Customer Reviews

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book (Book & CD-ROM)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At the time this was the only available book for Illustrator CS3, so there wasn't much choice. It gives a decent overview of the program and is fairly typical of Adobe's Classroom in a Book series. Nothing to jump up and down about though. The lessons are easy to follow, even for beginners.
More thorough and in-depth books are apparently due out soon and should satisfy those wanting more details on actually how to get the most out of this latest Illustrator.

I know a thing or two about tutorials/manuals for I often test them as a beta-tester. The following comments are for all five of the CIBs. Yes, I have worked though each one.
As a bare start its ok but its just too much of a skimpy overview for the high price its requesting. This book should have been a PDF, unlocked, with the software. If you want a good intro at a reasonable price, don't buy this book. As for its content, I have found errors that should have been found long before it got to print. If you really want it, than wait a few more months for an updated edition. As for the pdf version, stay away from that too. Its DRM settings are overly restrictive, i.e., only 30 text selections over 30 days. There are much better books coming soon at the price with respect to its in-depth coverage. So buy them. :-)

I am new to Illustrator and the Adobe programs in general, and from that perspective, this book was ideal. It got me much more comfortable with the work environment to the point I found myself actually wanting to use the program to perform design tasks.

This book is not comprehensive. Some things (just my list) this book does not cover, but are essential to professional users of the program:
1. Graphics tablet features.
2. Creation of Flash symbols/integration with Flash.
3. Keyboard Shortcuts.
4. Charts/Graphs creation (this is most likely the most common commercial use of the program).
5. The pathfinder effects (these very important tools are briefly touched upon, but are essential for good use of the program and really really counterintuitive).
6. A bibliography or resource list.

I feel this book really should have shipped with the program. Like many software developers, Adobe asks a-lot when it does not provide a manual with such an expensive program. Adobe Help has much improved with CS3, but it's not the same as a true manual.

Illustrator itself is a decent program that has much improved with CS3. It's still not ideal, and really gets more attention than its competitors largely through Adobe's ingenious marketing of the "creative suite."

A fairly intuitive tutorial. However, a lot of the basic stuff I already knew, so I breezed through about a third of the book. The lessons were a lttle disappointing in the some sections. Rather than creating a full piece as in some of the books, it was little snipets, kind of jumping around. Didn't flow as well as I would have liked, or as in depth. Some of the lessons would have been confusing had I not had a previous working knowledge of the software.

This is certainly the first book you need to get started with Adobe Illustrator.
Illustrator Classroom in a Book provides practice lessons using most of the features of Adobe Illustrator but does little to explain the hows and whys of the tools. Follow the instructions precisely, and you'll be ready to tackle your own artwork. But skip a step or misunderstand an instruction and you can get lost. This is not a book for the impatient student.

I purchased this book for a class that I was taking and to be a beginner to Illustrator it was very useful and the directions were easy to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone who is learning how to use this program for the first time.

The book made light work of the subject. As a novice i was able start producing work in a short time.

Whether you home school, or just want to know more about CS3 Illustrator this is a great book to have. As it says, its a classroom in a book. Comes with CD Rom. A great addition to any library.

I recently completed the Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book and decided to follow up this success by taking on Adobe Illustrator. Since my first experience with the Classroom in a Book series had been so positive, I picked up their Illustrator book. When I started the Photoshop book, I already had some self-taught knowledge of the program. When I started the Illustrator book, I had never used the program, other than to complete a couple of lessons in the previous book that integrated Photoshop and Illustrator files. And, I'll admit that my skills in drawing with a mouse are poor at best. However, I hoped to walk away from the Illustrator book with a higher level of comfort with the tool and be able to utilize it for some of my design tasks.

This book helped me only partially meet my goals. Like the other books in the Classroom series, the Illustrator book was separated into step-by-step lessons for beginning users. However, in contrast with my previous experiences, this book felt less cohesive and at times poorly written. While most of the lessons in the Photoshop book centered around completing one specific project designed to teach a particular set of tools, the Illustrator book tended to jump around, having the user complete bits and pieces of several projects. I didn't get the satisfaction of looking at one completely finished piece that I could compare with the illustrations in the book. Some of the lessons were too long based on the concept being taught. For example, an entire lesson on how to use the Zoom tool seemed extraneous. Other lessons seemed to skim over more complex concepts that I felt would have benefited my foundational knowledge of the program. In addition, the instructional writing was poor in this book. I found myself reading some passages several times to determine what I was actually supposed to do. I suppose, this could partially be blamed on my lack of familiarity with the program, but if the book is marketed for beginning users, the language the authors use to describe a task should be clear and easy to follow. Overall, I was disappointed with the quality of this particular title in the Classroom in a Book series, and I seriously question whether I'll look to this series when I get ready to pursue Flash training.

So, I'm walking away from the Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book with a basic familiarity with Illustrator. I have basic competency using the available tools in the program. However, the level of instruction the book provided hasn't given me confidence that there will be lasting knowledge transfer to design tasks on the job.

Started using Illustrator about two months ago and got lost from time to time and had to spend hours trying to unravel my mistakes. This book is wonderful, it is easy to use and is a big help to the novice. I would recomend it to anyone that wants to get to know the product.
Very happy with this purchase!