Adobe Illustrator cs3 Freehand to illustrator Migration guide ® ®
© 2007 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Macromedia® FreeHand® to Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 Migration Guide If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user license agreement, this guide, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license.
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.
Introduction 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 applications, 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.
Get total control of your objects with object level appearance options Turn sketches into vector graphics Create sophisticated transparency Make elaborate and predictable blends Set beautiful typography with fully supported OpenType features Use familiar tools PureEnergy Introduction
Key Terms 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 Pasteboard » Scratch area What you know as the pasteboard in FreeHand is called the scratch area in Illustrator.
different 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 difference in terms, you are likely to find the concepts quite similar. Here are some key terms that differ between FreeHand and Illustrator: Transform Handles » Bounding box When you select objects with the Selection tool, Illustrator displays a bounding box around them.
KEY TERMS FreeHand Term » Illustrator Term 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.
CONVERTING MACROMEDIA FREEHAND DOCUMENTS Converting Macromedia FreeHand documents Illustrator can open FreeHand files up to version 10 and FreeHand MX (11). FreeHand allows you to import both CMYK and RGB image files. If you open a FreeHand document that contains both CMYK and RGB images, you’ll be prompted to choose a specific color space (see “Setting up a New Document” on page 15).
The Illustrator Workspace 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 left, makes it easier to access the tools you need. You can dock panels in your favorite configuration, pull them out to float free anywhere on your screen, and collapse them to an icon view.
The 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.
T H E I L LU S T R ATO R W O R K S PA C E the right and release it at the edge of the pop-up tool panel. The 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 effects using the Effect menu (see page 30) or by using Object > Envelope Distort to warp objects based on a shape you choose. The context-sensitive Control panel gives you immediate access to most formatting options.
T H E I L LU S T R ATO R W O R K S PA C E Context-sensitive menus You can access many commands using context-sensitive menus. Context-sensitive 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). Tip: To print a list of Illustrator shortcuts, click Export Text in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box (Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts).
T H E I L LU S T R ATO R W O R K S PA C E 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). File Handling & Clipboard preferences let you choose how to copy your artwork to other applications.
Setting up a New Document The Illustrator Welcome screen—your starting point for a new project. An Illustrator document consists of one single-page artboard that can be up to 227 square inches. 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. 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.
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. You can change the document setup at any time by choosing File > Document Setup. In Illustrator, choose File > Document Setup to change the attributes of the artboard.
SETTING UP A NEW DOCUMENT 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. The template can also contain symbols for common design elements (such as logos) and specific sets of color swatches, brushes, and graphic styles.
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 different 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.
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 difficult. Layers provide a way to manage all the items that make up your artwork. Think of layers as clear folders that contain artwork. If you reshuffle the folders, you change the stacking order of the items in your artwork. You can move items between folders and create subfolders.
Working with 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. Use the drawing tools in Illustrator to create vector graphics. 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.
Live Trace Live Trace automatically turns placed images into beautifully detailed vector graphics that are easy to edit, resize, and manipulate. To use Live Trace: Step 1: Select a placed bitmap image, and click the Live Trace button in the Control panel to create a Live Trace object. Step 2: See the results in the workspace, and, if desired, adjust your settings in the Control panel.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS Fill color Default fill and stroke Swap fill and stroke Stroke color The color selection area in the Tools panel Creating and applying color In Illustrator, there are several ways you can apply color to strokes and fills. The Color Picker lets you select an object’s fill or stroke color by choosing from a color spectrum, defining colors numerically, or clicking a swatch.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS Live Paint Live Paint lets you paint vector graphics more intuitively by automatically detecting shapes and correcting gaps. To use Live Paint on a traced image: Step 1: Select the traced vectors, and click the Live Paint button in the Control panel to convert them to a Live Paint group. Step 2: Use the Live Paint Bucket tool to fill regions with color or gradients with the click of a button, and, using the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys, choose which color swatch to apply.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS Live Color Live Color is a complete color exploration environment within Illustrator CS3. If you have ever been frustrated by having to color objects individually, you will appreciate this interactive way to create and apply color schemes. Live Color lets you work with color in a variety of ways. Use its tools for inspiration—discover new and unique color combinations that you can save and reuse.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS The Live Color dialog box Live Color also includes the Live Color dialog box, which provides the tools for dynamically applying colors to selected objects. Select any number of objects in your artwork and access the Live Color dialog box from your Control panel, the Swatches panel, or through the Color Guide panel . Here you will find a color wheel with the colors in your selected objects mapped to the wheel.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS Using the Eraser tool You can define the diameter, angle, and roundness of your Eraser tool. Doubleclick the Eraser tool to show the Options dialog box, where you can set behaviors to achieve just the effect and the new shapes you want. To easily erase more than a single selected object, go into Isolation Mode to segregate grouped objects, such as a Live Paint group, symbols, or any regular group by double-clicking the object.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS color to the next, and is identified by a square below the gradient slider. To change the color of a gradient stop, drag a color from the Color panel or the Swatches panel onto it. The squares display the color assigned to each stop. With a radial gradient, the leftmost gradient stop defines the center point’s color fill, which radiates outward to the color of the rightmost gradient stop.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS updated with the changes. Also, the Control panel shows all symbol-editing options, including instance name. Symbols in Illustrator CS3 are enhanced for ease of use and better integration with Flash. Symbol options now include defining a symbol type as a Movie Clip symbol or Graphic symbol, assigning the symbol a Flash registration location, and enabling guides for 9-slice scaling.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS Placing graphics The Place command is the primary method of importing graphics, because it provides the highest level of support for file formats, placement options, and color. After you place a file, use the Links panel to identify, select, monitor, and update it. Alternatively, you can use Adobe Bridge CS3 to drag and drop your assets onto the artboard. Bridge lets you organize and browse Illustrator and other creative assets. You can open Bridge from the Control panel.
WORKING WITH GRAPHICS Filters and effects Many commands for changing the look of objects are available in both the Filter and Effect menus. For example, all of the commands in the Filter > Artistic submenu are also listed in the Effect > Artistic submenu. However, filters and effects result in different outcomes, so it’s important to understand the difference in their use.
Working with Text Text composition methods The appearance of type on the page depends on a complex interaction of processes called composition. Using the word spacing, letter spacing, glyph scaling, and hyphenation options you’ve selected, Illustrator evaluates possible line breaks and chooses the one that best conforms to the specified parameters. Illustrator offers two composition methods: the Adobe Every-line Composer and the Adobe Single-line Composer.
WORKING WITH TEXT Type tool. You can modify the shape of the type area by dragging handles of the bounding box; text will reflow in the new shape. • Type on a path flows along the edge of an open or closed path. The text flows in the direction in which points were added to the path. In addition to typing text in your artwork, you can import it from a variety of text file formats (for example Microsoft Word, RTF, or plain text documents) by choosing File > Place.
WORKING WITH TEXT Type on a path In FreeHand, you attach text to a path; Illustrator lets you type text on a path. You can then move or flip text along the path by dragging the handles that appear on the sides of the text. Choose Type > Type On A Path to specify effects and other options, such as spacing. How do I position two paragraphs around a circle like in FreeHand? In FreeHand, you can press the Return or Enter to align a second paragraph of text in the lower part of an object.
WORKING WITH TEXT OpenType support The OpenType font standard was developed jointly by Adobe and Microsoft, and it brings the advantages of the PostScript Type 1 and TrueType font formats into a new format that takes advantage of Unicode character encoding. OpenType fonts use a single font file for both Windows and Macintosh computers, so you can move files from one platform to another without worrying about font substitution and other problems that may cause text to reflow.
Saving and Exporting Files The native Illustrator file formats, which you can access by choosing File > Save, Save As, or Save A Copy. Saving In FreeHand, you can save your pages as a FreeHand document, template, or editable EPS (a file that you can both place in page layout programs and edit if necessary).
SAVING AND EXPOR TING FILES Tip: To quickly create a PDF of a portion of your artwork, use the Crop Area tool to select the area you want to save. The PDF page will be exactly the dimensions of your crop area. If you need to use your Illustrator artwork in applications outside of Creative Suite you can save it as EPS, which is accepted by virtually all page layout, wordprocessing, and graphic applications. Note that EPS files can contain both vector and bitmap graphics.
SAVING AND EXPOR TING FILES Saving for web and devices Although you can save your artwork as web-friendly files using the Export command, it is much simpler to use the Save For Web & Devices command. Save For Web & Devices allows you to choose web file formats, select compression and color options, and preview the optimized artwork. Additionally, you can change the image size and export CSS (cascading style sheets) layers.
SAVING AND EXPOR TING FILES Exporting Flash animation from Illustrator You export artwork as SWF files using the Export command or the Save For Web & Devices command. Options in the Export dialog box give you more control over animation and bitmap compression options, while options in the Save For Web & Devices dialog box give you more control over the mix of SWF and bitmap formats in a sliced layout.
SAVING AND EXPOR TING FILES Adobe Flash CS3 Professional integration Kick off your Flash projects with Illustrator CS3 and have confidence that your vectors will copy/paste and import reliably. The integrity of critical elements in your Illustrator artwork is now maintained in Flash Professional CS3, with intact paths—and correct anchor point positions—as well as gradients, clipping masks, and symbols.
Printing Illustrator CS3 output is reliable and accurate, thanks to improved performance and such features as transparency flattening and overprint preview, whether you output to a printer or export as Adobe PDF. Feel confident that your Illustrator CS3 artwork will print as you have created it. The Page tool An Illustrator document can be up to 227 square inches, but the paper you print on comes in standard sizes. You use the Page tool to define which part of the artwork appears on the printed page.
Each category of options in the Print dialog box in Illustrator—from General to Summary—is organized to guide you through the printing process: General—Set the page size and orientation, specify how many pages to print, scale the artwork, and choose which layers to print. Setup—Crop the artwork, change the placement of artwork on the page, and specify how to print artwork that doesn’t fit on a single page. Marks & Bleed—Select printer’s marks and create a bleed.
PRINTING Flattening transparency Transparent effects in artwork must be flattened before they can be printed. To see areas that need to be flattened, choose Window > Flattener Preview, and then click Refresh. To fine-tune the transparency flattening settings or select another preset, choose Show Options from the panel menu. Click Refresh again to preview the results. Or, select an object, and then choose Object > Flatten Transparency.
PRINTING Artwork with Overprint Preview on Artwork with Overprint Preview off Overprint Preview In the Illustrator Attributes panel, you can set the fills and strokes of elements of your artwork to overprint when it is separated for professional printing. For soft (onscreen) color proofs of your artwork, choose View > Overprint Preview.
Keyboard Shortcuts Illustrator CS3 offers keyboard shortcuts to functions otherwise available in menus or panels. You can customize your own sets of shortcuts, change individual shortcuts within a set, and switch between sets by choosing Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Here is a list of some of the most useful Illustrator CS3 keyboard shortcuts. Creating objects (Hold down keys until after releasing the mouse button.
Selecting and moving objects (Watch the cursor to make sure you’ve pressed the correct keys.) Result action Switches to the last-used selection tool. Wi n dows Mac OS Ctrl Command Switches between the Direct Selection tool and the Group Selection tool. Alt Option Selects whether the Direct Selection or regular Selection tool is accessed by the Ctrl key. Ctrl+Tab n/a Chooses whether an object, path, or point is selected or deselected.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Painting Result action Wi n dows Mac OS Switches focus between fill and stroke. X X Samples color from an image or intermediate color from a gradient when using the eyedropper. Shift-click Shift-click Samples the style and appends the appearance of the currently selected item when using the eyedropper. Alt+Shift-click Option+Shift-click Tints process color. Shift-drag color slider Shift-drag color slider Cycles through color modes.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Live Trace button Result action Creates a tracing object and converts it to paths. Wi n dows Mac OS Alt-click button Option-click button Isolation mode Result action Wi n dows Mac OS Enters Isolation mode when using the Selection tool. Double-click a group Double-click a group Exits Isolation mode when using the Selection tool. Double-click outside of the group Double-click outside of the group Document control Result action Switches between open Illustrator documents.
Additional Resources This guide is not meant to replace documentation that comes with Illustrator CS3 or to be a comprehensive reference for every feature in Illustrator CS3. To that end, this guide has mentioned many documents that offer more information on specific topics. In addition, Adobe offers many other useful resources for anyone who wants to learn more about Illustrator features, tools, and techniques.
