Illustrator® CS4 Bible

Chapter 3. Working with Illustrator Documents

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Creating new documents

• Changing the document setup

• Opening and closing Illustrator files

• Saving files

• Using the Export command

• Placing art

• Understanding vector-based and pixel-based images

• Placing raster images

• Working with rasterized Illustrator artwork

• Using raster images

When you create an illustration in Illustrator, you're actually creating a document that you can place on the Web, send to a printer, or simply save on your computer. This chapter covers how to set up and change a document, how to open and save files, and how to export and place files. You also find out the difference between pixel-based documents and vector-based documents.

Setting Up a New Document

When you first load Illustrator, you see the Illustrator Welcome Screen, as shown in Figure 3.1, which allows you to choose to create a new document from scratch or from an existing Illustrator template. Alternatively, you can choose to open an existing document so that you can do some additional work with that document.

Note

The Illustrator Welcome Screen lists recently opened files, allowing you to open them directly with a single click on the name of the file and also allowing new documents to be quickly created from the list of document profiles on the right.

If you have Illustrator already up and running without the Welcome Screen showing, you can create a new document by choosing File

Figure 3.1. Illustrator's Welcome Screen allows you to create a new document or ...