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Chapter 1 Videos

Understanding Vector Graphics

Vector Graphics are resolution independent, which means they can be scaled larger or smaller and still maintain the nice, clean, crisp edges. This is especially noticeable around curves and circles. When zooming in to a raster-based image, it's edges become grainy or pixelated.
Adobe Illustrator files can be output to InDesign for print projects like business cards, letterheads, flyers, brochures, etc. without losing quality. However, vector artwork needs to be converted to a raster-based format like .jpg, .png or.gif for use on the Web.

Touring the Interface

Illustrator's interface consists of several areas, including the Menu Bar, Control Panel, Tools Panel, Panel System, Workspace Jump Menu. Each menu contains several options and tools. There is also an icon to easily access Adobe Bridge and an Arrange Documents icon with several layouts to choose from for viewing open documents. 

The Menu Bar is at the top of the screen and contains several menus like File, Edit, Object, Type, Select, Effect, View, Window and Help. Each menu contains a drop down list of options with some options containing submenus with more options.

The Control Panel offers different tools and options based on the tool that is currently selected. These options change with each tool. Depending on your screen size, this panel also contains colored links to open various individual panels like the Stroke Panel or the Opacity Panel, which is based on the currently selected tool. 

The Tools Panel on the left side of the screen has a collection of tool groups, like Selection Tools, Creation Tools (pen tool, pencil tool, paint tool, type tool, rectangle/ellipse tool, etc.), Modify Tools, Mesh, Gradient, Eyedropper, etc. Many of the tools found in the Tools Panel have a small triangle arrow in the lower right corner, which indicates there are more tools within that tool. These additional tools can be accessed by clicking and holding on the triangle arrow. At the bottom of the Tools Panel is an area to choose fill and stroke color, toggle these colors, add color, add gradient, and fill with none; drawing modes, and screen changing modes for presenting the artwork.

Below the document window, there are a few useful but sometimes overlooked items, like the zoom percentage, artboard jump menu, and the name of the currently selected tool, which has options for changing the info that displays in this area.

On the right of the screen is the Panel System that contains the default panels for the workspace. These can be changed and collapsed to give the document window more space. This area contains panels like color, brushes, symbols, layers, artboards, stroke, etc. Above the Panel System is the Workspace Jump Menu for changing the workspace to suit the particular task. There are Workspaces for Typography, Painting and Proofing, Layout, Tracing, Web, etc.

Chapter 2 videos

Using Rulers, Guides & Grids

When precise layout is important to the project, rulers, guides and grids are essential to accomplishing that goal. In Illustrator, the rulers must be turned on in order to access guides. To turn on the rulers, there are a couple ways to do so: 1.) choose the View Menu on the Menu Bar, and go just over half-way down the drop down menu to Rulers, the from the pop out menu, choose Show Rulers;  2.) use the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl or Cmd and the letter "r". Once the rulers are on, you can go to the top or left side ruler and click and drag onto the document. The colored line that appears is a guideline. To remove the line it is similar to creating one- either go to the View Menu, choose Guides from the menu, then choose Hide Guides, or click on the guideline and drag back to the ruler from where it originated.
Grids are very effective in fine-tuning a precise layout. When turned on, the grid looks like graph paper with many intersecting lines. It can be accessed through the View menu or keyboard shortcut Ctrl or Cmd + ". The default color is grey, but this can easily be changed by going to the Preferences menu (PC: Edit-->Preferences-->Guides & Grid / Mac: Illustrator Menu-->Preferences, or keyboard shortcut: Ctrl or Cmd + k).
Smart Guides are helpful for aligning objects with other objects. When turned on, Smart Guides appear as bright green lines that are visible when dragging an object inside the document. Smart Guides can be accessed through the View menu on the Menu bar (View menu-->Smart Guides... almost at the bottom of the drop down list) or with the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl or Cmd + the letter "u".
For graphics for the Web need to be "pixel perfect", which means the edges are really sharp and clean even in raster-based output. To further assist precision, the Info panel is great for positioning guides.

Locking & Hiding Artwork

The Layers panel is a must for locking and hiding objects on the artboard. Locking an object or several objects protects them from accidental changes or deletion. Hiding an object may be necessary for accessing objects underneath. These two options are also accessible through the Objects menu on the Menu bar. The keyboard shortcut for locking a selected item is Ctrl or Cmd  + 2; to unlock, press Ctrl + Alt + 2 (PC) or Cmd + Opt + 2 (Mac).

Creating & Using Artboards

Artboards are Illustrator's version of a multi-page layout, allowing you to have multiple artboards within one document. There are a couple of ways to edit artboards in an Illustrator document: with the Artboard tool on the Tools panel (or the keyboard shortcut: Shift + O) or in the Panel System (right side of the screen). Artboards can be resized, renamed, reordered, or you can add or delete artboards. At the bottom of the Document Window, there is an Artboard Jump Menu that allows you to go to any particular artboard in the document.

Chapter 3 Videos

Using Direct Selection & Group Selection Tools

The Direct Selection Tool (white arrow tool) allows object selection and modifications to a path within an object by selecting individual or multiple anchor points. Unlike using the regular Selection Tool (black arrow), there is no bounding box when using the Direct or Group Selection Tools.

The Group Selection Tool is under the Direct Selection Tool. It does just what its name implies: selects an object within a group of objects. The icon for the tool is a white arrow (just like the Direct Selection Tool) with a plus sign next to it. Clicking once with this tool will select one object in the the group, clicking a second time will select the group the object is a part of, and clicking a third time will select the parent group of objects (assuming there is one).

To create a group of objects, press Ctrl or Cmd + G; to ungroup, press Shift + Ctrl or Cmd + G. Grouping objects is an easy way to keep artwork together and to work with multiple objects at the same time.

Resizing Artwork

To resize an object, choose the Selection Tool (black arrow) from the Tools panel or the Scale Tool. After you select an object, a bound box appears around it. Each corner and the halfway points around the bound box have small white squares, which are called Control Points. When you hover your cursor over these points, the cursor changes to a double-ended arrow (the diagonally pointing arrows are for the corners, the horizontally and vertically pointing arrows are for resizing wider/narrower/taller/shorter). Pressing and holding down the modifying key, Shift, allows you to constrain proportions as the object is being resized.

Rotating Objects

 Before rotating an object, it must first be selected by choosing the Selection tool to allow the bounding box to appear. When hovering the cursor near the corners, the cursor will change to an arched, double ended arrow. Clicking and dragging clockwise or counter clockwise will allow the object to be rotated.

Aligning & Distributing Objects

There are several options for vertically and horizontally aligning and distributing objects. To access these options, either go to the Window menu and choose Align to open the Align panel, or choose the Align link in the Control Panel.