Lynda - Using Symbols in Illustrator

Illustrator symbols can save designers a ton of time. They allow you to reuse pieces of artwork and update all the instances where you've used it all at once. And, as Justin Seeley explains, they also happen to reduce your document's file size. Follow along with Justin in this course as he shows you how to create your own symbols, save them to libraries, and make changes to symbols and their instances. You'll learn to scale, nest, resize, colorize, and even randomize the symbols in your documents. Plus, get three different practical uses for symbols: a simulated "master page" like you'd find in Adobe InDesign, a product mockup, and a website prototype.

Topics include:

What are symbols?

Creating your own symbols

Saving and loading symbol libraries

Modifying registration points

Working with nested symbols

Using 9-slice scaling

Resizing symbols in a set

Adjusting symbol transparency

Mapping symbols to artwork

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author Justin Seeley

subject Design, Illustration

software Illustrator CC

level Intermediate

duration 2h 5m

released Sep 23, 2013