For those of you who wished that you could produce multiple page documents in Illustrator, your wish has come true. Something should be said about the new multiple artboard feature because Illustrator isn't really the creation tool that you want to use to make multiple page documents, such as catalogs and books, but it's handy to be able to add artboards to spec sheets and technical drawings.

In the past, adding pages was done using a rather convoluted method of making a large artboard and then tiling the pages. Now you can create multiple artboards (up to 100!) as soon as the New Document dialog box appears.

Creating a document with multiple artboards

To create a document with multiple artboards, follow these steps:

1. Launch Adobe Illustrator CS4 and choose File

   
   New.

   The New Document dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-1.

2. Choose how many artboards you want to start with by entering a number in the Number of Artboards text box.

3. Click a grid icon to the right of the Number of Artboards text box to determine how you want the artboards laid out.

   With these grid boxes, you can set how many rows and columns you wish to use and you can also change the direction of the layout from left to right or right to left.

4. Enter an amount in the Spacing text box to determine how far apart the artboards will be.

   Enter 0 (zero) if you want the artboards butting against each other or a higher value if you want some space between them.

5. Click OK to create your new document.

Note

Don't worry if you need to edit the artboards at a later time. You can edit them by choosing File

Printing a document with multiple artboards

Pay close attention before you print a document with multiple artboards, or you may print needless pages. Here's how you can control the artboards that print:

1. Choose File

   
   Print.

   The Print dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-3.

2. Below the Preview box in the lower-left corner, click the arrows to preview the artboards.

3. After you determine which artboards you want to print, enter them into the Range text box.

   If you want to print all the artboards, make sure the All radio button is selected; otherwise enter a consecutive range, such as 1–3 in the Range text box. You can also print non-consecutive pages by separating them with a comma — enter 1, 5, 7 to print only artboards 1, 5 and 7.

4. Click the Print button to print your selected artboards.

Figure 1-1. Add multiple artboards right from the start.

Figure 1-2. Edit multiple artboards at any time.

Figure 1-3. Printing a document with multiple artboards.

A brush tool has been in Adobe Illustrator for quite some time, but now you can have the brush control that you have in other applications, such as Photoshop, right in Illustrator.

The Blob Brush is a new tool that's available, as shown in Figure 1-4. When you use this tool, notice that it has a radial annotator that shows the size and shape of the current brush. So what's so great about that? Press the right bracket (]) and watch the stroke width of the brush automatically increase; press the left bracket ([) to decrease the width of the stroke.

Figure 1-4. Gain more brush freedom with the new Blob Brush tool.

This new brush tool makes drawing with the brush much more intuitive ...no more searching for your stroke controls!

It's always good to improve your appearance, and Illustrator has done just that with the Appearance panel. The Appearance panel is a huge resource for beginner users as well as power users because it keeps you informed of the attributes that are applied to a selected object.

Notice in Figure 1-5 that you can now choose fills and strokes easily, right in the Appearance panel. You can even duplicate fills and strokes in the Appearance panel, which gives you the ability to create all sorts of interesting combinations. Read more about the Appearance panel in Chapter 12 of this minibook.

Figure 1-5. Added controls in the Appearance panel make it easier to apply attributes.

Note that when you have multiple strokes applied to one object, a warning appears in the Control panel notifying you if the topmost stroke isn't selected. This saves you the trouble of applying a new stroke to the wrong stroke.

If you read through the following chapters in this minibook, you discover lots of other incredible additions to Adobe Illustrator CS4. Many of the improvements increase the speed of production and quality of output. Have fun and read on!