Summary

Adobe Illustrator CS6: Part 1

To meet the demands of individuals and organizations for flexible, reusable, and easily modified visual content, Adobe Systems has created a cadre of applications that collectively provide a scalable, end-to-end solution for nearly every type of visual design project one can contemplate. Called Creative Suite 6 (CS6), the collection of applications perform specialized design tasks while interoperating among each other to deliver superlative content.

This course focuses on Illustrator CS6, the component within CS6 used to create “drawn” graphics, while enabling its users to integrate content from other domains (such as photo-oriented graphics and animation, which belong to Photoshop® and Flash®). With Illustrator’s many, easily used tools, you will discover that not only can you unlock the same creative impulses you’ve always had as you’ve picked up a pencil to sketch out an idea, but also capture those multiple ideas and “what ifs” during the creative process in ways that you never imagined. And for those of you who are just embarking on building your creative skills, you will be surprised at “how good” your work will appear even at the outset of your exploration of the world of graphic design.

This course also is designed to cover the Illustrator CS6 Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) certification exam objectives.

This course is the first part of a two-course series that covers the skills needed to gain a foundational understanding of Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator CS6: Part 1 (this course)
Adobe Illustrator CS6: Part 2

Completion of this course will earn 0.575 CEUs.

Introduction

Course Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to use Adobe Illustrator CS6 to create illustrations that include graphics and text.
You will:
– Identify the components and capabilities of Illustrator CS6
– Create basic shapes
– Create custom paths
– Create graphics that contain custom text
– Customize objects
– Customize basic shapes
– Prepare documents for deployment

Target Student:

This course is intended for designers, publishers, pre-press professionals, marketing communications professionals, or people switching to a design job or taking on design responsibilities and who need to use Illustrator to create illustrations, logos, advertisements, or other graphic documents.

Prerequisites:

To ensure your success in this course, you should be familiar with the basic functions of your computer’s operating system such as creating folders, launching programs, and working with windows. You should also have basic Windows application skills, such as copying and pasting objects, formatting text, saving files, and so on.

Familiarity with basic design terminology, such as palettes, color modes, shapes, text, and paths is highly recommended.

You can obtain this level of skills and knowledge by taking the Logical Operations course Introduction to Personal Computers Using Windows® 7.

Outline

  • Lesson 1: Introduction to Illustrator CS6

    • Topic A: Evaluate Graphics Scalability
    • Topic B: Navigate, View, and Measure Graphics
    • Topic C: Customize the User Interface
  • Lesson 2: Creating Documents Containing Basic Shapes

    • Topic A: Create Documents
    • Topic B: Save Documents
    • Topic C: Draw Basic Shapes
  • Lesson 3: Creating Graphics Containing Customized Paths

    • Topic A: Draw Paths
    • Topic B: Modify Paths
  • Lesson 4: Creating Graphics Containing Customized Text

    • Topic A: Insert Text
    • Topic B: Flow Text Along a Path
    • Topic C: Insert Bounded Text
    • Topic D: Thread Text
    • Topic E: Apply Text Styles
    • Topic F: Insert Typographical Characters
  • Lesson 5: Customizing Objects

    • Topic A: Import and Link Graphics
    • Topic B: Alter the Appearance of Objects
  • Lesson 6: Customizing Basic Shapes

    • Topic A: Apply Strokes
    • Topic B: Fill Shapes
    • Topic C: Apply Gradients
    • Topic D: Apply Graphic Styles
    • Topic E: Distort Text with Text Envelopes
  • Lesson 7: Preparing Documents for Deployment

    • Topic A: Update Text
    • Topic B: Wrap Text
    • Topic C: Hyphenate Text
    • Topic D: Optimize Content for Print
    • Topic E: Optimize Content for the Web
    • Topic F: Optimize Content for PDF Documents

Course Schedule

*Indicates a course that spans over multiple days.

**Indicates a course that is only a half day.