Upgrade Adobe Illustrator from CS4 tot CC2015 by Patrick Toebosch
Adobe Illustrator CS4
New feature list by Patrick Toebosch
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Enriched workspace tools 1. Multiple artboards in your documents
Create multi-page files containing up to 100 artboards of varying sizes. You can create artboards that overlap, appear side-by-side, or are stacking on top of one another. You can also save, export and print artboards independently or together. Multiple artboards have replaced the Crop Area tool. (See Using multiple artboards.)
2. Tabbed document windows and Document Arrangement panel Display multiple documents in a tabbed view or open them side by side so you can easily compare or drag items from one document to another. Simply click a document’s tab to open it, or click Close (x) on a tab to close it. Use the intuitive Arrange Documents window to quickly arrange your open documents in a variety of configurations. (See Managing Document windows.) 3. Application bar and workspace switcher From the application bar at the top of each Creative Suite application, provides menus and options in one easy to access place. Use the workspace switcher to quickly jump to different workspace configurations to meet your specific needs. Also along this bar, you can access Adobe Bridge and the document arrangement panel. (See Workspace overview.) 4. Practical smart guides
Smart guides are now even more practical with unobtrusive appearance and behaviors. Instant pop-ups appear with alignment and measurement information, such as deltas between objects and angles of rotation (that you can specify) and when moving or transforming objects. Of course, objects still snap to any alignment you choose to make it easy to arrange and transform objects exactly how you want. (See Smart Guides.)
5. Quick, easy, and obvious key object alignment The Align panel and Control panel now provide quick access to the key alignment option. A key object is the one object that you want other objects to align to. You specify a key object by selecting all the objects you want to align, including the key object, and then clicking again on the key object. When selected, the key objects appears with a thick blue outline, and the Align To Key Object icon appears in the Control panel and Align panel. Simply choose an alignment option, such as Horizontal Align Left or Vertical Align Center, and all the other selected objects align to the key object. (See Align or distribute relative to a key object.)
New drawing and color tools 6. Blob Brush tool for merging paths
Use the Blob Brush to draw paths that merge with existing artwork. The Blob Brush draws paths that are fill only–no stroke–and can merge with existing artwork that has the same fill, and no stroke. The Blob Brush can merge with existing artwork that has complicated appearances (as long as there is no stroke on the artwork and the Blob Brush is set up to paint with the exact same fill and appearance settings. For example, if you’ve created a yellow filled rectangle with a drop shadow applied, you can set up the Blob Brush with those attributes and then draw a path across the rectangle, and the two paths will be merged. You can easily select and edit the resulting shape. Use the Blob Brush together with the Eraser tool for truly intuitive vector painting. (See Draw and merge paths with the Blob Brush tool.)
7. Expanded Gradients panel and tool
Using the enhanced Gradient tool, you can interact with gradients on the object itself by adding or changing color stops, applying transparency to color stops, and changing the direction or angle of a linear or elliptical gradient (also new in CS4). The Gradient panel now provides a menu of all your saved gradients, directly access color panels, and apply transparency to individual color spots, among other things. (See Gradients.)
8. Transparency in gradients
Create gradients with two to many colors and define the opacity of any or all individual colors. By specifying different opacity values for the different color stops in your gradient, you can create gradients that fade in or out and reveal or hide underlying images. (See Gradients.)
Adobe Illustrator CS4 9. Separations Preview panel
New feature list by Patrick Toebosch
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Preview your color separations on your monitor before printing to avoid color output surprises such as unexpected spot colors and unwanted overprinting. The Separations Preview panel lets you easily turn colors on and off so you can see how blending, transparency, and overprinting will appear in color-separated output. (See Preview color separations.)
Improved access to core functionality 10. Clipping masks with clear simplified appearance and access Adobe Illustrator now displays only the masked area while you are moving or transforming a masked object. Double-click the masked object to open it in Isolation mode, where you can view and edit the mask independently of all other objects. (See Clipping masks and Isolate artwork for editing.) 11. In-panel Appearance editing
Select an item in the Appearance panel to view and use the enhanced fullfeatured controls. Click hyper-links to open option dialog boxes for effects, strokes, and fills. Click a visibility icon for any attribute to easily turn it on or off. (See Appearance attributes.)
12. Enriched Graphic Styles panel
The newly updated Graphic Styles panel provides you with a quick and easy way to view and apply styles to objects in your document. Use the Text For Preview option to view a style as it appears on text, or right-click a thumbnail to quickly preview how that style will look on a selected object on the artboard. Effect-only styles now display the outlines of the object on which the style was created, so you can recognize your effect-only styles at a glance. Merge a style with an object’s existing style or merge two or more different styles on an object by simply using the Alt or Option key when applying the style. (See Graphic styles.)
Enhanced integration at export 13. Support for Flex extensions
Efficiently deliver more editable, workable content to developers for web, interactive, and RIA projects. For instance, use the Flex Skinning Design extensions for Illustrator to create and export vector skins in the Adobe Flex format. (See Save in FXG format.)
14. Multiple artboard export support
Creating documents with multiple artboards now makes it easy to create multi-page documents for exporting. You can export artboards to any of the following formats: PDF, PSD, SWF, JPEG, PNG, TGA, and TIFF. Or import a multiple artboard Illustrator file into Adobe InDesign or Adobe Flash.You can now easily create multiple-page PDFs. When exporting to Flash SWF format, multiple artboards export as multiple files. (See Saving artwork and Export artwork.)
Adobe Illustrator CS5: What’s New List assembled by: Patrick Toebosch, Official Adobe Product trainer and Influencer
Adobe Illustrator CS5 provides precision and power with sophisticated drawing tools, expressive lifelike brushes, a host of time-savers, and integration with Adobe CS Live online services. Perspective drawing, a Bristle brush, variable width strokes, and the Shape Builder tool are among the new features in Illustrator’s vector-
graphics environment. With enhanced integration among Adobe products, you can easily move between Illustrator CS5 and products such as Adobe Flash® Catalyst™ CS5 where you can add interaction to your designs.
1. Perspective drawing The new Perspective Grid tool allows you to turn on a grid that supports drawing directly on planes of true perspective. Use the perspective grid to draw shapes and scenes in accurate 1, 2, or 3-point perspectives. The new Perspective Selection tool allows you to move, scale, duplicate, and transform objects dynamically. You can also move objects perpendicular to its current location using the Perspective Selection tool. Imagine being able to easily add a series of street lamps to a city scape for a sequential lighting animation, or fence posts to a reference landscape scene to complete your billboard for
a western wilderness outpost. With the Perspective Grid tool group, you quickly and easily work in a preset perspective. The perspective grid provides grid presets to manage the viewing angle and viewing distance for the scene along with widgets to control vanishing points, horizon height, ground level, and the origin. You can also use the perspective grid to draw vector objects on top of a reference photograph or video still placed on your artboard. See “Perspective drawing” on page 77 of the manual.
Beautiful strokes
2. Variable-width strokes Use the Width tool to draw strokes with variable widths that you can quickly and smoothly adjust at any point, symmetrically or along either side. You can also create and save custom width pro-
files, which you can reapply to any stroke. See “Create strokes with variable widths” on page 156 of the manual.
3. Dashed line adjustments New options in the Stroke panel allow you to control the alignment of dashes. You can choose to align dashed strokes symmetrically around corners and at the end of open paths or preserve
the dash and gaps in strokes. See “Create dotted or dashed lines” on page 151 of the manual.
4. Precise arrowheads
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You can now select and define arrowheads using the Stroke panel. You can also choose to lock the tip or base of the arrowhead to the path endpoint. See “Add arrowheads” on page 152, “Customize arrowheads” on page 152 of the manual.
5. Stretch control for brushes Define the scaling for art and pattern brushes along a path. Choose areas of the brush stroke to be resized in proportion. For example, you can
elongate the middle of a banner, while keeping the detailed, curly ends from stretching.
6. Brushes with corner control Apply art and pattern brushes to a path and get clean results, even at tight bends or corners. Where strokes of different widths join, or they
form obtuse or acute angles, choose options to properly fill points where joins occur.
7. Bristle brush With the Bristle brush, paint with vectors that resemble real world brush strokes. You can draw and render artwork just the way you use a natural media such as watercolors and oils, with the scalability and editability of vectors. The Bristle brush also provides breakthrough control of painting. You can set bristle characteristics, such as size, length, thickness, and stiffness, in addition to setting bristle density, brush shape,
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and paint opacity. To explore more capabilities of the Bristle brush, use it with the tablet and 6D pen (Wacom Art Pen). The 6D pen automatically responds to pressure, bearing, and tilt with 360-degree barrel rotation and also provides an accurate brush preview. See “Bristle brush� on page 175 of the manual.
8. Crisp graphics for web and mobile devices Create vector objects precisely on the pixel grid for pixel-aligned artwork. It is critical that raster images look sharp, especially standard web graphics at 72-ppi resolution, when designing artwork for Adobe Flash Catalyst, Adobe Flash Professional software, and Adobe Dreamweaver. Pixel alignment is also useful for video resolu-
tion rasterization control. In Illustrator CS5, new web graphics tools include type enhancements. Choose one of four text anti-aliasing options for each of your Illustrator text frames. See “Drawing pixel-aligned paths for web workflows” on page 57 of the manual of the manual.
9. Multiple artboards enhancements The multiple artboards functionality has been enhanced significantly in Illustrator CS5. Some of the new features include a new Artboards panel, which allows you to add artboards, reorder artboards in the Artboards panel, rearrange artboards, and create duplicate artboards. Specify custom names for your artboards using the Control panel and the Artboards panel. You
can paste objects at a particular location on the artboard and paste artwork on all artboards at the same location using the new Paste in Place and Paste on All Artboards options. You can also set the option to automatically rotate artboards for printing. See “Using multiple artboards” on page 30 of the manual.
10. Shape Builder tool The Shape Builder tool is an interactive tool for creating complex shapes by merging and erasing simpler shapes. It works on simple and compound paths and intuitively highlights edges and regions of the selected art, which can be merged to form new shapes. For example, you can draw a stroke across the middle of a circle and quickly create two half-circles without
opening any panel or choosing another tool. The Shape Builder tool can also break overlapping shapes to create distinct objects and easily adopts art styles when objects are merged. You can also enable the Color Swatch cursor to select colors for your artwork. See “Building new shapes using the Shape Builder tool” on page 253 of the manual.
D r awin g e n h anc e m e n t s
11. Symbol enhancements
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Illustrator CS5 provides enhanced 9-slice scaling support. You can now directly use 9-slice scaling on symbols in Illustrator, which makes it easier to work with web elements such as rounded
rectangle. See “Symbol registration point” on page 99, “Use 9-slice scaling” on page 100 of the manual, “Add sublayers for symbols” on page 100, “Reset Transformations” on page 102.
12. Artboard ruler origin and coordinates enhancement Artboard ruler origin and coordinates are now oriented from the upper left. Scripts that use a previous coordinate system also work correctly with this enhancement. You can also choose
to work with a global ruler that provides coordinates across all your artboards, or work with local, artboard-specific rulers. See “Use rulers” on page 41 of the manual.
13. Path join enhancement Join open paths in a single keystroke with objects selected. You can also choose to join open paths using corner joins or smooth joins. See “Join two or more paths” on page 70 of the manual.
14. Select behind capability Use a keyboard shortcut to easily select an individual object located behind other objects. See “Select behind objects” on page 202 of the manual.
15. Draw behind and draw inside modes Draw behind other objects without choosing layers or setting the stacking order. Draw or place an image inside a shape, including live text. The draw inside mode automatically creates
a clipping mask from the selected object. See “Draw Behind mode” on page 53 of the manual, “Draw Inside mode” on page 53 of the manual.
16. Roundtrip editing with Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 Use Illustrator CS5 for interaction design, now enabled by new Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5, available with all the Adobe CS5 products. Develop your ideas and design your interface in Illustrator, creating screen layouts and individual elements such as logos and button graphics. Then open your artwork in Flash Catalyst and add actions and interactive components, without
writing code. After adding interactivity to your designs, you can make edits and design changes directly in Illustrator. For example, you can edit the look of interactive button states in Illustrator while ensuring that the structure you added in Flash Catalyst is maintained. See “Working with FXG” on page 397 of the manual.
17. Resolution Independent Effects With Resolution Independent Effects, raster effects such as Blur and Texture can maintain a consistent appearance across media. You can create artwork for different types of output while maintaining the ideal appearance for raster effects. This is irrespective of any change in resolution setting from print to web to
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video. You can also increase the resolution and still maintain the appearance of raster effects. For low-resolution artwork, you can scale up the resolution for high-quality printing. See “About raster effects” on page 366 of the manual.
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS6 — NEW FEATURES ADOBE MERCURY PERFORMANCE SYSTEM
The Adobe Mercury Performance system is a combination of solutions that makes Illustrator faster, more responsive, and able to handle larger files.
1. 64-bit native support
List assembled by: Patrick Toebosch, Official Adobe Product trainer and Influencer
Makes general processing faster on 64-bit Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Illustrator can now take advantage of RAM beyond 3 GB.
2. Handle larger files Concurrent handling of large files is less likely to cause errors, like out-of-memory exceptions. Complex tasks, such as creating package designs, large-format graphics, or cartography, are better handled.
3. Improved memory handling Reduces out-of-memory errors for operations such as rasterization, export, and working on several large files simultaneously.
 For more information, view the video on the Mercury
4. Improved user interface The user interface is more efficient, streamlined, and more configurable, to make working in Illustrator a more pleasing experience.
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SIMPLIFIED WORKFLOWS
5. Patterns Pattern creation and editing tasks have been simplified, so you can save hours of repetitive and tedious work. To create a pattern using existing artwork or from scratch, choose Object > Pattern > Make. The new pattern is added to the Swatches panel. To edit a pattern, double-click the pattern in the Swatches panel or select the object containing List assembled by: Patrick Toebosch, Official Adobe Product trainer and Influencer
the pattern, and choose Object > Pattern > Edit Pattern. When you create or edit a pattern, you enter the pattern editing mode, similar to the symbol editing mode. You can use the Pattern Options panel to modify the settings of the pattern, and preview your modifications in real time.
For more information, view the video on pattern creation and editing.
6. Gradient on a stroke The gradient on a stroke feature provides you with three types of gradients to apply to a stroke. You no longer have to expand a stroke to fill it, and then apply a gradient to it. Apply a gradient to a stroke using the Gradient panel (Window > Gradient):
Within: Behaves as if the stroke has been expanded to a filled object with a gradient Along: The gradient is applied along the length of the stroke. Across: The gradient is applied across the width of the stroke.
For more information, view the video on applying gradients to a stroke.
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7. Image Trace The workflow to vectorize a raster image now produces much cleaner tracings. The output has fewer paths and anchor points, and better color recognition than the Live Trace feature in previous versions. For more information on this new workflow, view the video on the Image Trace feature.
8. Gaussian Blur The new Gaussian Blur effect (Effect > Blur > Gaussian Blur) is speedy and efficient. Select the Preview checkbox to view the Gaussian Blur applied to your artwork, in real time.
9. Document Profiles and libraries New or improved profiles and components. Use the improved profiles and additional component libraries to get a quick start on your art projects:
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A new profile named Devices has been introduced in the New Document dialog box (File > New). The new profile contains presets for the iPad, iPhone, Xoom, Fire, Nook, and Galaxy devices.
The Web profile has a new default size (960px x 560px). New Pattern and new Pantone Plus™ color libraries have been added.
Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013
by Patrick Toebosch
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JUNE 2013
1. Images in brushes
A. Brush stroke B. Piece of coral C. Piece of coral applied to definition of the brush D. Finished artwork
Brushes can now contain images in the brush definition. You can define Art, Pattern, and Scatter -type brushes to contain raster images. The behavior of the brushes is like any other brush - you can reshape or modify them. Create seamless, naturally organic-looking designs quickly and easily. ENHANCEMENTS FOR TOUCH-BASED DEVICES
2. Touch Type tool
A. Text, formatted normally (left) B. Text, each character treated individually to accentuate the messaging
1. Images in brushes 1
13. Color Picker 4
2. Touch Type tool 1
14. Swatches 5
3. On-art Free Transform tool 2
15. Enhancement: Search fonts 5
4. OS gestures support 2
16. Font Grouping 5
5. Automatic corner generation 2
17. Enhancement: Separations Preview panel 5
6. Multiple file place 3
18. Enhancement: Guides 6
7. Settings in the cloud 3
19. Enhancement: Perspective Grid usability 6
8. Share on Behance 3
20. Enhancement: Modernized file dialog (Windows-only) 6
9. Kuler panel 3
21. Support for AutoCAD libraries 6
10. Generate and extract CSS code 4
22. Package files 7
11. Export SVG graphics styles in CSS 4
23. Unembed images 7
12. Enhancement: White overprint 4
24. Links panel improvements 7
Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013 The Touch Type tool lets you work creatively with text, creating visually pleasing and powerful messages with just text. Each character of text is editable, as if each character were an individual object. Choose a single letter of the alphabet in a word or sentence, and play with moving, scaling, or rotating it. Do these actions easily with the usability enhancements (for example, larger control handles) and support for multi-touch devices (stylus- or touch-driven). In the absence of a touch-enabled device, use your mouse to achieve the same actions.
3. On-art Free Transform tool
Your artwork (left) can be transformed (scaled, rotated, and more) to make it appear like the tag it is placed on (right)
Transform your artwork using the enhanced Free Transform Transform tool (Keyboard shortcut: E). The tool displays a widget that shows the actions that can be performed on a selected object. Select an action, and modify your artwork using a touch-enabled device or stylus. In the absence of such a device, use your mouse to achieve the same results. In the image above, the artwork has been modified on a touch-enabled device. The artwork has been scaled, and a perspective distort action has been used, to provide the effect of the tag being viewed from an angle.
4. OS gestures support In addition to implementing or enhancing the tools that help you use Illustrator more intuitively and naturally, OS-supported actions are now supported on touch-enabled devices. For example, on a multi-touch device, you can pinch in/out to zoom in/out.
5. Automatic corner generation
A stitch pattern has been used to outline artwork (left). The corners are automatically generated in the Pattern Brush Options dialog (right).
Creating a pattern brush is now a simple and automatic task, that does not require painstaking adjustments to get aspects of the brush right (for example, corner tiles). Generating the best corner tiles, especially while working with sharp angles and shapes, is now a completely automatic process. Make swift work of a previously time-consuming and trial-and-error process by letting Illustrator do the work for you, and get autogenerated corners that match the rest of the stroke.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013 6. Multiple file place Import multiple files at a time in Illustrator, with the new multiple file place feature. Define the exact location of where collateral is placed, and also have complete control over the scale at which the file is placed. View a preview thumbnail of the current asset you are importing in your Illustrator layout, even as you place the file.
7. Settings in the cloud Synchronize Illustrator and workspace settings to Creative Cloud — including Illustrator preferences, presets, brushes, and libraries — so they go where you go. For example, when you go to different location, or use a different computer, just sync your settings to the new location/computer have a seamless experience of working in the same environment always.
8. Share on Behance Behance is an online platform to showcase your creative work. You can update your work on Behance, and broadcast it widely and efficiently. You can choose to solicit feedback and opinions about your artwork from a select few, or from anyone with a Behance account.
With Illustrator CC, you can post your work directly to Behance (File > Share on Behance). After you enter a few details about your work, it is posted as a Work in Progress on Behance.
9. Kuler panel Capture a theme anywhere you are with the Adobe Kuler iPhone app. Or create one on the Kuler website. Once the theme is available in your Kuler account linked with Creative Cloud, you can sync your themes with the new Kuler panel in Illustrator. Either use the themes in Illustrator immediately, or add them to the Swatches panel to modify and process them further. Important: The Kuler panel is not available in the French version of Illustrator.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013 10. Generate and extract CSS code
Design the most elegant HTML layouts and then capture the styling, positioning, and appearance of objects in the layout with precise and multi-browser CSS. Save time in replicating the look-and-feel of Illustrator-designed by copying or exporting the CSS code for a selected object of the entire page.
11. Export SVG graphics styles in CSS Take advantage of two enhancements to the workflow to save your artwork as an SVG file. Now export all CSS styles with their associated names, for better discoverability and reuse. Also, you can now choose to export all CSS styles available in the artwork file, and not only the ones that are used in the artwork.
12. Enhancement: White overprint Avoid the issues caused when Illustrator artwork contains white objects applied with unintentional overprint. Avoid losing time by discovering this issue during production, and then having to reprint. You can now simply turn a setting on in the Document Setup or Print dialogs, You can now use print and output without the need to check and correct for white-object overprint in artwork. E N H A N C E M E N T : S E A R C H C O L O R S A N D S W AT C H E S
13. Color Picker
The Color Picker dialog (double-click the Fill proxy in the toolbar) now has a search widget in the Color Swatches dialog. When you click Color Swatches, a search bar appears below the predefined list of color swatches. Type the name of a color or a CMYK value. If you type ‘blue’, all the color swatches with the word blue in their name are displayed. Typing Y=10 will display all the color swatches that have yellow color with a value of 10 in the CMYK scale. The search widget is enabled by default.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013 14. Swatches
The search option (Swatches panel > flyout menu > Show Find Field) in the Swatches Panel has been enhanced. You can type a name of a color, or simply type in the CMYK color combination to search if such a color combination exists. As in previous releases, the field does not enforce an auto-complete of the color. The characters you type are no longer automatically substituted with the closest color match found. The Find field is not enabled by default, and must be enabled for the first time from the flyout menu.
15. Enhancement: Search fonts Reduce the time that you spend in the Type panel searching for the font that you need for your Illustrator document. The new search bar in the Type panel allows you to search for a font, and all the styles available for that font.
FONT SEARCH
A new Search Entire Font Name option has been added. When you start typing the name of the font, a relevant list of fonts is displayed, and is automatically refreshed as you continue to type. This feature has been added to the font drop-downs in the Character panel, Control panel, or the Character panel that is invoked from the Control panel.
16. Font Grouping When you click the drop down arrow and browse in the fonts-related panels, font families appear with a triangle to their left. Clicking the triangle, expands the font name and displays all the associated style sets for the font. For example, when you click the triangle to the left of the font - Calibri, the expanded list displays Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic.
17. Enhancement: Separations Preview panel
The Separations Preview dialog displaying all spot colors available in the swatch (left), and only the colors used in the artwork (right)
The Separations Preview panel displays process and spot colors. All spot colors that are available in the swatches are displayed in the list. In this version of Illustrator, an option has been added to display on the spot colors that are used in the artwork.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013 When you select the new Show used spot colors only option in the Separations Preview panel, all spot colors that have not been used in the artwork are removed from the list.
18. Enhancement: Guides In Illustrator CC, there are enhancements to guides: Double-clicking on a ruler (Ctrl/Cmd + R) creates a guide at that specific location on the ruler. When you hold Shift and then double-click a specific location on a ruler, the guide created at the point automatically snaps to the closest division (mark) on the ruler. Create horizontal and vertical Guides in one action. Here’s how: At the top-left corner of the Illustrator window, left-click the intersection of the Rulers, press Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac), and drag the mouse pointer to any location in the Illustrator window. The mouse pointer becomes cross hairs to indicate where a horizontal and vertical guide can be created. Release the mouse pointer to create the Guides.
19. Enhancement: Perspective Grid usability Dismiss the Perspective Grid tool with more ease, when you no longer need it. To hide the Perspective Grid tool: With either of the Perspective Grid tool or the Perspective Selection tool selected, when the perspective grid is visible, press the Esc key.
20. Enhancement: Modernized file dialog (Windows-only) All dialogs that help you open, select, and work with files now use the new Windows dialog. For example the Open, Save, Save As, Place, Export, and other dialogs.
Advantages of working with the new dialog include: Favorites: You can designate folders that you use often as favorite folders, and use them conveniently as soon as a file dialog opens. For example, you can access the Creative Cloud Files shortcut that gives you quick and simple access to all the artwork files or other collateral that you may have stored in the cloud. Previews: The preview pane automatically renders a preview of a selected file.
21. Support for AutoCAD libraries Illustrator CS6 supports opening and exporting these AutoCAD file formats: er21 (in AutoCAD 2007, 2008, and 2009) er24 (in AutoCAD 2010, 2011, and 2012) However, Illustrator CS6 does not support features added in versions: AutoCAD 2007, 2008, and 2009 (er21 file format) AutoCAD 2010, 2011, and 2012 (er24 file format) AutoCAD features supported until Illustrator CS6 will continue to be available. Also: You can apply scaling to objects on hidden layers. Scripting support has been added for opening and exporting the er21 (in AutoCAD 2007, 2008, and 2009) and er24 (in AutoCAD 2010, 2011, and 2012) file formats.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • June 2013 22. Package files Gather all the files used, including linked graphics and fonts, into a single folder for quick hand-off. Choose File > Package to collect all assets in a single location. See Package Files.
23. Unembed images Replace embedded images with links to their extracted PSD or TIFF files. Select an embedded image and choose Unembed from the Links panel menu, or click Unembed in the Control panel. See Unembed images.
24. Links panel improvements View and track additional information about placed artwork directly in the Links panel. The Links panel (Window > Links) displays a list of all artwork that is placed (embedded or linked) in an Illustrator document. Links Information is displayed in the Links panel.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 17.1 • January 2014
by Patrick Toebosch
Adobe Creative Cloud 01• 2014
1. Live Corners You can easily edit the corners of shapes and paths in your artwork. Select one or more corner anchor points and then drag the new Live Corners widget to change the shape of the corner. Choose from three corner types - round, inverted round, or chamfer.
Modifying settings in the Corners dialog cause a corner to appear differently A. Live Corners widget B. Round corner C. Associated anchor points D. Inverted round corner E. Chamfer corner
2. Enhanced Pencil Tool The Pencil Tool has been improved to facilitate better curve-fitting, auto-closing of paths, and drawing of constrained and unconstrained straight-line segments. Enhancements have been extended to the Brush, Blob Brush, and Smooth tools. Curve fitting. The Pencil and Smooth tools have a Fidelity slider that enable you to select the most suitable curve fitting. The type of curve fitting is set in the Pencil Tool Options dialog box > Fidelity slider. Path closing. When you draw a path, you can choose to close the path if the endpoints are within a specific number of pixels of each other. The predefined number of pixels is set in the Pencil Tool Options dialog box > Within field. 1. Live Corners 1
9. SVG workflow enhancements 4
2. Enhanced Pencil Tool 1
10. What’s New dialog 5
3. Reshape segment workflows & touch support 2
11. Opacity slider 5
4. Working with Typekit fonts 2
12. Maintain state in the Layers panel 5
5. Perspective Grid 2
13. Fill stroke proxy enhancements 6
5. HiDPI devices 3
14. Create or resize an Artboard from the center 6
6. Pen-pressure support on Windows 8 devices 4
15. Canceling drag operations quickly 6
7. Custom Tools Panels 4
16. New shortcut: Place command 6
8. Import and Export Settings 4
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Adobe Illustrator CC • January 2014 Segments and Paths. The enhanced Pencil tool allows you to draw constrained or unconstrained paths. Also, you can continue, or merge paths using the new tool. Smoothing Presets. When you double-click the Smooth Tool icon in the Toolbox, the Smooth Tool Options dialog appears. A preset-based Fidelity slider is available in this dialog.
3. Reshape segment workflows & touch support Workflows used to reshape path segments have been enhanced and made touch-friendly. Use the Pen tool (while drawing), or the Anchor Point or the Direct Selection tools to perform unconstrained reshaping of path segments. For example, you can now press the Alt/Option key and then use the Pen tool to reshape individual path segments as show in this illustration:
A combination of the path segments, reshaped using the Pen tool A. Original shape B. The Reshape Segement cursor indicates a reshape-ready segement C. When the Reshape Segment cursor is visible, modify the shape of the segment by clicking and dragging. D. Reshape as many segments as required E. Final shape when all paths have been reshaped
4. Working with Typekit fonts Choose from thousands of fonts available from Typekit, from within Illustrator CC. When you enable Typekit fonts to be synced to your desktop through the Creative Cloud application, the fonts you have subscribed to on Typekit appear alongside locally installed fonts.
A. Typekit font filter B. Typekit website access button C. Typekit-based fonts
For more information on how to access and use Typekit fonts in Illustrator CC, see the article Working with Typekit fonts.
5. Perspective Grid The Perspective Grid tool has been enhanced to provide a more flexible and intuitive way of working with the tool. From Illustrator CC, modifying the Perspective Grid affects any attached artwork, too. For example, manipulating the horizon line or the vanishing point controls changes the perspective of the artwork, too. This enhancement is available for two- or three-point Perspective Grids only. NOTE: In previous versions of Illustrator, modifying the Perspective Grid had no effect on attached artwork. 1. Attach artwork to a Perspective Grid. 2. In Perspective Grid view (View > Perspective Grid > Show Grid), select the Perspective Grid tool. 3. Lock the Station Point on the Perspective Grid (View > Perspective Grid > Lock Station Point).
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • January 2014 4. Select a vanishing point, and modify the Perspective Grid. The artwork moves in tandem with modified Perspective Grid.
Normal artwork, attached to a Perspective Grid.
The vanishing point has been pulled in from the right. The Perspective Grid and the artwork are modified simultaneously.
The vanishing point has been pulled in from the left. The Perspective Grid and the artwork are modified simultaneously.
ENHANCED WINDOWS SUPPORT
5. HiDPI devices Adobe Illustrator extends HiDPI support to Windows-based devices. You can now view Illustrator in enlarged mode, as per text size preferences on a high-resolution displays. For displays with resolution greater than or equal to 1920*1080 & less than 2560*1440, Illustrator can be launched at 1.5 times scaled-up UI, depending on the OS text size. For displays with resolution greater than or equal to 2560*1440, Illustrator can be launched at 1.5 times or 2 times scaled-up UI, depending on the OS text size.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • January 2014 6. Pen-pressure support on Windows 8 devices In previous versions of Illustrator one could use Wacom tablets to draw art (for example, brush strokes), based on input parameters like Pressure, Rotation, Tilt, and more. This version of Illustrator CC now includes native support for Windows 8 -based input devices that support pressure feedback. For example, you can leverage this capability while working with a Windows 8 device with a newer Stylus device that provides pressure feedback, for drawings that require pressure-input. For information on viewing or making adjustments in Windows, see: Change screen resolution Make the text on your screen larger or smaller OTHER SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENTS
7. Custom Tools Panels Create groups of preferred tools using the new feature to create your own specialized tools panels. Simply drag and drop tools from the existing Tool Box into a new tool panel, or remove tools from a created tool panel.
Tools from three tool groups (left) have been added to create a new tools panel (right)
8. Import and Export Settings You can share Illustrator CC settings and preferences with a different computer, using settings packages. Create a settings package on one computer (Edit > My Settings > Export Settings), and then copy the package to a different computer and import the settings package (Edit > My Settings > Import Settings). For more information, see the article Import and export Illustrator settings.
9. SVG workflow enhancements SVG-related enhancements (SVG Options > More Options > Advanced Options) have been implemented: In the SVG Options dialog: A new option to enable Responsive Design is available. The Responsive checkbox removes absolute width and height information from the artwork file, so that the image resizes and scales proportionately. The default for Type (Fonts) is set to SVG, by default. The precision for Decimal Places (More Options > Advanced Options) is 1, by default. Also, when you open an SVG in Illustrator, visual fidelity is maintained by aligning objects correctly with the pixel grid.
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Adobe Illustrator CC • January 2014 OTHER SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENTS
This version of Illustrator CC includes usability enhancements requested by Illustrator users.
10. What’s New dialog
A What’s New dialog is displayed at first launch, after Illustrator is updated. The dialog lists the top new features that have been introduced in the updated release. The list has a description about each feature and thumbnails of associated videos. Clicking a thumbnail plays a brief, feature-related video, in the What’s New dialog. TIP: To view the What’s New dialog at any point in time, in Illustrator, click Help > What’s New. NOTE: To prevent the What’s New dialog from opening each time you launch Illustrator, select the Don’t Show Again checkbox.
11. Opacity slider
The new opacity scrubby slider replaces the drop-down list of values
The Opacity drop-down has now been converted to a scrubby slider. The slider is available from two locations: Windows > Transparency panel (Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + F10) Control Panel > Opacity slider
12. Maintain state in the Layers panel The Layers panel (F7) now keeps track of which layers have been expanded or collapsed, even when you close and reopen a document. Visual feedback for Layers panel operations When you copy a layer, the mouse cursor includes a plus symbol (). When you hover over the target icon for a layer, the cursor turns into a pointer ().
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC • January 2014 13. Fill stroke proxy enhancements
A. Fill and Stroke Proxy in the Swatches panel B. Small list and thumbnail view icons To enable a more convenient workflow, the Fill proxy has been added to:
Windows > Swatches panel Custom tools panels (automatically added when you a new tools panel) Also, the Swatches panel now has two buttons that enable you to toggle views. Click the buttons to toggle between a list or thumbnail view.
14. Create or resize an Artboard from the center Two enhancements have been effected for artboard creation/resizing scenarios: Pressing the Alt/Opt key while creating or resizing an artboard will keep the center of the artboard fixed. Pressing the Alt/Opt + Shift key while creating or resizing an artboard will keep the width and height of the artboard in its original proportion (constrained scaling) while keeping the center of the artboard fixed.
15. Canceling drag operations quickly Some workflows have been enhanced to enable you to cancel operations or actions while using certain tools. With this enhancement, pressing the Esc key cancels the action of the following tools or actions: Zoom Guide Selection Ruler Splitter Guides Page Tiling Tools
16. New shortcut: Place command You can now initiate the Place command from a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18 • December 2014
by Patrick Toebosch
Adobe Creative Cloud · December 2014
1. Collaboration using Creative Cloud Libraries Never work in isolation again! Collaborate using Creative Cloud Libraries by sharing your libraries with other Creative Cloud users. When you choose to share a Creative Cloud library, those you share the library with can perform a number of tasks on the assets in the library - view, use, edit, copy, move, rename, or delete assets. For more information on this enhanced feature, see the section on Collaboration in the article Creative Cloud Libraries.
2. Creative Cloud Libraries panel Got favorite colors, type styles or graphics? Now keep them close at hand - wherever and whenever you need them - using Creative Cloud Libraries. Creative Cloud Libraries help you collect your favorite components, organize them into logical libraries, access and view them, to reuse them across your documents and projects. All you have to do is drop colors, type styles, or graphics into the new Library panel (Window > Library) in Illustrator CC. ACROSS ILLUSTRATOR PROJECTS. Whatever you save in a Library becomes available for use across Illustrator projects that you are working on. ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. Libraries are synced to the Creative Cloud. Your Library becomes available on any computer that you are signed in on using your Creative Cloud ID. PHOTOSHOP CC. Photoshop CC 2014 now has the Creative Cloud Libraries built in, too. Any Library you save from Illustrator automatically becomes available for use in Photoshop as well. 1. Collaboration using Creative Cloud Libraries 1
10. Snapping updates (point, pixel, grid) 4
2. Creative Cloud Libraries panel 1
11. GPU Performance((Windows-only) 5
3. The new Touch workspace 2
12. Typekit: Missing fonts workflow 5
4. Curvature tool 2
13. The Welcome screen 5
5. Join tool 3
14. Pencil tool enhancements 5
6. Area Type autosizing 3
15. Text enhancements 6
7. Live shapes; Rectangles and Rounded Rectangles 4
16. Actions panel 6
8. Pen tool preview 4
17. SVG enhancements 6
9. Anchor point enhancements 4
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18 • December 2014 APPS. The new Brush CC, Shape CC, and Color CC apps enable you to save your designs to your Creative Cloud Libraries. This means that you can stay creative on-thego using your mobile apps, while constantly building your design repositories. For more information, see the article on Creative Cloud Libraries. Touch workspace
3. The new Touch workspace
The Touch workspace is designed for Windows 8 tablets, and exposes the most essential tools and controls that designers need to be creative on-the-go. Working on Illustrator with a tablet becomes a richer experience with the use of a pressure-sensitive pen and multi-touch gestures. Also, use the new Stencils feature that host a collection of French curves. Use the outlines of these shapes as they are, or scale them and reposition them to create a variety of refined curves. What’s more - you can switch back to a traditional workspace at any point in time to leverage the full collection of Illustrator tools and features. For more information, see the article Touch workspace.
4. Curvature tool Available in Touch and traditional workspaces
(left) A guitar.</br> (Second from left to right) The overall image of the guitar was captured using the Shape CC app, and then quickly recreated using the new Curvature tool in Illustrator CC.
Create paths quickly and with visual foresight. Select the Curvature tool (Shift + ~), start with two basic points, and then watch a preview of the how the curve will look like if you were to drop another point at the current location of the cursor. Don’t want a curve? Instead of just dropping a point, press Option/Alt when you drop a point, to create a straight line from the previous point. If you have already created a smooth curve, double-click a point to toggle between a smooth curve and straight line.
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18 • December 2014 Use this technique on any point, in any shape. Draw or edit - much faster than before! For more information, see the article Curvature tool.
5. Join tool Available in Touch and traditional workspaces
The new Join tool A. Trim overlapping parts of paths B. Extend and join paths C. Trim one, extend the other, join.
You can now use the Join tool to easily fix paths that do not exactly intersect the way you want them to. Did the paths you draw fall short of intersecting? Or they did meet, but extended beyond the point of intersection? Select the Join tool, scrub across the points of the paths where you’d like them to intersect, and it’s done! The paths join and truncate at the point of intersection - but without changing or modifying the trajectories of the original paths. NOTE: The joins created using the Join tool are always corner points.
6. Area Type autosizing Area Type frames now can expand and shrink to accommodate text that you fill into the type frame. You can convert to and from an autosizing or fixed size frame. When set to auto-size and grow automatically, you do not have to manage or bother about overset boxes.
Double-click the widget at the bottom of the Area Type frame to toggle the Area Type frame between an auto-sizing frame or a fixed-height frame. When you add, delete, or edit text, the frame resizes automatically.
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18 â&#x20AC;˘ December 2014 NOTE: The Area Type autosizing feature works only with rectangular-shaped frames that have only one row and column defined.
7. Live shapes; Rectangles and Rounded Rectangles
All rectangles and rounded rectangles have modifiable corners. While each corner can have and independent radius value, all attributes are retained even when you scale or rotate the rectangle. Rectangles and rounded rectangles now remember all modifications made, be it width, height, rotation, corner treatment. This capability means you can always return to the original shape of the object. The shape around the cassette spindles is a simple Live Rectangle. Use the Transform panel or the Live Corner widgets to reshape the Live Rectangle to a Live Rounded Rectangle For more information, see the article on Live Shapes. P E N TO O L P R E V I E W & D R AW I N G E N H A N C E M E N T S
8. Pen tool preview The Pen tool displays a preview of what the will be drawn on your artboard, before you click and drop the next point. This helps you visualize the next curve before you commit to the next point - this gives you much more control and saves you the time spent in drawing, reviewing, and then re-drawing paths that need to be re-done. For more information, see the article on the Pen tool rubberband preview.
9. Anchor point enhancements Fine adjustment of curves is now easier. Enhanced anchor point controls allow unequal or different-direction handles to be dragged as you draw to control the smoothness of each segment. You can even change a corner point to smooth without ruining your shape.
10. Snapping updates (point, pixel, grid) When snapping is turned on, your anchor points and handles (direction lines) align to your choice of pixel, grid, or point. However, handles snapping to the grid restricts the freedom with which you draw. In the 2014 release of Illustrator CC, whatever you choose to snap to, handles are completely unrestricted. When handles are not subject to being snapped to a grid, you have much finer control over drawing and editing workflows. Close paths with better control A task such as precisely closing a path is an oft-repeated vector art workflow. In the 2014 release of Illustrator CC, you now have much better and precise control while connecting end and start points. With this enhancement you can reposition a closing point or choose to break the handles to adjust the closing curve exactly as per your requirement. Video Watch this brief introductory video about the enhancements to the Pen tool, anchor points, handles, and drawing behavior while using the Pen tool. Check this video link!
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18 â&#x20AC;˘ December 2014 11. GPU Performance((Windows-only) The 2014 release of Illustrator CC can leverage the power of a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) on your computer. Windows 7 or 8 users that have a compatible NVIDIA graphics card can use the GPU Performance feature. For more information, see the knowledgebase article on GPU Performance feature.
12. Typekit: Missing fonts workflow Locally-available and Typekit-based fonts can easily be interspersed in Illustrator CC artwork. However, there may be occasions when you open an artwork file on different computer, and find a few fonts missing. In such a situation, any Text elements using unavailable fonts are highlighted in pink, and are rendered using a default font. From the 2014 release of Illustrator CC, the online Typekit desktop font library is automatically searched for the missing font. If the missing font is available online you have the option of syncing it to your current computer. For more information, read the article on finding missing fonts using the Typekit workflow.
13. The Welcome screen
The 2014 release of Illustrator CC has a new feature to help you discover, learn, use, and promote comprehensive use of features. The Welcome screen is a single location that displays content relevant to your subscription and use. The screen is displayed each time you start Illustrator, or when you click Help > Welcome. The Welcome screen displays Illustrator-related tutorials, videos, interactive games, Help content, and much more. A tab-based approach helps you find interesting content, be it on new features, getting started launch-boards, or nifty tips and techniques. NOTE: The Welcome screen feature is enabled for all US (en_US) and UK (en_GB) Illustrator CC 2014 users. O T H E R I M P O R TA N T E N H A N C E M E N T S
14. Pencil tool enhancements The Pencil tool has been updated with an additional Fidelity setting for finer control over the paths you draw. This additional level has been extended to the Paintbrush and Blob Brush tools as well. Also, you can enable an option that converts the Pencil or Brush tools into the Smooth tool when you press the Option/Alt key. For more information, see the article on the enhanced Pencil tool.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18 • December 2014 15. Text enhancements The text engine in the 2014 release of Illustrator CC has been enhanced to make the experience of working with text and fonts in different languages more predictable. Also, new typographical notations have been added, and some existing ones have been updated. For more information, see the article on text-related enhancements.
16. Actions panel On reloading a saved Action Set, certain actions would cause errors. The cause for these errors has been fixed. On restarting Illustrator, some actions would cause errors while playing. This error has been fixed.
17. SVG enhancements In the SVG Save Options dialog, the Use textPath checkbox is selected by default. This reduces generated markup, resulting in smaller SVG output files. Markup for generated preview HTML has been cleaned up.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18.1 • June 2015
by Patrick Toebosch
Adobe Creative Cloud 2015 · June 2015 1. 10x faster zoom, pan, scroll, any which way — 10x faster. Pan, zoom and scroll up to 10 times faster, thanks to Mercury Performance System enhancements that brings GPU acceleration to both Mac and Windows.Zoom is now animated, so you can quickly zoom in and out of your document by scrubbing left and right. You can also click and hold the Zoom tool over a spot to dynamically zoom in. Watch this video on the performance enhancements in Illustrator CC 2015. For more information, see the knowledgebase article on GPU Performance feature.10x greater zoom magnification 64,000%, up from 6,400% Work with greater precision and make accurate and exact edits with the new 64,000% zoom level. Previously, the maximum zoom achievable was 6,400%.
2. GPU Performance Leverage the power of your GPU! Now for Macs, too! The 2015 release of Illustrator CC now better leverages the power of GPU to render content — which means faster artwork rendering during zooming, panning, and scrolling. Each art type has been rewritten, so that it is computed and rendered on the graphic processor. GPU enhancements are now available for Macs as well.For more information, see the knowledgebase article on GPU Performance feature.
3. Safe Mode: Diagnose and fix startup problems. Safe Mode is a new feature that enables Illustrator to launch even if there are fatal, crash-inducing files (for example, corrupt fonts, out-of-date plug-ins, or incorrect drivers) in the system. You can choose to diagnose the cause of the error. When the application starts after isolating and disabling crash-causing files, Illustrator is in Safe Mode.
1. 10x faster zoom, pan, scroll, any which way — 10x faster. 1
11. Tools reset 4
2. GPU Performance 1
12. Flip buttons for Variable Width 4
3. Safe Mode: Diagnose and fix startup problems. 1
13. Separate Rubber-banding Preference 4
4. Recover data in your files. Never lose your work again. 2
14. Joining two paths 5
5. Linked Assets in Creative Cloud Libraries 2
15. Start from either ends 5
6. Adobe Stock 2
16. Shape Builder Tool: free-form Mode 5
7. Integration with Creative Cloud mobile apps 3
17. Pencil Tool: Turn off auto-close 5
8. Creative Cloud Charts (Preview) 3
18. Copy-paste hexadecimal values 5
9. Image Place 4
19. Used Swatches on gradient stops 5
10. Distribute Options in Align Panel 4
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18.1 • June 2015
The Safe Mode dialog lists crash-causing issues.
The Safe Mode dialog provides you with information to diagnose and troubleshoot the problem area, thus providing you with a way to fix any issues. When done, mark all issues resolved and enable Illustrator to relaunch in normal mode at the next restart. For more information, see Safe Mode.
4. Recover data in your files. Never lose your work again. Forgetting to periodically save your open projects can cause you to lose time and work if an improper shutdown happens before you could save your files. An improper shutdown could be Illustrator crashing, an operating system error, or a power outage.When such an error occurs, simply relaunch Illustrator and your work can be restored. If the cause of error is a damaged font or incompatible driver or plug-in, Illustrator provides you with options to diagnose the issue and fix any errors.For more information, see the article on recovering document data after a crash.
5. Linked Assets in Creative Cloud Libraries E D I T O N C E , U P D AT E E V E R Y W H E R E .
Graphics in Creative Cloud Libraries are now linked, so that when they’re changed, you and your team members have the option of updating them across any Illustrator CC, Photoshop CC, or InDesign CC projects where they’re used. Adobe CreativeSync powers your libraries and keeps everything up to date and right at your fingertips for a seamless workflow. All your projects are always up-to-date with your latest edits! For more information on this enhanced feature, see the section on Collaboration in the article Creative Cloud Libraries.
6. Adobe Stock Millions of high-quality images. Right inside Illustrator. Search from just under 40,000,000 images, vectors, and artwork!
Search 40 million photos, illustrations, and vectors.With Adobe Stock, you can purchase, access, and manage high-quality, high-resolution, royalty-free images directly from Illustrator CC, Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, and other Adobe desktop apps.
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18.1 • June 2015 You can save images directly to Creative Cloud Libraries. You can license an image immediately, or save a watermarked preview to use in a comp. Thanks to Adobe CreativeSync, you can immediately access your images across your desktop and mobile devices, and even share them with your team. When you’re ready to use the non-watermarked version, you can license the image for use directly in Illustrator. For information on using Adobe Stock, see Using Adobe Stock.For answers to questions about Adobe Stock service, see Adobe Stock Common Questions.
7. Integration with Creative Cloud mobile apps Adobe Comp CC, Illustrator Draw, Photoshop Sketch, and more! Illustrator no longer requires you to be at your studio or office to be creative and productive. Keep your ideas, discoveries, and thoughts constantly evolving and rapidly developing into awesome artwork and projects – all while on-the-go – using Adobe’s mobile apps. A few examples: ADOBE COMP CC. Pull creative assets into Comp from your or your team’s shared Creative Cloud Libraries, then instantly send your layouts to Illustrator. All your text, images, and graphics are live and fully editable. Comp for iPad is available as a free download through the iTunes App Store. ILLUSTRATOR DRAW. Create with your favorite vector drawing tools and features in a streamlined, modern interface. You can draw lines, shapes, and free-form illustrations and with ten drawing layers and a photo layer. Creative Cloud connectivity makes it easy to apply finishing touches in Illustrator CC or Photoshop CC.Draw for iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iPad Mini) is available as a free download through the iTunes App Store ADOBE SHAPE CC. Photograph any object, design, or shape - and convert them into vector shapes in a few simple steps. Store the resulting vectors in your Creative Cloud Libraries, and access them or refine them in Illustrator or Photoshop. Shape is available as a free download through the iTunes App Store and Google Play. ADOBE BRUSH CC. Use your iPad or iPhone to design beautiful, high-quality brushes from photos of anything that inspires you. Save the brushes to your Creative Cloud Library and access them anywhere across Photoshop and Illustrator! Adobe Brush for iOS is available as a free download through the iTunes App Store and Google Play. ADOBE COLOR. Capture inspiring color combinations wherever you see them, in a fun and intuitive way. Simply point the camera at something colorful and Adobe Color CC will instantly extract a series of colors.Color for iOS (iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone, and iPod Touch) and Android is available as a free download through the iTunes App Store and Google Play.
8. Creative Cloud Charts (Preview) Turn data into amazing infographics and more. (for US, UK, French, French Canadian, German, and Japanese users)
Create, edit, color, and generate amazing infographics!
Create, edit, color, and generate amazing infographics!Create graphs and charts
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18.1 â&#x20AC;˘ June 2015 from your data, using a simple, intuitive interface. Replace the default chart elements with Illustrator vector graphics, and generate custom infographics, charts, and graphs. Use the browser-based interface to quickly import data from your data files (.csv, .xls, .xlsx type files) and transform it into graphical representations. Use Creative Cloud Libraries to share and use charts across projects and teams.For more information, see Creative Cloud Charts.
NOTE: The Creative Cloud Charts (Preview) feature is enabled for all US (en_US) and UK (en_GB) Illustrator CC 2015 users.
TO U C H W O R K S PAC E E N H A N C E M E N T S
9. Image Place You can now place an image (raster format) in the Touch workspace.
10. Distribute Options in Align Panel Previously, the Align panel did not have distribute options. Now, users can use the two most popular align options from the align panel in the Touch workspace.
11. Tools reset Some tools in the Touch workspace have options like Draw from Center in Shape Tools, Merge and Subtract Mode in Shape Builder. When switching between tools, one often forgot that an option was enabled when the same tool was used previously. This affected productivity. Now, whenever there is a change of tools in the Touch workspace, the active tool becomes available with the default settings.
12. Flip buttons for Variable Width Stroke options in the Touch workspace have a way to apply variable-width profiles to paths, to make them look organic. Variable-width profiles are based on an arbitrary direction (one end - thin, the other - thick). With the introduction of Flip buttons for these profiles, you now have better control on variable-width profiles they use on paths in the Touch workspace TOOL ENHANCEMENTS
13. Separate Rubber-banding Preference Rubber-banding preferences for the Pen and Curvature tools were tied to one single value. The Illustrator team found that users preferred this value for the Curvature tool than for the Pen tool. Now, both tools have separate values so that users have independent control over both tools.
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Adobe Illustrator CC 18.1 • June 2015 14. Joining two paths The Curvature tool only worked with one path at a time - the active path. Now it is possible to join a non-active path and continue working with it.
15. Start from either ends The Curvature tool had a fixed direction of working - even when a path was deselected and reselected. Now for any open path, users can pick which end of the path to start working with. To be able to draw from the other end-point, press Esc to deselect the active curvature point, click and move the end-point slightly, and then continue drawing with the Curvature tool.
16. Shape Builder Tool: free-form Mode The Shape Builder tool previously had linear feedback for Merge and Subtract options. Now, this tool can be used in free-form mode. This mode is on by default. To get back to older, straight-line feedback, change the option in the tool’s options dialog. This is available in the Touch workspace as well.
17. Pencil Tool: Turn off auto-close Although most users loved auto-close in Pencil Tool, there were some users who required path closure to occur at their own discretion. The Pencil tool options dialog now has an option to control auto-closing. O T H E R I M P O R TA N T E N H A N C E M E N T S
18. Copy-paste hexadecimal values When copying a hexadecimal value from other applications, users most likely pick the ‘#’ symbol with the actual hexadecimal value. The Hex field in Color panel only accepts pure hexadecimal values, and repeated, precise copy-paste actions are required until only the right value is pasted. Now, this field automatically removes pasted characters that are not part of the hexadecimal value. This makes it much easier to bring in hexadecimal values using a copy-paste workflow.
19. Used Swatches on gradient stops There are times when gradient stops are defined by a swatch color. Previously, it was not possible to identify this swatch when the Color Stop was double-clicked. Now, if a color swatch is used on the Color Stop, it retains the information and highlights the swatch used when the Color Stop is accessed.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 19 • November 2015
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Creative Cloud 2015 · November 2015 1. Enhanced Creative Cloud Libraries Now search for your assets across libraries and Adobe Stock. Work with your existing or older colors by importing color swatches and groups. There’s better support for your paragraphy and character styles in libraries, for more creative control over your text, too. For more information on this enhanced feature, see the section on Collaboration in the article Creative Cloud Libraries.
2. Start and Recent Files workspaces Start workspace. When you launch Illustrator or when you close all Illustrator documents, a new Start workspace is displayed. You have convenient access to your recently used files, Libraries, and starter templates with the Start workspace. If you prefer the older dialogs, you can still type Ctrl/Cmd + O to launch the Open dialog, or Ctrl/Cmd + N to launch the New Docoument dialog.
1. Enhanced Creative Cloud Libraries 1
7. New SVG Export options 3
2. Start and Recent Files workspaces 1
8. Touch workspace enhancements 4
3. Shaper tool 2
9. Adobe Capture CC integration 4
4. New Live Shapes 3
10. Adobe Illustrator Draw for Android 4
5. Dynamic Symbols 3
11. Enhanced Comp CC integration, plus iPhone support 4
6. Smart Guides 3
Adobe Illustrator CC 19 • November 2015 Recent Files workspace. If you have a document open, you can view the most recent files that you have worked on using the Recent Files workspace (Ctrl/Cmd + O, or Window > Workspace > Recent Files.). To enable the Recent Files workspace from the Preferences dialog, select the Show “Recent Files” Workspace When Opening A File checkbox (Illustrator > Ctrl/Cmd + K > General tab). For more information on the new workspaces, see the article on the new workspaces. For Illustrator-specific information, see the Workspace Basics article.
3. Shaper tool
Convert your natural, free-flowing gestures into perfect geometric shapes. And then use them like regular shapes - combine, delete, fill, and transform them - to create editable designs. You can use the Shaper tool in both - the traditional workspaces and in the touch-optimized Touch workspace.
Look at the result when and where you scribble.
For more information on this new tool, see the article on the Shaper tool.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 19 • November 2015 4. New Live Shapes More of the Illustrator Shape tools are now fully live, interactive and dynamically adjustable, so you can quickly modify and enhance traditional vector shapes without having to apply special effects or use other tools.
For more information on this enhanced feature, see the article Live Shapes.
5. Dynamic Symbols Symbols can now share a master shape but be modified to have different appearances such as stroke, fill and opacity. Scale, rotate, mirror and skew them without having to break the link to the parent symbol. Advantages of Dynamic Symbols: Instances of Dynamic Symbols can be modified using the Direct Selection tool. When the appearance of an instance is modified, the change does not affect the relationship with the master symbol. Changes to the appearance of the master symbol reflects in all instances. However, individual edits to instances are retained, too. A symbol nested within a Dynamic Symbol can be replaced by another symbol. This provides greater flexibility to customize symbols. You can select all the dynamic symbols available in a document using the Select > Same command. For more information on this new feature, see the article Dynamic Symbols.
6. Smart Guides You now have the ability to align and space objects using the enhanced Smart Guides in Illustrator CC 2015. Check the new hints to draw perfect shapes like squares and circles without using control keys and modifiers.
7. New SVG Export options A new SVG Export workflow (File > Export > SVG) is available to export web-optimized SVG files for your web and screen design workflows. You can also choose to export individual objects versus the entire artboard. For more information on the enhanced feature, see the section on the web-optimized SVG export options in the article SVG.
by Patrick Toebosch
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Adobe Illustrator CC 19 • November 2015 8. Touch workspace enhancements The Touch workspace for Windows tablets adds the Shaper tool, new Live shapes, enhanced Smart Guides, an option to easily zoom when using a mouse and support for HP Sprout. MOBILE APPS
9. Adobe Capture CC integration
Use an iPad, iPhone or Android phone to turn any image into a production-ready asset. Extract a color theme or create a brush, shape or vector graphic, and then save the asset to your Creative Cloud Libraries to use in Illustrator.
10. Adobe Illustrator Draw for Android
Create freeform vector designs on your Android phone with the Adobe Illustrator Draw app, and then send your work to Illustrator on your desktop to refine it further.
11. Enhanced Comp CC integration, plus iPhone support Now you can use Comp CC to explore layout possibilities on your iPhone as well as your iPad. Assets in Comp can be linked so when you edit them in Illustrator or another Creative Cloud desktop app, they’ll instantly update in Comp.
by Patrick Toebosch
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