Illustrator

Here are some Illy tips, focusing mostly on creating book covers.

How to preview a document

Sometimes you want to hide everything outside the artboard. I don't know if Illy has a neat preview mode as Indesign. Here is what I do. Select the crop tool. Click anywhere in the document. On the top bar, under Presets, select "Fit crop area to artboard". The area outside the artboard will be faded. Don't press enter or you will actually crop the artwork!

How to export only the artboard

Again, this is a job for the crop tool. Select it. On the top bar, under Presets, select "Fit crop area to artboard". Export.

How to remove a drop shadow or other such effect

Select the object. In the menu, select Window, Appearance. If the effect appears there, select it and click on the bin icon at the bottom right of the Appearance box.

Reset the Origin

Go to maximum zoom on the corner you want to use as the document's origin. At the top lefthand corner, click in the small "box" where the two rulers intersect. Drag that box down to reset the Y origin. Drag the box to the right to reset the X origin.

How to save a PDF cover for CreateSpace

Phase I: ILLUSTRATOR
1. Edit, color settings. Check "Advanced Mode".
Working spaces: RGB: Adobe RGB (1998). CMYK (doesn't matter, we're in RGB mode)
Color Management policies: RGB: convert to working space
Profile mismatches: check the three boxes
2. File, document color mode: RGB
3. File, save as: Adobe PDF
Adobe PDF Preset: choose High Quality Print. This ensure there is no conversion of colors and all colors are tagged.
Advanced: Subset 0% (this will embed all fonts)

Next, we'll rasterize the file in Photoshop. This will avoid any last-minute surprises with fonts or transparency.

Phase II: PHOTOSHOP
1. Open Photoshop. Edit, color settings. For RGB, choose Adobe RGB.
2. Open the file. In the open dialog, accept "Crop to Bounding Box". In the same dialog, for mode, choose "RGB Color".
3. Layer, Flatten Image to get rid of any transparency
4. File, Save As. Choose Photoshop PDF.
In the save dialog, make sure the checked color profile is Adobe RGB
Next, the PDF screen opens. As before, for Adobe PDF Preset, choose High Quality Print.
No need to change other options.

Shortcuts

Ctrl with the "+" and "-" keys zooms in and out.
T Text
P Pen
H Hand: useful to quickly recentre your work.
V Black Arrow (selects entire shape)
A White Arrow (selects anchor points)
Shift constrains proportions 1) while drawing rectangles (you get squares) or ovals (you get circles); while rotating (you rotate by 45-degree increments).
Alt closes a path when drawing in Illy; also smoothens path when you redraw over it; changes direction in pen tool.

Here's a more complete list of Illy shortcuts.

Smiles,

Andy

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