This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Saving your document
With the document open in Illustrator, now you’ll save it locally.
Choose File > Save As.
If the Cloud Document dialog box opens, click Save On Your Computer to save the document locally.
To learn more about cloud documents, see the sidebar, “What are cloud documents?” after this section.
In the Save As dialog box that opens, make sure that the name of the file is ToucanLogo.ai, and save it in the Lessons > Lesson03 folder. Leave Adobe Illustrator (ai) chosen from the Format menu (macOS) or Adobe Illustrator (*.AI) chosen from the Save As Type menu (Windows).
Click Save.
Adobe Illustrator (.ai) is called a native format and is your working file. That means it preserves all Illustrator data so you can edit everything later.
In the Illustrator Options dialog box that appears, leave the options at their default settings, and click OK.
The Illustrator Options dialog box is full of options for saving the Illustrator document, from specifying a version for saving to embedding any files that are linked to the document.
Choose Window > Workspace > Essentials (if it’s not already selected).
Choose Window > Workspace > Reset Essentials to reset the panels and settings for the Essentials workspace.
Click the Document Setup button in the Properties panel (Window > Properties).
The Document Setup dialog box is where you can change document options like units, bleeds, and more after a document is created. You will typically add bleed to artboards for printed artwork that needs to be printed all the way to the edge of the paper.
In the Bleed section of the Document Setup dialog box, change the value in the Top field to 0.125 in. All of the fields should change as well. Click OK.
Bleed is the term used for the area that extends beyond the edge of the printed page, and it ensures that no white edges show up on the final trimmed page.
Choose View > Fit Artboard In Window to fit the artboard (page) in the Document window.
The area between the red line around the artboard and the edge of the white artboard is the bleed area.
WHAT ARE CLOUD DOCUMENTS?
Aside from saving your Illustrator documents locally, you can also save them as cloud documents. A cloud document is an Illustrator document that is stored in Adobe Creative Cloud and can be accessed anywhere you sign in to Illustrator.
After you create a new document or open a document from your hard drive, you save the file to the cloud by choosing File > Save As.
The first time you do this, you will see a Cloud Document dialog box with options to save as a cloud document or save on your computer.
To save as a cloud document, you would click the Save To Creative Cloud button.
If instead of the Cloud Document dialog box you see the Save As dialog box and want to save as a cloud document, you can click the Save Cloud Document button.
In the dialog box that appears, you can change the name and click the Save button to save the document to Creative Cloud. If you change your mind and want to save the file locally, you can click On Your Computer in that dialog box (an arrow is pointing to it in the figure).
When working on cloud documents, changes are automatically saved, so the document is always up to date. In the Version History panel (File > Version History), you can access previously saved versions of a document. You can bookmark and name specific versions so they show in the Marked area of the panel, and open a version in a new window to see changes. Unmarked versions are available for 30 days, and marked versions are available indefinitely.
If you want to open a cloud document, choose File > Open. In the Open dialog box, click the Open Cloud Document button. You can then open a cloud document from the dialog box that appears. When you launch Illustrator, you can click Your Files from the Home screen to view documents saved to the Creative Cloud. From there, you can open and organize them.