Customer Reviews

Real World Adobe(R) Illustrator(R) 9

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Buy the Illustrator Classroom in a Book if you're a professional designer, or want to create designs and illustrations like a professional. If you want a career in clip art creation, then this might be the book for you. I've never seen such amateur artwork.

Add on top of that the authors' cloying style which is both demeaning and seriously unfunny (but three cheers for trying, right??), and you've got a huge book that is a nightmare to plow through.

Oh, and Sandee Cohen never worked for Adobe...that was Luanne Seymour Cohen, who has written the excellent Design Essentials book covering both Illustrator and Photoshop.

It's too bad that Amazon doesn't let you preview a chapter...I doubt any copies of this book are being sold in real bookstores where you can actually pick up this "work" and leaf through it.

new to illustrator? look elsewhere, please. this book is not a tutorial, nor is it a decent introduction to the program. while it goes into great detail about each and every option associated with each and every tool, it does an extremely poor job of putting anything into context or explaining how any of the features would actually be used. it is extremely discouraging to a fledgeling illustrator user to not even be introduced to color until the fourteenth chapter. don't let the title fool you; this book has precious little to do with the real world. the organization is scattered -- the constant cross-references make reading it straight through impossible. a theory junkie myself, i was elated when i read the introduction and all of the background the authors gave. however, at some point, i just wished they would cut the cutesy jokes and tell me how to get started already. the only use i could imagine for this book would be perhaps for someone who was familiar with a prior version of illustrator and wanted to brush up a little bit. however, the cloying tone and terible organization would limit its use even then.

The authors seem to gloss over a lot of Illustrator 9.0's features. I've been trying to use this as a reference book, but there are just too many things missing.

Maybe they'll get it right for version 10.0, I like Deke's writing style.

I have to be up front and say I bought this book after seeing one of the authors was Deke McClelland. As soon as I saw that, it was a no-brainer. For those of you not familiar with his writing style, two words come to mind: exacting and light-hearted. Okay, maybe that's three words (sort of), but in any event he and his co-author Sandee do a bang up job in this book. They go over each and every new/current/old feature ever known to Illustrator. The book is an easy read with simple explanations that are interwoven with humorous observations to keep your interest. I consider myself an intermediate user of Illustrator and really enjoyed reading this book to learn about all the new features in Illustrator (true transparency baby!) This book is meant for the novice to intermediate user. Advanced users, save your money...or read the manual. In short, it is a great book you won't regret buying!! Thanks to Deke and Sandee for all their work!!

One of my goals in 2000 was to learn Adobe Illustrator and I'm well on my way. I started with version 8 and recently upgraded to version 9. In the past, I had purchased The Visual Quickstart Guide to Illustrator 8 as well as Illustrator 8 Wow book. To acquaint myself with the new features of 9, I first read the manual included with the program (Yawn). I think we all know how the included manuals can be. Then I saw that this book was to be released so I placed my order and am glad I did.

This book is very thorough in covering every teeny-weeny aspect of the Illustrator program. Add to that, a good dose of humor sprinkled throughout the book and you've got an entertaining and educational book - dare I say, it's edutainment? Ok... I dare not. Great for the beginner and novice user.

Even though the text is written in a very casual, conversational tone, this is not an easy read. There are over 800 pages of detailed explanations of every feature and nuance in Illustrator 9.

What it does....It explains keyboard shortcuts, dialog boxes, and options for every tool, pallette, menu item, preference, you name it. The explanations are especially helpful in the sections regarding transparencies, the appearance pallette, and the layers pallette which are new to Illustrator 9.

What it doesn't....It does not have a CD or any tutorials and does not give you any ideas for how to use the tools.

If you are a new Illustrator user, then I would suggest buying something from the "Adobe Classroom in a Book" or "Visual Quickstart" series to get you up and running, then having this book as a reference when those tuturials don't go into enough detail about a tool or function (which will happen). The Illustrator WOW Book is great for getting ideas. I use Real World Illustrator when I need to know EXACTLY how a tool or filter is going to affect my artwork. It goes into more detail and is easier to read than the user guide.

I would like to know if there are any books that beside this book so that I can learn Illustrator. In particular, Using the Pen tool or other features. That's right, so I can learn and understand more about the topic and get well prepared for a career in design and graphics.

I am wondering if this is possible, I'd like to learn about Illustrator ASAP.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

If you are reviewing other Illustrator books, please inform if they will be able to help. So far, this one and two others have been of no good to me.

Looking for computer related books I used to rely on Amazon's reviews, but those here are complete mystery to me. How this excellent book can only score 2.5 stars? It's written by Illustrator veteran who's been working with it for 14 years now. This guy really knows Illustrator and was willing to share his knowledge with us. The book is logically divided (unlike some other book I examined) into chapters. It covers all the important tools. It explains them thoroughly. And it's not just a few sentences describing all the modifiers keys. It's actually description AND explanation plus usefull examples and/or tips. For instance, it's easy to describe what blend tool does. But is it obvious having such description how to create neon-like effect? Well, Deke reveals some secrets and definitely goes further then covering raw tools description.
For every tool there there is also it's icon presented, so you don't have to wonder where it could be located (unlike in the other book I've checked).
Some complains about his humorous comments. How come? They are sparse and really funny. Others complain about historical comments. Those comments are just short explanations of what has changed in AI9 compared to previous versions. Yet others do not like Deke criticized some AI9 features. What's wrong with that? If something's imperfect I want to know about it.
This book is complete and outstanding. I'd recommend it to all the beginners. Experienced users are far more demanding, but I'm sure even they will find some new tricks. Nevertheless the book covers basics, so I'm aware not everyone might want it. It lacks the CD, but that's not too important, as examples could be recreated from scratch to reinforce learning.
Note: I'm not Deke's nor Sandee's relative and I wasn't paid to write this review. It's just that this book is great.

No CD. No color artwork. No "professional" artwork. Lots of clever banter. No real tips or tricks. This is closer to a parody book than a book on how to learn Illustrator.

Very poor.

I've been using Illustrator for several years now. I bought this book because I was a little lost with Illustrator 9. Am I glad I did. Not only did I learn about the new features, but I also learned shortcuts that have been around for a while. Anyone who wants to master Illustrator 9 should have this book.