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SEPTEMBER 29, 2003 Up Close with the Adobe Creative Suite
But typography and 3D aren't the only areas in which Illustrator makes its feature advancements. Less significant, but still welcome, improvements also appear in the areas of workflow and effects. For workflow, Illustrator CS includes the ability to share layered files with Photoshop CS. Because the two now share the same text engine, text remains editable. Illustrator can convert 16-bit files to 8-bit on import and also supports the import or multiple spot channels and linking of Photoshop duotone and tritone PDF files.[an error occurred while processing this directive]PDF functionality is also expanded, with support for layered files (with optional content), improved compression, printer's marks and bleeds, improved flatteners and other features. For effects, Illustrator CS gets a new Scribble effect, which creates a scribbled fill style that can also be animated through the blending of two Scribble objects. Scribble includes controls for stroke width, curviness, spacing, overlap and other parameters for creating a variety soft and hand-drawn effects.  And it includes improved printing designed to produce consistent results, also with a streamlined interface, interactive print preview, improved scaling and tiling options, independent bleed settings, more flexible printer's marks and new separation options with support for printing host-based and in-RIP separations. It also supports outputting separations or composites on individual layers or sets of layers and individual objects. Other new features in Illustrator CS include:
Illustrator CS will be available in the fourth quarter for Mac OS X and Windows for $499. Users of any version of Illustrator will be able to upgrade for $169. Competitive upgrades will also be available. Contact the author: Dave Nagel is the producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Mac OS, Adobe InDesign, Adobe LiveMotion, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at dnagel@digitalmedianet.com. Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Related sites: • Animation Artist • AV Video • Content Mastering • Creative Mac • Digital Animators • Digital Game Developer • Digital Media Designer • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Digital Video Editing • Digital Webcast • DV Format • Film and Video Magazine • Presentation Master • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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