Apparent Illustrator CS3 features

[Xhris]

Apparently, this is what's going to be in Illustrator CS3. I'm sure its speed improvements will leave a lot to be desired and will apply to certain effects.

[sallybode]

After years, Adobe Illustrator finally got a Properties Bar with CS2, now they are adding other improvements that CorelDRAW has already had: vector crop, merging colors of vectors, specifying layer colors and more. Adobe Illustrator, the industry leader has consistently been behind the competition. Will it ever be able to draw like Xara? Doesn't sound like it.

In their quest for more money, would be interesting if they gave the people value for their money.

As it is, when files come in in Adobe Illustrator format they must be made currently to .pdf of they crash the platemaker where I work, which is made by AB Dick, (only been around as a press company for forever), and should have been one of the models they tested against. Only the most expensive software you can get and I'd rather not use it, even though I know how. Takes more time, have to restart everything and then make a .pdf out of it anyway. CorelDRAW works. Major embarrassment, and it isn't because we are running it from PC's not MAC, supposed to work anyway, isn't it? Or is making software that works to much to ask?

Too bad enough people don't just start boycotting it until they make a program worth the upgrade.

[BlueFlare]

Thanks Xhris, I was just thinking today what Adobe has in store for Illustrator, because CS2 was already showing signs of good things to come. I've also been using Photoshop CS3 beta and I think it's very good product; fast, stable and I really love the smart filters.
I think the move from Apple to the Intel platform allows Adobe to focus more on the actual product instead of wasting a lot of time on 2 specific platforms, which I think will lead to better applications.

Sally, what's the reason for ranting about a product that you don't use or have to use? That's like me ranting about hotel services in Miami when I never visit Florida.

[sallybode]

If you have only used Illustrator then you have no perspective on what is more useful, you only see one side of it. You may be used to paying whatever Adobe will charge you and think life should be that way.

I know there are more choices and that what Illustrator will be offering is what CorelDRAW has had for years. Good Grief. Before they didn't want to be like CorelDRAW because they made it sound like it was software with training wheels.

Illustrator files at my work are horrible as they crash our digital plate maker every time we send one over from Illustrator CS2. Have to make a .pdf out of it or the software cannot communicate. As Illustrator is touted as a program for the print industry, for more than twice the price, it could work, I'd think. Why pay for an expensive upgrade, it is just that so many people are using Illustrator. And wouldn't think of using anything else. The key words there is they want the printer to be able to open their files.

I send files out all the time, and I send .pdf because they are universal, even at that my text is converted to curves or outlines as I know that when they gang run work, it can change otherwise and I want consistent results and no problems that puts work behind schedule.

Job is enough without software that is so horribly expensive.

If the program isn't right, they should patch it as other software companies do and not expect you to spend more on what is clearly not working.

Xara beats Illustrator in speed and what it can do in excellent illustrations and costs a fraction of what Illustrator costs. CorelDRAW, is stronger in page layout and costs alot less too. It has done multiple pages for years. Now Illustrator has a property bar but it isn't all that useful yet.

With all the money Adobe drags in, they should have a better program.

Acrobat does what it is supposed to and Photoshop too. Illustrator, it is a shame, it worked better before they added more bells and whistles. Directly interactive tools save time because they are intuitive, and you are not going into a dialogue box for everything. If time is of the essence when you work, then using a program which takes four to eight times longer to do anything is frustration which you really don't need.

It isn't as though I don't know how to use the program. There are alternatives.

Save your money.

[Guntis]

As the one who's coming from Windows/CorelDRAW world and who's using Mac now, I can say that Illustrator is s***t comparing to CorelDRAW in terms of UI and easy of use. So many features have no GUI, only keyboard interface (i.e., for object "move" I have to hit Enter button, to change polygon edges I have to use arrow-keys, etc., and there's no GUI for these commands), selecting 5 nodes for 1 object which is on top of 15 other objects is nothing short of frustration - I have to move all objects beneath it to another layer, lock it and only then I can select those nodes.

Yes, Illustrator output may be better than CoreDRAW's, but every time I have to open Illustrator I remember how easy it was to edit object shapes in CorelDRAW... In CorelDRAW there was only 1 tool for that, in Illustrator - 4, and I have to change them constantly. When I have to merge 2 objects - in CorelDRAW I hit "merge" button and it's done, but in Illustrator I can never know will they be merged or something else will be done with the selected objects. Then goes hunting for the correct merge button. Drop shadow is in several places, and which one should I use? Illustrator's GUI is as bad as one can make... No multi-page documents. Which century they at Adobe live in? If someone can get past this misery, then probably Illustrator is powerful tool, but I'm stuck with UI problems.
So I hope Adobe will seriously change Illustrator's UI.
Here are my complaints about Illustrator: http://www.adventisti.lv/blog/?page_id=19

[sallybode]

I work for a professional printer, and let me tell you about Adobe Illustrator's output being superior, it ain't. We have a digital plate maker by AB Dick Company. Those who are familiar with printing should know AB Dick, they have been well established for as long as I've been around and lots longer than that and that is almost 30 years in the industry. Of all the programs we make plates from, Adobe Illustrator is the ONLY ONE which consistently crashes the plate maker's computer. It is VERY INCONVENIENT. The same program can make .pdf, and in order to print from Adobe Illustrator, I must make a .pdf from it first. When I have a busy day which is often, going the extra step is worth the effort for a half an hour to an hour down time and I have to restore the computer's settings. As far as output, if the CorelDRAW users knows how to configure color management, there is nothing any better with Illustrator. DRAW has a far better print preview, and how many years has this been. Illustrator is an expensive pain in the butt.

I do everything I can to avoid having to use it. Being also good at Xara, I much prefer to do whatever color work I cannot do in Xara and use CorelDRAW as a page layout tool and avoid InDesign as well. InDesign isn't entirely lame, however, it is much more convenient to just work in one program building a booklet. There is no way you can match speed between Illustrator and DRAW. DRAW is just inherently faster DESPITE that it is only ported for PC's.

Photoshop I do like but as it is faster for me to do most of my photo editing in PhotoPaint as it is just a right click away, I do so and have not been disappointed with the speed nor the quality nor have my customers. I frequently have to descreen as customers change printers and do not have original artwork so I have to recreate their artwork from scannning in what was already printed. PhotoPaint is better at it, has a Moire filter which descreens better than scanners with descreeners do and I do use the descreener in my scanner. Paint does not blur the photo nearly as much an eliminates the pattern almost completely. The filter does have to be run sometimes several times but the output is much better than Photoshop can do and need I say that Photoshop costs a lot more than DRAW alone and you also get PhotoPaint for no extra.

I have had one poster job which I did in Photoshop which came out really nicely and I knew for that I'd need the memory management of Photoshop. The memory management is really good in Photoshop. I would have preferred doing the job in Xara. However my boss wanted me to use Photoshop so I did.