Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-tos: 100 Essential Techniques [Paperback]

I purchased "AI CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques" because I consider myself to be a beginner with AI, and wanted a book that would provide a basic introduction to AI CS3. Although the book does a good job in covering most basic techniques (as well as some not-so-basic techniques), I found that it really was too basic, and lacked the detail (as well as examples) to address many of the questions that I had. Most How-tos are 2 pages long and are pretty skeletal. I was surprised at the absence of color (odd in an illustrator book?) and that some of the screenshots were two small to clearly show the author's intent. In all, I couldn't figure out who this book would be for. CS3 is a complex, professional level application. Anyone having the need to purchase CS3 will ultimately require more guidance than was offered.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 (for short, AI) is the top software for creating vector artwork, that's infinitely scalable with perfectly crisp edges (as opposed to bitmap images, like JPGs, that become jagged when their size is increased). AI is capable of some gorgeous effects -- not just objects or typography but "painterly" gradient shadings -- that can be scaled in size from a tiny drawing to a billboard without any loss of perfectly smooth edges. The trouble comes in learning how to use the daunting AI, which feels much less intuitive than, say, Photoshop. Enter Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques, by David Karlins and Bruce K. Hopkins. Through a hundred concise chapters, covering every important aspect of AI with clear hands-on directions, the authors have made AI as "user-friendly" as, say, Dreamweaver CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques by David Karlins (I also gave it a 5-star review here at Amazon), and for many of the same reasons.

Adobe's software can achieve the miraculous... if you know how to use it. BIG "IF"! But I do not like their built-in Help items, that more often than not send you down one rabbit hole after another, before (maybe) giving the information needed to accomplish a particular task. (The fact that the process usually turns out to be "simple" -- go to this menu item, do that -- never makes me feel any better.) And scrolling through the massive manual in PDF format to look up what you need is equally un-fun and time-consuming. But this AI CS3 How-Tos book is great because it can go into much more detail than the built-in Help items, yet it's much more flexible and comprehensive than even the massive Adobe Classroom in a Book (CiB). (Those ponderous tomes, which I'd tried using with earlier versions of AI, turned me off of the software, since what I needed to learn wasn't part of the few large-scale projects CiB uses as learning devices.)

Now, when I need to know how to do something, I immediately turn to the How-Tos book... and almost always find what I'm looking for in a matter of seconds.

With AI CS3 How-Tos, my comfort level is increasing rapidly -- meaning I'm getting some practical/creative use out of this wallet-emptying software -- as the authors clearly walk us through every important aspect of AI. The book explains all of the basics (creating a new document; setting up your workspace; printing (not as straightforward as you'd think!); drawing with lines, shapes, brushes; editing paths; working with layers; using transparency, blending, 3-D and other effects; more), as well as the many advanced features, both old and new. Each of the innovations in AI CS3 gets at least one chapter, as with the brand-new Live Trace (lets you convert bitmap to vector images for scalable use), Live Color (to explore countless variations in hue), eraser tool (at last!), advanced typography, Adobe Flash integration, and more. These are not step-by-step projects, which is not their purpose; they are simply clear guides on how to use a particular feature or set of features -- this is a BYOC (Bring Your Own Creativity) kind of book.

One of AI CS3 How-Tos' many strengths is that you can check the index for exactly what you're searching for. Most chapters are self-contained, but if it requires some background information, the authors tell you where, in this book, to find what you need. There are also many useful subsidiary tips, included in gray-colored sidebars, throughout the book -- these allow the authors to keep a tight focus within the main chapter, while still giving valuable 'bonus' information.

I wish all instructional works were this well thought out, clear, and useful. Five stars, for this indispensable guide.

As a beginner at AI, I needed a way to get a quick understanding of the software without having to wade through a bunch of opinion or wasted commentary. This book provided me with a very clean, staged, well-organized and well-written introduction. It covers all the important topics in a sequence that helps you build skills, but without forcing you to do exercises that might be good pedagogically, but don't give the sophisticated practitioner any direct line to his or her particular goal.

Highly recommended.