Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2: Creating a Poster

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1 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2: Creating a Poster 1. Determining Poster Size and Creating a New File (Most plotters on campus can print up to 42 inches wide and 100 feet long.) Choose File>New, and the box below will appear. Change width and height dimensions based on your requirements. (Note: Make sure the measurement in the units box reads inches. For landscape [horizontal] posters, the smaller number should be in the height box, and the horizontal frame beside Orientation should be selected. For portrait [vertical] posters, the smaller number should be in the width box, and the vertical frame beside Orientation should be selected.) Click OK.

2 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 2 Width: 50 in Height: 42 in Landscape Width: 42 in Height: 50 in Portrait

3 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 3 To change the size of an existing file, choose File>Document Setup and change the appropriate settings. 2. Planning Topic Arrangement and Inserting Text Boxes Make sure the Toolbox is visible. If not, pull down the menu under Window and select Tools. (Please note that, depending on how the default is set on your system, other toolboxes may be open when you first open Illustrator. You may close all of those. For these purposes, you will only be working with the primary Toolbox shown below.) Select the Text tool.

4 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 4 Note: To learn more about the functions of the other tools in this toolbar, do a search for toolbox in Illustrator Help. About the toolbox should be one of the selections in the left menu. Text Tool Hold down the left mouse button and drag a rectangle in the area where you want your text. Begin typing. Tips: 1. If you created your text in another program like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, you can create a text box as described above and copy and paste the text from those programs directly into the text box. Copying text from other programs and not placing it in a text box in Illustrator will end in difficult-to-manage text boxes created at random from the individual words or letters of your original file. 2. To create text in columns, follow the instructions above for creating a text box. Begin typing your text. Then select Type>Area Type Options from the top menus. Change the number of columns to the appropriate amount and select OK.

5 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 5 To adjust the size of your text block, use the Selection Tool to choose a corner and drag the square to the appropriate size. Selection Tool Direct Selection Tool (Note: For these purposes, you will not use this tool, but it is shown to make the differentiation between it and the Selection tool.) 3. Align your text blocks and all your images more easily using guidelines. To reveal the guidelines, choose View>Guides>Show Guides (to turn off guides, choose View>Guides>Hide Guides).

6 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 6 To make a guideline, choose View>Show Rulers. Move the cursor to the vertical or horizontal rulers, depending on which direction you need a guideline. Hold down the left mouse button and drag down or across the screen. A teal guideline should appear. To move the guidelines after they are created, make sure that View>Guides>Lock Guides is unchecked. You should also make guidelines to mark the page margins of your poster. One to two inches on each side is normally enough room.

7 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 7 3. Formatting Your Text Select your text either by highlighting it in the text box or using the Selection tool from the Toolbox. The text control palette should appear at the top of your screen. From the pull-down menus, you can change the fill color (arrow 1), outline color (arrow 2), outline thickness (arrow 3), font type (arrow 4), font style (arrow 5) and font size (arrow 6).

8 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page If the control palette does not appear when you select the text, press the Ctrl button and the T button on your keyboard at the same time (or select Window>Type>Character). A menu box with text formatting options will appear. From here, you can change the font type (arrow 1), style (arrow 2) and size (arrow 3). You can also change the leading, or distance between your lines of text (arrow 4), and the tracking, or distance between the letters within a line of text (arrow 5). You can create underlined or strikethrough text by selecting those options at the bottom of the window (arrow 6, underline; arrow 7, strikethrough).

9 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page From this window, you can also choose options for converting your text to subscripts and superscripts. Select the arrow to the right in the Character tab, and a new menu will appear with these and other options.

10 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 10 Under the Paragraph tab in the text formatting window, you can choose different options for aligning your text: align left, center, align right, justify, etc. The fill and outline colors of your text will depend on your default settings, but they can be changed by selecting the text with the Selection tool and then double-clicking the boxes at the bottom of the Tool palette (arrow 1: fill color; arrow 2: outline, or stroke, color). For another way to change the fill and stroke color, see the second bullet under step 3. A red line through either box indicates that no color has been selected. 1 2

11 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page Formatting Your Background and Adding Colors To add an image to the background of your poster, choose File>Place and navigate to the location of your picture on your computer. Click on the Place button in that window, and your image will appear on your poster with hollow squares in each corner. To resize the image to the size of your poster, choose the Selection tool. Grab one corner of the image, hold down the left mouse button and drag to the appropriate size. Note: To resize the image proportionally, hold down the Shift button on your keyboard as you drag the corners of the image. (If you want only to move the image without resizing it, click on the Selection tool and place your cursor in the middle of the image. While holding down the left mouse button, drag the image to the appropriate position.) Tip: Low-resolution and busy images will not make attractive backgrounds when blown up to the size appropriate for a largescale poster.

12 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page 12 To make a color shape for the background of your poster, choose the Shape tool (arrow 1). Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor. The fill and outline colors of your shape will depend on your default settings, but they can be changed by selecting your shape with the Selection tool and double-clicking the boxes at the bottom of the Tool palette (arrow 2: fill color; arrow 3: outline, or stroke, color). A red line through either box indicates that no color has been selected Change the size of your shape by choosing the Selection tool and selecting a corner of the shape. Hold down the left mouse button and drag to the appropriate size. To send the shape behind your text and images, select your shape with the Selection tool and choose Object>Arrange>Send to Back.

13 Beginning Adobe Illustrator CS2 Page Adding Images and Graphics See step 4 above and follow the instructions for inserting background images. Once images are inserted, click the Embed button along the top window of the Illustrator file. Tips: 1. Save your file often. 2. Choose Edit>Check Spelling to proof your poster.