Adobe Illustrator CS: Hands-on Training

Finally, Lynda Weinman and Jeff Van West come out with Adobe Illustrator CS: Hands-on Training. This is the only book that gets it right for me. I must admit that I am an illiterate when it comes to Adobe Illustrator. I have no problem with Photoshop but I have been struggling with Illustrator for years. I have been reading books after books but still failed. How am I getting by all these years? Flash has been saving my career; however, I have to get over the learning curve of Illustrator if I would like to create more advanced vector artworks.

Why did I choose Hands-on Training over other books? I had the same learning problem a few years ago with Dreamweaver 3. I read the manual and several other books but still didn’t understand it. Fortunately, Dreamweaver 3: Hands-on Training came to rescue. I spent five hours reading that book and was able to grab the concept of Dreamweaver inside out. Now once again, Lynda and Jeff help me overcome Illustrator learning curve with their approachable style and lenient instructional manner.

Even though the book comes with exercise files and demo movies, Lynda and Jeff do not required readers to follow the CD-Rom exercises; therefore, they provide detailed screenshots of every step along the way. I am the type of person who cannot read and go through tutorials at the same time. As a result, any book that relies only on exercises (hint, hint) to get the point across will not do it for me. I am sure many others have similar problem as well but if you can read and do exercise at once, you will appreciate the tutorials and the bonus demo movies accompanied with the book.

So if you’re new to Adobe Illustrator, this book will save you time and money. If you need to get up to speed with Illustrator CS swiftly, this book is for you. If you’re like me who needs to get over the learning curve, this is it. The Hands-on Training series is still one of the best instructional books out there in the market. I am recommending it undoubtedly.