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stroke treatments
Deciding when to use the pen, pencil, and brush tools is easier when you see examples of effects each creates.
Stroke treatments are attributes applied to a vector path or an object’s edge.
Illustration programs, Adobe Illustrator in particular, offer some of the most complex sets of tools in all of computer- dom. Witness Illustrator’s Toolbox. No less than ten sets
of tools are crammed into this stack of icons. The little triangles at the bottom right corner produce pop-out win- dows (detachable) with subsets. All together there are about seventy-five tools jammed into the toolbox.
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CHAPTER 4: ILLUSTRATION [ 153 ]
Just to make sure it’s clear: A path is not a line, but rather a trajectory, within a vector object. It connects two anchor points. Paths become lines when they are stroked with particular treatments among Illustrator’s limit- less options.
There are thirty different palettes that further expand Illustrator’s creative options. Plus there is a Control Palette that displays more options, depending on the type of objects you select. Are you keeping count? There are over one hundred discrete tools in Illustrator, and the vast majority of them have settings that can be adjusted this way and that.
Paths can be open or closed. An open path might be a straight line, an arc, or a combination. A closed path is one that rejoins itself, regardless of what shape the paths are that con- nect any number of anchor points.
Illustrator’s army of tools works well together. You can start drawing with one and then switch to another. But precisely which one do you start with? While what follows is admittedly simplistic, it offers some getting-started insights that are hard to find elsewhere. And they include thoughts on which tasks each one is best suited for.
This illustration samples the various strokes that can be applied to a pathway. There are variations of weight, measured in point (pt) size. There are variations in stroke styl- ings like Neon, Dashed, and Image Effect. Jamie Kruse
WHEN TO USE
WHICH TOOL
The call outs indicate groupings of similar tools but they may not make the stack less intimidating. Here’s the good news: There are three main tools for putting down marks—Pen, Pencil, and Brush. If you can focus on these three, everything else will fall into place. They are different in subtle ways, but that is their strength.