Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training [Paperback]

Jeff VanWest (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321203038 | ISBN-13: 978-0321203038 | Publication Date: April 10, 2004

Get hands-on, project building exercises, and a CR-ROM full of tutorials from this top-selling series by Lynda.com. Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training uses guided, tutorial-based exercises to teach you how to use Illustrator CS to create high-quality artwork. In this book, you'll find carefully developed, classroom-proven lessons and exercises. Each lesson contains extensive background information, which helps you understand the process as well as the particular exercise. You will learn about creating and editing vector-based artwork, with an emphasis on mastering the pen and path tools. You'll also learn how to work with the new 3D features, as well as typographic effects, integration with the other tools in the Adobe Creative Suite, and more. This book is designed for the reader who learns by doing. The accompanying CD-ROM contains guided exercises and QuickTime movies to meet the needs of beginning to intermediate Web designers, as well as Photoshop users who are looking for a great tool to create graphics for the Web. Adobe Illustrator CS was released in October 2003 for the price of $499 for the full version and $169 for the upgrade.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Van West started working with computers on his middle-school's Apple II with 24 KB of RAM and no disk drive. He opened and saved his programs by attaching a cassette tape recorder borrowed from the math teacher. Over the years, he taught himself the ins and outs of various Apple, MS-DOS, Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX systems, as well as basic new software packages whenever he needed to use them. Jeff has always had a passion for teaching and spent several years applying his technical and design skills developing science curricula for elementary and middle-school teachers. He also developed a program linking teachers and students over the Internet in the early days of the Web.

Jeff now has over a decade of experience as an instructional designer, freelance writer, and corporate trainer. He has worked internationally to facilitate collaborative projects in numerous fields, including information technology and the aviation industry. His books and multimedia technical training programs have been used in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

When he's not writing, teaching, playing with his children, or cooking dinner (what he refers to as "satisfying his inner Jewish grandmother"), Jeff can often be found at the controls of an airplane. In 1998, Jeff added flight instruction to his teaching repertoire and has loved sharing the freedom of flight with students ever since.

Product Details

• Paperback: 744 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (April 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321203038
• ISBN-13: 978-0321203038
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest home-study approach to learning Illustrator, October 23, 2004

By 

Andrew R. Briggs (...in the fair and distant state of Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training (Paperback)

I NEEDED to KNOW Illustrator. Being retentive, I researched on Amazon, googled, and then went to the local library - reviewing all the Illustrator 'how-to' books. I purchased the 3 with the best reviews, and this one on a whim (it had a pretty cover.)

SO. This is the standout, esp. when linked to the publishers home page. I am a visual person - this is an honest 'visual' study guide, with excellent Demo quicktime movies to watch, easy to follow exercises (on the accompanying CD) to download and work along with, and a jovial manner that worked for me. It also works sequentially - moving from excercise 1 onward in a logical, building fashion to excercise 2, and 3, etc. It is home-study, and you do have to work along, but it works.
Regarding my saying it's "an HONEST visual study guide." Considering my pile of 3 top-reviewed books - all are lovely books, but maybe too lovely as the emphasis is the slick production of the book (and illustrations therein), and not on the teaching of sequential skills within the book. I wanted to learn Illustrator, not marvel at what others have done in Illustrator. And I wanted the information linear, not hit-and-miss depending on what page you opened the book.

I recommend this book highly for a logical, visual introduction to Adobe Illustrator. With the exception of the cover, it isn't that pretty, but it will teach the skills you need to make your own beautiful illustrations.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a magnificent book, February 4, 2005

By 

M. Beal - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training (Paperback)

As a professional computer programmer, I've read tons of self training books. I have never read one as clear, well thought out and laid out as this one. I am half way through the book and will be sorry to see it end. Every time I stop after a technique and fool with it I soon develop a question and sure enough the very next paragraph answers the very question. If I read something in the explanations that stikes me as vague I only have to glance up at the illustration and it reinforces the point perfectly. The book won't make me a great artist but it definitely helped me kick out the stuff I needed for my web site. Jeff I thank you. Now on to the next chapter.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tells you why, not just how, May 23, 2006

By 

D. Rodenborn "Teaching Curmudgeon" (Fremont, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training (Paperback)

Jeff Van West has a winnner of an Illustrator tutorial. A lot of other how-to books give you a bunch of steps that lead the user to a "whiz-bang" result, but they lack in explaining why and how that result was achieved. This book goes through the process of explaining the cause and effect of Illustrator's tools and effects _before_ going through the steps, leading to a better understanding of when to use those tools and effects. I've used "Adobe Illustrator CS Hands-On Training" as a textbook in my beginning Illustrator class, and it's been a wonderful teaching tool. My only real complaint (and it's a minor one at that) is that the graphics are not all that pretty (graphic artists are attracted to shiny objects). Still, the book accomplishes what it sets out to do.