by Don Herion

(5/5 Geeks)

(1) (2)

Save to Web
Like Photoshop Illustrator comes with a 'Save to Web' command. This is a great tool to quickly optimize graphics for the Web. You are given a 'LiveView' panel with the choice of a 2-up or 4-up view so you can compare your original graphic against the Web optimized versions. Designers get controls to add, delete, edit and even lock particular colors when you optimize colors. Graphics can also be resized during the optimization process.

Appearance is Everything
With Illustrator you now have the power to apply effects and filters to anything you create. You can even use third party filters developed for Photoshop within Illustrator. These can be applied to vector as well as raster graphics (only in RGB mode). You apply 'effects' to vector graphics and 'filters' to raster graphics. Adding to this technology Adobe has introduced a new concept called, 'appearance.' A designer now has the flexibility to edit, reorder effects and transitions, and add or delete effects and transitions without having to go back to the beginning. When you apply attributes, an effect for example, to a selected object they are listed in the 'appearance' palette. Once there you can manipulate them in a number of ways and not destroy the original graphic. I love it. Now if only this program could cook.

Appearance palette

Here is the same graphic with the same effects reordered

Other Goodies
There are many more enhancements to this powerful program. 'Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts' now give you the ability to create new keyboard shortcuts or edit existing ones. You can even set up different combinations and switch among them easily. This is great if more than one designer needs to use your workstation. PDF or Acrobat files are one of the most popular formats for delivering high quality documents over the Web. The Illustrator file format is now Adobe PDF at its core. You can now roundtrip PDF files you saved in Illustrator without losing fonts, patterns or other features. You also have a complete set of compression, font embedding, color management and security options for quickly preparing PDF files for output. In addition, Adobe has added new color management enhancements, including support for the Adobe Color Engine.

Summary
I guess you can tell I'm crazy about this new version of Illustrator. The integration of many Photoshop features into Illustrator has reduced the necessity of having both programs. I prefer using Illustrator like bezier tools for creating interfaces, buttons and more complex Web graphics. They give me greater flexibility when compared to Photoshop. The new 'pixel view' command allows me to see what my design will look like when placed on a Web page. Adding filters, effects, incredible transparency control, powerful layering options and improved Web saving capability (including Flash and .svg formats) has brought down the wall dividing raster imaging programs and vector design programs. The day may come when Illustrator and Photoshop will be integrated into one powerful design application. Until that day comes I will be very content using Adobe Illustrator 9.0.

System Requirements:

Learn more about Illustrator 9.0 at the Adobe Web site