Making digital photographs using Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful vector graphics tool
licensed for use
on the NYU Medical Center campus. This program is a vector graphics application
best suited for creating scheme type illustrations or modifying a photographic
layout
with text
and arrows. For an explanation of the differences between bitmap and
vector graphics click
here.
Getting Adobe Illustrator
Using Illustrator
Start Illustrator and create a new document. Set the document size
and set the color space to RGB.
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If you have ever used Adobe Photoshop then some of what
is on your monitor should look familiar. There is the art board, the
toolbox and tool palettes
spread before you. In this application the graphics on the art board are
made up of a collection of objects. The tools in the toolbox either create
objects or allow modification of objects once created.
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| First we will create an object: a box. Next we will select
it, making it the active object on our art board and change the box's color
attributes. |
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Click on the box tool in the toolbox. Then click on the art
board and drag a diagonal line while the mouse is still depressed. When
you let
go you will have a box like the one pictured. |
| Next, we will use the selection tool to pick the box as the
object we want to edit and change the fill and border attributes of our
box. We'll change the fill
from white
to green and the border from black to blue. |
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Click on the selection tool in the toolbox, then click the box to choose
it for editing. The box is now the active object. The active object always
has handles which can be used to modify an objects size, shape and position
while the select tool is chosen. The red arrow points to the box's current
color attributes: white fill and
black
border.
Clicking
on the
border
or fill
box to the
left of the red arrow controls which attribute we can change. In
this picture, the border is in the fore so it can be edited. |
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Here we clicked the fill attribute bringing it to the fore ready for
a new color. Now if you double click on the fill attribute the color picker
box will open. To give an attribute "no color", making it transparent,
one chooses the none box pointed out by the red arrow. |
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Now, find the color palette while the box fill attribute is selected.
You may have check it to open it from the window menu (window->color).
Once open, click on the triangle and scroll down
to put
the color picker in the RGB color space. Move your mouse cursor over the
color
strip
at the bottom of the palate. It will change into an eye dropper shape.
Click in the green colored area and the box should now turn green along
with the fill attribute box. |
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Next we will make the border a thick blue by first bringing the border
to the fore, changing the stroke in the stroke palette and finally, picking
a blue color. Click the border attribute that the red arrow points toward
to make it modifiable. Find the stroke tab, highlighted here with a red
circle, click it to make it active(again you may need to view the palette
from
the window
menu).
Following from
the
object-properties
notion,
the stroke is another editable attribute of a border. Increase the stroke
to 5pt by typing 5 in the weight field. |
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Finally, Select the color tab and pick blue the way we picked green previously.
You will see that the same set of tools and palettes are
used to modify text color. |
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We used a box in our example above but by clicking and holding down on
the tool in the toolbox for a moment we very well could create any regular
shape. This holds
for variations on the other tools as well. Try holding down on the little
black triangle on some of the other tools to find what's under them. |
| Now, we'll bring a picture in, add text, change the text
size, color and font, and finally move the text position. We'll add an
arrow as well. |
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We can place pictures in Illustrator that have been created in other
applications. Accepted file types include: tiff, jpeg, psd, eps, ps and
pdf. We can
drag pictures in from Photoshop directly. To bring an image onto the art
board use the place command found under the file menu (file->place). Use
the Navigate dialog to the file desired. |
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The order that objects are stacked on the art board can be changed
using the arrange command found under the object menu. The active object
is the one whose "altitude" is changed. Select "send
to back" to place the picture under the square. |
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Now click on the box using the selection tool to make it the active object
and move it over the picture. Click the green fill attribute box in the
toolbox. Then click the "none" attribute shown by the red arrow
to make the box invisible with a blue border. |
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Notice the fill attribute has the red diagonal none line across it. We
could apply the same to the border if the situation required no border.
Next, we'll add text. |
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Click the box with the letter "T". This is the Illustrator
text tool. Notice that the cursor changes shape over the art board.
There is
a Character palette to change font style, size and myriad other
properties.
You may have to open it from Window ->Type->Character menu. Next
click the art board
and type "hello world". |
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To modify the text we need to make it the active object.
While the text tool is still selected place the cursor at the end of
the phrase, click and drag backwards to highlight the words. Changing
the
properties
highlighted
in red will
change the font type face, style, size and color. The red arrow points
to the show
options triangle used to further modify the type style.
Make note that there is a paragraph tab used to align text in paragraphs
accessed the same way as the palettes mentioned previously. |
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Now we will change the text color to white by clicking on the white swatch
in the color palette. |
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Next, click back on the selection tool in the toolbox, click on the
text and move it over the photo. |
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Finally, let's add an arrow. Select the line segment tool in the tool
box. Click and drag the mouse to draw the line segment. If you depress
and hold the shift key after clicking down the mouse then your line segment
will be perfectly horizontal or vertical or 45 degrees diagonal once you
drag the mouse.
Also, notice the thickness is determined by the stroke weight. |
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With the line segment still as the active object select Add-Arrowheads
from under the filter menu. |
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Use the Add Arrowheads dialog box to add an arrow to the beginning of
the line segment and scale the arrow by 40 percent. |
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Now use the select tool to move the arrow where you want. |
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| This page serves as only the most rudimentary description
for using the Adobe Illustrator application. For complete instructions
and tips try a book like Adobe Illustrator CS Classroom in a Book
(Classroom in a Book) available from Adobe. |
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