{"id":1984,"date":"2025-09-11T22:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T22:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/comdtech\/?p=1984"},"modified":"2025-09-11T22:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T22:43:51","slug":"illustrator-intro-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/comdtech\/2025\/09\/11\/illustrator-intro-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"Illustrator Intro Demo"},"content":{"rendered":"

This tutorial corresponds to an in-class demo for COMD 200 (last updated Fall 2025.) Let’s practice setting up an Adobe Illustrator file, and working with some vector shapes!<\/p>\n

You may also find it useful to take a look at this post about the difference between vector graphics and raster graphics.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Creating a New Document<\/h1>\n

\"Creating<\/p>\n

File > New…<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the file is meant for print<\/strong>, it’s a good idea to match the intended paper size. Our files for the COMD 200 movie poster project are going to be\u00a024 inches wide and 36 inches high.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you’re creating something that’s only for screens<\/strong> and not for print, you might want to look at the presets in the Web or Mobile categories instead. The main differences between the different categories like Print, Web, or Mobile are the default units and colours, and the list of presets conveniently pre-sized for common formats (like standard paper or screen sizes.) You can either start with a preset that’s a good match for your project, or customize your new document however you like.<\/p>\n

For this demo, we’re going to choose Letter<\/strong> from the Print presets, set the units to Inches<\/strong>, and choose the horizontal (landscape) orientation.<\/p>\n

Artboards<\/strong> is the number of “pages” in your Illustrator document, even though it doesn’t use the word pages here. Each artboard will be one page when you either send your Illustrator file to print, or save it as a PDF. You can also change this at any time while you’re working, which we’ll do below.<\/p>\n

Properties<\/h1>\n

\"Blank<\/p>\n

Here’s our new blank document: the white part is the artboard<\/strong>, and the gray part is called the pasteboard<\/strong>. The pasteboard is extra working space that doesn’t print, and isn’t included in exported PDFs and image files.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at some settings: look for Properties<\/strong> at the right side of the screen (and if you don’t see it there, it can be opened through the menu with\u00a0Window > Properties.<\/strong>) A few things to notice:<\/p>\n