Adobe Illustrator is a vector drawing tool, meaning you can create artwork that can be scaled infinitely without losing quality. It’s a fantastic tool for logo design, creating complex vector artwork, and playing with illustrated typography design. Check the best Illustrator recommendations to help creatives, tips, resources, and inspirations.
But coming from Photoshop, you may not be savvy with Illustrator and its unique ways: so we’re here to help. In this article, we list some incredible illustrator recommendations to help your creative work.
Illustrator Recommendations
Appearance
I always assumed a shape could only have a single fill and stroke in Illustrator. But that’s not the case with the Appearances palette. Open the slide-out menu and find that you can add as many additional fills and strokes as you like.
Brushing Illustrator Recommendations To Help Creatives
I always used to prefer drawing with my Wacom pen tablet in Photoshop rather. Than using the path-based Brush tool in Illustrator. But I was always left with raster art that needed Live Tracing.
This all changed back in CS4 when the Blob Brush was introduced. Instead of drawing individual paths, this tool works much like the Photoshop brush tool. But it instead creates a solid vector shape.
Effects
Illustrator is all about vector artwork that allows for infinite scalability without losing quality. So it always leaves you puzzled when your design gets super fat or thin when you alter its size.
I remember when I used to reset all my stroke weights painstakingly. But there’s a setting under Preferences that allows you to select whether. Or not to scale your stroke weights and effect settings with your artwork.
Scissors Illustrator Recommendations To Help Creatives
I used to use the Pathfinder tool for everything! I didn’t realize that there was a tiny little tool hidden away under the Eraser that allowed you to quickly and easily snip a path without affecting its shape.
Inside Draw
It’s not uncommon to need to draw shapes or details within another object. I would always do lots of trimming with the Pathfinder to delete the excess around the edges. Or create an exceptional Clipping Path.
Still, there’s a button right at the bottom of the toolbar that allows you to draw inside an object. Ewhile Illustrator automatically masks out the overlap.
Location
We all know about CMD+C and CMD+V for Copying and Pasting. But did you know about the Paste in Place (CMD+Shift+V), Paste in Front (CMD+F), and Paste in Back (CMD+B) shortcuts?
Rather than realign your new element after it’s dumped in the middle of the screen. You can quickly paste it directly into your chosen position.
Builder Of Shapes Illustrator Recommendations To Help Creatives
Forget about painstakingly Uniting and Subtracting with the Pathfinder tool. You can do it all with a handy tool called the Shape Builder. Save yourself hundreds of mouse clicks by simply clicking and dragging between elements to perform the same action.
Pater Libraries
I hate to think of the time I’ve wasted creating simple pattern fills. When there was a selection of ready-made designs in Illustrator. Open the slide-out menu for the Swatches palette and follow Open Swatch Library > Patterns to find hundreds of cool fill options.
Painting Illustrator Recommendations To Help Creatives
People who enjoy designing characters in Illustrator will be big fans of Live Paint. Before I knew about this clever tool. I used to trace my linework with colored shapes carefully, but this does all the work for you. Quickly fill forms much like the Paint Bucket tool in other apps.
Appearance
I always assumed a shape could only have a single fill and stroke in Illustrator, but that’s not the case. With the Appearances palette. Open the slide-out menu and find that you can add as many additional fills and strokes as you like.
Masks Illustrator Tips Resources Inspirations
One of the most recent tips I’ve discovered in Illustrator is using Opacity Masks. As I discussed at the end of my Letterpress Texture effect tutorial. They’re especially handy for adding non-destructive texturing to your artwork.
Final Words
There are a lot of other illustrator recommendations that I will need to explore in future articles. I would love to know if you have any other tips to improve the design. Feel free to let us know in the comments section down there.
