Rating: 
Summary: An excellent "how-to" book.
Review: Adobe's "Classroom in a Book" has been a wonderful learning tool. I would strongly recommend it for anyone wanting to master Illustrator 8.0 quickly. Lessons are clearly written and cover information needed to get up and running. Going through the lessons helps to make the User Guide that comes with the program much more meaningful.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent "how-to" book.
Review: Adobe's "Classroom in a Book" has been a wonderful learning tool. I would strongly recommend it for anyone wanting to master Illustrator 8.0 quickly. Lessons are clearly written and cover information needed to get up and running. Going through the lessons helps to make the User Guide that comes with the program much more meaningful.
Rating: 
Summary: Very nice Illustrator book
Review: Adobe's In A Classroom series is definally a good line of books. They are not perfect though.Before I read this book, I really didn't know much about Illustrator but I am a Photoshop professional. I had no problem getting into the software but this book helped out a great deal. The tutorials in this book are simple and easy to follow. The only problem I have with the tutorials is that in fact they are too simple and do not go into more advance techniques that can be done with Illustrator. For example, the chapter on the uses of using the Gradient Mesh tool could of went into more about that tool. I found when using it, I can create detailed illustrations like a face for example. Also, I found myself skipping chapters because I was already familar with the tool since I knew how to use it in Photoshop. Some chapters I just skimmed and worked at a faster pace. Some of these tutorials read very slow and if your the kind of person that just likes to see what the tool is used for and then you use it the way you need to, you'll be skimming chapters as well. This book also has a whole chapter on using Illustrator to create websites, buttons, rollovers, and links via using Illustrator. The sample website the book goes over is what anyone will need if you're interested in using vector art on the web. What is sad is this book never covered using Illustrator and Macromedia Flash together, which is very possible. The CD included comes packed with very nice vector art which is used in all the chapters. Nicely organized too and shows off what you can do with Illustrator. Overall, this book definally helped me out since I never used Illustrator before I purchased the book. If you're an advanced Illustrator user, you don't need this book at all. If you're a beginner, I definally recommend this book. It helped me become for familar with drawing vector graphics, the difference between raster and vector art, and printing issues using CMYK and RGB palettes.
Rating:
Summary: Very nice Illustrator book
Review: Adobe's In A Classroom series is definally a good line of books. They are not perfect though. Before I read this book, I really didn't know much about Illustrator but I am a Photoshop professional. I had no problem getting into the software but this book helped out a great deal. The tutorials in this book are simple and easy to follow. The only problem I have with the tutorials is that in fact they are too simple and do not go into more advance techniques that can be done with Illustrator. For example, the chapter on the uses of using the Gradient Mesh tool could of went into more about that tool. I found when using it, I can create detailed illustrations like a face for example. Also, I found myself skipping chapters because I was already familar with the tool since I knew how to use it in Photoshop. Some chapters I just skimmed and worked at a faster pace. Some of these tutorials read very slow and if your the kind of person that just likes to see what the tool is used for and then you use it the way you need to, you'll be skimming chapters as well. This book also has a whole chapter on using Illustrator to create websites, buttons, rollovers, and links via using Illustrator. The sample website the book goes over is what anyone will need if you're interested in using vector art on the web. What is sad is this book never covered using Illustrator and Macromedia Flash together, which is very possible. The CD included comes packed with very nice vector art which is used in all the chapters. Nicely organized too and shows off what you can do with Illustrator. Overall, this book definally helped me out since I never used Illustrator before I purchased the book. If you're an advanced Illustrator user, you don't need this book at all. If you're a beginner, I definally recommend this book. It helped me become for familar with drawing vector graphics, the difference between raster and vector art, and printing issues using CMYK and RGB palettes.
Rating:
Summary: This book is wonderful!
Review: Attempting to master a very intimidating program such as Illustrator is very daunting. This book really helped me focus and learn the program and relax...and I'm only on the first lesson! I would recomend this book to anyone and everyone who wanted to learn Illustrator.
Rating: 
Summary: Incompatible with previous versions of Illustrator
Review: Don't buy this tutorial if you have a previous version of Illustrator. I have Illustrator 7, but this tutorial is constructed so that previous versions of Adobe Illustrator will not open the files on the tutorial CD. So you can't use it with anything except Adobe 8 or more. I looked on Adobe's website for technical support on this issue and could find nothing. It might be a wonderful tutorial, but if you have anything less that 8.0, you will need to find something else.
Rating:
Summary: Incompatible with previous versions of Illustrator
Review: Don't buy this tutorial if you have a previous version of Illustrator. I have Illustrator 7, but this tutorial is constructed so that previous versions of Adobe Illustrator will not open the files on the tutorial CD. So you can't use it with anything except Adobe 8 or more. I looked on Adobe's website for technical support on this issue and could find nothing. It might be a wonderful tutorial, but if you have anything less that 8.0, you will need to find something else.
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: Good book if you want to know the abc's of Illustrator. Well explained.
Rating: 
Summary: It is not everything I hoped for.
Review: I am computer proficient and am able to use a few drawing programs. I am trying to teach myself the Illustrator program using the software at my company (which is the Japanese version), so I wanted to buy an instruction book that could take me through the process as straight forward as possible. After reading through this basic book I found a few basic difficulties. Remember this book is my only way to understand the commands written in Japanese on my computer. Going through the pull-downs was difficult in my case so I would have liked to see a summary of commands. I also wish there was a list of hot keys like they have for the tools. Although the tools are mostly straight forward there are not definitions as to what each one does. The Illustrator software can do some great stuff however, I feel the book they produced needs a few basic admendments.
Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners!
Review: I bought Fundamental Illustrator 7 for beginners last year. The examples in that book is not good at all. I switch to I8 Classroom in a book and it does help me to master the bascis. This book is very good for beginners who want to learn the basics in a step by step format. However it's a bit dry to learn without colourful pictures and special tricks/techniques. Illustrator 8 Wow Book is a not as dry as this one (but it is not comprehensive enough).
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