Speaking of different shades of colors, Illustrator CS3 features a new panel called the Color Guide, which is designed to inspire your color choices. Groups of colors appear as folders within the Swatches panel. For example, to simplify coloring fall leaves, I created a group of several shades of red, orange, and yellow (Figure 4).įigure 4. I have swatch groups that contain colors for different clients, and for different parts of an Illustrator file. You can create groups of swatch colors, making it easy to organize your colors and manage their relationships. For example, ever tried looking for the closest Pantone color that matches an existing process color? Ever tried to change a color within a pattern or a gradient (or gradient mesh)? Ever tried to convert all of your vector art to grayscale? How about turning one of those boring charts with all those shades of gray into something more exciting? Illustrator CS3 can do all of these things.īefore I get ahead of myself, let me start by describing some of the color enhancements you’ll find throughout the application. Put another way, if there’s anything at all that you want to do with color, there’s a good chance Illustrator can do it. In fact, Adobe’s marketing draws so much attention to this thing called Live Color that you can overlook what Illustrator CS3 really has - robust color support throughout the entire application. Go to Adobe’s Web site and you’ll see lots of talk about a feature the company refers to as “Live Color,” but in the app itself, you won’t find any tool, menu item, or panel called by that name - only one dialog box has the name Live Color in it in all of Illustrator CS3. Due to the enhanced performance in Illustrator, the Print document profile sets the Document Raster Effects setting to 300 dpi - automatically. With these profiles, you can create a new file with all of the correct settings with a single click of the mouse.įigure 3.
Illustrator ships with profiles optimized for print, Web, mobile and devices, and video and film documents, and you can add your own customized profiles, as well. Click on the image for a larger version.Ĭreating new documents is less of a chore with New Document Profiles, which contain important document settings, such as document size, color mode, preview mode, measurement settings, and even raster effects resolution settings (Figure 3). In this example, one click gives you access to the entire Align panel. If Illustrator senses there’s not enough room to display icons for each function, hyperlinks appear instead. The Control panel adjusts its content according to how much room is on your screen.įigure 2. The context-sensitive Control panel at the top of the screen now offers links to more functionality, and it’s also aware of your monitor resolution (Figure 2). You can reduce panels (the new name for palettes) to icons that attach to the side of your screen. The new interface is consistent with Photoshop, InDesign, and even Flash CS3.įigure 1. Making it easier to navigate within the application, Illustrator CS3 features a new panel-based user interface that lets you turn panels (formerly known as palettes) into icons and dock them to the sides of your screen (Figure 1). And large files simply fly on my MacBook Pro. On my PowerMac G4, Illustrator redraws complex artwork twice as fast. While you can feel the performance enhancements on just about any system, CS3 really takes advantage of systems with multiple processors.
#ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS3 V13 WINDOWS#
Illustrator also runs on both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Illustrator ships as a universal binary application and therefore runs native on Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs running the Tiger OS.
Adobe has promised better performance in past upgrades, but Illustrator CS3 is the first version where you can actually believe it. Getting your work done quickly is paramount, and Illustrator CS3 helps you make your deadlines and even make it home in time for dinner in several ways. The $599 ($199 upgrade) question is, does it impress enough to part with some of your hard-earned cash? Let’s take a look. With innovative new features, improved integration with other applications, and many small enhancements, Illustrator CS3 impresses on many levels. But one look at Illustrator CS3 and it’s obvious that Adobe hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Now, more than 20 years since its first release, Adobe has released Illustrator CS3, which is part of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 family of products.Ĭonsidering how little competition Illustrator has (FreeHand, which seems to be in limbo, is also owned by Adobe), you might think that Adobe has little incentive for putting much effort into a new version. A lot has happened since then, including Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia and Apple’s adoption of Intel-based hardware. Back in 1986, Adobe introduced a postscript-based drawing program called Illustrator.
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