How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS: Amazon.ca: David Karlins: Books

Product Description

This handy resource teaches you how to generate professional graphics for multiple media, including print and Web. Master Illustrator’s defining feature: creating and editing drawings by defining anchor points and the paths between them. Plus, the book features an art gallery displaying professional work to help illustrate the lessons and inspire you.

From the Back Cover

Now in full color!

Create illustrations, maps, logos, CD covers, animation objects, fine art, and more with help from this full-color guide. Illustrator expert David Karlins' clear, step-by-step instruction will help you quickly grasp--and easily master--the fundamental and advanced features of this vector graphics tool. You'll also learn the techniques professional artists apply to their work in a special "Behind the Scenes" section. Whether your goal is to create graphics for professional or personal use, you'll find what you need in How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS.

Understand Illustrator's capabilities in drawing and design
Gain total control over lines, curves, fills, and color effects
Draw with objects, shapes, intersections, cutting, and many other techniques
Add and alter type, edit colors, sizes, fonts, and more
Use new, advanced tools for paragraph formatting
Master fills and effects--even integrate bitmap images
Work with layer, style, and action strategies
Venture into 3-D effects, warps, and envelopes
Manage Illustrator's many color palette options for Web and print
Export to GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, PDF, and Flash files for Web use

About the author: David Karlins is a graphic and Web designer who teaches Adobe Illustrator at San Francisco State University's Multimedia Studies Center. His previous books include Build Your Own Web Site, and Adobe Illustrator 10 Virtual Classroom.

See all Product Description

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Adobe Illustrator is an almost supernatural program for generating print and digital artwork. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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

Average Customer Review

3.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as you might be led to believe, May 2 2004

By

Matthew R. Holiday II (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS (Paperback)

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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1.0 out of 5 stars Useless, Mar 1 2004

By

ian (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS (Paperback)

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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

5.0 out of 5 stars A text for the rest of us, Feb 23 2004

By

Dianne Johnson (Walnut Creek, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Do Everything with Illustrator CS (Paperback)

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!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews 3.6 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Read
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... Read more

Published on Feb 20 2004 by jt

1.0 out of 5 stars Title is totally misleading, for a start.
No, this book will NOT teach you how to do everything with Adobe Illustrator CS -- not even by half. Read more

Published on Feb 12 2004 by saltwater