Illustrator CS3 features cool experimental technology

There are two features present in Illustrator CS3 which are actually experimental projects from Adobe Labs. In fact, the first time you opt to use these features (which are located in a new special Adobe Labs submenu), you’re presented with a dialog reminding you that the technology is only experimental (read: beta). The best part of these two features is that they can extend Illustrator’s reach out onto the web.

A hook into Adobe’s kuler
The first feature is a kuler panel that allows you to see RSS-feeds from kuler directly from within Illustrator. Not only can you search kuler and get live results, you can instantly convert a kuler palette of colors into one of Illustrator CS3’s new color groups within the Swatches panel.



A new way to get help
Finding help while you’re using Illustrator (or any application for that matter) has always been a challenge. The new knowhow panel in Illustrator CS3 is context sensitive and provides helpful feedback for the tool or function you’re currently using as you work in Illustrator. You can get a list of all shortcuts that can be used with your selected tool…



...and you can also use knowhow to search Adobe’s help for how to use the tool, and even better, you can search the web for tutorials or articles that talk about that tool. That’s right! You can choose a tool in Illustrator, click on a link in the knowhow panel, and be directed to resources – like the Real World Illustrator blog!



As this is an Adobe Labs project, you can be sure we’ll be seeing other apps getting this functionality in future versions.