Adobe Illustrator - Re: CS2, Windows - Help with pathfinder and paths in general, text on a

Author

Re: CS2, Windows - Help with pathfinder and paths in general, text on a

steggy

2005-08-23, 7:14 pm

MS wrote:
>
> My boss has finally got me a copy of Illy. Hooray!
>
> I just need a bit of help with some of the path finder functions. My
> background is from CorelDraw!
>
> When trimming two objects, the result is grouped. Is there a way of making
> it so that (say) the top object is discarded immeditaely? In Corel, when
> trimming, intersecting (divide in Illustrator) or welding (merge) you have
> the option of leaving either the target or destination object, or leave
> both, or leave none. Can you set something like this inIllustrator - having
> to ungroup and delete unecessary objects is time consuming and clumsy.
>
> Also, it seem objects need to be filled before they can be trimmed, merged
> or divided. Is this the case?

You can use the direct selection tool (white arrow) to
select and delete. Ungrouping is not necessary. If you use
Alt-Direct Select you only hit the delete key once;)

>
> Duplicating objects. The only way I've found so far is to go to Scale, and
> make a copy at 100%. In Corel you can go Edit/Duplicate or press the "+" key
> and a copy is made on top of the original - very efficient. Is there a way
> in Illustrator that is as quick? I know that you can drag an object, hold
> the Alt key down and and a copy will be placed in the new position. But this
> is not precise, and would require extra stages aligning them if you wanted
> them to be postioned accurately.

Select the object, Copy and Paste in Front, that is what the
"+" key is?
Short Cut: Cmnd-Copy/Cmnd-F

>
> Making a mirror image of an object. One way in Illustrator is to use
> transform, and set (say) X Mid and Y Left axis, go Flip Horizontal and the
> object will flip on its left side. This is fine, but how do you quickly make
> a mirrored duplicate of the object? In Corel, you can select and object,
> Press Ctrl to constrain the size, move the pointer to the side, right click,
> and a perfect mirror image copy is place abutting the original. Is the a way
> to get Illustrator do this as efficiently?

Mmmmmmm........even more efficient I would say. Under the
rotation tool there is a mirror tool.
Choose that, Alt-Click on the selected object, right on the
point you want the mirroring to happen. The rest is for
you;) You can copy, choose horizontal, vertical or angle. If
you do not use the Alt key you can do the same free hand.

>
> Text on a path. It appears that text can only be "attached" to a path on
> it's base line. What if you wanted text on the top outside of a circle, and
> text on the bottom outside of a circle. The bottom text would have to be
> "attached" on its top, not the base. I know that a solution would be to have
> two circles - one for the top text, and another for the bottom text that is
> smaller in diameter relative to the size of the text. In Corel, top text and
> bottom text (or side text for that matter) can be placed on any side of the
> curve (path) and start in any direction. Once again, can Illustrator treat
> text on a path as efficiently?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help. I look forward to getting deeper and deeper
> into Illustrator.

OK that is one that I have heard of.......Corel is better at
that. But still it is not that hard.

Draw a circle, do not mind filling or whatever, just the measurements.
Type your text on top for instance, using the Path Type Tool
that you obviously know. If there was a filling or stroke on
the circle it will be gone after typing.

Now the trick. Alt-click the text ON THE BEAM (an obvious
cursor kind of beam, if it is centered text it will be in
the center of the text) and drag it to the inside.
You now have copied the text to the inside. Alt-Double
clicking on that beam does the same, make sure to click the
beam on the inner side of the circle.

Then just drag that copy down. Use the mouse! It needs some
practice maybe, but you can do it;) Now you need to center
it maybe and lower it down to have the top of the text
touching that same circle.
Sorry about this lame explanation. There is much more if you
search for "text on a path" on this group.

I am talking Illustrator 10 here and will find out what
Illustrator CS2 does tomorrow;)
--
steg

steggy

2005-08-23, 7:16 pm

MS wrote:
>
> "MS" <Email@Myemail.com> wrote in message
> news:LvMOe.8360$FA3.4398@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
>
> Snip. In previous post
>
>
> Additional, I've noticed that under certain circumstances, merging can
> produce in visible (no fill, no outline) artifacts that need deleting
> manually lest they cause problems down the track.
>
> Try this. Draw a circle. Draw another circle smaller that the first,
> completely within the first. Make a compound path out of the two. Draw
> another circle, partially overlap this with the first object. Merge.
> Ungroup. You see the expected circle with a "loop" sticking out, but
> underneath this in "open area" there is an object with no fill, no outline.
> Is there a way around this, or is it an Illustrator thing?

Tried......did not succeed to get what you got........
--
steg

steggy

2005-08-24, 7:27 pm

jbl wrote:
>
> reply from 'Larry Linson' to MS re: this subject thread
>
> On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:52:20 -0700, Larry Linson
> <bouncer@localhost.not> wrote:
>
>
> The Message header raw data
>
> Path:
> news-wrt-01.rdc-kc.rr.com!news-west.rr.com!news.rr.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!news-feed01.roc.ny.frontiernet.net!nntp.frontiernet.net!news.astraweb.com!news-router1.astraweb.com!not-for-mail
> User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022
> Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 22:58:11 -0700
> Subject: Re: CS2, Windows - Help with pathfinder and paths in
> general,text on a path.
>
> From: Larry Linson <bouncer@localhost.not>
>
> Newsgroups: alt.graphics.illustrator
> Message-ID: <BF315A83.4781C%bouncer@localhost.not>
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> A Message header raw data from Artist Mike
>
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> Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 18:08:49 -0700
> Subject: Re: Art work tidy up needed
>
> From: mike <mike@artistmike.com>
>
> Newsgroups: alt.graphics.illustrator
> Message-ID: <BF2D2231.46D94%mike@artistmike.com>
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> X-Agent-Group: alt.graphics.illustrator
>
> Mike Christy AKA Artist Mike AKA Larry Linson (this week)
>
> Seems like you are Artist Mike when you are spamming and soliciting
> business here and now you are Larry Linson when you want to send
> sarcastic criticisms. Why didn't you just use your nick "Artist Mike"
> to flame the person ( MS ) just asking for help. Maybe that wouldn't
> be good for business, huh?
>
> One nick per newsgroup is usually sufficient.
>
> jbl

Ahaaaaa sorry I should have read it all first. mmmmmm funny
I did it without headers.

OK lets go on with this newsgroup.
--
steg

steggy

2005-08-24, 7:27 pm

MS wrote:
>
>
> This is something that I'm rapidly finding out for myself.
>
> The setup at the studio I work (for about 15 years now) always "demarcated"
> areas of responsibilty. Licensing, hardware etc were all considerations.
>
> I ended up being the Corel "Guru". Now, I used to sit and watch the Illy
> "gurus" struggle for 30 mins (sometimes hours) on tasks that I'd bash out in
> 3 mins in Corel. And wonder, "why would would you bother"?
>
> I'm starting to think that it's not Illustrator that's the problem, but the
> operators, who, inspite of their criticism of Corel, really don't know the
> application they're using. I must admit that the couple of days I've been
> fiddling with Illustrator has impressed me!
>
> The ability to stretch text around a path without distorting it is a boon. I
> had to write a VBA application to get Corel to do that!
>
> Now, I wish that Adobe would would include a VBA editor with the application
> (like Corel does). Licensing issues mean I don't have VB on my machine.
> Being able to automate Illustrator would really make it kick arse!
>
> Thanks for your help and suggestions!

Maybe you should explain what VBA is?
--
steg

steggy

2005-08-26, 7:16 pm

KatWoman wrote:
>
>
> Oh thanks, we already got a sh*tload of programs to learn, Illy, PS,
> InDesign, Quark, Freehand and Dreamweaver, MM Flash, color management
> education curves, printing specs and browser compatibility, and JavaScript,
> maybe some 3D progs like MAYA too.,we have to know Mac and Windows for low
> pay that is now being out sourced to India and now you want us to learn
> scripting! Bugger off. . Scripting is for engineers, we are artists forced
> into learning a brave new way of doing our work and risking losing it all in
> format wars and poor output longevity.

Wow..........I say: Amen

You forgot about that darn Acrobat and PitStop's certified
PDF's.....plus (what will be expected from you) printing
techniques, you need to know all about it, project
management, presentations, negotiations, billing,
administration, and most important of all: to be a nice
person all the time and come up with those fantastic ideas
and concepts.

Yes it is a lousy job. Focus on being creative with all that
software and all those formats. But you are so right.
--
steg

steggy

2005-09-22, 11:14 pm

MS wrote:
>
> "KatWoman" <JolieXPrincessXKatanaXXX@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:dBHPe.4618$2_.993@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
>
> I suppose it depends on which sector you work in.
>
> Wouldn't it be nice to be to able to (say) run a script/app/macro that step
> and repeats automatically, adds custom crop marks, adds custom rego marks,
> date stamps the artwork etc at the touch of a button? What if a client
> supplies vector artwork that has thousands of objects where (say) the
> outlines aren't scalable. Are you going to send the artwork back and tell
> them to get it right or piss off? Are you going to select each object and
> change the setting manually? Or would you like to run a script that that'll
> do it automatically?
>
> Are you one of those who'll select each group, duplicate it, step it out 16
> times, draw a new rego mark, position that mark (with questionable accuracy
> if done by hand) throughout the drawing 20 times etc.
>
> Like I alluded to earlier, at the studio I'm in I see artists spend hours
> manually stepping up artwork, moving rego marks around the page. Drawing new
> crop marks for each new graphic, while I do all that (and more) in seconds.
>
> Scripting enhancs the "creative" side of things by giving you more time to
> be creative.

I agree but I can understand Katwoman also.
It would be a great thing if these scripts would be easily
available, for money or not. Like Photoshop Actions. I
cannot find Illustrator scripts, at least not the like you describe.
--
steg