Under your view menu, is snap to point selected? ... View more

I would suggest finding a vector piece of art to use for your white symbol. No need to assign a Pantone color to the white symbol. You could easily redraw it using the polygon tool. Select the polygon tool and option + click on your canvas (alt + click for windows), set your number of sides to 3. Then click ok. Next, grab your direct select tool, then click on the triangle. You will see some dots appear along the corners. Select one of the dots and drag inward. This will round of the triangle edges. (If you don't see the dots, then go to Window menu and select "show corner widget". Now, find a font that has a similar explanation point, and size it in the center of the triangle. ... View more

Go to your Symbols Library and choose "Artistic Textures". Then select the "stipple" symbol texture.  Next, select your symbol sprayer tool. Now click and drag on your canvas to draw a stipple texture effect. You could also try to find some grunge brush library on the internet to make the letter "S" texture. ... View more

When exporting as a jpeg, go to the "Resolution" drop-down menu. Select High 300 dpi. Is your artwork in Illustrator vector or a placed image? ... View more

Your file must be in CMYK if you are having it printed. RGB is based on display colors (red, green, and blue light), whereas cmyk stands for pigments (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). To make sure your art file is using the correct color separations, you will want to open up the Separations Preview under the Window menu. This will show you you a Separations Preview panel where you can turn on and off the color separations individually. If more than CMYK are in there, then it will be displayed, meaning it is a spot color. ... View more

Go to "Preferences" and select "Selection & AnchorDisplay." Check "Snap to Point" in the Selection section. Enter a value between 1 and 8 in the Snap to Point's "Px" field, which tells Illustrator how many pixels away you need to be before the object snaps to an anchor. Click "OK." ... View more

I normally don't use the properties panel to select fonts, so I'm not sure if that is typical behavior. But, I 'm glad using the Character panel worked out for you. ... View more

What specifically has you upset? Just curious. ... View more

Please post a screen shot of the before and after. ... View more

Under Edit Colors dialog box, double-click the far right color icon that looks like two small rectangles stack on top of eachother, then click on "color swatches" button and select black. Do this for every color listed in the recolor artwork dialog box that you wish to change to black. Then click OK button. ... View more

What happens if you select "clip" beneath the "Release" button on your transparency panel? ... View more

Can you show what your color swatch palette looks like with unused colors deleted out? ... View more

Go to View menu, then select "Show Edges". ... View more

I remember when we had to convert a bunch of older Freehand files and to do so, we had to run a very early version of Illustrator, like Illustrator 3.0. After a certain version of Illustrator, we were no longer able to convert Freehand files. ... View more

Jacob makes a great suggestion. There are many ways to approach this. Another option is to view in outline preview mode, then draw a circle and make sure it is centered to a point on the path, then simply hold down option (mac) or alt (wind), and drag the circle to align to another point on the path. Repeat until all circles have been created with their centerpoints on the outline. ... View more

with your direct select tool, drag an imaginary square around two overlapping points to make sure both are selected, then join the points by typing Ctrl +J or Cmd +J. I would suggest doing that again where any two points might be on top of eachother. ... View more

You could also create a scatter brush from a circle shape, then set the scatter brush options to rotate relative to path, and increase spacing percentage. ... View more

Select shape, then go to Object menu...Path...Join. Now you should be able to fill the shape. ... View more

Go to Effect menu, select "Document Raster Effects Settings". Under the Options menu, what is entered in the "Add" field? You could possibly increase the size in the "Add" field, such as Add: 1 inch Around Object, which might eliminate the hard edge on your guassian blur effect. ... View more

You can view your transparency panel by going to Window menu, then selecting "Transparency". As Jacob suggeste; 1) select your red and black text 2) in the Transparency window panel click the button "Make Mask". 3) in the transparency panel make sure the checkboxes are unchecked next to "Clip" and "Invert Mask". ... View more

Oh, goodness, my bad. Thanks for explaining to look at the original request, Kurt. Your advice is spot on.  ... View more

Have you learned how to use the curvature tool? When I draw leaves, I turn on my grid and use that tool, which allows you to turn points into sharp edges as you draw. Then, once you have a desired leaf shape you might want to make an art brush from it or save it as a symbol. It really depends on what end result you are trying to achieve. ... View more

Look below your gradient fill and stroke in your toolbar. There should be tiny icons that you can click to select different drawing modes. So, keep your ear outline selected, then choose the drawing mode "Draw inside", then take your scatter brush and apply it to your ear shape. It should now keep them confined to the inside of the ear shape. Then when you want to go back to normal draw mode, click the small icon and select "Draw normal". ... View more

There is a pretty easy way to add a circle or shape at the end of your line using your stroke panel. Make sure "show options" is selected on the stroke panel so that you can see the arrow menus. Then you can select your line, and choose what arrow symbol endpoint you'd like to apply. ... View more

I would suggest opening your png up in Photoshop, add another layer beneath the flower image and fill it with a solid color (such as green) so you can see where you have extra lines that need erased. ... View more

Select the linked image, then in the Links hamburger menu, select Placement Options, then change from "Preserve Transforms" to "Preserve File Dimensions". ... View more

Have you tried using the smooth tool? ... View more

To make a shape turn into a guide, select it and go to View menu...Guides...make guides.   But, I'd recommend to draw a circle, then create a pattern brush out of a square or rectangle shape to apply as a stroke to the circle. But, there are other good suggestions posted by others, too. ... View more