Adobe Illustrator Classroom in a Book (2020 release)

I've had a few of these Classroom in Books from Adobe. Some of them just don't do a good job describing the minutia of each step so you don't get tripped up. This book does an excellent job of walking you step by step through the exercise files so you build your knowledge. The author also re-uses skills learned in lessons to reinforce those skills and help you apply them consistently. While there are few odd things like some of the pictured icons in the book don't match exactly the icons Adobe is using in the program, these small inconsistencies are not problematic, just weird. I do wish that Adobe would be better about providing the links you should look up for deeper dives on some things, but over all this was a very understandable, organized book that actually helps you make good sense out of Illustrator. This is the first Classroom in Series book I've been able to finish without throwing it across the room at one time or another. It's just exceptionally well done.

When you spend £35 on a book, you want to be sure that everything works as intended. I agonised over buying this book for a while. Big chunky books when you have quite severe wrist problems is not ideal, and I didn't just want an eBook for that price, so when looking into this, seeing a promised web edition with interactive lessons and videos, it sealed the deal for me.I got my book and signed up to the Adobe Press website to activate my web version. It told me to enter the 10 or 13 digit ISBN to do so. I entered the 10 digit one and it said I'd registered my book, but no web version appeared for me. I contacted support who were the most unhelpful, knowledgeable, and shady support team I've ever dealt with. After making me provide my Amazon invoice, another screenshot of this product page, and 18 messages back and forth over nearly a week, they told me that the web version does not come with this book because it's not in the product description and that only the paperbacks bought from their website contain access to the web version. This was of course, completely false because the book says all over it that any purchase of it gains you access. The last message from them told me to take it up with Amazon as they will have instructions on how to access the service. This was again completely unhelpful as Amazon have nothing to do with this service.At the point where I was about to contact Trading Standards and anyone else who will listen, I made a new account with another email address and entered the 13 digit ISBN instead, and it worked instantly. Why they couldn't tell me to do this, why they had no idea how to solve what I imagine is a very common problem (I'm not stupid, I just entered one of the 2 codes it said would work, my only crime is maybe I was a bit lazy going for the 10 digit code over the 13 digit one), is utterly disgraceful and very worrying from a consumer point of view.The web version itself is quite good, the tutor is fantastic, but the videos are temperamental. You can pause and play, but if you try to skip back or forwards if you missed something, it stops working and you need to watch the whole video again. On the plus side they are 1:30 to 3 minutes long each one so it's not the end of the world, but this company (InFormIT and Pearson) fail at almost every aspect that they need to provide beyond the paperback book itself.The issues I've experienced are so bad that I truly hope Adobe never change too much to Illustrator and I find myself needing a future version of this book. I will not buy another one and was considering the Photoshop one next but I think I will stick to YouTube tutorials for that.For the record, when I contacted Adobe about this, despite being apologetic, they said they had absolutely nothing to do with this company as they are just partners.Additional Edit a few weeks later: More frustrating issues with the web edition, it had been offline for 4 whole days until this morning. The videos feel quite crucial for much of the pen lessons, it is very difficult to see what the example is trying to show in some of them.Final edit: A manager contacted me a month later and apologised for the hassle and mistakes the support team made. She's promised they will all be getting retraining to ensure this doesn't happen to anyone else having this problem and will change the instructions online to aid this further. I have changed my review from a 2 star to a 5 to reflect this change as my review shouldn't put anyone off now with these changes. It is all in all an awesome book and course and covers everything that should allow you to then follow specific YouTube tutorials with absolute ease to create the designs you're going for.

received in good order. clear illustrative book & thank u!

Really good resource

I am midway through the book and am learning far more than I would have in an actual classroom. It's excellent.