| While
nothing can beat the personal touch of a hand-lettered
page, computer lettering is a great way for the
artist to achieve professional looking page. One
of the most commonly used programs to create both
letters and word balloons is Adobe Illustrator.
The
object of this tutorial is to help guide you
through the basics of lettering your pages with
a computer. This tutorial is intended for Illustrator
8, the technique for older versions is the same,
but certain tools may be located in different
areas. For the software impaired, there is a
free trial
version of Adobe Illustrator 8 available
for download at Adobe's website.
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Adobe
Illustrator 8 is a vector based program, as opposed
to Photoshop which is pixel based. Vector art
is made of points connected by lines, curved or
straight. The major advantage of vector over pixel
is that vectors can be resized without any loss
of image quality. At the right, you see Illustrator's
toolbox, the tools in the toolbox let you create,
select, and manipulate objects in Illustrator.
I will be briefly explaining the tools that you
will need to letter your pages. You can find much
more information about all of the tools in the
manual or help file.
A
The Selection tool, it lets you
select entire objects or an entire path by selecting
any spot on the path.
B
The Direct-Selection tool lets you
select individual anchor points or segments on
a path and displays all direction lines on a path
for adjusting.
C
The Pen tool, which lets you create
straight lines and smooth, flowing curves with
great precision. For most users, it is the most
powerful and flexible drawing tool in Illustrator,
as it provides the best control and greatest accuracy
for drawing.
D
The Type tools are used to enter
type anywhere in the Illustrator work area. By
clicking and dragging diagonally, you can define
a text rectangle. The text rectangle you create
is unpainted (not filled or stroked). When you
enter the type into the box the type wraps to
fit inside the defined area.
E
The Ellipse and Rectangle tools,
these are used to draw ellipses and rectangles
which are used in forming the word balloons.
F
Is the Fill and Stroke tool, these
are used to set the color of your objects.
G
is the Color, Gradient, and None buttons.
You use these buttons to change the selected fill
or stroke to a color, to change a fill to a gradient,
or to remove the fill or stroke from the selected
object.
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 Topic
#2:
Adding
the words...
Next,
we discuss adding the text to your part of your word
balloons.
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