Customer Reviews

Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased "AI CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques" because I consider myself to be a beginner with AI, and wanted a book that would provide a basic introduction to AI CS3. Although the book does a good job in covering most basic techniques (as well as some not-so-basic techniques), I found that it really was too basic, and lacked the detail (as well as examples) to address many of the questions that I had. Most How-tos are 2 pages long and are pretty skeletal. I was surprised at the absence of color (odd in an illustrator book?) and that some of the screenshots were two small to clearly show the author's intent. In all, I couldn't figure out who this book would be for. CS3 is a complex, professional level application. Anyone having the need to purchase CS3 will ultimately require more guidance than was offered.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 (for short, AI) is the top software for creating vector artwork, that's infinitely scalable with perfectly crisp edges (as opposed to bitmap images, like JPGs, that become jagged when their size is increased). AI is capable of some gorgeous effects -- not just objects or typography but "painterly" gradient shadings -- that can be scaled in size from a tiny drawing to a billboard without any loss of perfectly smooth edges. The trouble comes in learning how to use the daunting AI, which feels much less intuitive than, say, Photoshop. Enter Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques, by David Karlins and Bruce K. Hopkins. Through a hundred concise chapters, covering every important aspect of AI with clear hands-on directions, the authors have made AI as "user-friendly" as, say, Dreamweaver CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques by David Karlins (I also gave it a 5-star review here at Amazon), and for many of the same reasons.

Adobe's software can achieve the miraculous... if you know how to use it. BIG "IF"! But I do not like their built-in Help items, that more often than not send you down one rabbit hole after another, before (maybe) giving the information needed to accomplish a particular task. (The fact that the process usually turns out to be "simple" -- go to this menu item, do that -- never makes me feel any better.) And scrolling through the massive manual in PDF format to look up what you need is equally un-fun and time-consuming. But this AI CS3 How-Tos book is great because it can go into much more detail than the built-in Help items, yet it's much more flexible and comprehensive than even the massive Adobe Classroom in a Book (CiB). (Those ponderous tomes, which I'd tried using with earlier versions of AI, turned me off of the software, since what I needed to learn wasn't part of the few large-scale projects CiB uses as learning devices.)

Now, when I need to know how to do something, I immediately turn to the How-Tos book... and almost always find what I'm looking for in a matter of seconds.

With AI CS3 How-Tos, my comfort level is increasing rapidly -- meaning I'm getting some practical/creative use out of this wallet-emptying software -- as the authors clearly walk us through every important aspect of AI. The book explains all of the basics (creating a new document; setting up your workspace; printing (not as straightforward as you'd think!); drawing with lines, shapes, brushes; editing paths; working with layers; using transparency, blending, 3-D and other effects; more), as well as the many advanced features, both old and new. Each of the innovations in AI CS3 gets at least one chapter, as with the brand-new Live Trace (lets you convert bitmap to vector images for scalable use), Live Color (to explore countless variations in hue), eraser tool (at last!), advanced typography, Adobe Flash integration, and more. These are not step-by-step projects, which is not their purpose; they are simply clear guides on how to use a particular feature or set of features -- this is a BYOC (Bring Your Own Creativity) kind of book.

One of AI CS3 How-Tos' many strengths is that you can check the index for exactly what you're searching for. Most chapters are self-contained, but if it requires some background information, the authors tell you where, in this book, to find what you need. There are also many useful subsidiary tips, included in gray-colored sidebars, throughout the book -- these allow the authors to keep a tight focus within the main chapter, while still giving valuable 'bonus' information.

I wish all instructional works were this well thought out, clear, and useful. Five stars, for this indispensable guide.

As a beginner at AI, I needed a way to get a quick understanding of the software without having to wade through a bunch of opinion or wasted commentary. This book provided me with a very clean, staged, well-organized and well-written introduction. It covers all the important topics in a sequence that helps you build skills, but without forcing you to do exercises that might be good pedagogically, but don't give the sophisticated practitioner any direct line to his or her particular goal.

Highly recommended.

I found the format of this instruction guide to be perfect. The authors have chosen 100 essential techniques, and teach these in easy to follow and accessible lessons. By going through the book I was able to grasp the essential, most used tools in Adobe Illustrator. I found the directions and illustrations extremely user friendly, and they manage to make the software package seem easy to use. In the past I have bought the "Bible" instruction books to learn Adobe software, but this book was much more helpful and user friendly. I always felt bogged down by all the information in other guidebooks, but this one presents the most useful tools so that anyone can get started and start effectively using Adobe Illustrator. I highly recommend this to anyone (at any level) learning Adobe Illustrator. I feel confident using this software now, thanks to this book.

Nice presentation of fairly straight-forward, simple Illustrator tasks that won't increase your productivity unless you're a real novice.

Like Tester from Maryland, I selected this book because I'm a true beginner with Illustrator. I had hoped to find a single, good book to get me started using Ai CS3 on a real world project. I'm going broke buying Id and Ps CS3 books, but alas, this book won't be the only Ai guide I need. An example is Tip #2 on page 6, defining preferences: "The significance of some of the options in the Preferences dialog will only become clear as you learn more about Illustrator." Well, as a truly rank beginner trying to work on a project right out of the box, this doesn't cut it. I need to be clear on all the preference settings so I can pick the right ones. As I go deeper into my project, I find difficulties that are probably related to something I didn't do setting up the project preferences, like not being able to click on a preview box in Live Trace, Object, options. I need to be able to see how various settings look on the screen, but the preview box isn't active and I can't check it. Is this because I didn't set something up in Preferences, or because I didn't select the map on the art board first? Or was it because I need to create it as a layer before I can work with it? I know it's my fault, but this book won't help me figure that out. The description of cropping is also wonderfully arcane, skimpy, and woefully inadequate for this beginner. I'm used to cropping tools in other apps that all work similarly, but in Ai are very different. That being said, I still would have bought this book knowing what's in it, and after I find a few more basic and in depth books, am sure that this one will be really useful. I don't regret buying it. If I knew more I probably would have given it 5 stars. It's not the author's fault.

it's a good book, but it's all in black and white, not like other design books that have magazine paper and color photos explaining the points. there's a lot of text, but not many pictures or diagrams explaining, which in my case helps.

This instruction manual is great! I am someone who has trouble learning new software on my own. I found the organization of this book, however, to be so user friendly I was able to start using Illustrator all by myself! The authors focus on 100 most used tasks in Illustrator. They have excellent step by step instructions. Illustrations are also helpful and informative. This book is easy to follow and well written. It will help you use illustrator in practical ways, and also to create art! I give this 5 stars!

I love this book! I just finished it and I had to write a review because I am so impressed by how easily it taught me the complex techniques of illustrator. It was an easy read but at the same time covered all the main points of the program. I already had a knowledge of Dreamweaver and Flash coming in and this book was definitely the missing link in my design knowledge. I never thought I would be able to draw or create such awesome images from scatch! This book, combined with the program, is definitely enough to send you on your way. I only wish I had read this book sooner!

Good book, great for reference. I do design work and I use the entire creative suite sometimes you do not remember all the shortcuts so I keep this as a simple reference. I have bigger books but I hate sifting through pages looking for the effect I am trying to reproduce.