Basic start

Illustrator CS3 is used for all of the tutorial but nearly all of the them can be completed in older versions.

Step 1

Illustrator can be a very intimidating piece of software when you first open it up, you are confronted with drop down menus, palettes and a tool bar. Like anything the more you use it (especially if you work through things in a logical way) the easier it gets.

On the first time you open Illustrator you will be confronted with a “Welcome Screen” (much like photoshop). On the left hand side will be a list of recently opened/saved documents on the right is a selection of basic new blank templates for frequently used items and below that at the bottom is a help section. Its personal choice but I find it a bit irritating because I hardly ever open any recently used documents and most of my work is for stock illustration so I tend to size the document for the artwork I am doing. As for the help section, this can be also reached from the help menu from with illustrator its self (and I know everything already LOL). To turn the “Welcome Screen” off simply click “don’t show again” check box right at the bottom of the window.

Step 2

Ok so we are now ready to create a blank document. This can take basically any shape or size and isn't a disaster if you get it wrong at this stage (because unlike photoshop Illustrator files are just a collection of numbers and can be scaled to any size with out losing quality) but there are a few basic things to remember at this stage.  What are you going to use the artwork for? click on the “advanced” arrow  to reveal more options.

Print

Commonly print work is designed around the A4 paper size (210x297mm) and most of the dimensions (in Europe) are done in “Millimeters” , in the US inches are still commonly used.  “Colour mode” always use “CMYK” (I will cover this in more detail later).

Web

Web pages come in many different sizes but are always measured in pixels (the common sizes are 640x480px, 800x600px and 1024x768px). “Colour Mode” for the web always chose RGB because this is the colour space that monitors work in.

When you are happy with which ever choice you have made press “OK” and a blank document will open.

Step 3

That wasn't to scary was it. You should now have a blank white page in the middle of your screen with pallets down the right side and a tool bar along the left side. Before you dive in and create your master piece take some time to familiarise yourself with the interface.

If you hover over each of the tools in turn (for about 1 second) you will be given a description of what the tool is. If the tool has a small black arrow in the bottom right corner that means that there are more tools available. Press and hold the button and they will be revealed, if you want these new tools to stay available move your mouse to the right hand end and press on the arrow and the button will create a floating palette.

You should now be ready to create some basic shapes and add type to the page all of which I will cover in the next lesson.