Adobe Tutorial

The main advantage of Adobe Illustrator CS6 , and one of the things that differentiates it from its pixel pushing counterparts, is that it is a vector-based image editing program. If youre new to Adobe Illustrator, you might not know exactly what that means.

So in this movie, I will be walking you through exactly what a vector graphic is and how it can help you develop a more versatile graphic. So think of it like this. In traditional image editing applications like Photoshop, youre limited in terms of the output size or quality, based on the number of pixels or resolution that reside inside of an image.

This means he must constantly be aware of the DPI or PPI settings of your document, because the files are inherently resolution dependent. Now in some cases you cant get around this, like photographs for instance. Photographs cannot be taken in a vector format. Theyre made of pixels and they had to stay made of pixels. Therefore, thats when you would use a pixel-based image when youre working with photos or things that werent necessarily created on a computer.

 In Adobe Illustrator CS6 however, we are working with a vector artwork. Anything we create inside Illustrator is a vector object, and this type of graphic is resolution independent, meaning that it will be just as sharp and clean at 3 inches or 300 feet. With Illustrator CS6 Tutorial, you dont have to worry about the resolution of the file at all, because the artwork can be scaled infinitely without penalty. How cool is that?  You can create artwork inside Illustrator that isvector based and then output it to applications like Adobe InDesign and use that for output on things like business cards, letterhead, et cetera, and the vector artwork maintains itsvector nature all the way through the process.

In the other instances though, you will have to take the artwork out of  Illustrator and put it into a pixel- based format for going to areas like the web, or tablet devices and things like that. However, if you have a piece of artwork inside of Illustrator CS6 that you use for, lets say, a web button and lets say its 200 pixels by 200 pixels wide, you can then come back in at a later date and use that same image for a different project, like lets say a web banner, where you have the blow it up 300% and the artwork will scale perfectly to that size without losing any of its quality. Lets take a look at exactly what I am talking about with these graphics that I have on my screen. As you can see I have two images on my screen that look pretty much the same, but on the left I have a raster representation of this logo and on the right I have the vector equivalent. Lets first start off by taking a look at the raster-based image. If I grab my Zoom tool and I zoom in right here on the top part of this text, youll notice when I zoom in that the text is very choppy and the edge of the circle around the flower is also really jagged and nasty looking. This is because this is a raster-based image that is based upon pixels, and those little squares youre seeing, those are the pixels. And so since its not comprised of vectors, I get this pixelation.

Every time a graphic file is saved on the computer, the program saves the artwork with a specific file format. Some formats are high resolution, some are low; some are specific to the native application (like .doc files are MS Word), while others can be used by different computers and different applications.

Just as different software programs are good at performing different tasks, different file formats are good for different purposes. You wouldnt use MS Word to construct a large table of financial data; youd use MS Excel. The same principle goes for file formats, some are suited for lower-resolution web graphics and email, and others are high-resolution graphics for printing.

Who cares? You should…

This can be down right confusing for a non-expert. In fact, it can be disastrous to spend hours working on a file and have it in the wrong format. Artwork in the wrong file format might be:

• Rejected by a printer
  
• Incompatible with a computer
  
• Result in slower download times
  
• Reproduce over the Internet or on print with unpredictable or awful results.

All of these will result in costing your more time and money. The good news is: experienced business designers will know from experience exactly which file type to use for each specific circumstance.

For those looking for a little extra knowledge, or gluttons for punishment, here is a quick synopsis of when to use which file type:

.jpg - "jay peg", great for web sites and email, this file format compresses continuous-tone images (like a picture with millions of colors) down to a size that can be downloaded of the Internet quickly. The downside to this format is that compressing the image too much will cause it to visibly degrade and look jagged.

.gif - "gifs", pronounced with a "G", not a "J", also a terrific file type for the Internet and emailing. Gifs do an incredible job of compressing images and making them suitable for fast downloads. In contrast to the .jpg, the .gif is not suited for non-continuous color images, but solid colored images (some cartoons or clip art is a good example of this). One added bonus is that the .gif images can be placed on a web page with an clear background, so you layer them on a web page. Sometimes the artwork has a sharp, unattractive border when the images background invisible, when this happens, go with the next file type, the .png.

.png - "pings" or "p.n.gs:, this format can act as a hybrid between the .jpg and the .gif, it allows users to compress either non/continuous-tone color images, and allow you to put the on a web page with a clear background. .Pngs are usually larger in file size than the previous file formats but they allow people to save artwork to be layered on web pages or other artwork without any sharp or disruptive border. .Pngs are extremely versatile, but they usually result in larger files and longer download times.

.eps - "encapsulated postScript", these files can be vector or raster - which makes them extremely powerful, this goes beyond the scope of this article. Professional printers and printable advertising media, like a magazine, will typically ask that the artwork be saved as an .eps file or perhaps a .tif. Recently the .pdf document has made some headway into certain areas of printed media as well.

.tif - "tagged image file format", a versatile color space file format (CMYK, RGB, Grayscale) and cross-platform between Mac and PC. The .tif file format was originally intended for scanning, and a lot of scanned images are saved as tifs. Printers and advertisers will often request or permit final artwork to be designed in a tif.

.pdf - "portable document format", Adobes native file format that is read by a program called Adobe Acrobat. Most computer users have Acrobat on their system, if they dont they can download Acrobat Reader for free. The .pdf has a wide range of uses, including a lot of usage on web, interactive forms and they can even be used for printing.

Top 5 Indications Youve Used the Wrong File Format

The printer you are using starts to laugh at you
The printer you are using starts to cry in front of you
Colleagues complain that you are filling up her/his mailbox with large image files
Prospects visiting your web site indicate your company logo looked out of focus and more like a blob of mustard and relish
Youve decided on which file format to use based on a novel magic 8 ball