Adobe Illustrator CS6 Part B

This is the 2nd installment in my blog post series on Adobe Illustrator CS6 based on some of what I learn doing the video training course by Infinite Skills in this software.When you start a new project you will normally click file/ new and a dialog box will come up. Among the options is the intended media of the work you are doing. This can be print or web or several other options. According to what is selected different options come up. If web is selected the resolution will normally be 72 dpi and the page will be 960 px by 560 px which is the standard for a web page. If you are printing it an option is bleed where if you want the picture to reach the very edge of the paper it will give it a slight overlap so you can cut it to size and often there will be a border you cut off. If you open a file with several drawings they are shown at the top of the workspace as tabs that you can scroll through by default. Double click on the hand tool and the drawing is made to fit the page. There is also a zoom button near the bottom of the page with various preset settings for the amount to zoom as well as fit to page. control+ increases the zoom and control- decreases the zoom. You can toggle the ruler on or off with control r and this is useful for placing components precisely. Grid and snap to grid are under the view menu and are also good for placing components precisely. If you want something to be an exact size or be put in an exact spot you can normally enter figures for that which then automatically get applied. Guides are placed in a layer within Illustrator unlike a lot of other programs. This means you can toggle the layer on and off and hide them if necessary. View/ outline displays the vector lines minus any colouring in which simplifies the picture, if you have to make any changes. View/ new view lets you name personalized views of the document and you will normally pan around and use zoom to do this. Object/ and one of the lock options will lock certain components like a layer. This prevents you accidently erasing something. Art boards are virtual in the sense you won't print them directly. They let you put something like a linked envelope, letter and drawing in the same file. Useful if they have to be co-ordinated, saving you from doing it all from scratch.