Adobe Certified Professional Illustrator cheat sheet

A project brief defines scope, audience, deliverables, and constraints; written approval of the brief precedes production work.

Copyright protects original fixed expression automatically on creation; registration strengthens enforcement but is not required for protection.

Work made by an employee within job scope is a work made for hire, so the employer holds copyright unless a contract assigns otherwise.

A standard license grants defined usage rights; an exclusive/transfer license moves ownership and must be in writing.

Client-supplied fonts, stock images, and logos require documented rights; scope of use (media, territory, duration) is stated in the license.

A statement of work (SOW) lists deliverables, revisions count, timeline, and payment terms; change orders cover out-of-scope additions.

Proof approval transfers final content responsibility to the client; version control names files by client, project, and revision number.

RGB is standard for screen delivery; CMYK is standard for process-color print; spot colors are specified via Pantone or similar matching systems.

Design files should be archived with linked assets using package/collect functions so fonts and images remain traceable.

Raster images store pixels on a grid; vector graphics store mathematical paths and scale without quality loss.

Image resolution in PPI equals pixels divided by physical size in inches (PPI = px / in); print commonly targets 300 PPI at final size.

Total pixel count equals width in pixels times height in pixels; doubling both dimensions quadruples file size.

Bit depth sets tonal levels per channel: 8-bit = 256 levels, 16-bit = 65,536 levels; 8 bits per channel RGB yields 24-bit color.

File size for uncompressed raster data equals width x height x channels x bit depth / 8 bytes.

RGB uses additive light with a wide gamut; CMYK uses subtractive ink with a smaller gamut, so RGB-to-CMYK conversion can clip saturated colors.

Lossy compression (JPEG) discards data on each save; lossless formats (PNG, TIFF, PSD) preserve pixel data across edits.

Anti-aliasing softens edge pixels to reduce stair-stepping; upsampling cannot recover detail absent from the source pixels.

The Pen tool creates anchor points joined by Bezier segments; direction handles control curve shape, and Alt/Option drags break handle symmetry at a point.

Smooth points have collinear handles producing continuous curves; corner points have independent handles producing sharp direction changes.

The Pathfinder panel combines or divides overlapping shapes (Unite, Minus Front, Intersect, Exclude); the Shape Builder tool merges or deletes path regions interactively.

The Layers panel controls stacking order, visibility, and locking; sublayers group related objects within a parent layer.

Appearance attributes (fills, strokes, effects) can be applied to layers and groups, not only to individual objects.

Global colors update everywhere when edited, while spot colors map to named ink plates for output; process colors separate into CMYK.

Clipping masks hide artwork outside a topmost vector path; opacity masks use luminance or alpha to vary transparency.

Symbols place reusable linked instances that update from a master definition, reducing file size and edit effort.

Artboards define output regions within one document; each artboard can be exported separately with its own dimensions.

Save As AI keeps editable native layers and paths; PDF preserves editability when Illustrator editing capability is retained.

PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-4 are print-ready standards; X-4 permits transparency and RGB while X-1a flattens to CMYK with no transparency.

Flattening converts transparency into opaque art; rasterization settings (resolution, anti-aliasing) determine quality of flattened areas.

Export formats map to use: PNG for lossless web with alpha, JPEG for photographic web, SVG for scalable web graphics, EPS for legacy vector interchange.

The Save for Web/Export As dialog controls format, quality, dimensions, and color profile; preview size should match final display size.

Packaging (File > Package) collects the AI file, linked images, and fonts into one folder for handoff or archival.

Overprint Preview simulates how overlapping inks combine on press; Separations Preview checks individual color plates.

Archiving best practice stores the native editable file plus a PDF/X proof and a text manifest of fonts and links used.

Color conversion on export should be intentional: assign or convert to the destination profile rather than leaving mixed profiles.