Avid photographer? Artist? Looking for a new way to create images? Listen.
Much has changed since Art Terry Reviewed Illustrator 8 in this publication over three years ago. Adobe Illustrator 10 sports a much improved consumer-friendly interface. You will notice lots of new tools. I agree with the reviewer who said: "Illustrator 10 takes the industry standard for vector graphics software to a new level." This review will cover many of the new features offered and explain its compatibility with Adobe Photoshop 7.
Did you know that Adobe Illustrator was the first vector-based drawing package? This program is user friendly to Web designers, claiming flexibility for artists who use computers for drawings, including cartoon graphics. This product is compatible with Adobe Photoshop 7 and Adobe promises to maintain compatibility with newer programs yet to come.
Adobe Illustrator 10, like Adobe Photoshop 7, has become a product for creating and optimizing vector or raster-based graphics for the World Wide Web. A key new feature of the upgrade is a concept that Adobe calls "symbolism." The program includes symbols - objects that can be multiplied/reused. You have options for slicing images to magically reduce their size making your image compatible with other Adobe products and vector graphic formats.
You'll find plenty of new features in the program to justify the upgrade. For example, there are a number of new drawing tools for your creative impulses. Let's take a look at a few. There is the arc tool and the line segment tool that will let you add straight lines and curves - new for Illustrator (but not Photoshop). Two grid tools will let you add rectangular tables and target-style polar grids. You can also get a taste of the new flare tool that creates photos: realistic, vector-based flare effects. With the gathering of compound shapes you can relax knowing that they are now better integrated with the Photoshop 7's "shape layers." You should find that distortion is reduced substantially.
Illustrator 10 has come a long way with spectacular new improvements. The old magic wand tool used to select only areas based on similar color values. The new wand tool allows you choose areas based on: fill, stroke, weight, opacity, and a blending mode of any combination of these. By clicking on an object and other objects in the artwork, you can match the areas highlighted immediately. Happily, you can save and retrieve the selection with commands available from the new-dedicated select menu.
In the past, Illustrator lacked in creative distortion capabilities. In Adobe Illustrator 10 this has been addressed. There are now seven new liquefy tools: twirl, pucker, bloat, deflate, scallop and wrinkle. They let you apply distortions to the outline of your shapes. In each case, the effect is pressure-sensitive - for those of you lucky enough to have a tablet PC.
The liquefy tools are only the beginning. Under the Effects menu you'll now find a Warp submenu that offers access to the same set of 15 distortion effects available in Photoshop. The options include common staples, such as arc, wave and fisheye, each of which is customizable. The beauty is that the distorted objects, text and even placed photos remain live and fully editable. Even more impressive, you can save your effect as part of a "style" for re-use.
It is now possible to customize your warps options. For absolute control you can also create your own distortion from scratch by adding a customizable mesh that allows you to control the interior of the distortion just as you control its envelope. I don't think you will find anything like it in any similar program.
If you are working, for example, on producing business cards or photographic Word based forms, Variables can be useful. Variables become vitally important when they are used in a wider workflow. This is especially important for Web work and for users of JavaScript. Those who know those programs can use Illustrator 10's new scripting plug-in to take control of data-driven image processing. Web-based enhancements include Illustrator's new support for Web-based compatibility so that workgroups can check in and check out files and for XAP the XML-based metadata technology that lets you embed tags in files to help cataloguing and file retrieval.
The most welcomed new Web function comes in the form of new Slice tools that let you break up an image into sections that can be targeted and optimised independently. Rather than having to manually create and edit slices you can automatically generate them based on objects, groups or even layers.
I've used a bit of both Photoshop 6, Photoshop 7, Adobe Illustrator 9 and 10. In my experience they provide great manageability for the user and an ample amount of flexibility. I've noticed, for many of my needs, that Illustrator stands above Photoshop; it has allowed me to take a more "free-hand" approach to drawing. Though, together they make a great team.
When it comes to output, the fact that Illustrator shares the same optimisation technology as Photoshop means that bitmap-based Web output is unbeatable, whether you are using JPEG or GIF. However, converting Illustrator's vector-based drawings to bitmap formats isn't always necessary.
Illustrator 10 offers two major filter (SVG) enhancements that showcase the format's potential. The first of these is the ability to apply SVG filters to objects. These filters don't look much like the filters you are used to using and you don't initially see much of a difference after the application. But, look closely. The difference is that these bitmap-based filters are rasterized to ensure high quality when viewing the image at any size. The second is the great support for variable data which enables GoLive and AlterCast (both Adobe products) to take control of the SVG graphic to automatically generate new charts, Web buttons, and so on.
Avid photographer? Artist? Looking for a new way to create images? Test Illustrator at www.adobe.com. Click "all" under "products." On the see Try Outs. There you can sample this program before you buy. Give it a shot. You'll love it.

System Requirements: Pentium II or higher, 128MB RAM, 180MB disk space, Windows 98, ME, 2000 (SP2) or XP, SVGA
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