Illustrator New Tips & Tricks

Hello Creatives!

Many creatives, illustrators, designers and animators use Adobe Illustrator. There are multiple ways to create an illustration with these time-saving tips and tricks.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Clicking on menu bars and choosing your commands take up precious minutes when in the midst of long projects. Learning keyboard shortcuts saves valuable time which leads to a more efficient design process. Here are a few essential keyboard shortcuts:

Classic Tools

In Illustrator there are taskbars full of tool icons. These are the classic tools that have been a part of the program from the beginning. Tools such as the Selection and Direct Selection tool, the Type tool, Color and Color Guide tools. Many of these tools are contained in tool groups nested on the taskbar. These can be un-nested and moved in the program like the Character, Paragraph and Open Type tools.

These are some of the classic tools that everyone utilizes daily who uses the program. Adobe Illustrator has released new versions of the program consistently for the past 30 years and has released new tools recently with the emergence of the Creative Cloud service.

New Tools

The launch of the Creative Cloud service in 2011 provided new tools within Adobe Illustrator, tools that changed the game. Among these tools, include the Creative Cloud library, Shape Builder tool and the Shape Blender tool. These are particularly useful to improve efficiency when designing and illustrating under tight deadlines. The Creative Cloud library allows you to connect to saved assets, illustrations and colors within the program quickly rather than searching for external files in the computer and importing them into the program.

The Shape Builder tool is relatively new that unites shapes. It has replaced the Unite tool in the Pathfinder tool group. The Shape Builder tool is in the main toolbar which allows for quicker and easier access.

The Shape Blender tool lies next to the Shape Builder tool in the main toolbar that has replaced the shape-to-shape blend process. Instead of selecting the shapes to be blended and choosing Blend from the Object toolbar, the Shape Blender tool is instant. Select the objects to be blended and click the Shape Blender tool, it saves time from searching through toolbars.

These were a few quick tips and tricks to help improve your efficiency. Try them out and see how much faster your projects get done especially utilizing the keyboard shortcuts and new tools.

See You Soon Creatives!