Illustrator basics for new users

Build your artwork with simple shapes

Draw simple vector shapes and edit them with easy-to-use controls. Live Shapes are always editable, so you can keep refining with no loss in quality.

Try Create illustrations using simple shapes to start working with Live Shapes.

Easily draw lines and curves

There are dozens of ways to sketch, trace, and draw in Illustrator. Draw smooth lines and freehand curves with the Pencil tool. Or create elegant curves and precise angles with the Curvature tool and adjust your drawing without switching tools.

Try Draw smooth lines and shapes with the Pencil tool and Draw and edit curves for hands-on practice.

Add polished typography

Make your text stand out in a crowd. Combine the powerful typographic features in Illustrator with the vast library of high-quality fonts from Adobe Typekit — included with your Adobe Creative Cloud membership. 

Try Set a beautiful title to create your first typographic design. We bet you’ll be captivated.

Make your colors pop

Perk up your art with colors effortlessly. You can select colors in several ways — choose a swatch in the Swatches panel or click along a spectrum in the Color Picker.

View How to use the Color Picker and start coloring your artwork.

Keep your artwork well organized

Don’t waste time hunting for art in your project — make a habit of saving it in layers instead. When you add art to separate layers you can easily lock, hide, and select objects.

Watch Exploring the Layers panel to learn how to easily set up layered artwork.