Adobe Illustrator CS4 is a graphics design and drawing program that runs seamlessly on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. Adobe Illustrator CS4 is a stand-alone program, but it’s also part of Adobe’s Creative Suite of professional programs that work together to help you create designs in print, on the Web, or on mobile devices. All Creative Suite 4 programs also include additional Adobe programs—Bridge, Version Cue, Device Central, and Extension Manager—to help you manage and work with files.

Creative artists from Hollywood, brochure designers, as well as casual users turn to Illustrator for its proven ability to create top-of-the-line vector artwork and complex graphic designs. Illustrator’s ability to manipulate illustrations for use in books, brochures, multimedia presentations, or on the Web, has made Illustrator the undisputed leader in the graphics industry. When it comes to vector illustration, Illustrator is literally the best software the computer industry has to offer.

With Illustrator, you can create anything from simple icons to multilayered illustrations, as well as manipulate text. And Illustrator’s ability to work with other programs allows you to import Excel data for graph building, export Illustrator files directly to QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign, as well as open layered Illustrator files in Photoshop, making it a snap to move back and forth between programs as you design.

To perform a standard program install, insert the Illustrator CS4 DVD into the DVD player on your computer or download the software online and start the setup program, following the onscreen instructions. Make sure to have your serial number handy because you’ll be asked to enter it during the installation process. If you’re updating from a previous version of Illustrator, you’ll be required to verify the older version by instructing Illustrator where to find the previous version on your hard drive, or by inserting the previous version’s install disk. Adobe, in an attempt to thwart software piracy, now requires online or phone activation of the program. The process can be postponed for 30 days. However, at the end of 30 days, the Illustrator program will shut down if it has not been properly activated. You can’t blame Adobe for attempting to protect their products, since some surveys suggest there are more pirated than purchased versions of Illustrator in use.

You can start Illustrator in several ways, depending on the platform you are using. When you start Illustrator, the software displays a Welcome screen and then the Illustrator window. When you start a new Illustrator session or close all documents, a Welcome screen appears in the Illustrator window, providing easy access links to open a file, open a recent file, create a new file, and create a new file from a template. You can also use the Extend links to access help information, such as Getting Started and New Features, and online resources, such as the Adobe Illustrator Exchange web site, where you can download additional applications and information and Adobe TV, where you can view video tutorials.

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When you start Illustrator, the program window displays several windows of varying types you can use to work with graphics and illustrations. In Illustrator, windows appear in the workspace in panels. A panel is a window you can collapse, expand, and group with other panels, known as a panel group, to improve accessibility and workflow. A panel group consists of either individual panels stacked one on top of the other or related panels organized together with tabs to navigate from one panel to another.

The Tools panel contains a set of tools you can use to create shapes, such as lines, rectangles, rounded rectangles, and ellipses. You can fill shapes and text with a color, pattern, or custom tile. When you select a tool, additional options appear on the Control panel.

A menu is a list of commands that you use to accomplish specific tasks. A command is a directive that accesses a feature of a program. Illustrator has its own set of menus, which are located on the Application bar (New!) along the top of the Illustrator window. Next to the menu options on the Application bar, are new options for changing the document layout.

The Document window displays open Illustrator documents. Illustrator includes tabs to make it easier to switch back and forth between documents and a close button to quickly close a document (New!).

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Panels give you easy access to many task-specific commands and operations from color control to vector path information. By default, the main panel display is located along the right side of your window. You can use the Window menu or click a panel tab within a group to display it, and then select options on the panel or choose panel-specific commands from the Panel Options menu to perform actions. Instead of continually moving, resizing, or opening and closing windows, you can use the header bar with the panel tabs to collapse or expand individual panels within a window to save space.

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The movable panels are organized into groups, such as Color/ Color Guide and Actions/Links, to save screen space and help with workflow. You can also dock (add) or undock (subtract) specific panels within a group to customize your workspace. A panel appears with a header, which includes the tab titles and three options: the Collapse to Icons or Expand Panels button, the Close button, and an Options menu. The Options menu provides you with panel commands. The entire set of panels includes a double arrow at the top you can use to collapse and expand the entire panel back and forth between icons and full panels.

Illustrator has an abundance of tools that give an Illustrator designer tremendous control over any creative designing problems that may crop up. For example, the Illustrator toolbox contains a variety of different tools: selection tools (you can never have enough selection tools), painting or shape tools, type tools, and other tools dedicated to creating artboards, working with slices and transforming and viewing illustrations. Add to that collection, slicing, sampling, and viewing tools and you have all the tools you need to do any job.

When you work on a document, it’s important to know what tools are available, and how they can help in achieving your design goals. Illustrator likes to save space, so it consolidates similar tools under one button. To access multiple tools, click and hold on any Tools panel button that contains a small black triangle, located in the lower right corner of the tool button. Take a moment to explore the Illustrator toolbox and get to know the tools.

The Illustrator Tools panel contains the tools needed to work through any Illustrator job, but it’s not necessary to click on a tool to access it. Simply using a letter of the alphabet can access all of Illustrator’s tools. For example, pressing the P key switches to the Pen tool, and pressing the T key switches to the Type tool. In addition, if a button has more than one tool available, clicking the arrow on the right side of the tool menu displays all the tools in a small panel for easy access. When you display the small panel, you can click the arrow on the right edge to change the menu to a panel, which stays open. You can click the Close button to dismiss it. You can refer to Adobe Illustrator CS4 Keyboard Shortcuts (available for download on the Web at www.perspection.com) for more information on all the letter assignments for the various tools. To really get efficient in Illustrator, you need to learn to use both hands. Use one hand for your mouse or drawing tablet, and the other on the keyboard to make quick changes of tools and options. Think of playing Illustrator like playing a piano—you need to use both hands.

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The Control panel displays the options for the currently selected tool. For most tools, your options include Selection, Stroke Width, Brush panel, Graphic Style panel, Opacity, Document Setup, Preferences, and Select Similar Objects. When working with the Text tool, additional options include Character panel, Paragraph panel, Align Left, Align Center, and Align Right. The important thing to remember is that the Control panel is customized based on the tool you have selected.

Illustrator lets you open image files created in different formats, such as TIFF, JPEG, GIF, and PNG, as well as Illustrator documents in the AI format. If you want to simply open an image or Illustrator document, the Welcome Screen or Open dialog box are the most efficient way. However, if you need to manage, organize, or process files, Adobe Bridge is the way to go. You open an existing Illustrator document or image file the same way you open documents in other programs. In Windows Explorer (Win) or Finder (Mac), you can double-click an Illustrator document to open the Illustrator program and the document. When you open a document, a tab appears across the top of the Document window, with the document title. You can click the tab at any time to display that particular document.

Click Open.

With Adobe Bridge, you can drag assets into your layouts as needed, preview them, and add metadata to them. Bridge allows you to search, sort, filter, manage, and process files one at a time or in batches. You can also use Bridge to create new folders; rename, move, delete and group files (known as stacking); edit metadata; rotate images; and run batch commands. You can also view information about files and data imported from your digital camera.

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You can use Illustrator’s Place command to insert artwork into an open document. To increase your control of the new image information, Illustrator places the new image into a separate layer. Illustrator lets you place files saved in Illustrator AI, Adobe PDF, Photoshop PSD, BMP, JPEG, EPS, PNG, TIFF, and TXT, DOC, or RTF formats to name a few. When you first place a vector-based image into Illustrator, you have the ability to modify the width, height, and rotation while retaining the vector format of the file.

To work efficiently in Illustrator you need information about the active document. Details about the document’s color profile can help in the design and preparation of the final document. You can display the current tool, date and time, the number of undos, and Version Cue status. Illustrator displays current information about the active document through the Status Bar, located at the bottom of the document window. From the Status Bar, you can also switch between artboards and change the view size percentage.

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When you open multiple documents, you can use the Arrange Documents (New!) or Window menu or tabs at the top of the Document window to switch between them. You can click a tab name to switch to and activate the document. By default, tabs are displayed in the order in which you open or create documents. When you want to move or copy information between documents, it’s easier to display several document windows on the screen at the same time and move them around. However, you must make the window active to work in it. Each tab also includes a Close button (New!) to quickly close a document. If the document view is too small or large, you can change it to suit your needs.

Open more than one document.

Click a tab name to switch to the document.

You can also click the Window menu, and then click a document name at the bottom of the menu.

To move a document window around, do any of the following:

To rearrange the order of tabbed documents (New!), drag a window’s tab to a new location.

To switch to another document when dragging a selection (New!), drag the selection over the document’s tab.

As time passes, Illustrator—like any other program—will change. There are two types of changes to a program: updates and patches. Updates are improvements to a program such as a new feature, option, or command. Patches are software fixes for problems discovered after the public release of the program. The good news is that both updates and patches are free, and once downloaded, are self-installing. Adobe gives you two ways to check for changes. You can check manually by going to the Adobe web site, or automatically through the Adobe Updater. The Adobe Updater Preferences dialog box allows you to set update options for Illustrator and other installed Adobe products, such as Bridge. You can set the update preferences to check for updates monthly or weekly and automatically download them, or have Adobe Updater ask before performing the download.

At some time, everyone has a question or two about the program they are using. Illustrator Help uses a Community Help site (New!) on the web at adobe.com (which is updated regularly) to help you find the information you need. When you start Illustrator Help, your browser opens, displaying a web site with Illustrator help categories and topics. You can search the Illustrator Help site by using keywords or phrases or browsing through a list of categories and topics to locate specific information. When you perform a search using keywords or phrases, a list of possible answers is shown to you from adobe.com, with the most likely answer to your question at the top of the list. Along with help text, some help topics include links to text and video tutorials. In addition, comments and ratings from users are available to help guide you to an answer.

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When you finish working on your Illustrator document, you need to save it before you close the document or exit Illustrator. While this may seem like a simple task, there are questions that must be asked before saving a file, like What is the intended final output of the image? Each output device, whether monitor or paper-based, requires a specific format, and it’s best to know this information at the beginning of the creation process. Knowing the eventual destination of an image helps you create the design with the output in mind. A file type specifies the document format (for example, a template) as well as the program in which the file was created (for example, Illustrator). You might want to change the type if you’re creating a custom template or sharing files with someone who doesn’t have the Adobe Illustrator program.

After you work on a document, you can finish up by closing the document or by exiting Illustrator. You should save the document before closing it. Exiting Illustrator closes the current document and the Illustrator program and returns you to the desktop. You can use the Exit command on the File menu (Win) or Quit Illustrator command on the Illustrator menu (Mac) to close a document and exit Illustrator, or you can use the Close button on the Illustrator Document tab (New!). If you try to close a document without saving your final changes, a dialog box opens, asking if you want to do so.

Choose one of the following:

Click the Close button, or click the File menu, and then click Exit (Win).

Click the Illustrator menu, and then click Quit Illustrator (Mac).

If necessary, click Yes to save any changes you made to your open documents before the program quits.