Many die-hard Illustrator users still view Illustrator 5.5 as the best version Adobe ever released: It provided us with the tools we needed while offering up just enough bells and whistles to keep most of us happy. Illustrator 9.0 may not supplant version 5.5 as the good-ol’-days version of choice, but judging from the beta copy I tested, it adds much more in the way of major features than any Illustrator release since 5.5.
Transparency, At Last
When Illustrator 8.0 was released, many of us were disappointed to find we were still without the transparency abilities that our Macromedia friends were enjoying with FreeHand 8. Adobe promised transparency in 9.0, and it’s been worth the wait.
Illustrator 9.0 not only puts FreeHand’s layer effects to shame but also goes beyond what most of us would ask for. If you are familiar with the Opacity Layer settings within Photoshop then you know just how to use the ones found in Illustrator 9.0. Blending modes can all be found in the new Transparency palette. And whereas Photoshop lets you apply these features only to an entire layer, Illustrator allows even objects and groups to receive their own opacity setting and blend mode.
Sibling Rivalry
Once upon a time, Illustrator and Photoshop appeared hardly related to one another. Pasting paths from Illustrator into Photoshop and importing Photoshop documents into Illustrator was pretty much the extent of the communication between the two. These days it’s getting harder to tell these once-distant cousins apart. Now they not only share common tools, palettes, and effects, but also speak each other’s language and seem to work on the same team. For instance, Illustrator 9.0 introduces a feature called Pixel View that allows you to see what your beautiful vector artwork will look like after rasterized by Illustrator. Snap to Pixel ensures straight edges will stay crisp. All these additions are a great boon for those creating Web graphics within Illustrator, and the changes make Illustrator and Photoshop feel more like siblings.
Transforming for the Web
It seems like all Adobe products are getting upgrades for the Web, and some of these feel right at home in Illustrator. Features like the Save for Web option and the Web-Safe Color palette seem like staple features we can count on in all Adobe upgrades. But new features like Pixel Preview, Release to Layers, and support for the SVG file format ensure that Illustrator will remain much more than just a Web tool.
If you work mainly in the world of print, don’t feel put off. The new version offers up some nice features just for you. When creating a new document, you can choose RGB or CMYK color modes, and an identical color management system from Photoshop has been brought in as well. Both of these additions should reduce the chances of unexpected color results. A Simplify Path command helps reduce the amount of nodes in your more complex pieces of artwork. And a rather spiffy Overprint Preview allows you to see just how adjoining colors will trap to one another right on the screen.
Layer Management and Selection Tools
Building complex artwork within Illustrator over the years, we’ve become accustomed to using such methods as the Lock/Hide and Select Similar commands to help us select certain elements in our artwork. Although these methods have become second nature to most of us by now, you may stop from time to time to wonder if there could be a better way. Adobe has now provided us with a couple of new tools in our selection arsenal. The Selection Lasso tools give you amoebic selection ability with paths and nodes. And those of us who have found layers to be our friend will find the new sublayering feature a welcome addition. You can now easily manage your layers with hierarchical sublayers, just as you organize files with folders or subdirectories in your favorite operating system.
Keeping up Appearances
One of the most intriguing aspects of Illustrator 9.0 is the combination of the Appearance palette and Live Effects. In short, all effects are live, and their settings can be altered at any time by double-clicking them in the Appearance palette. And these aren’t your Daddy’s effects, either. Soft shadows, feathering, glows, and a bunch of Photoshop filters all make their way into the new Effects menu. Multiple effects and strokes can be applied to any object, and the underlying text or path can be edited while the applied effects update instantly.
Illustrator’s implementation of live effects is so radical and new that I expect it to take some time for users to wrap their heads around the. Perhaps an example might get our heads moving in the right direction: Starting with a line of text, I was able to convert it to outlines and then apply a free distort, a drop shadow, a Gaussian blur, and a color halftone effect. Now that the Convert to Outlines command is a live effect, I was then able to change the sentence and watch in amazement as all the effects were instantly updated to my new content.
Looking Ahead
The most exciting thing about these new Illustrator features for some users may be the likelihood that some of them will cross over into the next version of Photoshop. I’ve been praying for better layer management in Photoshop for some time now, and a layer effects feature that acts similar to the multiple, live effects in Illustrator would be incredible.
Illustrator has come a long way from its humble beginnings as an interface to PostScript and mapmaking. Whether your profession lies within illustration, print, the Web, or interactive Flash/SVG pieces, you should find Illustrator 9.0 to be a worthwhile upgrade and an invaluable tool.
This article was last modified on May 25, 2000
This article was first published on May 25, 2000
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