This course does not require any prior experience with Illustrator. The course is for beginner to intermediate level users who are either new to Adobe Illustrator CS2 or those who may have used the product but now need a thorough grounding in the essentials of using Illustrator.

* Be familiar with Windows or Mac OS X.
* Be familiar with general graphics concepts and terminology.

Lesson 1: Getting to Know the Work Area
• Viewing artwork
• Using the Illustrator tools
• Changing the view of artwork
• Working with palettes
• Using context menus
• Calibrating your monitor
• Using online Help
• Using Adobe online services

Lesson 2: Creating Basic Shapes
• Setting up the document
• Using basic shape tools
• Drawing the pencil shape
• Drawing the piece of stationery
• Decorating the stationery border
• Tips for drawing polygons, spirals, and stars
• Painting the logo
• Copying and scaling shapes
• Review questions

Lesson 3: Painting
• Filling with color
• Stroking with color
• Building a custom palette
• Copying paint attributes
• Copying appearance attributes
• Saturating colors
• Painting with patterns and gradients
• Painting with a Pattern brush

Lesson 4: Drawing with the Pen Tool
• Drawing straight lines
• Drawing curves
• Editing curves
• Finishing the pear illustration

Lesson 5: Working with Brushes
• Applying brushes to paths
• Using Art brushes
• Using Scatter brushes
• Changing the color attributes of brushes
• Using a fill color with brushes
• Using Calligraphic brushes
• Using Pattern brushes
• Creating brushes

Lesson 6: Transforming Objects
• Scaling objects
• Rotating objects
• Distorting objects
• Shearing objects
• Positioning objects precisely
• Reflecting objects
• Changing the perspective
• Using the free transform tool
• Making multiple transformations

Lesson 7: Working with Type
• Adding type to a document
• Sampling type
• Changing the character size
• Creating columns of type
• Changing character attributes of placed text
• Changing paragraph attributes
• Adjusting the text flow
• Wrapping type around a graphic
• Typing along a path
• Creating type outlines
• Creating type masks
• Saving your file for electronic distribution
Lesson 8: Blending Shapes and Colors
• Creating a gradient fill
• Adjusting the direction of the gradient blend
• Adding colors to a gradient
• Creating smooth-color blends
• Blending intermediate steps
• Modifying the blend
• Combining blends with gradients
• Exploring on your own

Lesson 9: Working with Layers
Creating layers
• Moving objects and layers
• Locking layers
• Soft-proofing colors
• Using the Document Info command
• Creating color separations
• Working with two-color illustrations
• Creating a trap
• Overprinting objects

Lesson 10: Combining Illustrator Graphics and Photoshop Images
• Combining artwork
• Vector versus bitmap graphics
• Placing an Adobe Photoshop file
• Duplicating a placed image
• Adjusting color in a placed image
• Masking an image
• Sampling colors in placed images
• Replacing a placed image
• Exporting a layered file to Photoshop
• Exploring on your own

Lesson 11: Optimizing images for the Web
• Exporting flat-color artwork
• Exporting continuous-tone and gradient artwork
• Linking objects in an image map to URLs
• Creating a Flash animation

Lesson 12: Creating Airbrush Effects
• Setting Smart Guides preferences
• Painting with the gradient mesh tool
• Specifying the number of mesh lines
• Applying colors to the mesh
• Highlighting a mesh object
• Editing mesh points
• Reflecting mesh objects
• Modifying mesh lines
• Applying transparency to a mesh

Lesson 13: Drawing Cylinders and Boxes
• Drawing three-dimensional objects
• Drawing cylinders
• Drawing boxes
• Printing Artwork and Producing Color Separations

Lesson 14: Printing: An overview
• About printing devices
• About color
• Getting started
• Color management
• Creating a radio button
• Duplicating an object
• Adding and using Custom Library items
• Adding shapes
• Adding a drop-down list
• Creating a Submit button
• Previewing and exporting the form