Teach Yourself Illustrator 8.0

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners!
Review: I bought this book from the blurb on the back, saying its for beginners, Jargon free, and assumes no previous knowledge of the programme. I thought this would be fine, as I am very familiar with Adobe products, i.e. Photoshop, Framemaker etc, and while not very familiar with Illustrator, have at least used it to open, close and make minor changes to graphics. I thought this would help me trawl through the basics in a couple of hours, instead of giving me a major headache. The problems kicked in about page 45. Everything was quite clear up to that, there is a clearly explained system of exclamation marks, bullet points etc to help you on your way. I found that the explanations using pen tools and paths very difficult to understand and although following the step-by-step procedures, they did not make sense. I figured I was just being an idiot, but I asked 2 other long-term Illustrator users to try and follow these instructions, to their bafflement. Now, I am only half way through the book, and it may improve, I will give it another 10 pages before giving up! But I would not recommend this for beginners.

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners!
Review: it's my first illustrator book i ever bought. I had spend whole thursday and friday to look up and learn the illustrator by following the directions from this book. this book is not that big (only about 3 in*6 in with 200 page) . And the book is available for both PC and Macintosh computer. Actually i think author had concentraded on those essential controls and techniques for each introduction ( that's why the book is made so small) and good origanize with step by step introductions. In some final lessons author had covered all the techniques he has introduced in order let's review them quickly. the disvantage is some of techniques introduce vaguely. however, you can just finish it within few days and get know how to use illustrator very quickly.

Rating:
Summary: my first book
Review: it's my first illustrator book i ever bought. I had spend whole thursday and friday to look up and learn the illustrator by following the directions from this book. this book is not that big (only about 3 in*6 in with 200 page) . And the book is available for both PC and Macintosh computer. Actually i think author had concentraded on those essential controls and techniques for each introduction ( that's why the book is made so small) and good origanize with step by step introductions. In some final lessons author had covered all the techniques he has introduced in order let's review them quickly. the disvantage is some of techniques introduce vaguely. however, you can just finish it within few days and get know how to use illustrator very quickly.