Customer Reviews

Adobe(R) Illustrator(R) 9.0 Classroom in a Book

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Typical of the "Classroom in a Book" series, this book is set up as a series of lessons. They take you through the major functions of Illustrator providing both instructional overviews and hands-on exercises. Lessons-wise, I can't fault the authors. They did a bang up job of hitting all of the major functions of the program.

I would however like to warn users to realize that this book and the others in the series are really not for beginners. Illustrator like its sister tool Photoshop packs A LOT of functionality. If you are a beginner and you start going through these lessons, you may feel VERY overwhelmed. I strongly suggest beginners start with another perhaps out of the SAMS 24 hrs version. Good intro. Then buy this book and try the lessons. You really need the grounding in the application so you won't feel blown away.

I really did like this book, but it is truly for intermediate to advanced users only.

With all Classroom in a Book courses, your experience is determined by your own effort. Adobe has constructed a thoughtful series of lessons to make any user comfortable working in Illustrator.

I have heard two competing (and contrary) objections to this book. People complain that there is a) either not enough or b) too much information in the Classroom in a Book series. It is true that Adobe has not developed a course that custom fits the requirements of every single possible user. This can hardly be held against them. They have created a series of straightforward courses for intermediate users. Neither this book (nor the application it is designed to teach) is for absolute beginners. It is for people who are not comfortable in front of their computer. Nor should an expert user looking for some advanced tricks and tips purchase it. There are other books available to fit these needs.

Adobe Illustrator Classroom in a Book does a wonderful job orienting a typical computer user to a heavy hitting vector based graphics application. If you take the time to complete this course, you will know your way around Illustrator. By properly learning the skills featured in this book, you will be prepared to absorb the sorts of tricks you have always wanted to learn

If you are new to any Adobe software, the best way to learn it, is the Classroom in a Book. These books are well-written, the exercises are excellent and easy to follow and Adobe does a good job of setting up a logical order of features to learn. If you buy this book and complete it, cover to cover, you won't be an Illustrator expert. You will, however, have an excellent foundation to becoming an expert!

As a professional designer, I have been using Adobe products for years now. Every time a new version of Photoshop or Illustrator comes out, I purchase the Classroom in a Book to go along with it. Not only do I learn the new features, I also fill gaps in my knowledge. (You'd be surprised how often we "experts" don't know (or forget) some of the basics, making some of our tasks more difficult than they need to be.

Another note, if you are new to design, pay careful attention to the look of the completed projects. The were obviously put together by excellent designers.

My only complaint with Adobe is...given the price of the software, these books should be included in the package.

I was so surprised to see this book being trashed by so many others. I found it was superb at getting me up and started with Illustrator. Many other reviewers accused this book of being a rehash of the manual; this is true. The book in fact contains less info than the manual, and is much less of a reference, BUT unlike the manual, it has tutorials which start with the fundamentals and work towards more advanced techniques (much like a CLASSROOM course would). I am a normal person who learned Illustrator using this book, and was never upset by any aspect of it. I'm not sure what everyone else expected their copies to do, they won't take out the garbage or mow the lawn, it's a book, try reading it.

This is obviouly Adobe's solution for getting $$ from people who have illegal copies of the software. The problem is, it's hard to follow, a terrible teaching tool, and is missing most of the critical information needed to use the product. It isn't a reference book, it isn't a tutorial (Adobe would beg to differ), and it isn't a "getting started" book. Instead, it tries to be all of these things, and instead takes you on a whirlwind tour of obscure features and techniques that you'll never use in the real world.

Just because it is from Adobe doesn't mean it's good; they do great software but this is a terrible book.

I was looking for a tutorial to get me up and running, and after learning more from the manual than realworld Illustrator, I assumed that Adobe's own book would help me out. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. If anything, this seems like a supplement to the manual, covering in more depth areas that the manual just skims upon. Much of the material seems to be a duplicate of what I've found in the manual as well.

This really seems a lot like the manual, just in a different format. It's of very little use by itself, unlike the manual, however. I consider this to be a grand waste of cash that could have been spent better on a different book. Rats.

I tend to purchase the Classroom in a Book series for most Adobe products, but I'll be steering away from this one. The Illustrator 8 Classroom in a Book was a disgrace to the series, and this one doesn't appear much better. A good chunk of the text is lifted directly from that last version, too.

I've read a lot of computer books, and the classroom in a book format is one of the best. If you're unfamiliar with it, it is entirely tutorial based. And excellent. This book includes 15 tutorials, all of which are worthwhile. The amazing part about the book is that is it is easy enough for beginners to follow, while providing plenty of tips, and techniques for the more advanced user. Definately beneficial to beginners and intermediate, and possibly some advanced users too. If you read the book, you'll know the program well.

This book suits my learning style perfectly. After only a few lessons I am able to combine information and apply it to individual projects.
Each lesson will assume that you haven't read the others and repeat certain instructions, such as how to reset preferences.
I like that comprehensiveness.
With other books I had to struggle through lengthy explanations of tools and functions, but with CIB's complete specific directions I can see how the tool works and experiment further.
Can't understand why so many people are trashing this book