Customizing Illustrator CS4

[Starbrand]

I was wondering is possible to change the Adobe Illustrator CS4 welcome screen to have your own custom files show up? I know you can put your files under templates, but can files be listed on the splash screen?

[Lukas Engqvist]

You can probably make your own splash screen by making a PDF portfolio, but I'm processing files made by others so never really put much thought into it.

[grnofslt]

If you have a file that you use all the time that may only get minor changes with each use, you can save your file as an Illustrator template which is located in the Cool Extras Folder > en_US > Templates. Then when you click on templates on the welcome screen you will be led inside the Templates folder where you will see all the different sub folders and the individual files you have saved as templates.

If you have a special custom document profile you can also save this. So when you create a new file, CMD/CNTL + N and the new document dialogue box appears, your custom document setup can be accessed in the New Document Profile drop down menu. You can't save the custom profile from the New document dialogue box, you have to save it as an Illustrator file in the following location and giving it a descriptive name so you will know what custom document preset it is.

ON a Mac: User > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator SC4 > en_US > New Document Profiles.

On a Windows machine: The first step is to unhide the hidden files and folders. and On a Vista machine C:\Users\acct Name\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS4\en_US\New Document Profiles.

Once you have save your custom document profile and named it into these folders, you will have to quit Illustrator and then restart Illustrator in order to fine your custom preset listed under the new Document Profile.

I saw this taught in a Video Tutorial on Lynda Dot com. If you have a Lynda.com acct watch Deke McClelland CS4 One on one essentials training

Bill

[NorCal Chuck]

Thanks Bill works well for the document BUT . . . .
How can I change the default Font and make it something else?

[grnofslt]

I'm not sure what you mean about changing the default font. Could you elaborate?

[TORCH511]

To change the default font, follow the instructions here

http://vectips.com/tutorials/change-default-fonts-for-new-documents/comment-page-1/

That is for CS4, but it is similar for other version of illustrator, though the default documents are in different locations.

[grnofslt]

Thinking about your question, I decided you meant fonts that may have been used in a template that you opened. So I opened a template and decided to try.

The predesigned templates used in Illustrator all will open as untitled files which are completely editable by whoever chooses to use them. You will have to change the fonts individually as you change the text to meet the needs of the job you are working on.

I may be mistaken, but I don't believe there is a way to change all the fonts in a template to other fonts you wish to use except by individually changing them as you change the text to meet your needs.

If you are going to use a template my suggestion would be for you to study the template thoroughly before you begin to attempt changes.

Your question dealt with changing fonts from one to another so I'll focus on that:

First, when you opened the template, did the Missing/Find Fonts dialogue box open?

Secondly, assuming the template opened without the above dialogue box, select the text areas and determine if the template has used point text or area text. Point text is the easiest to edit and change. Area text can have formatting applied to it that has to be figured out before trying to make changes (example being the text within an area type box having spaced and aligned columns). You can select type in an area of type both point and area by having the text tool active and click-dragging over the text you wish to select. Once you have it selected, you can change it to whatever font you wish. But here i would suggest caution especially when you see an area that is formatted to have spaced and aligned columns because the font you choose may mess up the appearance of the formatting that the template's designer had used before hand. I had opened a template that looked like a simple lunch menu with a menu, receipt and business card on three artboards. The menu part had used a font called Birch STd which showed formatting and alignment and each area text box was linked to another. I had selected the text in the manner I told you above to Apple chalkboard and the designer's formatting was shot to hell throughout the linked text boxes.

So you can change the fonts used in a template, but you need to do it manually and you need to exercise caution or you will either be doing many CMD + Zs or starting over again by reopening the template.


Hope this was helpful

Bill

[NorCal Chuck]

Actually Torch has the right idea . . . .

The reason to change the default font is because I do a lot of forms for a company and we use Universe, however when ever I open a new document I find Myriad.
When I put the document away and make a print out for proofing and then return to the document after proofing, I find Myriad is back???

So I would like to open a new document and find Universe already available.
It would be nice to have it stay that way also.

Thanks Torch . . . . .

[grnofslt]

I see that I did go in the wrong direction for you. Heading to pre-created templates rather than to document setups.

I've noticed that Myriad always showed up in Illustrator CS3 in a new document. I never really thought about it being a default font for new documents. But then again, with the kind of work we did, Customers never used Myriad except on rare occasion. Most of the times no matter what font had been the default font in Illustrator we would have to match the fonts used in the scans that we were using for our typesetting which could be any of a thousand different fonts, and most of which we didn't have in our system at work.

But now I have the link and this is a good tip to know. I'm always glad to know new and good things about Illustrator.

Thanks to all for this

Bill

[manatee2]

Thanks Torch, I have always disliked the Myriad font myself, and have always wanted to know to change it myself.