Another book from the "Killer Tips" series by Scott Kelby and friends. The author of Illustrator CS Killer Tips, Dave Cross, has taught thousands of people how to use Illustrator and as a result he knows the product inside and out. From his great wealth of experience, you, the reader, will reap the rewards of his secret tips and tricks. There are no tutorials or lessons, just loads and loads of tips and tricks.

I've dabbled with Illustrator CS for a long time now, I'm no expert but I know my way around and I found this book kind of awe-inspiring. The main benefit I could see immediately was the amount of time I would save incorporating these short cut tips and tricks into my Illustrator artwork creation.

If you ever find yourself stumbling in Illustrator and saying to yourself "there has to be a better way", well most likely there is and most likely you will find the solution in this book.

The book is fully illustrated for each stand-alone tip, the format makes it easy to browse and lets you find and apply information instantly. Importantly, the book includes many tips and techniques that focus on the new features in Illustrator CS, like 3D extrusion, the enhanced type capabilities, the expanded print options, and much more. For this reason alone it is a must have for your library if you are an Illustrator user.

As you can see from my enthusiasm above I heartily give this book the thumbs up and recommend all serious Illustrator users out there add it to their collection. It is a great reference book and those time saving techniques will prove invaluable.

About the Author: Dave Cross is Senior Developer, Education and Curriculum for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. In that role he is involved in all aspects of the training that is provided to NAPP members, including the content of seminars, conferences and workbooks. He also creates the very popular weekly QuickTime-based tutorials that appear on the members website.

Prior to joining the NAPP, Dave lived in Canada and spent many years as a trainer and author, training thousands of users across North America. For several years he ran his own training center, the Digital Media Learning Centre, teaching classes on Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Quark Press and InDesign. Dave is the co-author of two very difficult to find books: Photoshop 7 & Illustrator 10: Create Great Advanced Graphics and Photoshop 7 Trade Secrets (both from Friends of Ed) and is a contributing writer to Photoshop User and Mac Design magazines. He has also written articles for Create magazine and Professional Photographer. Dave was featured on a series of Illustrator and Photoshop instructional videos and CD-ROMs from Learnkey Inc, and now appears on Photoshop and Illustrator DVDs produced by KW Computer Training. He is a member of the PhotoshopWorld Instructor Dream Team, teaches at the Mac Design Conference and is Lead Instructor for the Photoshop Seminar Tour. Dave is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS, a Certified Technical Trainer and Adobe Certified Instructor.