Introduction of Illustrator

Saving of Drawing

As with many of the other Adobe applications included in this curriculum, Illustrator provides several save options from within the File menu:

1. Save — The Save option is used after a file has already been named and saved. Using the Save option integrates and saves any edits that occurred since the file was last saved. The Save option is available via keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-S for Windows and Cmd-S for Mac) or the File Menu:

File > Save

2. Save As — The Save As option is used to save: (1) a new file that has not been saved before; or (2) a file that has been saved previously but needs to be saved under a different name. When saving a file for the first time, there is no difference in using the Save option or the Save As option; they both bring up the Save As dialog box the first time a file is saved. To save a file using the Save As option, the menu steps are:

File > Save As

The Save As dialog box will ask you to identify the folder the file should be saved in, the filename, and the type or format of the file to be saved. The file type or format options include the default Illustrator format (.AI), Illustrator EPS format (.EPS), PDF format, as well as others. Each of file formats available within the Save As option can be re-opened and/or edited in Illustrator.

3. Save a Copy — The Save a Copy option allows the user to save a copy of the current file under a different name. What makes this option different from the others presented above is that when the Save a Copy option is used, the copy is saved while the user continues to work on the current file.

File > Save a Copy

4. Save For Web — The Save for Web option provides various options relevant for optimizing graphic images for use on the Web. We will review these options in detail in the graphics unit.

File > Save for Web

Illustrator includes an option to revert to the previously saved version of a file. This feature comes in handy when you make a mistake and want to "get back" the last saved version of the file. The Revert option closes the file and re-opens the previously saved version of that file:

File > Revert

To close an open Illustrator document, use the following menu steps:

File > Close