Adobe 26001648 - Illustrator CS3 User manual

ADOBE®ILLUSTRATOR®CS3
FREEHAND TO ILLUSTRATOR MIGRATION GUIDE

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Macromedia®FreeHand®to Adobe®Illustrator®CS3 Migration Guide
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Contents
Introduction ............................................... 4
The purpose of this guide and how it can be useful for FreeHand users.
Key Terms .................................................. 6
Learn how Illustrator terms compare with those in FreeHand.
Converting Macromedia FreeHand Documents............... 9
Discover how to open your FreeHand documents in Illustrator.
The Illustrator Workspace..................................10
Take a tour of the Illustrator CS3 workspace, which oers robust new
creativity tools, a context-sensitive Control panel, and custom workspaces
for personal preferences or project requirements.
Setting up a New Document................................15
Learn how to best prepare your artboard for your illustrations.
Working with Graphics.....................................20
See how easy it is to create predictable gradients, patterns, and elaborate
eects.
Working with Text.........................................31
Take your text to a new level with extensive and powerful text tools,
including Character and Paragraph panels and styles, exible OpenType
fonts, support for text on a path, and more.
Saving and Exporting Files.................................35
Save and export your artwork to many standard le formats such as PDF, SVG,
and Flash for print, web and interactive, and mobile and motion designs.
Printing...................................................40
Print your artwork reliably, thanks to a streamlined print interface and such
features as support for transparency attening and Adobe PDF output.
Keyboard Shortcuts .......................................44
A list of some of the most useful Illustrator CS3 keyboard shortcuts.
Additional Resources......................................48
Information on many useful resources for anyone who wants to learn
more about Illustrator features, tools, and techniques.

4 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
Welcome, and thank you for having made the move or thinking about moving
from Macromedia® FreeHand® to Adobe Illustrator® CS3.
FreeHand is no longer being developed to be compatible with new operating
systems and hardware, or to provide integration with other key design applica-
tions, such as Adobe Photoshop® CS3 and Adobe InDesign® CS3. Your move
to Illustrator is an important step to ensure that you can take advantage of new
technologies and capabilities as they become available.
is guide explains the main dierences between the two programs and
introduces you to some of the features that make Illustrator the industry-
standard tool for creating vector graphics for any media. It was written speci-
cally for FreeHand users like you, to help you transition to Illustrator as quickly
and as smoothly as possible.
Your experience using FreeHand will give you a good foundation for moving
to Illustrator, and the import of FreeHand les has been updated to support
FreeHand MX. If you have been using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe InDesign,
your move will be even easier, because all Adobe graphics applications share
common commands, panels, and keyboard shortcuts.
Illustrator is tightly integrated with all components of Adobe Creative Suite® 3,
and now with Adobe Bridge CS3, it has become easier than ever to manage
and organize les. In Creative Suite 3, the Adobe standard interface has been
updated to be more ecient, and is consistent between Photoshop CS3,
InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, and Adobe Flash® CS3 Professional.
e Live Trace and Live Paint features in Illustrator make it easier to get your
sketches onto your artboard as vector graphics, and Live Color presents a new
and exciting environment for exploring color harmonies and interactively
applying color to any selection of objects. Integration with Photoshop, including
the ability to choose layer comps during import and support for Photoshop
lters and eects, opens new horizons for vector graphics. Illustrator also gives
you access to many OpenType® features to help you create beautiful typography.
Illustrator CS3 integrates beautifully with Flash CS3 Professional. Now you
can copy/paste or import your Illustrator artwork into Flash, condent that the
critical elements in your Illustrator artwork are maintained in Flash.
We hope this guide gives you the the basics to explore Illustrator CS3, and
makes your transition from FreeHand a little bit easier.
Introduction

PureEnergy
Introduction 5
Turn sketches into vector graphics
Get total control of your objects with
object level appearance options
Create sophisticated
transparency
Use familiar tools
Set beautiful typography
with fully supported OpenType features
Make elaborate
and predictable blends

6 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
Key Terms
Pasteboard » Scratch area
What you know as the pasteboard in FreeHand is called the scratch area in
Illustrator. The scratch area is the area outside the artboard that extends to
the edge of a 227-inch square window. The scratch area represents the space
where you can create, edit, and store elements of artwork before moving
them onto the artboard. Objects placed on the scratch area are visible on-
screen, but they do not print.
Pages » Artboard
In FreeHand, you can set up multiple pages within a single document;
Illustrator considers the document and its artboard as one illustration. To out-
put specic areas of your illustration, use the Page tool or the new Crop Area
tool, or print overlapping tiles.
Object Properties Panel » Appearance panel
In FreeHand, the Object Properties panel is a context-sensitive area where you
access formatting options for any selected object. In Illustrator, to achieve the
same function, you use both the Appearance panel and the context-sensitive
Control panel. The Appearance panel lets you view and adjust the appearance
of attributes for any object, group, or layer. Fills and strokes are listed in stack-
ing order in the panel; objects in Illustrator can have multiple lls and strokes.
Eects are listed from top to bottom in the order in which they are applied to
the artwork. To display the panel, choose Window > Appearance.
Import » Place
In Illustrator, you can place both graphic and text les; placed graphics can
be either linked or embedded into the document and are accessible from
the Links panel. Integration across Adobe Creative Suite allows you, for ex-
ample, to choose layers or layer comps when you place Photoshop les into
Illustrator.
Because FreeHand and Illustrator are both vector drawing programs, they share
many common tools and commands.
Many of the terms used in the Illustrator menus, dialog boxes, and panels are
identical to those used in FreeHand. For example, tools and layers are essentially
the same in both programs. In some cases, FreeHand and Illustrator use
FreeHand Term » Illustrator Term
You control the attributes of objects in the
Appearance panel.

Key Terms 7
Transform Handles » Bounding box
When you select objects with the Selection tool, Illustrator displays a bound-
ing box around them. The bounding box lets you move, rotate, duplicate,
and scale objects easily by dragging the object or a handle (one of the hol-
low squares along the bounding box). To view the bounding box, choose
View > Show Bounding Box.
Keyline View » Outline
By default, Illustrator displays all artwork in color. However, you can improve
redraw and performance by viewing artwork as outlines (or paths). To view
artwork as outlines, choose View > Outline. Choose View > Preview to view
artwork in color.
Extrude Tool » 3D eects
3D eects enable you to create three-dimensional objects from two-dimen-
sional artwork or text. You can control the appearance of three-dimensional
objects with lighting, shading, rotation, and other properties.
Live Vector Eects » Eects
Eects in Illustrator are live, which means that you can modify them even
after they are applied. You can apply eects to any object and then modify
its vectors or the eect’s options, or remove the eect using the Appearance
panel. Once you apply an eect to an object, the Appearance panel lists the
eect and enables you to edit, move, duplicate, or delete it, or save it as part
of a graphic style.
Edit In External Editor » Edit Original
Illustrator is highly integrated with Photoshop. To open a linked bitmap le in
Photoshop, select the graphic and choose Edit Original in the Control panel
or Links panel, or from the Edit menu.
dierent terms for the same concept. For example, in FreeHand you work with
pages, while in Illustrator you work with an artboard. Once you understand the
dierence in terms, you are likely to nd the concepts quite similar. Here are
some key terms that dier between FreeHand and Illustrator:
Extrude, revolve, and rotate artwork and type
to create complex three-dimensional objects
using 3D eects in Illustrator.
The bounding box in Illustrator helps you
apply transformations to selected objects.

8 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
KEY TERMS
Graphic Hose Tool » Symbol Sprayer
The symbolism tools let you create and modify sets of symbol instances.
You create a symbol set using the Symbol Sprayer tool. You can then use the
other symbolism tools to change the density, color, location, size, rotation,
transparency, and style of the instances in the set. You are not limited to a
particular set of symbols; you can create and use as many as you want. All the
symbols you create are available in the Symbols panel.
Output Area Tool » Crop Area tool
By default, Illustrator crops artwork to the boundaries of the artboard. How-
ever, using the Crop Area tool, you can interactively dene crop areas for
print or export to other formats (video or web, for example). The option you
choose sets the position of crop marks, rulers, and video- and title-safe areas
on your document and denes the boundaries of the artwork to be printed
or exported. These boundaries are represented by a dashed line in the pre-
view area of the Print dialog box.
Eraser » Eraser tool
Quickly remove areas of artwork as easily as you erase pixels in Photoshop
by stroking with your mouse or stylus over any shape or set of shapes. New
paths will automatically be created along the edges of your erased stroke
with points laid down economically, but still preserving the smoothness of
your erasure.
Styles » Graphic styles
A graphic style is a set of reusable appearance attributes. Graphic styles allow
you to quickly change the look of an object. For example, you can change its
ll and stroke color, alter its transparency, and apply eects in one step. All
the changes you apply with graphic styles are completely reversible.
Mixer » Color panel
You use the Color panel to apply color to an object’s ll and stroke, and also
to edit and mix colors. The Color panel can display color values using dif-
ferent color models. By default, only the most commonly used options are
visible in the Color panel. To display the panel, choose Window > Color. To
change the color model, choose Grayscale, RGB, HSB, CMYK, or Web Safe RGB
from the panel menu.
FreeHand Term » Illustrator Term
The Color panel
This intricate foliage was created using the
symbolism tools in Illustrator.

Converting Macromedia FreeHand documents 9
CONVERTING MACROMEDIA FREEHAND DOCUMENTS
knowhow from Adobe Labs
knowhow from Adobe Labs provides single-click, contextual access for viewing
tool tips, keyboard hints, and feature help. Now you can see all the shortcuts
that you never had time to learn, and discover ways of working with Illustrator
that you didn’t know were possible.
You can also access community-generated content created by Illustrator experts
on the web, pulled from a user account on del.icio.us.
Choose Window > Adobe Labs > knowhow and see the knowhow panel pop
onto your workspace. Click on any tool and look to knowhow to see a description,
keyboard hints, and links directly into Adobe Help for that very tool. For help with a
panel or topic, simply type a search term in knowhow’s search eld.
Note: knowhow is available only in English versions of Illustrator CS3.
Converting Macromedia
FreeHand documents
Illustrator can open FreeHand les up to version 10 and FreeHand MX (11).
FreeHand allows you to import both CMYK and RGB image les. If you open
a FreeHand document that contains both CMYK and RGB images, you’ll be
prompted to choose a specic color space (see “Setting up a New Document” on
page 15).
If the original FreeHand document contains more than one page, these will have
separate crop areas in the Illustrator document; this is useful to print individual
FreeHand pages, since Illustrator CS3 allows printing of individual crop areas.
You also have the option import only a specic page from a FreeHand le.
Other improved import features include:
Import of FreeHand swatches, dened in the Swatches palette in FreeHand,
as swatches in Illustrator CS3.
Import of FreeHand symbols as symbols in Illustrator CS3.
Import of FreeHand raster eects—drop shadow, basic and feather transpar-
ency—as live eects in Illustrator CS3.
Import of FreeHand Envelopes as Envelope eects in Illustrator CS3.
Import of FreeHand custom guides as Illustrator CS3 guides.
e ability to outline text upon import so that text appearance in FreeHand
is preserved in Illustrator CS3.
Proper positioning of FreeHand text, including text alignment, text wrap,
vertical text, and text inset, upon import into Illustrator CS3.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Illustrator can work in either CMYK or RGB
color mode. You will be prompted to choose
one or the other when you open a FreeHand
document that contains objects that use both
CMYK and RGB color modes.

10 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
The Illustrator
Workspace
Control panel
Tools panel
Illustrator shares the same user interface with Photoshop, InDesign, and Flash
CS3, and its new default panel arrangement, including the single-column
toolbar at the le, makes it easier to access the tools you need. You can dock
panels in your favorite conguration, pull them out to oat free anywhere on
your screen, and collapse them to an icon view.
Illustration window
Panels
Hyperlink to access the full pane
Status bar
Hidden tools called out
from the tools panel
Hidden tools torn off
of the tools panel
Menus Jump to Adobe Bridge
The Illustrator CS3 workspace Expand/Collapse panels

The Illustrator Workspace 11
e basic workspace in Illustrator (Window > Workspace > [Basic]) consists of
an illustration window where you draw and lay out your artwork, a Tools panel
that holds the tools for drawing and editing artwork, and panels to help you
monitor and modify your artwork.
e status bar (at the bottom le edge of the illustration window) displays
the current zoom level as well as the current tool, date and time, number of
undos and redos available, document color prole, or status of a managed le
(Version Cue).
The Tools panel
You use the tools in the Tools panel to create, select, and manipulate objects
in Illustrator. You can congure the Tools in double or single rows, or set as a
double- or single-row layout by clicking on the double arrows at the top of the
panel. Some tools have additional tools beneath them (hidden tools). A small
triangle at the lower right corner of the tool indicates that there are hidden tools.
You can tear o hidden tools into separate panels to have them readily avail-
able. To tear o a panel, click and hold the tool, and then drag your cursor to
Illustrator tools
The rst time you start Illustrator, the Tools panel appears at the left side
of the screen. You can move the Tools panel by dragging its title bar. You
can also show or hide the Tools panel by choosing Window > Tools.
Selection tools
Type tools
Drawing tools
Brush tool
Reshaping tools
Symbolism / graph tools
Advanced painting tools
Blend tool
Crop Area and Eraser tools
Move and zoom tools
Color
Screen modes
About the Selection tools
In FreeHand, you use the Pointer tool to select both
objects and single points; with the Subselect tool, you
can modify curves and objects in groups. In Illustrator,
the Selection tool lets you select objects or groups;
the Direct Selection tool lets you modify objects or
groups and select multiple single points on a path. Use
the Lasso tool to select multiple points by making a
free-form selection.

12 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
THE ILLUSTRATOR WORKSPACE
the right and release it at the edge of the pop-up tool panel. e name of the tool
and its keyboard shortcut appear when you hold the pointer over the tool.
Where are tools such as 3D Rotation, Extrude, and Fisheye lens?
In Illustrator, you apply 3D eects using the Eect menu (see page 30) or by
using Object > Envelope Distort to warp objects based on a shape you choose.
All panels, including the Control panel, have
a pop-up menu, from which you can choose,
and congure a variety of attributes. To open
the pop-up menu, click the icon at the top
right of the panel.
Panels can be collapsed into an icon
view to optimize the space available
on your screen.
The context-sensitive Control panel gives you
immediate access to most formatting options. The Control panel
e Control panel is context sensitive and oers quick access to options
related to the objects you select. For example, if you select a vector object,
many controls you will need to change its attributes appear there, including
commands for precise positioning on the artboard. Use the Control panel as
your primary tool for editing your artwork.
e Control panel also provides fast access to panels, which, in some cases, oer
additional options. Click a blue hyperlink to open another panel for easy access.
To congure the Control panel, choose options from the panel’s pop-up menu,
also called the panel menu.
In Illustrator CS3, you can now access anchor point controls, selection tools,
clipping masks, envelope distortions, and more, all exposed contextually within
the Control panel.
Panels
You can access all panels in Illustrator from the Window menu; some can also
be activated by clicking the blue hyperlinks in the Control panel.
A panel can be grouped with another by dragging its tab onto the other panel.
To dock panels so that they move together, drag a panel’s tab to the bottom of
another panel until you see a blue line. When the panels are grouped or stacked
in panes, either on the le or the right of your screen, they can be collapsed into
an icon view to further optimize the working space. Once you have organized
the panels, you can save your setup as a Workspace by choosing Window >
Workspace > Save Workspace.

The Illustrator Workspace 13
THE ILLUSTRATOR WORKSPACE
Tip: To print a list of Illustrator shortcuts,
click Export Text in the Keyboard
Shortcuts dialog box (Edit > Keyboard
Shortcuts).
Context-sensitive menus
You can access many commands using context-sensitive menus. Context-sensi-
tive menus display commands that are relevant to the active tool, selection, or
panel. To display a context-sensitive menu, right-click in the document window
or panel (or Control-click on Mac OS).
When you right-click (or Control-click on Mac
OS) on selected text (left) or a path (right),
a menu allows you fast access to contextual
commands.
Common panel actions
A. Click to collapse/expand panel.
B. Click to collapse/expand panel.
C. Click to close panel.
D. Show pop-up menu for the panel.
E. Creates a new iteration of the panel’s “subject,”
such as an action, brush, style, layer, or swatch.
Option-click (Mac OS) or Alt-click (Windows)
to set options (except action and brush). Drag
onto button to duplicate action, brush, style,
fill/stroke (appearance), layer, or swatch.
F. Deletes action, brush, layer, or swatch; Option-
click (Mac OS) or Alt-click (Windows) to delete
without confirmation (except for Variable
panel).
Other panel shortcuts
• Shift+Return/Enter to apply value and keep text
box active.
• Command/Ctrl+~ (tilde) to highlight last-used
text box in panel.
• Command/Ctrl+click to select noncontiguous
actions, brushes, layers (same level only), links,
styles, or swatches.
• Tab to show/hide panels.
• Shift+Tab to show/hide all panels except the
Tools panel.
CB
E F
A
D
Keyboard shortcuts
Illustrator lets you assign keyboard shortcuts for many operations. e
Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box serves as a shortcut editor, and includes all
commands that support shortcuts, some of which aren’t in the default shortcut
set. Shortcuts for tools are also shown in the knowhow palette. For a list of
keyboard shortcuts, see page 44.
Preferences
Before you begin creating artwork with Illustrator, familiarize yourself with the
program’s default settings—specically the options available in the Preferences
dialog box (choose Illustrator > Preferences > General in Mac OS or choose
Edit > Preferences > General in Windows). You can customize these settings
to suit your needs, creating a work environment that’s both productive and
comfortable. As you look through the panes in the Preferences dialog box, you’ll
see that many of the options are identical to those in FreeHand. You’ll also nd
several unfamiliar but useful options, such as the option to use the clipboard to
transfer selections between an Illustrator le and other Adobe applications.
e clipboard is particularly useful for moving paths from one application
to another because paths are copied to the clipboard as PostScript language
descriptions. Artwork copied to the clipboard is pasted in PICT format in

14 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
THE ILLUSTRATOR WORKSPACE
most applications. However, some applications, such as InDesign, accept PDF
or AICB (Adobe Illustrator Clipboard) data. PDF preserves transparency;
AICB lets you specify whether you want to preserve the overall appearance
of the selection or copy the selection as a set of paths (which can be useful in
Photoshop and InDesign).
You may also want set the preferences for how anchors and handles appear
onscreen (choose Illustrator > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display
in Mac OS or choose Edit > Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display in
Windows).
Color management
e Adobe color management system helps you maintain the appearance of
colors as you import images, edit or transfer documents between Adobe appli-
cations, and output your nished compositions.
By default, color management is turned on in Adobe Creative Suite 3 compo-
nents. You can synchronize color settings to provide consistent display for RGB
and CMYK colors no matter which application you view them in.
To change color settings, choose Edit > Color Settings. To ensure that your
Adobe Creative Suite components are synchronized using the same color
settings for consistent color management, choose Edit > Creative Suite Color
Settings in Adobe Bridge and select an appropriate prole.
For more information about color management, see Illustrator Help.
File Handling & Clipboard preferences let you
choose how to copy your artwork to other
applications.

Setting up a New Document 15
Setting up a New
Document
An Illustrator document consists of one single-page artboard that can be up to
227 square inches.
When you start Illustrator, the Welcome screen lets you access your recent
documents or choose a new type of document for your choice of media. If
you’re working on a video project, choose the Video And Film prole and select
a size such as NTSC DV. Your color mode will be set to RGB and your artboard
will automatically show the format’s dimensions with guides for video and title-
safe areas. If you’re working on a web project, choose a New Document Prole
for the web to automatically set raster resolution to 72ppi and color to RGB.
Print proles default to CMYK color and oer a range of popular artboard
setups including preset raster-eects resolutions. You can also save your own
custom proles that specify setup parameters such as artboard dimensions,
swatches, brushes, styles, and color spaces.
To create a new document, you can also choose File > New and choose a New
Document Prole depending on the intended use of your illustration. As noted
above, the New Document Prole will correctly set dimensions, units, color
mode and raster eects parameters based on the prole selected. Any of these
settings can be modied to suit your needs.
You can change raster eects settings at any time by choosing Eects >
Document Raster Eects settings.
When you create a new document, you can
determine size, units of measurement, and
orientation of the artboard. You will also be
prompted to choose a color mode.
The Illustrator Welcome screen—your
starting point for a new project.

16 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
SETTING UP A NEW DOCUMENT
To change the color mode, choose File > Document Color Mode (you can’t
change the color mode in the Document Setup dialog box).
Where’s the Document panel?
In FreeHand, you use the Document panel to target and select pages and to
choose page dimensions, orientation, bleed settings, and printer resolution.
In Illustrator, choose File > Document Setup to change the attributes of the
artboard. You use the Document Setup dialog box to choose settings for type
and transparency at the document level. You can also dene the dictionary used
for spell-checking and hyphenation, the position of superscripts, the scale for
small caps, or how to copy transparency eects over to the clipboard for use
within Illustrator or in other applications.
In FreeHand, you determine the Bleed Area in the Document panel; in
Illustrator, the Bleed area is assigned in the Print dialog box.
Crop Area (if it has been set)
Printable area
Nonprintable area (printer margins)
Edge of the printed page
Artboard
Scratch area
The Illustrator document
The artboard represents the entire
area that can contain printable art-
work. The artboard’s dimensions
may not match the current page
size. For example, your artboard may
be 10x20 inches, while your print
settings specify 8-1/2x11-inch paper.
You can view the page boundaries
in relation to the artboard by show-
ing page tiling (View > Show Page
Tiling). When page tiling is on, the
printable and nonprintable areas are
represented by a series of solid and
dotted lines. You can move the print-
able area across the artboard by us-
ing the Page tool.
The scratch area is the area outside
of the artboard that extends to the
edge of the 227-square inch win-
dow. The scratch area represents a
space on which you can create, edit,
and store elements of artwork be-
fore moving them onto the artboard.
Objects placed onto the scratch area
are visible onscreen, but they do not
print.
You can change the document setup at any
time by choosing File > Document Setup.

Setting up a New Document 17
Document templates
You can use templates to create new documents that share common settings and
design elements. For example, if you need to design a series of business cards
with a similar look and feel, you can create a template with the desired artboard
size, view settings (such as guides), and print options. e template can also
contain symbols for common design elements (such as logos) and specic sets
of color swatches, brushes, and graphic styles.
Illustrator comes with over 200 professionally designed templates, including
templates for letterhead, business cards, envelopes, brochures, labels, certicates,
postcards, greeting cards, and websites.
You can save your artwork in Adobe Illustrator Template (AIT) format to reuse
or share with others. When you select a template using the New From Template
command, Illustrator creates a new document with identical content to the
template, but leaves the original template le untouched.
Two of the many templates included with
Illustrator CS3. You can save any design or
layout as a template by choosing File > Save
As Template.
The icons for Illustrator documents (top) and
templates (bottom) let you know the type of
le before you open it.
SETTING UP A NEW DOCUMENT

18 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
SETTING UP A NEW DOCUMENT
How do I set up measurement units?
In Illustrator, there are several ways to select units of measurement:
In the Preferences dialog box, choose Units & Display Performance and
select a unit of measurement. You can also choose dierent units for Stroke
and Type, which are typically measured in points.
Choose the global measurement unit when you create a new document. You
can always change the unit of measurement later by using the Document
Setup dialog box.
Override the default units by entering a value in the Control panel. For
example, follow the value by any of the these abbreviations: inch, inches, in,
millimeters, millimetres, mm, Qs (one Q equals 0.25 millimeter), centime-
ters, centimetres, cm, points, p, pt, picas, pc, pixel, pixels, and px.
Using Guides and grids
Guides help you align text and graphic objects. You can create ruler guides
(straight vertical or horizontal lines) and guide objects (vector objects that you
convert to guides). You can choose between two guide styles—dots and lines—
and you can change the color of guides by using either predened grid colors or
colors you select using a color picker. By default, guides are unlocked, and can
be moved, modied, or deleted. Guides can be locked in place by choosing View
> Guides > Lock Guides.
When you choose View > Show Grid, a grid appears behind your artwork in the
illustration window. To change the spacing between gridlines, color of the grid-
lines, or grid style, choose Illustrator > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Mac OS) or
Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Windows). Grids and guides do not print.
Where is the Guides Layer?
In FreeHand, there is a default layer called Guides that allows you to move
guides over or under the artwork. In Illustrator, guides belong to the layer on
which they were created; to emulate FreeHand’s behavior, create a layer and
name it Guides. You can add guides to that layer, turn the layer on or o, and
move it over or under the layers of your artwork.
•
•
•
Tip: To emulate the snapping feature
in FreeHand, activate Smart Guides in
Illustrator by choosing View > Smart
Guides. Smart Guides are temporary
snap-to guides that help you create,
align, edit, and transform objects relative
to other objects.
Tip: Right-click (or Control-click in
Mac OS) in the ruler to open a menu
from which you can select the unit of
measurement.
Tip: You can perform simple math in
any box that accepts numeric values
using a single mathematical operator,
such as + (addition), - (substraction),
x (multiplication), / (division), or %
(percent).
Units & Display Performance preferences let
you choose your measurement system.

SETTING UP A NEW DOCUMENT
Using layers
When creating complex artwork, it’s a challenge to keep track of all the items
in your document window. Small items get hidden under larger items, and
selecting artwork becomes dicult. Layers provide a way to manage all the
items that make up your artwork. ink of layers as clear folders that contain
artwork. If you reshue the folders, you change the stacking order of the items
in your artwork. You can move items between folders and create subfolders. To
display the Layers panel, choose Window > Layers.
e structure of layers in your document can be as simple or complex as you
want it to be. By default, all items are organized in a single layer. However, you
can create new layers and move items into them, or move elements from one
layer to another. e Layers panel provides an easy way to select, hide, lock,
and change the appearance attributes of artwork. You can even create template
layers, which you can use to trace artwork, or exchange layers with Photoshop.
By default, Illustrator assigns a unique color to each layer in the Layers panel.
e color appears in the layer’s selection column when one or more objects
within the layer are selected, and also appears in the selected object’s selection
column. In addition, the same color appears in the document window in the
bounding box, path, anchor points, and center point of the selected object. You
can use this color to quickly locate an object’s corresponding layer in the Layers
panel, and you can change this layer color to suit your needs.
When a layer or an object contains other layers or objects, a triangle appears to
the le of the item’s name in the Layers panel. Click the triangle to show or hide
the contents. When a layer or an object is selected, a colored square appears
at the right edge of the items’s name in the Layers panel; to move the selected
item to another layer or change its stacking order, drag the colored square to the
desired layer.
The Layers panel
Layer
Sublayer
Toggle layer visibility
Targeted layer
Indicates selected art (drag to move to another layer)
Layer color code
Lock/Unlock layer

20 FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide
Working with Graphics
Use the drawing tools in Illustrator to create
vector graphics.
Drawing
Drawing in Illustrator is very similar to drawing in FreeHand; you use the Pen,
Paintbrush, and Pencil tools to draw vector graphics in Illustrator. You can also
draw basic geometric shapes by using tools such as the Rectangle, Ellipse, and
Polygon tools.
Using the Pen tool
e Pen tool is the principal tool for drawing straight lines, Bézier curves,
and complex shapes. In addition to its expected function, the Pen tool also
performs the actions of the following three related tools:
e Add Anchor Point tool adds anchor points to a path (or use the Pen
tool on a segment of a selected path).
e Remove Anchor Point tool removes anchor points (or use the Pen
tool on existing points of a selected path).
e Convert Anchor Point tool converts a corner point to a smooth
point or vice versa (or press Option or Alt while using the Pen tool).
You can also nd many Pen tool options in the Control panel, including controls
for removing, connecting, and cutting paths, as well as the convert anchor point
options.
Selecting and modifying paths and anchor points
In Illustrator, to select entire paths (with all anchor points selected) you use
the Selection tool . To select individual anchor points, you can also use the
Direct Selection tool or the Lasso tool ; you can then move and modify
anchor points. When you run your cursor over any anchor point, causing it to
enlarge, you can easily see and select it. In FreeHand, selected anchor points are
indicated by a hollow square; in Illustrator, selected anchor points are indicated
by a lled square.
To align and distribute points, just as you would with objects, make a selection
with the Direct Selection tool, and use the alignment controls in the Control
panel (or the Align panel).
•
•
•
Tip: While using the Polygon or Star tool,
press the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys
to add and remove sides from a polygon
or points from a star.