What is Illustrator and how to use it? - Blue Sky

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What is Illustrator?

There will be a time in your life no doubt where you may have heard of words like ‘Photoshop’ being thrown about maybe following a conversation about touching up photographs or editing an image. There may be a time when perhaps the words ‘InDesign’ or ‘Illustrator’ struck a chord but never really made much sense? Or you may well just be wondering right about now what on earth I am talking about. Fear not as this blog seeks to demystify illustrator – one of the most important words that all Graphic Designers know all too well!

Illustrator is a wonderful piece of kit that has amazing vector editor functions. It can be used to create incredible illustrative artwork, corporate logos, page layouts, website, print designs, and vectors for literally just about anything with which you might need a vector. Images with Illustrator are vector based so it can be scaled to any size without losing quality.

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There is some truth in that this software is a little more difficult among the graphic design software (Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) and whilst it might be a bit overwhelming to new users, with practice comes ease and perfection. The vast number of tools it contains may be a tad intimidating, but with the right type of guidance (we offer training at Blue Sky Graphics) this software becomes easier. So, if you want to learn how to make unique
designs, Adobe Illustrator is the software for you.

Illustrations can convey a feeling, a meaning, or an essence sometimes more effectivelythan a wall of text can. Illustrations can simplify a complicated idea, compliment the words or message being delivered to the user, and sometimes standalone without any needed explanation

What does Illustrator do?

Simply put it allows you to draw amazing images. The interface is interactive, clean and well-designed, and the tools are flexible, powerful and robust after Illustrator’s long development history. It is the world’s most popular drawing program and it is infinitely scalable as its best on vectors so the artwork you create could appear on business card or billboard and is used for print, web and mobile design.

Adobe Illustrator create vector graphics, which are composed of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called “vectors.” Vectors describe a graphic according to its geometric characteristics or algorithms. Instead of using bitmap images to store data, Illustrator uses algorithms (mathematical theory) to draw shapes. That is why the vector graphics created within Illustrator can be scaled to any size without losing their quality or overall resolution. Vector artwork can be easily transported to other applications that support vectors like LFash or sketch or for web designers it is important for web wireframes.

Why do I need to learn Illustrator?

As a graphic designer it is important to know illustrator because of the many functions it offers. It makes everything from business logos to detailed illustrations to animated concepts. It can print layouts, create stunning website graphics, and give users complete control over their typography.
Graphic designers need to learn illustrator for its infinite resolution with the vectors which enables users to work with high resolution graphics in an advanced way. The result of Illustrator is a sharp, clean image that is suitable for the web or for print if you prefer. Your images are also scalable to an infinite degree without losing resolution, allowing you to keep the sharp lines that make your designs stand out.

more examples in portfolio section >

What are the benefits of using illustrator?

Illustrations can convey a feeling, a meaning, or an essence sometimes more effectively than a wall of text can. Illustrations can simplify a complicated idea, compliment the words or message being delivered to the user, and sometimes standalone without any needed explanation.

Illustrator forms a very vital component of the graphic design courses. The courses teach you on how to use the Illustrator program to make various illustrations and designs of websites or any other thing that you want to design. It is used in conjunction with the other programmes like Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and Flash to make various designs.

We hope you found this information useful and you may find more information to any questions you may have on our FAQ page >