Illustrator CS3: Color, Erase, Conceal, Reveal, and More
Illustrator CS3 incorporates some new ideas, some elements from other Adobe apps, and some workflow improvements that should help you in your day-to-day work.
When bought as a separate app, Illustrator CS3 will set you back $599 ($199 upgrade). Here’s what you’ll get for your moola:
Interface Changes
Like the other CS3 apps, Illustrator’s palettes are now called panels, and they have a new default arrangement. You can stack panels in an expandable dock (Figure 1), or tear off individual panels to float anywhere on your screen. Also, the Tools palette is now a single column, though you can return to the old double column if you prefer it.
Figure 1. The new panel docks can be in icon only mode (left) or the larger but still space-saving icon-and-name mode. The red circles indicate where you click to expand and collapse the dock and individual panels. Click on the image for a larger version.
If you’d like to limit your interface options to those that pertain to certain output media (print, web, or video), you can specify that media when you create a file.
The Control panel is your quickest access point for several more effects and tools, including anchor-point controls, selection tools, clipping masks, and envelope distortions (Figure 2).
Figure 2. With the new additions to the Control panel, you can quickly select similar Live Paint fills and strokes. Click on the image for a larger version.
Live Color
Live Paint and Live Trace were my two favorite features in Illustrator CS2. Illustrator CS3 introduces Live Color. While not quite as fun to use as Live Paint and Live Trace, Live Color is an intriguing addition (Figures 3 and 4).
Figure 3. The Color Guide panel is part of Live Color. It’s all about experimenting with pure color outside of the context of an actual image. Once you come up with a color group you like, you can save it for use in the Swatches panel.
Figure 4. This dialog box is also part of Live Color. The color wheel represents the colors of any object or objects on a page that you select. In the color wheel, each line with a circle at the end is a marker that maps to one selected color. When you drag a marker, you’ll see the color in your artwork change. Click on the image for a larger version.
For quickly generating comps that vary only in artwork color, Live Color will be invaluable. It may also free your color creativity. While Adobe has included 23 traditional color-harmony rules (Complementary, Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, etc.), you can also create your own.
The Eraser
The new Eraser tool is a godsend for people more comfortable with Photoshop’s eraser tool than with Illustrator’s Bezier points. Just select the Eraser, stroke over a shape or shapes, and Illustrator creates smooth new paths on the edges of the erased stroke (Figure 5).
Figure 5. See the new highlights in the snow in the bottom image? Those are the result of the Eraser tool. Click on the image for a larger version.
I Want to Be Alone
Is your artwork a complex fusion of layers, groups, objects, and symbols? Welcome to Isolation mode. Once you double-click with the Selection tool on an object group, you can edit only that group — everything else is inaccessible (Figure 6). It’s the best way to expose and edit lower layer objects without tedious locking, hiding, and re-stacking.
Figure 6. The dark purple logo is Isolated, which is why the other objects are faded. Click on the image for a larger version.
Friends with Flash
Now that Adobe owns Flash, it’s easier for the company to make Flash and Illustrator work together. You can start a project in Illustrator, and when you open that file in Flash, you’ll see the same paths, anchor-point positions, symbols, clipping masks, gradients, layer and grouping structure, and object names (Figure 7).
Figure 7. The artwork elements you see in Illustrator (top) is also what you’ll see in Flash (bottom). Click on the image for a larger version.
Although the Symbol tool options aren’t identical in Illustrator and Flash, they are more similar in CS3.
Go to other pages in the CS3 Overview:
While CS2 was merely an overpriced bugfix release CS3 is worth $500 for an upgrade. Not more though. The changes go into the right direction but are far from complete.
My frustration with Illustrator is its hard to design web pages on a single page basis. At least with Freehand, you can utilize master style pages to implement your design. Plus you can build variable heights on your web pages in freehand. In illustrator, you need to manually generate separate documents to support web pages of variable length bookmakers bonus codes