 “Web
Designers and Adobe Illustrator 9 Work Well Together”
Why Trade Up to Adobe Illustrator 9.0? Graphic artists using Illustrator
9 now have the ability to work their Web design projects in unison with
Photoshop 6. Adobe Illustrator 9 offers them a bundle of new features:
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Pixel Preview command
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Web safe colors when working in RGB mode
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Web Optimization
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Release to Layers command
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Simplify Command; and
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Effects menu.
Who uses Adobe Illustrator?
Every day over one million men and women use Adobe Illustrator. Adobe
Illustrator continues to provide the touch-and-feel tools you need to create
brochures, video artwork and Web pages. Plus, it's used for making packaging,
ads and editorial spreads.
New Transparency Palette
Adobe illustrator 9 introduces the new Transparency palette. You can
now apply varying levels of transparency to any object, bitmap or type
character.
You can apply transparency to layers, groups of objects, knockout shapes,
stroke and fill. Also, you can create special effects, such as confining
blending to a group of objects. Now, graphic artist can create graduated
transparencies on blends.
New features
Several new features in Illustrator 9.0 will be familiar to veteran
Adobe Photoshop users:
The new real-time transparency effects. (There is a new tab on the Stroke
and gradient dialog, with a slider.) Select an object, slide the transparency
value to 80 percent and the objects beneath it show through. You can move
the transparent object at will.
New Styles Palette
Apply drop shadows, glows, scribbled outline effects or dozens of other
visual effects to any object or text. The text remains fully editable.
The Layers functions are useful to Web designers using Adobe Illustrator
9 for improving their drawings.
The new release Layers to Flash function allows Illustrator 9 to be
used to produce morphing object and animation effects.
Pixel Preview mode and “Save for Web” dialog
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Pixels are now supported as a measurement method. The new Pixel Preview
mode allows you to preview your vector objects as they would appear in
a Web browser. Objects snap to the nearest pixel edge in the document.
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Adobe Illustrator 9 ““Save for Web”” dialog is almost the same as the “Save
to Web” dialog in Photoshop.
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This allows you to preview up to four different optimization settings for
output to either JPEG, GIF, PNG-8 or PNG-24 format files. Now, you can
adjust the resulting image quality, file size, blur, number of colors in
the image.
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Use the release to Layers feature in Illustrator 9. You can take all the
objects in a given layer and assign each object its own layer which is
useful for Web animation.
Pro comments
Noted are Adobe Illustrator 9’s new Opacity masks, Layer Clipping masks
and Feathering functions, and overprint preview.
Excellent hardcopy manual for learning how to use Adobe Illustrator
9 comes with the program. (No Missing Manual)
Adobe Illustrator 9 has True transparency effects, styles palette and
improved Flash support. Pixels can now be specified as a global measurement
unit for sizing, editing, and laying out artwork.
Con comments
Noted was the missing companion CD with Adobe Illustrator graphics
that comes standard with Adobe Pagemaker Plus application.
Also, I noted that some of the Selection tools can be confusing. I found
that Masking tool some times flattens layers.
Final notes
One of the most important changes to Illustrator 9 is its ability to
work with Web design projects. Illustrator 9 combines illustration tools
with improved typographic control and image support. Adobe Illustrator
9 offers graphic artist and Web designers more flexibility, better integration,
along with new object effects.
Pricing and availability
For first time buyers, Adobe Illustrator 9 is available for $399.00.
For registered owners of previous versions of Illustrator, the price is
$149.00. For more information, please visit the Adobe Web site at: <http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/main.html>.
System requirements
Windows, Pentium II or faster Intel processor, Microsoft Windows 98,
Windows NT 4.0,
or Windows 2000 O/S, 64 MB of RAM, 105 MB of available hard-disk space,
CD-ROM drive, Video card that supports 800x600 or greater monitor resolution,
If using Adobe PostScript printers, Adobe PostScript Level 2 or later required
Paul
Gerstenbluth is President of ARIE Foundation and a PC and MAC consultant.
Paul writes computer reviews for PC and Mac software applications. |
