The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS Web Graphic Techniques

Rating:
Summary: Illustrator CS: Not Just For Print Anymore
Review: Adobe Illustrator is a highly regarded professional software for creating digital artwork. Over the years Illustrator's capabilities have been closely identified with print publishing, where the application's high quality precise vector line-art can be scaled up or down in size and not change its resolution. It turns out there's far more uses for Illustrator than just print work. Adobe has been steadily adding features in its last three versions that make Illustrator a very valuable tool for creating Web graphics.

"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques", by author Steve Kurth, focuses on many features that Adobe has bestowed to its latest version of Illustrator. What the book does very well is elaborate on important Web graphics features that Adobe sparingly describes in its Illustrator CS users manual, or omits all together.

Prior to reading "The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" I've been creating navigation buttons, banners, and most other Web page visual components in PhotoShop. If I've needed to slice a graphic or create a button roll-over effect, I have relied on PhotoShop's integrated companion ImageReady. Thanks to this book I'm now much better informed about what Illustrator CS can offer, and it's going to change the way I create Web graphics.

I wouldn't recommend this book for the person who hasn't spent some time using Adobe Illustrator. The author attempts to address many of the application's basic features in the first two chapters. However, it's not going to be adequate for beginners, although users already experienced with Macromedia FreeHand or CorelDraw may find these two chapters quite useful for understanding and adapting their acquired knowledge into effectively using Illustrator CS.

Chapter Three begins explaining what makes Illustrator CS such a great tool for creating Web graphics. The author, Steve Kurth, has more than 10 years experience as a graphics professional. His "how-to's" with Illustrator CS are peppered with explanations of time-saving techniques for increasing workflow productivity when creating Web graphics with Adobe Illustrator. This is particularly the case in chapters five and six "Preparing The Work Environment" and "Preparing Single Graphics".

In Chapter Eight, "Creating Complete Pages", Steve Kurth explains and shows (with sample screen shots) how an entire Web page can be an Illustrator graphic sliced into sections that lessen the apparent wait of screen loading for dial-up users. He also explains how links can be created with specific bits of HTML code embedded into Illustrator Web graphics. Additionally, there are good explanations and examples throughout the chapter explaining how important Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) embedded code can be for precise placement and alignment of graphics in a Web page (better than HTML code instructions), and for creating fancy functional items such as drop-down menus.

With Adobe having given Illustrator CS 3-D graphics creation abilities, the possibilities for making sophisticated Web animations are exciting. Chapter Nine provides some easy-to-follow examples that certainly fueled a number of animation ideas I will be trying. Sequential frames created in Illustrator layers can be exported as a series of GIF graphics, or they can be exported to Macromedia Flash, Adobe AfterEffects or LiveMotion to create quick-loading vector graphics animations.

Chapter Ten is devoted to explaining the features, advantages, and the hopes for the Scaled Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Similar to SWF Flash files, SVG is also a quick-loading vector format that displays well in Web browsers-as long as you have the free plug-in that must be downloaded from Adobe and installed. Unlike the proprietary Flash format, SVG is an open standard. The descriptions given of SVG makes it seem considerably more versatile for website designers than SWF. The Flash plug-in, however, was introduced well before SVG and now enjoys a much larger market share. SVG's ultimate success (and survival) may hinge on developers writing future versions of Web browsers that will natively display the SVG format the way they currently support JPEG, GIF, and PNG.

"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" is a treasure of information. If you use Illustrator and have not moved up to CS (v. 11), the book will likely motivate an upgrade.

Tom Shackle is a freelance media professional and a member of the Alaskan Apple Users Group

Rating:
Summary: Illustrator CS: Not Just For Print Anymore
Review: Adobe Illustrator is a highly regarded professional software for creating digital artwork. Over the years Illustrator's capabilities have been closely identified with print publishing, where the application's high quality precise vector line-art can be scaled up or down in size and not change its resolution. It turns out there's far more uses for Illustrator than just print work. Adobe has been steadily adding features in its last three versions that make Illustrator a very valuable tool for creating Web graphics.

"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques", by author Steve Kurth, focuses on many features that Adobe has bestowed to its latest version of Illustrator. What the book does very well is elaborate on important Web graphics features that Adobe sparingly describes in its Illustrator CS users manual, or omits all together.

Prior to reading "The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" I've been creating navigation buttons, banners, and most other Web page visual components in PhotoShop. If I've needed to slice a graphic or create a button roll-over effect, I have relied on PhotoShop's integrated companion ImageReady. Thanks to this book I'm now much better informed about what Illustrator CS can offer, and it's going to change the way I create Web graphics.

I wouldn't recommend this book for the person who hasn't spent some time using Adobe Illustrator. The author attempts to address many of the application's basic features in the first two chapters. However, it's not going to be adequate for beginners, although users already experienced with Macromedia FreeHand or CorelDraw may find these two chapters quite useful for understanding and adapting their acquired knowledge into effectively using Illustrator CS.

Chapter Three begins explaining what makes Illustrator CS such a great tool for creating Web graphics. The author, Steve Kurth, has more than 10 years experience as a graphics professional. His "how-to's" with Illustrator CS are peppered with explanations of time-saving techniques for increasing workflow productivity when creating Web graphics with Adobe Illustrator. This is particularly the case in chapters five and six "Preparing The Work Environment" and "Preparing Single Graphics".

In Chapter Eight, "Creating Complete Pages", Steve Kurth explains and shows (with sample screen shots) how an entire Web page can be an Illustrator graphic sliced into sections that lessen the apparent wait of screen loading for dial-up users. He also explains how links can be created with specific bits of HTML code embedded into Illustrator Web graphics. Additionally, there are good explanations and examples throughout the chapter explaining how important Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) embedded code can be for precise placement and alignment of graphics in a Web page (better than HTML code instructions), and for creating fancy functional items such as drop-down menus.

With Adobe having given Illustrator CS 3-D graphics creation abilities, the possibilities for making sophisticated Web animations are exciting. Chapter Nine provides some easy-to-follow examples that certainly fueled a number of animation ideas I will be trying. Sequential frames created in Illustrator layers can be exported as a series of GIF graphics, or they can be exported to Macromedia Flash, Adobe AfterEffects or LiveMotion to create quick-loading vector graphics animations.

Chapter Ten is devoted to explaining the features, advantages, and the hopes for the Scaled Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Similar to SWF Flash files, SVG is also a quick-loading vector format that displays well in Web browsers-as long as you have the free plug-in that must be downloaded from Adobe and installed. Unlike the proprietary Flash format, SVG is an open standard. The descriptions given of SVG makes it seem considerably more versatile for website designers than SWF. The Flash plug-in, however, was introduced well before SVG and now enjoys a much larger market share. SVG's ultimate success (and survival) may hinge on developers writing future versions of Web browsers that will natively display the SVG format the way they currently support JPEG, GIF, and PNG.

"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" is a treasure of information. If you use Illustrator and have not moved up to CS (v. 11), the book will likely motivate an upgrade.

Tom Shackle is a freelance media professional and a member of the Alaskan Apple Users Group

Rating:
Summary: Good - and Not Just Web Stuff
Review: I got this book even though I already know Illustrator. I am a print designer and I wanted to learn web stuff, too. There was plenty of that, and current stuff too. A lot of books on web graphics were written 4 years ago and a lot has changed. This book was up-todate and pertintent. It was complete and easy-to -read.

The part that came as a surprise is that I learned a lot I didn't know about Illustrator in general while reading it. I was surprised at that. I especially liked the animation section. A good book for any Illustrator user.

Rating:
Summary: Sheading new light on Illustrator
Review: I hardly ever buy books on software because they are all hard to read and follow. This book intrigued me because I am coming from an extensive print background trying to venture into web design. Who knew the program that I use on a daily basis had such web design power? This book is awesome, it's set up in a clear, easy to follow way and the author is extremely knowledgable in the ways of Illustrator. Pick up this book now!

Rating:
Summary: Express instructions, screenshots, tutorials, & more
Review: The Hidden Power Of Illustrator CS Web Graphics Techniques by Illustrator CS software expert Steve Kurth is a "do-it-yourself" guidebook for tapping into the depths of Adobe Illustrator's graphics capabilities with respect to an effective and attractive website presentation. Express instructions, screenshots, tutorials for advanced web tools, instructions for building one's own page, and so much more utilizing Illustrator CS software fill the pages of this resourceful and easy-to-follow instructional from cover to cover.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing book about Illustrator for web
Review: This book was a real eye opener for me. I love Illustrator, and I've been using it for many years, but never realized it has such practical application for web design. Steve Kurth gives practical examples of ways to make your workflow more productive, and his technical expertise in Illustrator is unsurpassed.

Kurth presents a comprehensive training course in the efficient use of Illustrator and aspects that especially apply to web creation. The "Save for Web Reference" gave an excellent overview of file formats and optimizing for web.

Some features were new to me, such as exporting to CSS layers for creating motion animation and more complex design effects. Pixel dimensions when transferring art to GoLive and Dreamweaver was a very useful reference. I found the detailed color discussion most informative.

In the section on creating browser templates. Steve Kurth walks us through constructing an Illustrator template for creating a full web page, something I had never thought of doing before.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fully and efficiently using Illustrator to design for web. It will definitely increase your production knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing book about Illustrator for web
Review: This book was a real eye opener for me. I love Illustrator, and I've been using it for many years, but never realized it has such practical application for web design. Steve Kurth gives practical examples of ways to make your workflow more productive, and his technical expertise in Illustrator is unsurpassed.

Kurth presents a comprehensive training course in the efficient use of Illustrator and aspects that especially apply to web creation. The "Save for Web Reference" gave an excellent overview of file formats and optimizing for web.

Some features were new to me, such as exporting to CSS layers for creating motion animation and more complex design effects. Pixel dimensions when transferring art to GoLive and Dreamweaver was a very useful reference. I found the detailed color discussion most informative.

In the section on creating browser templates. Steve Kurth walks us through constructing an Illustrator template for creating a full web page, something I had never thought of doing before.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fully and efficiently using Illustrator to design for web. It will definitely increase your production knowledge.