Day 2: Getting Started in Illustrator

By Tony Soh

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If you haven’t gotten your Illustrator, you can download the 30 days trial from Adobe’s download page. After installing, we will run Illustrator for the first time.

Create New Document

Go File>New Document to create your first document. Type in a Name for the document and click Advanced to select RGB for Color Mode as we will be working for the screen. Click Ok after that.

Illustrator Workspace

Below is the workspace and some common terms for calling it. If you are using the latest Adobe Illustrator CS3, you will notice to new design for Floating Palette. The rest looks about the same.

Toolbox

This is the handy toolbox which we will use most often. By default, it comes in one single column as shown in the screenshot above. To switch it back to the old 2 columns toolbox, you can simply click the top left mini arrow to toggle it into 2 columns. Some of the tools like Rectangle have more tools hidden. To expand, just click and hold the icon to reveal all the similar tools under that group.

Floating Palette

This is the floating palette which contains properties for our shapes. It is commonly used for changing colors and stroke width.

Saving AI Files

Let’s select the type and click on the artboard and type some text. After that go to File>Save. Select Adobe Illustrator(*.AI) for file type and name it “First Drawing”. Click Ok after that. Leave the rest of the settings at default. You have successfully save your first file. To make any more changes you can simply open the Adobe Illustrator file.

Next Lesson: Drawing Basic Shapes
Back to Illustrator Training Course

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About The Author: Tony Soh

Hi. I'm the founder of Vector Diary. Illustrator is my passion and I have written numerous tutorials on illustrator helping people learn illustrator. My most popular tutorial on learn illustrator has been a hit. It makes learning illustrator so easy and has benefited more than 20,000 people worldwide. Also, I've revealed some of my secret techniques in the premium tutorials. So don't forget to check it out!

Read more by Tony Soh

• Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Quilt Block
• Day 16: Basic Text
• Day 3: Drawing Basic Shapes
• Illustrator Tutorial: Eye-Catching 3d Pie Graph
• Illustrator Tutorial: Waving Flag of the USA

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+Add Comment34 Comments

1. 
   Rubske July 15th

   Hello,

   Im from netherland. I go on vacation friday. The lessons stays on this site? I hope so

   Please send a answer to: rubske40@hotmail.com

2. 
   iStockdiary July 15th

   Don’t worry. It will be around. Enjoy your vacation!

3. 
   Cristian M July 25th

   Thank you so so so much for this tutorial!!!!!!!!!!

4. 
   Klaus July 27th

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5. 
   Alfredo August 20th

   Thank you so much for this!!!! I love it =D

6. 
   Jaikumar September 9th

   Its really good

7. 
   Erika September 25th

   I used freehand before, but since I had a new job, I need to learn this software

   n ur tutorial is really helpful, thx

8. 
   gibori October 23rd

   Hola este tutorial es muy bueno y quiero agradecer, ya que me ha servido de mucho en mi trabajo diario.

   Gracias y Saludos a todos.

9. 
   Trish Perry November 1st

   I am trying to learn illustrator cs3 after using adobe photoshopX2 for years is there anything that can translate how to from photoshop to illustrator? I am lost with out my color palet and how it changes colors so easily. I am even having trouble getting my first page setup. How do you add new layers and rasters?

10. 
    o m g January 30th

    omg this is soooo cool devon

11. 
    Tissaka Senarath February 28th

    Thank you very much for this tutorial. It really helped. I really wanted to learn Ai. Thank you once again.

    Regards
    Tissaka

12. 
    Riyaz March 5th

    I am join the class 2day i think am a export in illustrator after 30 days thank you very much this sit totorial bilder

13. 
    faisal March 24th

    plz give me a setup of latest version of adobe illustrator PLZ PLZ PLZ

14. 
    Cisse March 28th

    May I kindly ask you how I can keep track of my objects similar to the old fireworks. I develop mostly for web, and I want the x and y positions of my objects, even adjusting them without having to move by them by mouse.

15. 
    OMAR April 5th

    hola soy omar de colombia gracias por el tutorial esta buenisimo.
    me gustaris saber si puedo encontrar la pagina en español, por que me toca ver la pagina en version traducida y ahi cosas que no entiendo, les agradeceria mucho mas su gran colaboracion.

16. 
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    hi i submited a request a couple of days ago i thougth i was gonna get emails from u everyday on video or something does it work like this?? thanks

17. 
    Kamna May 1st

    Thank you so much for this guideness.Its really helpful for me.

18. 
    Nancy Kashkoul May 23rd

    Thank you do much for this great web site.

19. 
    mohammed shahzad October 13th

    thanku very much sir tony soh i m anew user of illustrator thanks alot dear sir

20. 
    jufron June 2nd

    good site… very helpful for me..

21. 
    moonxie June 15th

    Thanks so much for these great tutorials – I was originally planning to get a 600+ page book from barnes & noble, but your site makes illustrator so much more easier to learn.

22. 
    SEO Pakistan September 18th

    So much easy to understand i am glad that you are genious in delivering such great lectures

23. 
    RebojoLandscaper October 1st

    I just do what is in your tutorial and it was great, i Learned that easy. For the long-time I used photoshop but now maybe i will go for Illustrator, and gonna make some vectorize images.
    Thanks.

24. 
    MichaelV November 29th

    Day 2: Still going through the basics – which is essential (and fine by me) – although some of those things on the toolbox don’t make a lot of sense to me at the moment. Hopefully things will become much clearer as I progress through the course. A bit nervous but excited too because I hate not being able to grasp something – especially when it’s being spelled out.

25. 
    Rommel March 25th

    I’m color blind,red and green deficient,is that a problem?

26. 
    farhan July 10th

    hey sir plz send me basic of illustrator cs5 i m soo confused abt dis ?

27. 
    ulises November 9th

    soy principiante y me gusta este programa voy a hecharle
    ganas quiero aprender para superarme pues ya soy adulto

28. 
    Ricky November 16th

    Thanks for these fantastic Illustrator tutorials – this will help me so much!

29. 
    Cheryl Anderson May 13th

    I have Illustrator CS3. When I opened my first document, there is no Floating Palette. Can you tell me how to find it?

30. 
    Tania July 2nd

    Jazak Allah:)

31. 
    ABDULLAH September 11th

    HI,
    GODAY,
    PLEASE HELP ME REGARDING NEW LEARNER OR ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR,
    KINDLY SEND ME SOME OUTLINE FOR USING ILLUSTROR

32. 
    AJ April 2nd

    For some reason, my control panel looks different and I’m not sure how to get it to look like this. Is it the version of Illustrator I’m using? Its CS3. I’m trying to learn to change the stroke and fill color in control panel and CS3′s version doesn’t have it. No big deal; just wondering if there was any way to get it on control panel.

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