EDITING & MODIFYING

Any graphic designer familiar with using Adobe Illustrator can modify or edit responsive screen graphics using conventional design techniques. When you first open one of these graphics you will see lots of “yellow stickers” giving instructions. When you are familiar with the instructions you can avoid the stickers by going to Edit View

There are two main differences between print graphics and responsive graphic graphics:
• Firstly, instead of one artboard as with a printable graphic, two artboards are used - one for the mobile phone version and one for the laptop/tablet version.
• Secondly, the text in the “publish” layer is outlined. If you want to edit the text you therefore need to replace the outlined text with the editable text (which is stored in the Translation Layer - and which can be accessed by going to the Translation View).
  1. Download a screen graphic and open the Master .ai file in Adobe Illustrator CS4 (or later).
  2. Replace the outlined text in the Text Layer with the editable text in the Translation Layer.
    This can most easily be done by toggling between Text View (which shows only the text in the graphic with everything else invisible and locked) with the Translation View (which shows only the Translation Layer, with other layers locked and invisible).
    TIP: If you copy the text in one Layer you can paste it exactly in position in another layer using Cmd-F
  3. Translate or edit the text using styling exactly as you would a print graphic.
    NOTE: The template (currently) used to create screen graphics uses the same layers and fonts as print graphics. This enables a print graphic to be transferred to Artboard 1 or vice versa
    TIP: After transferring translated text from a print graphic into Artboard 1, scale by 205% and position to align with the Translation Layer text (by locking the translation layer and making it visible) using the arrow keys
    TIP: To scale, select the text, Click on the letter S, Hold down the Alt key and click anywhere on the document. This brings up the scale box

  4. If more space is needed to accommodate additional lines of text, move the artwork below the additional line and then enlarge the Artboard accordingly.
    TIP: When moving objects or text, lock all layers except the layer you want to move
    TIP: Use the Cursor Key (i.e. keyboard arrows) to move objects rather than moving by eye. Set the Cursor key by Cmd-K, set to 20, then return
    TIP: In the Artboard palette, select the Artboard and click on the Artboard symbol to the right of the Artboard name. This brings up a menu. Increase the height of the Artboard by 20pt for each additional line of text. Then move the artwork below the additional line

  5. Racking and packing
    • Copy the editable text, and replace the text in the Translation Layer with this editable text (by toggling between the Translation View and the Text View), before outlining the text.
      TIP: To outline text Select, Type/Create Outline
      TIP: Text can be selected by dragging the Direct Select tool over the text, or by selecting sequentially with the Direct Selection Tool - holding the shift key down

      TIP: If you need further text changes after you have run the script, you can go to the pre-outlined state by doing sequential Cmd-Z
    • Check the Artboards names are still Artboard 1 and Artboard 2 - For some reason the names seem to morph - especially if using different language keyboards. So check, and if the names need to be reinstated go to the Artboard Palette, click on the Artboard Icon to the right of each artboard name to bring up the menu and edit the artboard name.
    • Go to Publish View and run the AI2HTML script. Check that the .png are labelled 1 and 2. If not, trash the output folder, edit the artboard names (as above) and re-run the script. Save to Adobe Illustrator CS4.