Adobe Illustrator, class two
More about lines
Last week we established that the line segment tool was a great way to draw a simple straight
lines. A bit easier than using the pen or pencil tools. There a couple of other fun tools right
under the line segment tool (hold it down to see them) the arch and spiral line tools.
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The arch tool is good for drawing simple predictable curved line sections, then they can
be creatively grouped together.
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The spiral tool does exactly what it sounds like it would do. But you can create a bit of
magic in formatting it after the fact.
One of the most interesting ways to play with the appearance of the line is by using the
“variable width profile”. This is found right between the stroke and the brush. This tool can add
subtlety to an otherwise very boring line segment. If you click your line and apply a width
change and it doesn’t change then check the thickness setting for the stroke. If it’s just one or
two points thick it CAN’T display these variations. Boost the thickness and you’ll see an
interesting change. You can also make new profiles to add to this collection! Select a line and
pick the width tool and begin editing the thickness of different sections of the line. Leave it
selected and go back up to the variable width profile. Look at the bottom of the list and you’ll
see a button to add your new profile. Just give it a name.
While we are speaking of lines, I told you last week that the pencil tool was my favorite for
freehand drawing. But it IS hard to draw freehand with a mouse at the best of times. So one
cool suggestion to improve your experience is to DOUBLE CLICK the pencil tool before using it.
This brings up some controls that let you make the line more…forgiving? The top control is
called “Fidelity” in this context it means “How precisely should we record the little wobbles of
the mouse?” Decrease fidelity (and at the bottom by larger increments) to make your line flow
like liquid.
Gradients
The gradient tool is a way to generate a range of color flowing from one to the other. There are
only a couple of gradients in the default panel but it’s easy to make more. If we select a shape
like an ellipse or a rectangle and click the gradient tool in the main tool collection, nothing
happens. Instead, try picking a swatch from the fill area on the options tool bar. It looks like
there’s only one or two but we’ll change that in a minute.
Now look over to the right, there’s a secondary vertical tool bar here and the gradient button is
easy to find. Give it a click and you’ll see the gradient you are currently using. There are at least
two little boxes on display below this gradient sample. Double click directly on either of them to
edit that point of the gradient. C lick any color in the spectrum and that replaces the previous
color. Do this at the other end and you have an entirely different gradient. Suppose you really
like this gradient and don’t want to have to create it again later? Look just an inch or so up from
where you edited the gradient. Click the little list arrow and there’s an “add to” button right
there. You will now find this among the other gradient swatches under “Fill”. So what is the
Adobe Illustrator, class two
reason for the regular gradient button in the main tools? Click it and you’ll find that you can
click/drag the gradient in different directions.
Text Tools
The text tools are rather easy to work with and they have some really fun options.
There’s a few basic things to know.
The basic type tool is very simple. Click it and click the document where you’d like the type to
appear. Fonts and sizes are directly above on the options tool bar. If you need to get a little
fancier with the positioning of the text to control alignment and leading and kerning and such
then you’ll want to go to the window menu and turn on the paragraph and character palettes.
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The Vertical Type tool simply lays the letters out top to bottom instead of side to side.
The type on a path tool is great for adding text to any pathway.
The type in shape tool will constrain the text within whatever shape you add it to.
The Touch Text tool is fun for bumping around individual letters without having to
convert to shapes.