Some Tips Using Adobe Illustrator® v. 9.

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by John D. Winter C1 C2

This manual is intended as a companion to another manual, “Making a Figure

Using Adobe Illustrator,” also available on my web site.
The Illustrator Toolbar is shown on the right. I shall refer to tool positions in the R1
row-column (spreadsheet) format. The uppermost tool on the right, then, shall be
located at R1-C2 (row one column two).
We shall attempt to make a graph, and put some drawings in the graph area. The R2
result is nonsensical, but serves to show many of the useful techniques. I realize
that most graphs are better made using Excel, and that Illustrator has it’s own
graph-making functions, but this exercise addresses the techniques of drawing,
text, moving, and copying elements that may be applied to a broader range of
drafted images, including stratigraphic sections, map legends, etc.
To begin, select the rectangle tool (R4-C2) and drag a large rectangle onto the
worksheet. Then choose the selection tool (R1-C1) and select the rectangle. The
lower portion of the toolbar allows you to control some important features of any
selected object (in this case your line). The features of your rectangle may be
different at the moment, but the object to which Figure 1 refers has black stroke
(line) and white fill. The stroke color refers to the color of the bounding line of
the rectangle, and the fill color refers to the color within the bounding line. You
can select either the fill of the stroke icon in the toolbar and change the color by
selecting any color you like from the Fill
Color-Attributes palette (Figure 2). If a
palette is not available, it may be on an Stroke
inactive tab of another palette (as in the
Attributes palette in Fig. 2) or the palette
may be hidden. Show hidden palettes using
the Window menu at the top. Let’s change
the color of our line. With the line itself
selected in the workspace, click on the Figure 1-
stroke-color square icon in the toolbox The Toolbar
(Fig. 1). Then select a color in the Color
palette (Fig. 2). White and black are always available at the right
end of the color selection area, and no-color (transparent) is
indicated by a diagonal red line, always available at the left end
of the color selection area. To make our rectangle stroke black
(if it isn’t already so) simply click on stroke square in the toolbar
(Fig. 1) and then on the black icon in the Color Attributes palette
(Fig. 2). Alternatively one can click anywhere in the rainbow-
like color selection area to select a different color. If you like,
you can fine-tune a selected color choice by either dragging the
triangular markers above the rainbow in Figure 2, or by typing a
value between 1-100 at the right end. Figure 2 assumes that you
are working in CYMK colors, but you can change this to RGB,
Grayscale, etc. by clicking the black wedge at the right end of
Figure 2. The Color, Stroke, and
the Color-Attributes tab bar at the top of Figure 2.
Swatches Palettes.
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Make the stroke black and the fill transparent (click the fill area in Fig 1 and then the red diagonal line
in Fig. 2). Find the Stroke palette on the right of the Illustrator work area (middle of Fig. 2) and make
the stroke weight (line thickness) equal to 1-point.
Now select the zoom tool (R11-C2) and drag over the lower left corner of the rectangle to enlarge your
work area and make the next step more accurate. Select the pen tool (R3-C1) and click it once exactly
on the left margin of the rectangle and a modest distance from the lower-left corner. Hold down the
Shift key and click again a very short distance into the rectangle to make a tic-mark for the y-axis. The
Shift key restricts drawn lines to horizontal, vertical, or 45o. Now select the tic-mark with the selection
tool, and Shift-drag it down until it lies on the lower margin of the rectangle at the lower-left corner.
Shift-dragging keeps the tic mark aligned so that your drag is perfectly vertical (you will not want to
keep this tic mark, but it helps with later spacing).
Select the text tool (R3-C2) and position it just outside the
lower-left corner of the rectangle to make the first graph y-
axis tic label. Click and type “0” (zero) and then either
select the selection tool (R1-C1) or Ctrl-click anywhere in
the work area to place the zero. You modify the font, size,
and other characteristics of the type in the Character palette
(Fig. 3). If you don’t like the position of your text, click and
drag it with the selection tool to a better position.
Figure 3. The Character Palette.
Next pick the selection tool, and drag it over the zero, and
the lower left corner of the rectangle. By dragging you
select every object that the drag marquee touches, which
in this case is everything you have drawn. To unselect
the rectangle, Shift-click it and you will be left with the
text zero and the tic mark selected. Alternatively, you
could click-select the tic-mark and then Shift-click the
zero to add it to the selection. Practice with both options.
When you have both objects selected, find the Align
palette (Fig 4) and align the text and tic mark by their
center vertically (click the 5th icon in the top row). While
still selected you may then have to Shift-drag the pair to
get the tic mark back to being coincident with the bottom
margin of the rectangle. Figure 4. The Align Palette.

Next we shall copy the text + tic-mark to create a series of labeled tics. Right-click the selected pair
and choose Transform > Move (or click Object > Transform > Move) to bring up the move menu
box. Set the Horizontal value to 0, and the Vertical value to 20 points. Then click the Copy box. This
makes a new tic and “0” label directly above the first pair. Then right-click the pair again and select
Transform > Transform Again (or Ctrl-D) as many times as necessary to create all the labels you
like. You will have a series of tics and a bunch of labels that all say zero now. To change the values,
select the text tool (R3-C2) and click it over the wrong text and type to change it. Add 10, 20, 30, 40,
etc. This results in the correct values, but the wrong alignment in most cases. Select-drag over the left
ends of all the text to select only them. Then click the right-align tool (R1-C2) in the Align palette (Fig.
4). With the text still selected, press the left keyboard arrow successive times to nudge the labels to
where you want them. Then select that first tic mark at the lower margin of the box rectangle and
delete it. If you are not satisfied with the spacing of your tic marks and labels you can space them more
appropriately using the distribute tools (second row in the Align palette, Fig. 4). If you think your tic
marks are too long or short, drag over them all to select the lot, and drag the middle handle of the

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bounding selection box to resize them all at once. You may have a problem dragging inside the
rectangle. If the rectangle moves as you drag inside it, click Edit > Preferences > General, and
remove the check in the Use Area Select box. You may find it convenient to turn this option on and off
at times to help you in your selections.
Practice with redistributing the text and tic marks, and then create a similar set of tick marks and labels
along the bottom of the graph to label the x-axis. I prefer tic marks on all four sides of the rectangle.
You can do this easily by selecting all the tic marks along the left side, for example, and then placing
the selection arrow on any one selected mark and dragging the whole group, while holding down the
Shift and Alt keys to the right side of the rectangle. Holding the Shift key keeps the tics at the same
vertical position, and the Alt key makes a copy of whatever is dragged. My final graph box looks like
this:

Figure 5. A labeled Graph Box

In the graph you can now place symbols, etc. To demonstrate some of the powers of Illustrator, we can
place some graphic elements. Use the pen tool (R3-C1) to draw some irregular ovoid areas. Practice
either clicking the pen tool along a series of points or click-dragging to create smooth beziered curves.
Always close your areas by clicking the last “anchor point” directly over the first one (the pen tool will
add a small circle when you’re at the correct position). You can further smooth a drawn “path” after it
is drawn by selecting the path, and then clicking Edit > Path > Simplify, and choosing a level of
fidelity to the original (I like 90-95%). Figure 5 shows one of my doodles. Try to create something
similar.
Select the left area and fill it with a color you like from the Color Palette (Fig. 2). Make the stroke 1-
point and black. Then select the other area and fill it with a contrasting color and the same stroke. With
the second area selected, make sure it is on top of the stack of all the objects (in front of the others). To
do this, click Object > Arrange > Bring to Front (or Crtl-Shift-]). Select the Transparency tab (Fig.
2) and choose 60% opacity. This allows you to see through the front ovoid to see the boundary of the
one behind it (as in Fig 6). Regrettably, Illustrator treats the fill and stroke together, so the stroke is
now 60% transparent and not to our liking. You can clean it all up by doing the following:
Select the top (right) area and change the stroke to transparent (the red diagonal line in the Color
palette).
Right-click the area and choose Object > Transform > Move. Set the horizontal and vertical offsets
to zero, and click copy to make a duplicate of the area directly in front of the original.

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 Make the fill of this area transparent, and the stroke 1-point black. Set the opacity back to 100%.
Repeat the process for the left area, and move the new (transparent-fill & black-opaque-stroke) to
the front of everything. This makes the boundaries of everything clear (as in Fig. 6).
Illustrator can be configured to take advantage of some nice geological fills (Litho_1 and Litho_2, as
well as USGS Topo - all available from the original Illustrator CD-ROM Swatch Library folder).
These are better for maps and geological columns, but these techniques are quite useful. The fills are
line-drawing fills which are transparent between them. If you want to use them for black-and-white
output, they work fine as given. You can make the fills coarser or finer by the following process. To
make the fill finer, first select the object to fill and enlarge it (Object > Transform > Scale and
picking a scaling factor such 200%). Then fill the expanded object with a Litho fill, and shrink it again
to the reciprocal size (50% if you first expanded by 200%) being certain to check the Patterns box in
the scale options menu. To enlarge the fills, do the opposite sequence.
You can combine color with the fills by making a duplicate of the filled object, and placing a color-
filled copy directly behind the Litho-filled object. The color shows through the litho fill. As an
example, I created fills in the graph areas and ordered them front-to-back to make them work best. The
result is shown in Figure 6.
You can insert an Illustrator drawing directly
into a Word document. This is best done by
converting the Illustrator drawing to a jpg file,
using File > Save for Web (older versions of
Illustrator use File > Export). Select JPEG
and High (for the resolution), and then select
the Image Size tab. Make your drawing about
1000 pixels wide (typically for printing), and
then save the file somewhere. Be sure you
have also saved the file as an Illustrator file, so
that you can edit and modify it later. The
JPEG is just another bitmap for printing. For
computer-screen only images you could pick a
lower resolution and save some disk space.
In Word, move the cursor to where you want
the graphic, and drag a text-box the
approximate width that you want the image to
be. Text boxes are drawn with the A-box in
the drawing palette. Next place your cursor in
the text box and select Insert > Picture > Figure 6. The final “product.”
From File from the menu. Select your jpg and in it goes. Select the text box and Format it. Be
particularly sure to do Layout > Advanced and select the Absolute Position with respect to Page,
both horizontally and vertically. Also choose the type of text wrapping you prefer. I like to get rid of
the Text Box > Internal Margins and the Line margin of the text box as well. You can add a caption
by highlighting the graphic in the text box, hitting the right-arrow key, and hitting Enter. Then you can
type in the text box below your image.