Whether you want to immerse yourself in the world of illustration, learn how to create your own characters, animations, promote your brand, or take on a creative profession, Adobe Illustrator offers you all these opportunities.
What is Adobe Illustrator?
Despite having a wide variety of online tools that allow you to create graphic designs, those looking to do more professional work use the program considered the reference software for its quality and popularity, Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator is applied to work with vector graphics. It is part of Adobe Systems Corporation, founded in 1986 by Charles Geschke and John Warnock.
Vector images are lines and curves that form geometric objects. These graphs are created by the program with mathematical formulas. One of the main features of vector graphics is that you can resize any image without losing its quality.
What can you do with Adobe Illustrator?
Create Illustrations
With Adobe Illustrator, you can create illustrations with monochromatic fills, gradients, shadows, and other details. Isometric graphics are part of the vector illustration. In this case, the figures are three-dimensional, but to create them, 3D visualization programs are not used, everything is done in Illustrator.
Create Logos
In general, designers create logos in vector format so as not to lose image quality. You can start drawing a logo by hand and then import the image into the program.
Design Icons
Grid is one of the tools in Adobe Illustrator that allows you to make a series of icons. This tool helps you create images with equal proportions. With a wide arsenal of tools you can create icons, from the simplest to three-dimensional images.
Design Infographics
The human brain perceives visual information faster than text. Infographics are a combination of text and images, designed to convey a message to the reader. It is widely used in magazines, brochures, books, and marketing materials.
The most commonly used tools and commands in Adobe Illustrator (with shortcuts)
Adobe Illustrator offers a host of tools and commands:
Selection (V): It allows you to choose several or a single object at once. It’s located in the Tools panel. It’s an arrow icon with no padding.
Pen (P): It is used to create objects based on curves and draw lines.
Text (T): This tool is used to add horizontal or vertical texts.
Gradient (G): With it, you can create color transitions in your illustration. It is also used to create backgrounds, fill in figures and achieve effects of light and shadow, volume, and fusion of colors.
Eyedropper (I) – allows you to select one color and apply it to the other object. It saves you a lot of time, as you can copy the color instead of looking for it.
Scissors (C) – lets you split a graphic or image at one point on the anchor and along the path.
The most commonly used commands for Windows and Mac are:
- Preview a Stroke: Ctrl+Y / Command+Y
- Group: Ctrl+G / Command+G
- Duplicate Object: Alt+ Offset Arrow / Alt+ Shift Arrow
- Hide or show transparency: Ctrl+Shift+D / Command+Shift+D
- Ungroup: Ctrl+Shift+G / Command+Shift+G
- Save for web: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S / Command+Shift+Alt+S
- Convert to Stroke: Ctrl+Shift+O / Command+Shift+O
- Document Properties: Ctrl+Alt+P/ Command+Alt+P
The advantages and disadvantages of using Adobe Illustrator
One of the advantages of Adobe Illustrator, which sets it apart from the rest of its analogues, is its compatibility with other Adobe applications. It is possible to open the same format in different Adobe programs, for example, moving the file from Illustrator to Photoshop.
The interface of the whole package is very similar, and by mastering one of the programs, it is easier to find your way around the other.
Another advantage is that the program allows you not only to create images, but also to edit them: move elements, change the color, add text, etc. It also works with raster graphics, which are images extracted from pixels.
Another feature of Illustrator is that it has a variety of tools and features, allowing you to create creative and innovative designs. However, if you need to create a simple design, you could opt for less complicated software.
Among its disadvantages it can be mentioned that it is not a lightweight software and requires enough space on the computer to work well, although very rarely, this can be a problem. In addition, due to its wide variety of professional tools, learning and patience are required. But those who take time and learn how to manage it will be able to enjoy many benefits.
How much does Adobe Illustrator cost?
The easiest way to get Illustrator is to use the 7-day free trial. That gives you a chance to test the program and evaluate its functionality.
The monthly subscription costs US$31.49. If you pay for the whole year, the price will be US$20.99/month.