Illustrator CS5 Tools

[Pet]

I thought I would go over the different tools within Illustrator, so that people can use it better.

• Select : This will select the whole shape, or group. This tool will also all you to scale your image (holding shift will keep its proportions) or to rotate (holding shift will go to every 45 degrees)
• Direct Select : If you click in the centre of a path, it will select the full shape, or group, but if you click on an anchor point, it selects just that point, which allows someone to manipulate a shape afterwards for making the lines smoother and cleaner. Alternately, Group Select will select the entire shape, or group.
• Magic Wand : This will select shapes with the same fill and stroke. When you want to change all shapes of 1 colour, it makes it a lot easier.
• Lasso : This you draw a lasso around the shapes, or anchor points you want to select.

• Pen : This tool is used quite a lot when placing anchor points in specific areas. This is my main tool within Illustrator. When you have this select and click, it will create an anchor point, then it will connect it to the next one you create. If you click and hold, then drag it away, it will create little wings. These will control the curve. If you click and hold on the tool, it will give you a drop down of some more pen tool options. Add Anchor Point will simple add an anchor to a point on a line you already made. Delete anchor point will delete one on a line you no longer want. Convert anchor point is to turn a sharp angle point into a curved point.
• Type : Works the same as Photoshop. The extra options in the type drop down are for how you want it to work. Area Type will simple take your type, and fill in a select shape with the text (if you selected a circle, it would fill the centre of the circle with the text). Type on a path will Add the text onto the line of the path (If you selected a circle, it would do the text on the outer edge of the circle). Then it has vertical option for the 3 previous.
• Line Segment : This will simple create a line. The other options are a curve, a spiral, a grid and polar coordinates. With these, as with the following shape tools, if you click the canvas a dialog box will pop up, and you can manually enter the details you want the change how each of these operates.
• Rectangle : This will create a rectangle (or square if you hold shift) The other options are for rounded rectangle, ellipsis, polygon, and flare. Again, you can just click the canvas to access more options, like the number of sides on a polygon, or the radii of the rounded corners .
• Paint Brush : This is useful for those who like to use the tablet. It will create a path, and the stroke will be controlled by the brush settings you pick. You can always go back and manipulate the path after the fact.
• Pencil : This seems to work exactly as above, except it has a different default setting. The other options on this are a smoothening tool, that with a path selected, you run this along side it and it will change the shape, according to how you moved it. The path eraser tool will also erase paths, depending on how you go over them, but I don't like how it works.
• Blob Brush : This is different from the above 2, as instead of creating a path, this will create a shape layer. So instead of it creating a line with the selected effects, it will use the effects and then turn it into a shape.
• Eraser : This will simply erase what you use it on. There are 2 other options, scissors and knife. The scissors will cut on a line that you have created, separating it, though it has to be used on a path. The knife is similar, but it can be used on any part of a path, or shape, and will cut out how you use it.

• Rotate : I will not go into these, as they do what they say.
• Scale : The only option of these I will go into is the reshape tool. It was designed to modify a the length of a curved path, while maintaining the curves, without distorting them too much.
• Width : This is a great tool for giving a drawing a more traditional look for the outline. With it you select a point on the path and change the width of it. The other tools with this all modify the shape, similar to some of the filters in Photoshop. The benefit is it will maintain the vector paths.
• Free Transform : This will keep the points up for scaling and rotating, and if you click on a corner, and press command (ctrl on windows, I believe) it will just move the 1 corner for skewing and distorting the perspective.
• Shape Builder : This works like the pathfinder pallet, it allows you to connect multiple shapes into 1 by dragging from 1 shape to another. First you can select just the ones you want to connect, or all, then draw a line connecting the different pieces, and it will shade the shapes and show them as you connect them.
• Perspective Grid : This is to create easy landscapes, or shapes in perspective, and I will go into depth with it later.

• Mesh : This is for making more complicated gradient's and realistic looks. I will go into depth on this later.
• Gradient : Very simple, just like Photoshop.
• Eyedropper : Very simple, just like Photoshop.
• Blend : If you have 2 shapes, IE, a circle inside a square, with just an outline,and you want to create the shapes that would be half way between the 2, this will do that, you simply select an anchor point on 1, then an anchor on the other. When I explain the blending more, this will be more understandable.

• Symbol Sprayer : This is like a spray can that sprays the selected symbol instead of paint. If you press and hold it will continue to add more and more. I never used this, so I don't see a purpose.
• Column Graph : For making graphs, I doubt many here will use this.

• Art Board : You can use this to easily change the art boards dimensions, for easy of cropping when saving.
• Slice : Illustrators version of it for creating slices for web pages, I might go into it later.
• Hand : Just like Photoshop
• Zoom : Just like Photoshop.
  
  
  

[oNo]

Helpful

[cC.Lee]

thanks for the helpful tip

[Ishamz]

Thanks for takin the time to do this, helpfull indeed

[TehTaterSalad]

Thanks Nathan, really helped

[faru]

thanks man i wanted to learn how to use them helpful