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Design Center Tutorial

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator: Enhancing productivity

Mordy Golding

Mordy Golding

 

lynda.com

www.lynda.com

 

Created:
21 March 2007
User Level:
Advanced
Products:
Illustrator

Give your productivity a little boost. Learn the secrets that can make you more productive and save you time when working with Adobe® Illustrator® CS2. In this series of short video tutorials, you’ll learn about:

  • OpenType support
  • XMP metadata support
  • Save for Web
  • Layer clipping masks
  • Opacity masks
  • PDF creation
  • Photoshop integration

OpenType support

In this short video tutorial, get to know OpenType, a great feature of the new text engine in Illustrator CS2. OpenType, which offers features that PostScript fonts don’t, takes text to the next level. Check out some of the great features of OpenType, such as automatic glyph replacement.

Watch the video (6:09 minutes)

XMP metadata support

XMP metadata allows you to embed descriptive information in your files (such as date created, author, and keywords), so that you may find your files more easily amongst the numerous files on your hard drive. Discover how you can also use metadata to include information about when and how a file was created. Watch this short video tutorial to learn how to add metadata to your files using the File Info dialog box in Illustrator CS2.

Watch the video (4:17 minutes)

Save for Web

It’s easy to repurpose your Illustrator files for the web using the Save for Web feature in Illustrator CS2. Watch this short video tutorial to learn how you can save any graphic in your artwork in a number of web formats.

Watch the video (4:37 minutes)

Layer clipping masks

In this segment, Mordy shows you an easy and powerful way to create clipping masks in Illustrator CS2. All you need to do is select your path in the Layers palette and click the Make/Release Clipping Mask button at the bottom of the palette. Watch the video to learn more.

Watch the video (5:16 minutes)

Opacity masks

Learn how to use the luminosity of an object as a clipping mask in this short video tutorial. You’ll discover why this type of mask is the most powerful of all the masking options in Illustrator CS2.

Watch the video (6:07 minutes)

PDF creation

Adobe PDF files are a common part of your workflow, and Illustrator makes it very easy to create PDF files of your artwork. Simply choose File > Save As and choose Adobe PDF as the file format. In this short video tutorial, Mordy describes the settings in the Save As Adobe PDF dialog box.

Watch the video (4:32 minutes)

Photoshop integration

In this last video tutorial, you’ll discover how tightly integrated Illustrator is with the other applications in Adobe Creative Suite, including Adobe Photoshop®.

Watch the video (2:06 minutes)

Where to go from here

For more information about Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator, check out the following resources:

About the authors

Mordy Golding has been a production artist for print and the web for many years, and is an Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Certified Print Specialist. At Adobe, he was the product manager for Illustrator 10 and Illustrator CS. A popular presenter at Macworld, Photoshop World and other worldwide events, Mordy is also the author of several books, including SAMS Teach Yourself Adobe Creative Suite All in One, The Web Designer's Guide to Color, and SAMS Teach Yourself Adobe Illustrator in 24 Hours. In 2003, Mordy was named a Champion of Graphic Design by Graphics IQ. Currently he serves as the founder of DesignResponsibly.com, teaching designers and printers how to successfully adopt today's new technology. Mordy is also the author of the Illustrator CS2 and Flash 8 Integration video training title published by lynda.com.

Excerpted from “Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator with: Mordy Golding” © 2006. Used with the permission of lynda.com. To view the full-length video-based tutorial series, please visit www.lynda.com.