a look at the panels aligned along the right side of the workspace. Since you switched to the default Panel workspace the Swatches panel, among others, is in the panel docking area.

1 Make sure no objects are selected by choosing Select > Deselect, or using the keyboard shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A (Windows) or Shift+Command+A (Mac OS).

2 Press the Swatch Libraries menu button () in the lower-left corner of the Swatches panel and choose Color Books > Pantone solid coated. The Pantone solid coated library panel appears.

The Pantone system is a popular color-matching system used by the printing industry to print spot colors.

3 Press the panel menu button () in the upper-right corner of the panel. Choose Show Find Field to add a Find text field to the panel. Using the Find text field makes it easier to locate a specific Pantone color.

Add the Find Field to the library panel to locate Pantone colors more easily.

4 Type 144 into the Find field. A thin white border appears around the swatch of Pantone 144 (a shade of orange). If the orange swatch is not visible, enlarge the Swatches panel, by clicking on the panel’s lower-right corner and dragging it down, to see the selected color.

A white box appears around the Pantone 144 swatch that you searched in the Find field.

5 Double-click on the highlighted color (144) to add it to the Swatches panel.

6 Using the Selection tool (), select the musician.

7 Click the blue arrow to the right of the Stroke color swatch in the Control panel and choose the Pantone 144 color. The dashed stroke is now orange (Pantone 144). To hide the Swatches panel, click once anywhere on the artboard.

Select the stroke color. Result.

8 Choose Select > Deselect, then File > Save. Keep the file open.

New and improved drawing tools

Little improvements can make a big difference when it comes to the Illustrator CS3 drawing tools. As you discover how to use Adobe Illustrator you will find that learning how to use the drawing tools, especially the Pen tool, is of utmost importance. This is because the vector art that you create in Illustrator is created from paths.

Anchor points and paths

Illustrator CS3’s drawing tools are easier than ever to use, with more anchor controls in the Control panel and improved anchor point size and usability. Also new to CS3 is the ability to align individual anchor points.

1 Choose the Direct Selection tool () from the Tools panel.

2 Select the stroke around the musician. The anchor points that are not selected are white, while all selected anchor points are solid.

3 Pass the cursor over some of the anchor points on the musician, and notice that as you pass over an anchor point, it enlarges. This feature helps you easily locate and select anchor points.

4 Click on any of the anchor points. A number of options for controlling and working with that anchor point appear in the Control panel. You will not work with the anchor points in this new feature section but will use these anchor point and paths options throughout the lessons in this book.

There are a number of tips, tricks and keyboard shortcuts that help in creating smooth and accurate paths using anchor points. Find out how to take advantage of these in Lesson 6, “Using the Drawing Tools.”

Keep the file open for the next part of the lesson.

The new Eraser tool

A new Eraser tool in Illustrator CS3 lets you modify existing parts of an illustration, just as you would in a paint program. Click and drag the Eraser tool over a selected object, and the tool automatically erases the object and closes the paths for you. The Eraser tool gives you the flexibility to alter and create interesting shapes without worrying about paths and points.

1 Select the Eraser tool () from the Tools panel.

2 Position your cursor over the musician’s stomach, where you will perform a little magic to take some weight off him.

3 Press the ] (right bracket) key about 10 times to increase the diameter of the Eraser tool. If you would rather, you can double-click on the Eraser tool button in the Tools panel to open the Eraser Tool Options dialog box, where you can type 25 into the Diameter text field, then press OK.

If you prefer this to keyboard shortcuts, adjust the Eraser Tool settings in the Eraser Tool Options dialog box.

4 Click at the top of the musician’s stomach and drag down to slim it down. When you release the mouse, the paths automatically reconnect to form a trimmer outline.

Click and drag with the Eraser tool. Result.

5 Choose File > Save. Keep the file open for the next part of the lesson.

Work more with the Eraser tool in Lesson 2, “Adobe Illustrator CS3 Jumpstart,” and Lesson 6, “Using the Drawing Tools.”