CS6 release

[handrawn]

been giving it a go

sure is quicker and smoother and the rendering better

the UI too [and yes you can lighten it]

the gradient on stroke looks interesting, but the one thing that has stood out for me is the revamped bitmap tracer - I can now get smooth-edged accurate vector line traces from pen drawings very easily indeed, dropping out the white and the residue pencil; the notched lines that you seem to have to put up with elsewhere are easily avoided...

[mwenz]

I agree about AI. On a 64-bit system that I use it is a bunch faster. Some of the new features I sort of yawn at in the sense I may never really use them. But the speed and the tracer you mention are top-notch. Adobe did a great re-write because some of the old memory leaks are gone.

May favorite AI feature is still the appearance panel. So much one can do with it during designing something. Well, the type of somethings I design.

Take care, Mike

[MarcT]

The Gradient along a stroke is something that I had wished for a long time.
I used to emulate this in CH Expression with bitmap gradients assigned to a skeletal stroke.

This along with the rather good "stroke width tool" should be interesting.

Having to deal with the clunky interface is less appealing though

Marc

[handrawn]

if you expand a gradient fill stroke it becomes a gradient mesh - something to 'play with'

[Albacore]

Have not tried it yet and I am still stuck with CS3. Liked the revamped tracing panel looks much easier to use as I have watched a few vids on it and thought it would make the job easier when importing hand drawn sketches. Handrawn have you used it with your own sketches how much better is it, does it save time.
If it does I will pay for the upgrade.
Don't like downloading the trial as the file size is huge and it will restrict my bandwidth.

[handrawn]

yes the download is around 1.8GB

I'll root around and dig up an example of the tracing - a lot depends on what your source is of course - I don't like to clean art mainly because it degrades the inking in these days of affordable paper and pens [ie bristol and artboard is too expensive, and Bic is cheaper than Pilot or Rotring/Sanford], and also it takes time to erase properly - so I appreciate the threshold control on the trace which means I don't usually have to bother

[handrawn]

ok a quick example - remember I am a sequential artist [aka 'stripper'] and attempting to be renoir or matisse is not the object of the exercise, nor is being photorealistic; design parameters are genre specific

that said, if you look at the file you will see a scan on the left - greyscale, 300dpi, blunt pencil rendered with 'the worlds most successful pen' [a humble bic 'cristal'] - the scan removes a lot of the pencil, but you can still see some of it - a line art black and white scan would bring up all the pencil, so I scan greysacle, a tip I learnt here ages ago from the very helpful gnurf

the trace is on the right - its done at default setting but with the threshold shifted to a value of 192, thats all - it gives a very solid, un-notched un-broken line, which is ideal visually and which is also idea for live paint [or other program for coloring]

the middle is just a bit of finish for show

the presets, though carrying more or less the same names, appear to have changed their settings here and there - none of them are much good for this sort of thing, except for black and white logo which also needs a bit of threshold shift and results in a more uniform [aka in cartooning terms 'boring' line]

its a lot easier for me, thats all I can say - if you want anything of yours scanned, be happy to oblige and will pass on the results

[Albacore]

After seeing your work and reading your comments Handrawn I went ahead and downloaded the trial. I have been working on different scans all morning and I am pleasantly surprised how many tweaks that I used to do are now unessential so I am saving time. I like the interface and the way the panels work and the increase in speed no matter how complicated the drawing is. I have only a few months left until I retire and you could say I am counting the days but because I draw as one of my pastimes and it so easy to colour on the computer I think I might upgrade, we'll see!

I use a Pentel Rollerball 1.0mm in various colours and have done for years and find in flows well over pencil lines so that rubbing out is easy. This allows me to set the Threshold down to around 170 and like you I use the "Black & White Logo" pre-set for my scanned traces. Many thanks Handrawn for your input here, much appreciated.

[handrawn]

Glad it was helpful

I'm all for saving time and the less of it there is around the more important it becomes

I've used the pental rollerballs they are nice, but the ink is just a tad 'wet' for me - not as wet as a 'Tikky Graphic' [previously known as a Xenon], but more so than a Pilot DR; I also like a Pental plastic tip fountain pen for some work

'cause Bics can start smudging after a while, when they get chucked in the charity box, but it takes a while unlike cheaper pens and besides in bulk you can easily buy Bics for around 10p each - I've been doodling with Bics since I was only able to crawl, and likely will still be when I get back to that state - they are not lightfast is the only significant drawback for me

I'm also impressed with the new Illy interface and the speed and the screen rendering has improved too... last time it was photoshop, this time it will be illustrator upgraded..... gone are the days when I could do both at once [sigh... ]