This article offers a comprehensive guide on navigating and using Adobe Illustrator's interface effectively. It walks you through the process of creating a new file, selecting a template, understanding the workspace, using the toolbar, accessing the properties panel, and saving your work.
Key Insights
- The article explains how to create a new file in Adobe Illustrator and select a print template specifically designed for a regular piece of paper.
- It provides a detailed overview of Adobe Illustrator's interface, covering areas like the main menu bar, artboard, toolbar, properties panel, and layers panel. The tutorial also explains how different tools in the toolbar can be selected and used, and how the properties panel changes based on the chosen tool.
- The guide further discusses how to save a file in Adobe Illustrator and provides tips on saving work in future by simply using shortcut keys.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
In this video, we'll be exploring Adobe Illustrator's interface. So let's begin by creating a new file.
We'll go to File > New, and then we'll see that we have the New Document window, giving us different options in our tabs for various templates we can use. For this video, let's select a Print template, and we'll be selecting the Letter template. This template is specifically designed to be printed in the shape of a regular piece of paper.
If we go to the right-hand side, we'll double-click our title next and rename it “Interface.” We'll keep the rest of the settings the same and simply click Create. Welcome to the Illustrator interface.
As we can see, we have many different panels and bars. However, let's first make sure that if you've used Illustrator before, our screens look consistent with a standardized workspace. A workspace is an arrangement of these panels and bars.
We'll go to the top, and just to the left of the Adobe Stock search, we'll see that we have our Workspace. In this case, I've selected “Essentials.” If you don't have Essentials selected, simply click on it and choose “Essentials.”
Next, let's reset our Essentials workspace by clicking on it again and selecting “Reset Essentials.” Now that we have a consistent workspace, let's begin exploring the interface. The first thing we'll notice is on the top-left-hand side, we have our main Menu Bar.
If we look on the left, we have “File, ” giving us different options for interacting with files, as well as many other menu options allowing us to interact with the file that we have open. Below this, we have a tab of our current file. Currently, we have “Interface” zoomed in at 90%, and beneath this, we have our file view.
In the middle of our file, we have our Artboard, which is the white box currently in front of us. This Artboard is essentially the canvas upon which our art is created. While artwork can exist outside of this white space, the Artboard defines the dimensions of the final project we’re working with.
To the left-hand side, we'll see that we have the Toolbar. This Toolbar contains many of the tools that we'll be using throughout this course and that you'll use within Illustrator. To select different tools, we can simply click on the various icons.
As we click on them, we'll also see that our Properties Panel changes on the right-hand side of the screen. This Properties Panel is associated with the tools we use and displays characteristics applicable to each tool. In addition, while we already have many tools visible, there are actually more tools grouped in Tool Groups.
To tell whether there's a Tool Group, look for a triangle on the bottom-right-hand side of the icon. This signifies that there's a Tool Group. For example, the Pen Tool has a Tool Group associated with it. To access this Tool Group, simply click and hold with the left mouse button and release it when the tool you want appears to the right.
In this case, I'll release it on the Anchor Point Tool, and I've now selected the Anchor Point Tool. To go back to the Pen Tool, I'll again click and hold, and release the left mouse button over the Pen Tool. Many of these tools in the Toolbar, as indicated by a triangle on the bottom-right-hand side of the icon, have Tool Groups.
Next, let's observe the Properties Panel on the right-hand side of the screen. As we've discussed, this contains many details about our project. In this case, since I have the Selection Tool selected, it displays general information about our Artboard and our file.
Looking down here, we can see that we have different options for grids and guides, and we can also edit the Artboards here. To the right of the Properties Panel, we have our Layers Panel. If we select this, we'll see that we currently have “Layer 1.”
As we add elements to our Artboard within the file, we'll also see these elements stacked within the Layers Panel. From here, we can select different elements within our Artboard and file, as well as stack them appropriately. Let's now save our file by going to File > Save As, and we'll save this as “Interface.ai, ” which already shows up in the Save As window.
Below, we can see that the format is an Adobe Illustrator file, and this is also indicated by “.ai” as the file extension. Let's save this in our C drive, where we have our unzipped folder, and simply click Save. In addition, Illustrator will display an additional window for Illustrator Options—click OK.
In the future, when we want to save files that have already been saved, we can simply hit CTRL+S on the keyboard to save our work. In the next video, we'll be customizing our workspace. See you there!