Learn Everything There is to Know About Adobe Illustrator and Tools

A graphic arts program is called Adobe Illustrator. This is sometimes referred to as a vector drawing program. Illustrations, caricatures, schematics, and logos are frequently created with it. Since the use or purpose of this software cannot be understood without first understanding the term "Vector," this blog will start by explaining it.

A "Vector Image" is what, exactly? By using vector graphics, we can produce clear, gorgeous works of art that may be resized indefinitely without ever losing quality. This explains why there is no quality degradation and no file size increase with vectors. However, if after creating a picture in Photoshop, we later realized that it should have been three times larger, we again go into the image adjustments, raise the size, and discover that the image is now pixelated and awful-looking while vector images have no pixels.

If the image is too small, to begin with, we’ll need to start all over again. The same does not remain true for Illustrator. Unlike the familiar gif, jpeg, png, tiff, etc. images – known as raster images – vector images are not made up of a grid of pixels. Instead, they are totally created by paths which are a combined form of a starting & ending point. These paths relate to each other by mathematical formulas which allow them to be scaled & again rescaled infinitely.

This makes Illustrator an ideal program for companies since it can create images & logos that can be a small icon or large enough to appear on a billboard. Whereas “Raster images” are made-up of a set of a grid of dots which are actually called pixels where each pixel has set a color value. Raster images are resolution dependent than the vector images.

Illustrator is graphic-driven software used primarily for creating vector graphics. Unlike bitmap images that store information in a grid of dots, Illustrator uses mathematical expressions to drawn the shapes. This makes vector graphics scalable without losing the quality of resolution. Vector images are created by different lines, curves, & points, that we have virtually unlimited editing opportunities.

Illustration is the art of making images that work with something or say to add to it without needing direct attention and without distracting from the thing they illustrate. Another important point is that this is the “focus of the attention” & the illustration’s role is to add character without comparing it with other things.

Illustrations have been used in different areas such as advertisements, posters, books, graphic novels, storyboards, business, magazines, video games, and newspapers & so on. A cartoon illustration can add humor to the stories.

Illustrator is best mastered by actually using it. It is software which is used by artistry & graphic designers to create vector images. These images will then be used for logos of companies, even for personal work also, both in print and digital form. So, it is typically used to create illustrations, graphics, logos, cartoons of real photographs, and also fonts for the photo-realistic layouts of Photoshop.

Currently, the updated software, Adobe Illustrator CS6 to CC comes with some new features which are discussed as below.

Features of the Illustrator in brief:

• Live Shapes Enhancements:

Live Shapes have been enhanced to make our workflow easy, & also in response to feedback received about the way users interact with different shapes. The bounding box has been simplified to present a more clutter-free experience while working with Live Shapes.

• Polygons:

Polygons now retain their Live Shape properties even after the original Live Shape is modified which is scaled, sheared, reshaped, etc. Even if a polygon is modified, a new option is available to make the sides of the polygon equal in length.

• Enhanced Creative Cloud Libraries:

Libraries have been enhanced to provide more control while collaborating with other users & even deeper integration with Adobe Stock. The libraries panel opens in a larger form, stretching vertically along the right corner of the screen or in windows panel.

• New Live Shapes:

More of the Illustrator shape tools are now fully live, interactive and dynamically adjustable, so we can quickly modify and enhance traditional vector shapes without applying special effects or using other tools.

• Dynamic Symbols:

Symbols can now share a master shape but can be modified to have different appearances such as stroke, fill and opacity. Scale, rotate, mirror and skew them without breaking the link to the parent symbol.

• Multiple Artboards:

Organize and view up to 100 artboards of varying sizes overlapping or on a grid. You can quickly add, delete, reorder, and name an artboard. Save, export, and print features can work independently or as a group.

• Smart Guides:

You now have the ability to align and space objects using the enhanced Smart Guides in Illustrator CC 2015. Check the new hints to draw perfect shapes like squares & circles without using control keys & modifiers.

• Shaper Tool:

Convert your natural, free-flowing gestures into perfect geometric shapes. And then use them like regular shapes – combine, delete, fill, and transform them – to create editable designs. We can use the Shaper tool in both – the traditional workspaces and in the touch-optimized Touch workspace.