Adobe Illustrator CS5 Essentials [2 days]

The Illustrator Workspace
Understanding the workspace
Working with Panels
Using Workspaces
Navigating around an Illustrator workspace
Navigating Multiple Artboards
Arranging Documents
Document Groups
Finding resources for using Illustrator

Selecting and Aligning
Using the Selection Tool and Direct Selection Tools
Creating Selections
Aligning objects
Working with groups
Working in Isolation Mode
Object arrangement
Applying Selection Techniques

Creating and Editing Shapes
Creating a document with Multiple Artboards
Creating and working with Basic Shapes
Changing stroke width and alignment
Working with Line Segments
Joining Paths
Using the Eraser Tool
Using the Width Tool
Working with the Shape Builder tool
Working with Pathfinder Effects
Working with Shape Modes
Using Live Trace to Create Shapes

Transforming Objects
Working with Artboards
Transforming Content
Working with Rulers and Guides
Scaling Objects
Reflecting Objects
Rotating Objects
Distorting Objects
Shearing Objects
Positioning Objects Precisely
Changing the Perspective
Multiple Transformations
Using the Free Distort Effect

Drawing with the Pen and Pencil Tools
Creating and drawing Straight Lines
Creating and drawing Curved Paths
Converting Curved Points to Corner Points
Splitting a Path
Adding Arrowheads
Creating a dashed line
Editing Curves
Deleting and adding Anchor Points
Drawing and editing with the Pencil Tool
Editing with the Pencil Tool

Colour and Painting
Creating Colour
Building and Saving Custom Colours
Editing a Swatch
Using Illustrator Swatch Libraries
Creating a Spot Colour
Using the Colour Picker
Creating and Saving a Tint of a Colour
Copying Attributes
Creating Colour Groups
Working wit the Colour Guide Panel
Editing a Colour Group
Editing Colours in Artwork
Working with the Kuler Panel
Assigning Colours to your Artwork
Adjusting Colours
Painting with Patterns and Gradients
Creating and Using Patterns
Applying and Editing Patterns
Working with LivePaint
Editing LivePaint Regions

Working with Type
Creating Point Type and Area Type
Importing a Plain Text File
Creating Columns of Text
Working with Overflow Text and Text Reflow
Threading Text
Resizing Type Objects
Formatting Type and changing Type Attributes
Changing Paragraph Attributes
Creating Paragraph and Character Styles
Sampling Text
Reshaping Text with an Envelope Warp
Wrapping Text around an Object
Creating Text on Paths and Shapes
Creating Text Outlines

Working with Layers
Creating Layers
Moving Objects and Layers
Locking, Viewing and Pasting Layers
Creating Clipping Masks
Merging Layers
Applying appearance Attributes to Layers
Isolating Layers

Output
Setting up Colour Management in Illustrator
Soft-proofing Colours
Colour Separations
Previewing and Printing Colour Separations
Specifying the Bleed Areas
Specifying the Screen Frequency
Working with Two-colour Illustrations
Separating Spot Colours
Understanding Trapping
Overprinting Objects

Saving and Exporting Artwork
Using the Document Info Panel
Saving a File with Transparency
Saving in the EPS Format
Printing Transparent Artwork
Saving as Adobe PDF