Illustrator Symbols

[kinch]

Hello all,

I just finished doing a map for a client. Anyways, I just realized that Illustrator comes with a bunch of symbols already, in the symbols pallet. I know, I'm slow :P Come on... it's a huge program and I've only been using it for a year :p

Anways, this could have saved me a bunch of time. For the future though, are these "royalty free" ? I'm assuming since they came with illustrator, I can use them however I want.... but I thought I'd double check. All symbols are pretty much the same anyways.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I'm pretty sure you can just use them as you see fit. I don't think they would include them if there was any copyright involved. I personally can't stand to use them. I prefer making my own so I can change them up as I see fit and give my client something unique.

[kinch]

I'm pretty sure you can just use them as you see fit. I don't think they would include them if there was any copyright involved. I personally can't stand to use them. I prefer making my own so I can change them up as I see fit and give my client something unique.

For a standard map though, they could be great. As long as the map isn't the main point of the design.

[Virgo Nightingale]

For something quick and cheap, the symbols should be fine, especially for universal symbols. If a client is a well-paying one, I still prefer to give them something unique.

I don't know if someone else knows how to get around this, but a while ago I had to prep a file that was made by someone else (a novice Illy user) for a two-color print. He had used one of the symbols, and I couldn't get it onto a spot channel. It kept coming up on the cmyk plates. It was a simple triangle symbol and it was easier to just recreate the shape and give it a spot color than to find a true way to make it do what I wanted it to do. Just something to keep in mind when using them.

[hewligan]

For something quick and cheap, the symbols should be fine, especially for universal symbols. If a client is a well-paying one, I still prefer to give them something unique.

I don't know if someone else knows how to get around this, but a while ago I had to prep a file that was made by someone else (a novice Illy user) for a two-color print. He had used one of the symbols, and I couldn't get it onto a spot channel. It kept coming up on the cmyk plates. It was a simple triangle symbol and it was easier to just recreate the shape and give it a spot color than to find a true way to make it do what I wanted it to do. Just something to keep in mind when using them.

Object -> Expand

Object -> Ungroup

Then you need to make sure you've assigned a spot colour to every last part (you never know what weird bits got stuck in that symbol). You layers palette is your friend for that part.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I thought I had tried that, but then again, it was kind of a rush, so I might have just said "Pancake this, it will take me less time to just redraw this than figure out the right way to do this."

Regardless, thanks Hewligan, I'll remember that if that client brings in another "nephew-hack-made" file. :)

[PrintDriver]

It doesn't necessarily require a hack to use items in Illy that require Expand or Expand Transparency. A while back someone in here showed me a 'trick' you guys do using the Appearance palette that royally screws my color corrections process.