Introduction

Welcome to Illustrator CS4 For Dummies. You're reading this book because you want to find out more about Adobe Illustrator. That's a very smart move because Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard graphics software. Not only does it outsell all its competitors combined (what few of them that have not yet been crushed by the awesomeness that is Illustrator), it's also the most powerful graphics-creation tool ever created. With Illustrator, all you need to produce graphics like the best you've seen in print or on the Web is knowledge and artistic ability. Artistic ability is a challenge that you can handle on your own. The other half — knowledge — is what this book is all about.

Like a tragic hero, the great power of Illustrator is also its terrible curse. With its 30+ panels, 70+ tools, and scores of menu items, its sheer depth is enough to make the most hardened graphics expert go shaky in the knees. Don't be fooled by Illustrator's vastness, however, because you will find a unique, consistent logic underlying it all. After you master a few basics, all the rest falls nicely into place.

The mission of this book is to get you past Illustrator's intimidation factor and into its Wow! factor. I take you from being befuddled and mystified by Illustrator's nigh-infinite options to creating the kinds of graphics that others look at and say, "Wow, how did you do that?"

About This Book

This book is written to make your journey into Adobe Illustrator flexible and self paced. Each ...

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