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ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS2
User Guide
7. Experiment with design variations.
Now that you have a basic design, experiment with different variations. For example, if you want to apply a different
fill and stroke to the symbol instance, select the instance in the document window and click the Break Link To
Symbol button in the Symbols palette. Once the link to the symbol is broken, the object is no longer a symbol, so you
can apply different fills and strokes to it.
We went one step further by applying a variety of gradients to our design. First, we drew another circle, chose
Object > Arrange > Send To Back, and realigned all three objects using the Align palette. We filled the objects with
a default gradient from the Swatches palette. Then, we selected just the outer circle and used the Gradient tool to
reverse the direction of the gradient. (See “To apply a gradient in a different direction” on page 252.) Our final design
will make a great web button, so we used the Save For Web command to save it in GIF format. (See “To optimize and
save web graphics” on page 452.)
Discover the power of compound shapes
Using compound shapes is one of the easiest ways to create illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. You start by drawing
basic shapes and then use the Pathfinder palette to combine them in different ways. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how
to add and subtract shapes, as well as how to use the Layers palette.