Jacquelin Vanderwood
May 2005
What's new to Illustrator CS? Well I can tell you that this version is far superior to the last version.
Now there the 3D effect which allows you to take any 2D shape or text and convert it into a 3D graphic. You can customize the effect live by rotating it, adding dimension, adjusting the lighting, and applying graphics to the 3D object.
With the new Scribble effect you can make fun and stylized art including cross-hatching, scratchboard type artwork, or even animated cartoon type wiggly, squiggly stuff.
There are tons of new templates available over 200 of them including blanks, business sets, cards and post cards, CD and DVD, certificates, Japanese templates, marketing, restaurant, stationary, and web. You can also create your own design and save it as a template to use in for future projects.
In this version of Illustrator CS, you'll find over 100 free Open Type fonts which include Roman, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean fonts.
The text engine for Illustrator CS has been redesigned to make text creation easier to achieve. There are several paragraph styles to choose from including Justify with last line aligned center, Justify with last line aligned right, and Justify all lines.
The Open Type font now takes advantage of the Unicode character encoding. Now there is a single file for Macintosh and Windows that gives you the opportunity to move files from one platform to the other without the necessity for font substitution. There are many more glyphs available that are not limited to just English, but includes non-western languages such as Greek and Cyrillic. There is more support for Japanese typography in this release. You can view all of the fonts available in your system by selecting Fonts. There is also the option of defining text as a headline called Fit Headline. Optical Margin Alignment which forces certain letters to hang outside of the margin to improve text appearance. Every-Line Composer and Single-Line Composer evaluates possible breaks and selects the best one for the hyphenation and justification options. Smart Punctuation will go in and replace ligatures, quotes, dashes, ellipses, fractions on selected areas or the whole document and will give you a report on the results. Located under View is the option to hide text threads. Customize dot type and pattern for tab leaders too and set unlimited tabs. There is a new set of type on paths options which includes effects such as Rainbow, Skew, 3D, Stair Step, and Gravity. You can also choose Align to Path and set Baseline, Ascender, Descender, and Center. The palette includes Spacing and the option to Flip with Preview included. To find missing fonts, use the Find Font option to change some or all that are unavailable on the system or replace them. Check mark whether you want to find and replace fonts by choosing Open Type, Type 1, True Type, Roman, CID, Multiple Master, and Standard. There is also expanded language support that spell checks and hyphenates text in 29 languages. Text linking and deletion improvements include text flow from one text area to a path to another text area, and also delete a segment of text without erasing other blocks of text. Illustrator deletes empty text boxes for you. There is a new glyphs palette which makes it easier to select any variety of glyphs at a moments notice without having to memorize the shortcut keys. Added to Illustrator CS is enhancements to columns and rows. You can now create multi-column designs by defining columns and rows in any text area. You can define number of columns and rows including gutter size, inset spacing, first baseline, minimum, and how you want the text to flow. You can also specify column height and width.
There is enhanced PDF support for several versions of Acrobat to make viewing your artwork available to a larger clientele. Extensive security options are available. There is support for layers, printers marks, and bleeds. Transparency flattener styles can be applied as you save in PDF format, and also save settings as presets for future use.
Compatibility and tighter integration with Photoshop has been improved affording you the option to move layers between the two with ease. Text editing has been streamlined between both programs so that the technology used is the same in both programs. Multiple spot channels can be imported and 16-bit color data can be converted to 8-bit at import time. Linking duotones and tritone via PDF images from Photoshop to Illustrator is now available.
Expanded print capabilities is improved now to insure reliable and consistent output to the printer. There is no more Page Setup and Separations Setup dialog boxes anymore. This has been incorporated into the new Print dialog box. It has been streamlined to include all print settings such as tiling, custom page sizes, printer's marks, color management output profiles, and transparency flattener settings. Other new features include interactive print preview, scaling options, intuitive tiling controls, print presets, flattener presets, more flexible printer's marks, independent bleed settings, new separation options, and finer control when printing layers.
Illustrator CS works faster and there is tighter integration with Microsoft Office. Selecting Save for Microsoft Office gives you the capability of saving and printing graphics that look good in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Metadata (XMP) options are available through File Info. You can add information about description, origin, and advanced options by inputting it directly into the File Info area and also by importing the information.
Total Training has created a 90 minute training video hosted by Deke McClelland that is included with the software. There is so much more and the improvements are really great.
System requirements
Windows
- Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor or equivalent
- Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 3 or 4, or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or 2
- 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)
- 820MB of available hard-disk space
- Color monitor with 16-bit video card
- 1,024x768 monitor resolution
- CD-ROM drive
- For Adobe PostScript® printers: PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3™
- Internet or phone connection required for product activation
- Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos (The Adobe Stock Photos service may not be available in all countries, languages, and currencies and is subject to change. Use of the service is governed by the Adobe Stock Photos Terms of Service. For details, visit Adobe Stock Photos.)
Macintosh
- PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor
- Mac OS X v.10.2.8 through v.10.3.8 (10.3.4 through 10.3.8 recommended)
- 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended)
- 960MB of available hard-disk space
- Color monitor with 16-bit video card
- 1,024x768 monitor resolution
- CD-ROM drive
- For Adobe PostScript printers: PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3
- Internet or phone connection required for product activation
- Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos (The Adobe Stock Photos service may not be available in all countries, languages, and currencies and is subject to change. Use of the service is governed by the Adobe Stock Photos Terms of Service. For details, visit Adobe Stock Photos.)
Website www.adobe.com
Copyright (c) 2005, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved