Illustrator has long since grown from simple illustration tool to full-fledged graphics package. So don't waste time groping your way throughIllustrator 10's deep tool kit. Pick up Adobe Illustrator 10 Classroomin a Book, a thorough, self-paced guide to the key features of theprogram, developed by the staff at Adobe and packed full of professionaltechniques and tips.

Adobe Illustrator 10 Classroom in a Book delivers what no other bookcan promise: official training from Adobe, tested in the company's ownclassrooms and labs. This comprehensive workbook is structured as a seriesof lessons, with a companion CD containing all the necessary files. Eachchapter is a hands-on project, and each project builds on your growingknowledge of Illustrator. Review questions wrap up every lesson toreinforce the concepts you've just put into practice. With Adobe Illustrator 10 Classroom in a Book, you'll learn how to manipulate type, blend colors, apply special effects, and prepare your work forprinting and other output in record time.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

Best beginners supplement to product manual - 2003-10-24
Reviewer Rating:
Although I had a lot of experience with CAD programs, I struggled with Illustrator 8. I finally upgraded to v. 10 and bought Classroom In a Book for that version. You CAN teach yourself Illustrator with the manual and this book in a few weeks. ICIAB is a good supplement to the manual, which for reasons that always baffled me, has too few illustrations for information aimed at visually oriented people.

You will have to do some experimentation to get full benefit from the lessons, but I picked up things I was clueless on before. It does help to have some additional book such as Visual series (PeachPit Press) for details not covered.

Downside: some errors of tools or keys, nothing serious. But I was disappointed by two topics; the web chapter separately covers making a Flash animation for the web, and slicing a graphic for the web, but while the "finished" version of the lesson shows both in a complete web page, the lesson doesn't tell you how to put them together without the Adobe Web program (too expensive for me). You have put both html files in a text editor and combine them using the complete example for reference as to where to put the Flash file and what to include or leave out.

Also, the section in lesson 6 on data/variable objects is applied in a page of business cards, but doesn't explain how to get the data base and variable fields applied to all incidences of the biz cards on the sheet. I did figure it out for myself, but it took me about an hour of experiment, and is almost as tedious as just editing the file, though once the database is set up it would be quick to print out new cards with the variations.

But overall, a really good way to learn Illustrator to an intermediate level, and a whole lot cheaper than any class I've looked into (plus classes tend to be taught on MACs in my area).

Tutorial style book for creating illustrations, artwork, etc - 2003-10-05
Reviewer Rating:
After first determining why I needed Illustrator when I already had Photoshop, I picked up this book because of my positive experience with another book from this Classroom in a Book series (Photoshop 7.0). And this book does not disappoint in the least bit either.

It follows a tutorial style approach to teaching how to use Illustrator (both Mac and Windows versions). The book is mostly black and white with all the relevant color pictures tucked between lesson 12 and 13. It hasn't caused me any problems as I follow along on the computer as I read the book (I have a color monitor).

In 15 lessons, this book does an excellent job of teaching you how to use Illustrator 10 without having to be in a classroom. All lesson files are on the CD-ROM that comes with the book. The book starts off with explaining how to use the Work Area and builds from the basic to the more complex topics. The basic topics of creating shapes, painting, drawing, working with brushes are followed by the more difficult topics of transforming objects, working with type, blending shapes and colors, etc.

Even though the two programs Photoshop and Illustrator are coming closer with each new version, the main differences between them are to do with whether you want to start with an existing photo and modify it for print & web or you want to start from scratch and create illustrations and artwork for print & web. I am oversimplifying here but this explanation helps me keep the differences between these two programs straight in my head.

The technological differences are that Photoshop uses bitmaps to represent images and Illustrator uses vectors (and complex mathematical equations) to represent the images. Of course, you don't need to bother with this part as it is irrelevant to using the tools effectively.

I use both Photoshop and Illustrator for basic web design but mostly stay with Photoshop. The reason for this is that I am a photographer and have never been good at artwork so I use Illustrator mostly as a hobby to improve my creativity in this area. It has been a lot of fun for me and I hope the same for you! Have fun learning to use this amazing and cool tool! And don't forget to check out Adobe's website for their latest release of Adobe CS (Creative Suite) that includes the next version of Illustrator after Illustrator 10.

Easy to Follow Lesson Plans - 2003-06-13
Reviewer Rating:
I've always liked the Adobe Classroom in a Book series. This book is no exception. The lesson plans are easy to follow and structured in a way that allows even the most inept user to create nice looking illustrations. A very good beginner's book that teaches the basics as well as time saving shortcuts.

If you're going to criticize someone... - 2003-09-07
Reviewer Rating:
This book came highly recommended by an Illustrator 10 instuctor. It's an excellent resource for a very powerful software application. One doesn't need to be very technically oriented to get the most out of this book.

(Note to "A reader" from Hollywood, CA USA: You may benefit from the English course into which you suggested Chris Youngs enroll himself. I am confident that, if you do, you will learn that languages are always capitalized. Until then, perhaps you will realize that you do not possess perfect grammar skills either and your tacky comments should kept to yourself.)

Definitive - 2008-04-15
Reviewer Rating:
As a professional graphic designer, and a power user of Adobe Illustrator, this is the only book I recommend for someone who wants to learn this program.

You'll need at least a week of concentration, best to carefully ready the whole book. (This is not a quick start book)

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