Illustrator & Adobe Fonts
Adobe Illustrator
A vector graphics editor
Scale down your artwork for mobile screens or scale up to billboard size
Produce logos, detailed illustrations, leaflets, web page designs and many more.
It is not for painting and raster-based drawing (this would be Adobe Fresco)
It is not for photo-editing (this would be Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop)
It is not built for designing multiple page documents like magazine and books (this would be Adobe InDesign)
Open Creative Cloud
Open Creative Cloud from your Dock.
Login if needed (Continue with Google)
In Creative Cloud, if you don't see "Illustrator" make sure to select the "Apps" tab in the top toolbar.
Click "Open" to the right of Illustrator.
Create a New File
When Illustrator reopens, click the "New File" blue button.
Change "Points" to "Inches"
Change to:
Width: 8.5
Height: 11
Click "Create"
Save As
In the very top toolbar, click "File" > "Save As..."
Click "Save to Creative Cloud"
In the "Save As" text bar, rename your file to be: "Last Name, Illustrator"
Click "Save"
When you save to Creative Cloud, you save on the cloud and not to the computer. Illustrator will then save your file every 5 minutes.
Your Artboard
The white rectangle on your screen is your "Artboard" (aka your page, canvas, etc.)
Fill & Stroke (Color)
In Illustrator you can change the color of the inside and outline of an object.
In the left toolbar, hover over the black and white double squares (near the bottom) to bring up the explanation pop-up to see what it does.
Now double-click on the top square (fill). This will open the Color Picker. You can now choose a different color and click "OK"
Double-click on the bottom square (outline) to open the Color Picker again. Choose a color and click "OK"
Create a Background with the Rectangle Tool
In the left toolbar, hover over the rectangle icon (5th icon down) to bring up the explanation pop-up to see what it does.
Now click on the rectangle icon.
Click in the top left corner of your artboard and drag down to the bottom right corner of your artboard.
Notice how your rectangle fill and stroke colors are what you just chose.
Rename Layer and Create a New Layer
Click the "Layers" tab in the top right.
Double click "Layer 1"
Rename to "Background"
Lock the layer by clicking the blank square next to it.
In the bottom right click the "+" button to create a new layer above your Background layer.
Double click "Layer 2" and rename to "Type"
Create Text with the Type Tool
In the left toolbar, hover over the "T" icon (7th icon down) to bring up the explanation pop-up to see what it does.
Now click on the "T" icon.
Click on your artboard. This will create a text box filled with PlaceHolder text (Lorem ipsum - it's Latin).
While the text is highlighted, type your first name, click return and type your last name.
Change the Size, Leading, and Tracking
With the Selection Tool, click on your text box so there is a box around your text.
Click the "Properties" tab in the top right.
In the "Character area":
Change the size to 72 pt.
Change the leading to 50 pt.
Change the tracking to 100 pt.
Change the Font
With your text selected/highlighted
On the right side of the screen under "Character" click the box with "Myriad Pro" and choose a different font that you feel like illustrates your personality.
Go to Adobe Fonts
Via Chrome/Safari:
Click the link: Adobe Fonts
In the top right corner click "Sign In" and sign in.
Via Adobe Creative Cloud:
Open the Creative Cloud app.
In the "Search..." bar type "Fonts"
Click "Adobe Fonts"
Activate 5 Fonts
Find 5 fonts that you like.
On the left side toolbar, you can click on different tags and classifications or you can just scroll through the pages
When you find a font you like:
Click "Add Family"
Use the 5 fonts in Illustrator
In Illustrator:
Use the "Type Tool" to create another text box
Change the size to 24 pt.
Open the font dropdown and click the cloud/check icon to "Show Activated Fonts"
Select one of your activated fonts.
Change the text to say the font name.
Repeat for the other 4 fonts.
Save
Because your file is saved on Creative Cloud, it will be a ".aic" file - this means Illustrator saves your file every 5 minutes.
If you see an asterisk (*), that means there are unsaved changes.
If "Save" is grayed out, it means your file has already been automatically saved.
To save, in the top menu, click "File" > "Save"
Save as a PDF
In order to turn your file in on Canvas, you will need to save or export the file to a different file format onto your computer.
In top menu, click "File" > "Save As"
Click "Save on your computer"
Where: "Creative Cloud Files"
Format: "Adobe PDF (pdf)"
Click "Save"
"Continue with PDF"
"Save PDF"
Submit PDF on Canvas
Go to the Canvas assignment and upload your file.
