Intended user: Intermediate, and Advanced

I'm a big fan of the Real World series from PeachPit. The implication is that despite how the manufacturer claims the program should work, in the real world there may need to be some fine tuning. This book, like all its brethren is good. But despite all its 920 pages, it could have been better.

First, here's what's good. Deke is an excellent writer and knows Illustrator. Also, he's been using the program since wayyy back and can easily refer the reader to "back in version yada-yada when you used to do this that way, you still can but you need to do this..." Deke writes in a fashion that this extra information does not get in the way of the reader who's never heard of that process because they are a new user to Illustrator.

Deke is also a "light" writer, and I mean this in the best sense. There is no sense of impending doom when he writes and is very encouraging--even when he's warning the reader that what they are about to embark upon is not only challenging, but different than anything they've ever done before. He warns, then encourages the reader to continue regardless.

Deke also warns the reader of Illustrator weaknesses. For example, Illustrator STILL DOES NOT LET THE USER SET THE ROUNDING OF ROUND-CORNER RECTANGLES BY EYE. That is my emphasis, not his, but he does let you know that it still cannot be done. (Do you hear that Adobe?!?)

If you are a long time Illustrator user, there is no chapter on "what's new in Illustrator 10." Rather, Deke uses the "icon in the text process" to point out the "10" features as well as "Tips" "Warnings," and "Notes." So regrettably, if you want to just catch up on the new features, you have to dig.

This is my first of Deke's Illustrator books, so I have nothing to go back to compare to. As such, I'm not sure if this book has always had some quirkiness as to how the information was laid out or if it's just a development from continuous growing. (The book is some 920 pages after all.). The problem was that the breakdown of the book seemed somewhat "off" to me.

For example, in the beginning of the section on Paths, Deke brings up the issue of "Undo," and how many Undos there are and how to set them. It can easily be argued that placing this here makes sense because while you are learning about paths you want to be able to easily undo the mistake you just made. However, it makes more sense to me to place a sidebar on Undos or a "see page..." for information on how to set your preferences for the Undo command.

In a different vein, I was intrigued by Deke's choice of breaking up the information. For example, in the Chapter on "Creating Lines and Shapes," Deke details each of the tools (and menu commands) that one can create lines and shapes (but not pens--that comes in a later chapter) providing excellent information on every subtle nuance and special key-command/combination for each of the tools. Yet, Deke chooses to break the Pencil Tool's brethren (the Smooth Tool and the Eraser Tool) into a different chapter. Yes, I can see his logic as to why Smooth and Eraser are different from Pencil, but perhaps it might be better to break the book into several sections: one section for how each of the tools work, and another section on how to use them.

But, when it comes right down to it, my complaints are mostly structural, and have nothing to do with the material--which is good. There are some cases where I feel that more graphics would have helped and in another case, where he discusses Illustrator's curious limitations with the direction of paths, he fails significantly. Specifically, he states "By this time, you've probably created a compound path or added a new subpath only to find that you're not getting any holes." I hadn't. So his further discussion was meaningless to me. What I would suggest is that he lead the reader to how to create the condition to not create holes so the reader would be able to see how the problem is created, AND THEN explain how to deal with it.

But again, I still feel that this is a good book and should cover most of the answers that one is looking for. Remember, Illustrator is a monster of a program, and I (for one) do not believe that it can be fully covered in a single book. However, if you plan on purchasing a single book though, this is a good one to get.

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