illustrator

The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book is here again

aiwowbook

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book is out again. This time for CS6 and CC. I’m one of the testers of the chapters of the book. And this time it is a printed version, on paper. We had a digital pdf version before this one covering the previous CC version. Highly recommended (though I am biased). All updated with techniques and examples for the latest version of Adobe Illustrator.

aiwowbook

Photo:©nini.tjader.2014

Have participated in the WOW Team for a couple of versions by now. I always learn new techniques by testing the chapters about how to do certain things.

I wasn’t always an Adobe Illustrator user. I started out in then Macromedia Freehand – and as most previous Freehand users still miss some of the features it had. But Illustrator is, though slowly, getting there.

Go get your own book either at Amazon or at PeachPit. Available both as e-book and printed book in full color. If you are in Sweden you can get it from Adlibris or Bokus.

aiwowbook

Photo:©nini.tjader.2014

Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, Nerdish, Various, 0 comments

TBT Freehand

freehand

Freehand 4.0 T-shirt. Photo: ©nini.tjader

(TBT Throw Back Thursday) Once upon a time when I first learned to use a vector application for drawing, it was Aldus Freehand that I started out with. In my former life I taught software applications to customers. Freehand was one of them. I even recorded a two-part video about Macromedia Freehand 5.0/5.5 for a education company. Those videos were around for quite some time long after Freehand had more or less disappeared.

freehand

Freehand 5.0/5.5 video. Photo: ©nini.tjader

freehand

Freehand 5.0/5.5 video. Photo: ©nini.tjader

This was around the time when every software company regularly gave out T-shirts in seminars you attended. They were always size L or XL or even XXL. Perfect nighties, but not T-shirts for a smallish person like me. I still have the old Freehand 4.0 T-shirt… And the old videos (on VHS). If nothing else, it is fun watching oneself teaching…

Eventually I had to switch to Adobe Illustrator as Freehand disappeared from the Swedish market. Later Aldus products got first bought by Macromedia and then Freehand was bought by Adobe and in the end Freehand was discontinued in favor of adobe Illustrator. We were many that were sorry about that. There are still several features that Freehand had that to this day has not turned up in Adobe Illustrator. To easily create text on a circle at both top and bottom is just one of those…

Nowadays I am one of the testers of the Illustrator WOW! books for each version. Today I am at home in Illustrator but I still miss some of those smart features that Freehand had and Illustrator still doesn’t…

freehand4

Freehand 4.0 T-shirt. Photo: ©nini.tjader

Posted by nini in Nerdish, TBT, 0 comments