Adobe Illustrator is a graphic program used to create and elaborate images. It is a software for vectorial graphics, where each object is easily scalable and modifiable without any loss of quality. The fans and imaging tecnicians know well the great advantages of this technology: in the vectorial graphics we can use geometrical primitives to descrive points, lines and polygones and to give them colours and hues for a more accurate representation of the object. This drawing technic greatly improves classic raster graphics which uses a simpler grid of colored pixels. Beyond providing a quality vector representation of an object it also offers the flexibility of a purely mathematical description and a large compressibility of the final data.
In this context Illustrator presents itself as the industry leader, exceeding in quality and users the well-known Corel Draw Graphics Suite X4 and ACD System Canvas 11. The brand Illustrator is old and its development dates back to 1986 when Adobe developed this software for the Apple Macintosh platform. The debut on the Microsoft Windows operating system dates 1989 and since then the climb to success has been steady and vertical. After years of growth and development, the program has arrived today to its version CS4, fourteenth episode of a job increasingly aimed at creative professionals.
Among the main features of Illustrator, we should remind the proprietary system that allows automatic tracking of objects and importing and rebuilding all types of digital images, design or artistic representations. But we should also remeber the requested (and finally implemented) feature of representation of multiple (up to 100) works of art together in the same working table, the Artboard. Important also the use of two instruments tought for the professional designer: Live Paint and Blob Brush. The first tool allows you to draw objects freely even if the shape must be completed before beginning the coloring tasks. The new Blob Brush allows you to instead use an entirely free hand drawing tool point by point, choosing colors and using the deleting tools to improve the graphs with final results. Interesting also the ability of the Blob Brush of merging the graphics layers of a specific color only with elements of the same color already present in the drawing. This implicit brush filtering capability is powerful and allows you to draw always in context without having to open dozens of different projects.
Interesting is also the Appearance panel which displays information and attributes of an object and allows you to edit in real time and also -interesting news- to isolate specific elements out of context and just work on them, making it faster and easier to correct the artworks and apply effects to designs close to publication.
The program is very attractive to professional designers engaged in different professions. For example, operators of press printing staff can take advantage of the new Separations Preview panel to control a project step by step and see the preview in real time. But grateful to Adobe will also be the designers which can simulate on screen the effects of particular factors on people with visual defects (such as colorblindness). And certainly pleased will also be the cartographers which can use the new engine Type on Path that allows the introduction of text written along a well-defined path (road, bridge, etc.).
In short, Abode Illustrator is a mature product for a wide audience of graphics professionals.
