Vector Graphics

Mathematical foundations and derivation from first principles. Quadratic and cubic curves. Combining curves into splines, tangent continuity, smoothness condition.

Interface, comparison with Adobe Photoshop, Layers panel and document structure, selecting objects and their constituents. Making and editing Bézier splines: Pen tool, inserting and deleting control points, Anchor Point tool, controlling anchor sharpness and smoothness, joining splines.
Appearance panel, stroke and opacity parameters, commands Expand and Expand Appearance. Compound paths, Pathfinder panel, Shape Builder tool.
*Raster image tracing. Grid Tools, Envelope deform command, Blend between two object.

Linking and embedding external files, Links panel. Importing raster images and .psd documents. Importing vector images and .pdf files, embed preserving text-editing capabilities and vector object structure, selective replacement of missing fonts, embed preserving appearance of text and vector objects, command Flatten Transparency.
Importing and editing vector graphics and plots from Wolfram Mathematica. Embedding LaTeX: importing prerendered .pdfs, rendering expressions with Adobe Illustrator plugins.
Grouping objects, Isolation mode, selecting objects by common property or type, Clear Appearance command. Plotting dimension lines and angles, appearance settings for double lines, dashed lines, and arrowheads. Layer effects.
*Graph and Dimension tools, importing and refreshing table data.

Principles of repetition, contrast, and proximity. Expression via alignment, color, and text formatting.
Means for ensuring repetition in Adobe Illustrator: Eyedropper tool, appearance scaling preferences, Global Swatches.

Align panel, aligning to artboard and to key object. Rulers, Guides, Smart Guides and snapping to Grid. Clipping Masks.
Text layers, text block threading, typing on a path. Panels Character and Paragraph, window Area Type Options and first-baseline offset. Converting text to outlines.
Vector image formats, save options for .ai and .pdf.
*Export to .eps and .svg, rasterisation to .png.