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Forums > Software > Illustrator
Written by Terri Stone on April 22, 2008
I'm curious to know more about people's Illustrator experience. How long have you been using it? Would you describe yourself as comfortable with it? I must admit that although I've had the app for years, I've never been as comfortable in it as I am in, say, Photoshop.
Terri Stone
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11 years
Hi Terri,
I was introduced to it while working in an architects office in Dublin, Ireland. I had to work out how to import technical files into Illustrator from AutoCAD whilst preserving the exact nature of the technical layouts - not so easy in those days - you had to save back to a particular version of DXF I remember. Then I would turn these imported lines drawings into graphic pieces that the public would understand. These pieces would be used on brochures etc,
Its an amazing program and it just keeps getting more powerful with every release. I'm not sure what my favourite command is these days but the ability to dock the palettes has definitely made life easier.
Paul Keane
Graphics IT - Engaging design for the web, print and digital presentations
web: www.graphics-it.com | email: studio@graphics-it.com | tel: +353 1 443 4828
Illustrator v Photoshop
After using Photoshop constantly for many years i have just earlier this year started using Illustrator cs2.
I love the programme and even though it can induce you to pull your own hair whilst scrabbling about in paths and anchor points the results are quite often fantastic.
However, the really nightmare of the monster in Illustrator awakens when you get into the miserable and murky ambiguous world of saving in different file formats or flattening transparency.Display artifacts around atomic regions in even the simplest of designs that might or might not export or print without a definitive answer to the problem is something i never encountered with Photoshop.When you made and saved an image in Photoshop and exported or re-opened it, it was what it was.
I don't wish to spend prescious hours of my life trawling through masses of high end technical troubleshooting text. I love making pictures or illustrations not working out the mysteries of the space time continuum through quantum mechanics!!
This whole idea that you shouldn't use certain effects or tools even once because they may or may not cause problems is bizzare.You could do what ever you wished in Photoshop without fear of being bitten and after all If effects do cause problems in Illustrator(don't work properly) , why are they there?
Illustrator wins it for me, but i wish someone could temper its subversive personality. You constantly feel as if it's working against you. Making the whole process of creating an image a battle that it won't let go of right to the very end.
Illustrator
I find it odd that one would compare Illustrator to Photoshop. I have always treated these two applications completely separately, one for my vector work, and the other for photos. Then combining both together in a layout program, which was early on Quark, and now InDesign. In any case, I have been using both PS and AI since the beginning, and while I am not a "power user" I can find my way around in both programs. I use Illustrator to design corporate logos, etc. and photoshop to montage, colour correct, close-cut etc. I work as a pre-oress operator for a busy printing company, and most of the time I am learning something on a need to know basis, ie, when something doesn't work I have to investigate and dig and find out what is wrong with the file. Most of the problems occur by people utilizing some of the filters and special tools incorrectly, producing weird artifacts etc. If you have a sqaure, that isn't touching anything, and you would like to see it at 50% of the colour, then don't make it transparent - tint it. Over-use of filters and effects "because they are there" give me a headache. :)
As to the selection problem, I guess if you are building the file from scratch, plan your layers carefully, they can be your biggest bonus with complex pieces - I remember my photoshop teacher pounding it into my head "selection is isolation", which can hold true for Illustrator. If everything is layered nicely, you can turn off what you don't want to select...
I love photoshop better
I have been using illustrator for a few months or less than a year now. I am just using it for let say create a 3d out of a flat shape, or duplicate petals of a flower (it has good rotate function), like that. But it still miss some simple tools like for example, if you want to remove a background of an image, you still have to open photoshop to do it. And oh, you could also create pdfs in photoshop, just "save as", there would e an opdtion "pdf". So all in all i still go with photoshop. It still the best. I have been using it for 3 years or so. My fist photoshop was version 6, now im using CS2.
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I've been using Illustrator since 1.0 but did my first real drawing with Illustrator 88, remember how they used to name the software according to the year. Any who I too used Freehand and like the aforementioned poster, things were a lot simpler. Illustrator is for sure a much powerful program than I'll ever use. I use it to make clean logos, but I am happy to say, I have used a lot of the features in the past but on a had to do it basis, like text on a curve and blending. I love it because of the eps clean sharpness no matter what size. Over the years in my work we had to color in and shape maps so Illustrator was indispensible. Oh well enough of the chatter. Peace and Blessings.
3 years
I have been using Illustrator for about 3 years now. I am in prepress and until recently I have only used it as a tool to take a customer file and turn it into a PDF. In the last 6 months or so I have started exploring it more as a way to improve customer's products. Some of the tips and tricks in the how to section on this website are a great resource for Illustrator and other programs.
I am using it form last
I am using it form last month only. Thanks.
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hi
hi
Illustrator
I've been using it since the beginning 1.0, while I appreciate it's complexity and bells and whistles, I wish they payed more attenction to ease of use.
In truth many years in between I used FreeHand, which would at times surpass Illustrator in features. FreeHand always beat Illustrator in the ease of use dept. The last good version of FreeHand was 9.0 after that they screwed up the interface, in what I assume was an attempt to match Illustrator. In any case if you work in graphics you must use Illustrator, which can be a very frustrating experience. I don't know why but the simple task of selecting a point on a line in a complex graphic can be maddening. In FreeHand click you had it, in Illustrator it may be part of a group or clipping mask or compound path, and determining these things can take for ever and never successfully overcome. I get a lot of graphic from the outside and editing someone elses Illustrator files is mind blowing. To the point where I can't believe there isn't a better easier way that I just don't know about (I'm mostly self taught), but asking other graphics people hasn't helped me either. I certainly would be interested to know if there is anyone out there that "knows" the solution to the selection problems?