6 of My Favorite Adobe Illustrator Tricks For Designers

In a field that heavily depends on technology and software, there are always new tricks coming out to make designing easier. I remember being a senior in college and finding out about all of these tricks in Illustrator, and I was so made my professor didn't teach them to us. When I asked him about it he said, "You needed to learn how to do it the hard way, so you understood exactly what the easy was doing for you." Which makes sense now looking back. So I want to share some tricks and features in the Adobe Illustrator software that I use all the time or just love using to accent things. Some of these, or heck even all of these, may not be tricks to you, but I know was so excited when I found out you could do these things!

1. The brush tools

Here me out. I don't like to paint with the brush tools for what I do. However, if I want to add a little flair to the outline of what I have created, I'll select my border and go to Window->Brushes. I typically sort through to find the brush I like, and use it to create rough edges or an interesting organic shape. I love doing this for background shapes or accents that compliment the piece that I'm doing

2. The Outline a path feature

Again, this may be nothing ground breaking, but when I learned about this feature, so many of my problems disappeared when designing. So I love to have lines here and there, and even around my shapes sometimes. However, I hate that it is a path and not a shape, especially when it comes to color matching. So if you click on your path/line that you want to convert, then go to Object->Path->Outline stroke and BOOM. You now have a shape that is filled rather than an outline.

3. Image Trace

Now this is a tool that can get you into a lot of trouble. It was one of those tools that I thought "Gee, I wish I knew this from the beginning. It makes everything so much easier." Well, yes and no. Image trace doesn't guarantee a clean cut design of what you are tracing, and it also limits your creativity and can be seen as a crutch. However, If I draw something and want to see if it can be converted in illustrator, rather than me having to redraw it, I use image trace. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. To use this option you want to import you jpg or png image, and either at the tip middle or in the properties tab when the image is selected, the word image trace should pop up. You will get a wide variety of options for image trace to apply to your design.

4. Convert Text to Outline

Again, nothing super duper hard, but so amazing when you find this feature. Converting text to outlines is amazing for the sake sharing files with other designers, customers, etc. It prevents the other user from having to guarantee that they have whatever font was used, or from you having to package the font. NOW, if this is a document that many people are editing, everyone needs to have the font. To convert like a name or the text when everything is done is usually amazing to do, especially if you're sending it to a vendor. To convert text to an outline you want to type what you want, and then select it, right click it, and select "Create Outlines". Just like that, your text becomes shapes.

5. Masking Tool

This tool is by far my favorite. Not only does it conceal all the attributes to a design that you select to to a confined space, but you can also use it with photos. This is really great for marketing when you want to include some custom photography in your designs or campaign, but without having to post the whole entire image. To mask what you'll need to do is draw a base shape first. Circle, Triangle, Letters, whatever, it needs to be the base. Then insert your creations inside the shape, it's okay if they go past it. Then, take that shape on the bottom, copy and paste it directly on top, select all, right click, and select make clipping mask. Everything is now confined and grouped inside that shape!

6. Paste in Front

This one I learned on the job. So simple, yet I wasn't taught it school. For the most part with pasting objects, we are taught command or control + V. Paste in front is such a blessing because it will copy the object and paste it directly back on top of where you copied from. This makes aligning things so much easier, and it takes less time. So copy like usual, and then hit Command or Control + F. So simple, but it has made my life so easy ever since I learned it.

Now, to some readers, all of these tricks they already knew and this article wasn't helpful. That's okay! Because at my point in my designing career if I came across this article, it wouldn't be very helpful to me. There are designers out there though that are just starting out, and may find this useful. If anything I write can be considered useful to someone learning, then I've done my part.

Sincerely, Just Your Average Graphic Designer in totally Digital World #GraphicDesign #Artists #Design #Creative #Process #Adobe #Illustrator #Artwork #Clients #Businesses #CreativeProcess #Branding #Logo #BrandStandards #Creativity #TipsAndTricks