How to Lay out Documents in Illustrator

Organize your work in Adobe Illustrator for productivity.

Make the most of your work in Adobe Illustrator by crafting files that are simple to update, revise and repurpose. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of designing and drawing, only to look back later at your work and wonder why you arranged its elements the way you did, what's on some of its hidden layers and where you put essential resources within a hodgepodge of elements. Take the time to set up your files in accordance with straightforward principles aimed at producing consistent, well-organized work.

Instructions

1. Choose file names with care. Avoid calling any document "final" unless it actually is complete and approved. Incorporate a letter or number at the end of file names to indicate where in a sequence of revisions each individual document belongs.

2. Isolate discrete resources on their own layers. This makes it much easier to select, preview, transform and delete elements of your design based on simple criteria, such as viewing type by itself.

3. Name your document layers so you can tell where you placed your file elements. You may know that Layer 7 contains your type or Layer 12 is locked and hidden because it includes an out-of-date version of part of your design, but you may not remember these essential details in six months when you reopen your file to extract part of it for another project.

4. Organize your swatches so your colors sort meaningfully. Use Adobe Illustrator's Swatches panel to separate spot colors from process colors and user-defined shades from standard hues chosen from Pantone libraries.

5. Delete swatches you don't need. By default, Adobe Illustrator creates documents prepopulated with fills, patterns and other swatches that may be irrelevant to your work. Reduce document size and complexity by weeding out unused resources.

6. Delete bitmaps after you trace them if your work relies on images you must redraw. Unless you anticipate the need to redo your tracing work, leftover bitmaps only increase file size.

7. Avoid leaving empty type objects laying around on your artboard. It's easy to click absentmindedly with the Type tool and forget to remove the characterless type object it produces, but these accidents can leave your document expecting access to typefaces you aren't using in your typeset materials.

Tips & Warnings

• Use Adobe Illustrator's Find Font dialog box to look for unneeded typeface usage.

• Save incremental versions of your work so you can go back to prior designs.

• Rely on prefabricated colors as much as possible to assure your choices print properly.

• Create CMYK-mode documents unless your work is destined solely for the Web.

• Avoid leaving preliminary materials or versions in files you share with others. Create a for-production document that includes all and only the materials you need for output of your work.

References

• Adobe Systems: Using Adobe Illustrator CS5

Resources

• "The Adobe Illustrator CS5 Wow! Book"; Sharon Steuer; 2010
• "Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One for Dummies"; Jennifer Smith, et al.; 2010
• "Illustrator CS5 for Windows and Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide"; Elaine Weinmann, et al.; 2011
• "Adobe Illustrator CS5 Bible"; Ted Alspach; 2010
• "Real World Adobe Illustrator CS5"; Mordy Golding; 2011