Customer Reviews

How to Do Everything with Adobe Illustrator CS

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

 

 

This is a great book for beginning and intermediate users of Adobe Illustrator. The book is well laid out, colorful and pleasant to read. What is nice for the new user is he explains how to use the basic tools, and how to draw with them. Understanding paths and anchors are the basic elements of being able to use this type of software. You have the option of working through the whole book or picking and choosing your topic. A new user could work through the whole book, from beginning to end.

The author includes many highlighted "notes," "cautions," and "shortcuts" interspersed throughout the book. For example, in the section where he is explaining about how to draw with paintbrushes there is a note telling you that Chapter 18 explains how to define custom brushes. In another section about the Pathfinder tools you are cautioned that those tools only with with vector objects - not bitmaps. And for those who are unsure of the difference between vector art and bitmap art, that explanation was given in the beginning of the book. It is this kind of basic information that makes this such a helpful book.

He goes into great detail about the new text features and special effects.

I can't say enough about how clearly this book is written. I have had my share of technical books that are hard to understand, unpleasant to look at and have typographical errors.

While good portion of this book will be redundant to a Illustrator "power user," there is still a lot of useful information including a professional technique gallery at the back of the book.

Let me join the other reviewers in panning this book. The color illustrations are nice (compared to the Adobe manuals, which have gotten thin and have no color), but that's about it. The details just aren't there. For example, the author will show you the star tool, and talk about using its dialog box to set options, but doesn't mention using the Command (PC:ctrl) or Option (PC:alt) keys with this tool, nor what they do. So not only does it read a bit like a manual, but it's an incomplete manual. Beyond that, there's not much content -- try Cohen's "Creative Studio" book or Steuer's "Wow!" book, or better yet, get the video training from Total Training.

What good is teaching if your not able communicate? This book "teaches" and relays information in an easy to understand way. Along with sufficient illustrations the concepts are easily explained.

If you want to "Learn" AI 10 in a painlessly way, I'd recommend this book as a must have.

I don't write reviews but this book was just awful, and the only reason I bought it was because so many people were so enthusiastic about it: this is my opinion and warning, lest others who want a well-organised book make the same mistake.

I don't think the explanations are very good, but my main complaint is with the structure of the book. What good is an explanation of paths if it's then impossible to find out how to set points geometrically without plodding through 80 or so pages in between? Some people want more explanations, some less, but the difficulty of finding what one wants to know quickly and concisely is a major failing in any book which pretends to instruct.

The book is written to be worked through in sequence: the lack of a decent index is proof of that. The dearth of tables and lists is another annoyance. And the chatty tone is DULL and makes it tedious going when trying to find the essentials of an instruction.

I have tossed this book aside countless times and just gone back to my older copy of the Visual Quickstart for Illustrator 10, with much more efficient results.

When one of the more in-depth books comes out I'll probably buy that, since I'm returning this one. For a beginner, I would suggest buying the Visual QuickStart book (which is an excellent series in general) or one of the other basic guides until the Bibles come out. And I would not recommend Adobe's Classroom book, which is lacking in crucial information which they will probably end up selling in an overpriced "companion" volume.

How to Do Everything . . . by David Karlins is clearly evidence that in addition to the time he spends teaching Macromedia's Dreamweaver, he has found time to try to "demystify and break down the art of vector art." He points out where the CS version is different from earlier Illustrator versions. He especially praises improvements in the text formatting and the inclusion of better 3-D effect capabilities. It is convenient how throughout the book he includes the keystroke shortcuts for the various actions. David has included a lot of diagrams and illustrations to help understand the use of the various tools and pallets. A lot of time is well spent writing about how to use the various Pathfinder tools. His use of Caution, Tips and Note caveats in each chapter reminds the reader of an area that can use special attention.

Unlike so many tutorial or reference books on the subject of Illustrator, this book only skims the surface of the key functions of Illustrator.

Things to be aware of:
There are no companion CD tutorials - you're on your own.
This book does not give you detailed information on how to do anything.
A few step-by-step examples are given on some certain methods, but mostly not.
The few examples of "How to" are very high level and do not go into any detail.
This book will not serve as a good reference book - information is to high level and does not include details.
You will have to create your own graphics just to follow along the lessons so you can understand the concept.

On the plus side:
The book now has color illustrations.
The tips on the bottom of each "How To" lesson are very useful.
If you have a general knowledge of Illustrator, this book can be used without the software or a PC as casual reading.

The book is broken down in seven parts:
Part 1 - Prepare Your Illustrator Project
Part 2 - Draw Objects
Part 3 - Add Type
Part 4 - Work with Drawings
Part 5 - Manage Fills
Part 6 - Use Layers and Styles
Part 7 - From Illustrator to Print and Web

This book borders on being useless for people who are seriious about learning Illustrator.
Better books that will help the novice illustrator:
Illustrator CS Hands-On Training by [...] books
The Adobe Illustrator manual/book that comes with the software.

So, you are beginning to believe that ten pound illustrator book will become your headstone! Send it to your mother in law, you don't need to start with that much information. How to do Everything........by David Karlins is a clear and concise group of instructions wich will help you jump start your computer drawing skills.
Karlins covers all the basic drawing features of this powerful software, while including particular tips and cautionary notes where required. This book is a refreshing departure from most technical manuals, as it's colorful and easy to understand. There is a significant amount devoted to type and all the special effects which can be achieved. Since Karlins is a professional web designer, he seems to be particularly well versed in the methods to configure an illustration for the Web.
Do not expect that by just doing the exercises in the book one will know and understand the material. As with any type of instructions it is important to set up some challenges of your own to test how far one can take ones instructions.
Read and Practice, Practice, Practice!

Excellent book for leading me through using the software. Glad I found such an older edition for my older software version.