Ah
yes, the day has come for this humble illustrator to review
that-than-which-none-greater-may-be-conceived (in terms
of vector artwork): Adobe Illustrator CS2. This
beast, born anew from it's Mother Company, is nothing
less than the epitome of vector based artworks. In true
form, Adobe has introduced yet another generation of top-of-the
line software.
Ease
of Use
Illustrator has always had a fairly steep learning curve,
which is due to the simple facts that:
Illustrator
is not a toy.
Illustrator
is not some handy little addition.
Illustrator
is not an entity to be tangled with by the faint of heart.
This
is a serious tool for people concerned with putting the
utmost quality into their work. Though CS2 has some
significant improvements over v.10, the learning curve is
still steeper than your run-of-the-mill graphics program…
then again, the payoff is much greater as well. From it's
seamless integration with Macromedia's web authoring products
to its smooth melding into Photoshop CS2's Smart
Objects function, this is THE program to purchase if you
are in any way serious about your art.
Depth
of Options
Control
Palette
First off, lets take a look at the new Control Palette.
BEHOLD IT'S GLORY!
In
previous versions of Illustrator the artist had
to go through nested layers of menus to procure the desired
menu options for any particular tool. This caused those
of us with smaller monitors to suffer from a real lack
of screen real-estate for drawing. With this new function,
there is a handy tool bar within easy reach that changes
depending on what tool is selected. Stroke weight, character
alignment and kerning, precision transform- all are within
easy reach with this handy function. Believe me, as a
heavy Illustrator user, this will make for significant
time-savings in the long run, to say nothing of eliminating
the headache of the old "Too Many Menu Palettes,
Not Enough Visible Artboard" scenario. Each time
the competition comes up with an idea, Adobe improves
on it to the point of leaving all others in the dust.
Customize
your Workspace. Ever work with a client who has a specific palette
of colors they require? With Illustrator CS2's
ability to store multiple customized workspaces, switching
between custom setups is a breeze. Sure this may not be
a big deal for the run-of-the-mill home user, but for
anyone dealing with multiple clients, it will prove to
be a great addition.
