Introduction
The most comprehensive Illustrator training
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A few important items before you begin
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01. Working with Documents
A first look at Illustrator
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Opening from the Windows desktop
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Opening from the Macintosh Finder
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Introducing the Start screen
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Creating a new document
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The units of design: Points and picas
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The Advanced document settings
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Activate missing fonts
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Modifying your new document
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Saving your changes
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Closing open documents on the PC
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Closing open documents on the Mac
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02. Working with Artboards
Pages of any size, at any angle
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Using the Artboard tool
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Undo, Redo, and Revert
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Selecting multiple artboards
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Creating and duplicating artboards
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Five ways to resize artboards
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Introducing the Artboards panel
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Navigating between artboards
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Aligning and distributing artboards
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Automatically tidying up your artboards
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Artboards and rulers
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03. Getting Around
Navigating your artwork
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Zooming in and out
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Using the more precise Zoom tool
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Zooming on a selection (or not)
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Animated zooming and GPU Performance
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Scrolling (or panning) a document
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Specifying a custom zoom level
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Working with multiple open documents
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Customizing your panels (important!)
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Saving your custom panels as a workspace
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Cycling between screen modes
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Trim view presentation mode
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04. Drawing Lines
Now, we draw
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Creating center guides
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Using the Line Segment tool
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Straight lines and the bounding box
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Duplicating and extending
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Using the Move command
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Introducing the Scissors tool
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Joining your line segments
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Using the Arc tool
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Using the Rectangular Grid tool
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Using the Polar Grid tool
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Using the Spiral tool
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Adding a circular end to a spiral
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Adjusting the curvature of an arc
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Centering all artwork on an artboard
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05. Drawing Shapes
And now, we draw better
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Creating a time-saving template
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Using the Ellipse tool
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Live ellipses and pies
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Drawing two perfectly aligned circles
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Creating compound paths
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Using the Rectangle tool
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The dynamic round corner controls
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Adding some simple reflections
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Rotating your artwork into position
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Using the Polygon and Star tools
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Working with live polygons
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Creating the perfect five-pointed star
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Repeating stars in alternating rows
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Introducing the Group Isolation mode
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Adding a drop shadow to a layer
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Using the crazy Flare tool
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The top-secret tilde key trick
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06. Color and Swatches
How color works
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The color modes: RGB vs. CMYK
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Hue, saturation, and brightness
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Selecting a color from the spectrum
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Creating and applying swatches
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Working with global swatches
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Searching swatches by name
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Auto-deleting and adding swatches
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Using the Eyedropper tool
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Loading swatches from another document
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07. Strokes, Dashes, and Arrows
The rick world of strokes
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Adjusting the line weight
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How strokes align to path outlines
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Caps, joins, and miter limit
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Making practical use of caps and joins
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Dashes and arrowheads
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Variable-width strokes
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Numerically adjusting Width points
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Custom aligning strokes to paths
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Creating a custom Width Profile
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Creating a classic round-dotted outline
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Drawing a quick-and-dirty gear
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Combining multiple strokes
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Offsetting strokes to simulate depth
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08. Creating and Formatting Type
Text at its best
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Placing and flowing text
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Converting between area and point type
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Modifying the text frame
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Creating custom margins guides
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Changing the font and type style
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Introducing variable fonts
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Paragraph alignment
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Type size and leading
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Dialing in custom variable styles
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Creating your own custom italics
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Kerning characters of type
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Roman hanging punctuation
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Filling and stroking text
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09. Building Custom Paths
Join and the Shape Builder
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Using the Join command
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Using the Join tool
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Object > Path > Outline Stroke
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Using the Shape Builder tool
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More ways to use the Shape Builder
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Creating a real-world project
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Creating an inset reflection
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Coloring a path with the Shape Builder
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Sculpting with variable-width strokes
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Converting text to path outlines
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Gap detection and path splitting
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Drawing with the Shaper tool
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Combining paths with the Shaper tool
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Editing paths inside a Shaper group
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10. Using the Pencil Tol
A world-leading freeform drawing tool
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Drawing freeform path outlines
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The Smooth tool and Path Eraser
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Extending and connecting paths
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Drawing straight and perpendicular lines
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Creating a tracing template
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Combining the Pencil with a drawing tablet
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Coloring your Pencil tool art
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11. Painting and Erasing
The best tools for painting
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Painting with the Blob Brush
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Fusing path outlines together
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Introducing the Eraser tool
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Reassigning keyboard shortcuts
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Merging selected paths
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Releasing compound paths
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Erasing and smoothing lumps
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Painting with a few simple clicks
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Reducing the roundness value
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Painting with a drawing tablet
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12. Using the Curvature Tool
Drawing a path one point at a time
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Drawing with the Curvature tool
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Working with smooth and corner points
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Creating and editing open path outlines
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Tracing a photographic detail
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Adding a basic textured fill
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Shape-building a castle wall
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A first look at gradients
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Editing a shape with the Curvature tool
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A first look at object blends
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Duplicating and scaling a complex object
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Drawing a custom letterform
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Creating a rippling line segment
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Adding a piece of vector-based clipart
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13. Using the Pen Tool
The one tool that can draw anything
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Creating corner points
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Adding and deleting anchor points
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How smooth points work
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Drawing smooth points
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Drawing cusp points
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Using the Anchor Point tool
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Real-world drawing with the Pen tool
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Drawing a very complex path outline
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Copying and repurpose path segments
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Drawing a lot with very few points
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Creating dimension with shadows
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Shading the eye, ear, and nose
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Drawing smoothly waving path outlines
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14. Drawing with Round Corners
Making corners smooth
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The round corner widget
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Rounding off corner points
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Changing the corner type
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Rounding characters of type
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Absolute vs. relative rounding
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Drawing with rounded rectangles
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Drawing an iPhone
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Decorating an iPhone screen
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Drawing a leather smartphone case
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Colorizing a line art template
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Turning corners into organic curves
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Reshaping rounded paths
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15. Making Screen Graphics
Saving for devices and the web
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Aligning objects to the pixel grid
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Aligning objects as you draw or modify them
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Aligning text to the pixel grid
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Introducing the Save for Web command
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Scaling your art to suit its destination
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For devices and presentations, use PNG
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Saving an 8-bit graphic
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Saving a JPEG image
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Saving vector-based SVG files
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Assigning a copyright
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Using the Export for Screens command
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Using the Asset Export panel
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Asset export time-saving tricks
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Conclusion
Until next time
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