Illustrator and HTML

There was a recent thread on the Adobe Illustrator User to User forum on the topic of web design. At one point, the discussion led to whether Illustrator could create text links in HTML text. Helpful individuals on the forum explained that Illustrator isn't an HTML editor. While it can define image maps (clickable hot spot regions) and also slices, these are images and cannot be displayed as editable HTML text in a browser. And as such, "Illustrator can't export a normal HTML file wherein the "body text" of the page is live tagged text in the body of the resulting HTML file".

Or can it?

DISCLAIMER: This post is incredibly geeky. In addition, this post does not - in any way whatsoever - make the argument that Illustrator should be used to publish HTML web content instead of dedicated tools such as Dreamweaver, or even via hand-coding. It is presented purely as informational, and who knows, maybe you'll pick up some good info in the process. To balance all the "geekiness" within, this post also tells a wonderful story about a young and ambitious product manager (played by the part of yours truly). I can think of maybe one or two people at the most, who are still at Adobe, who are even aware of this (the functionality, and the story).

Let's turn the clock back to the year 2001. I had been hired as a product manager for Adobe Illustrator, and web design was the hot topic. Illustrator 9 had just shipped and, its other (viable transparency printing and crashing) issues aside, featured the first steps in the direction of web design. Support for a dedicated RGB mode and Pixel Preview were born, as well as the Save for Web feature. The web features were my responsibility and I had identified Symbols and Slicing as the two major "web features" that were to be added to Illustrator 10.

(Ancillary note: The ATG team at Adobe (Advanced Technology Group) saw the Symbols feature and instantly envisioned a tool to take advantage of it, and so was born the Symbol Sprayer and its "Symbolism" tools. It was on the golf course one morning (we used to play a quick 9 before coming into the office) that Ted Alspach and I joked about how much fun it might be to name all the Symbolism tools with words that started with the letter "s". By that afternoon, we had them all named: Sprayer, Shifter, Scruncher, Sizer, Spinner, Stainer, Screener, and Styler. Yeah, we got A LOT of work done that day).

I had also requested another web feature for Illustrator 10: javascript rollovers. This was a feature that another Adobe product already had -- Adobe ImageReady. Much of Adobe ImageReady's code was already being used in Illustrator for the Save for Web feature, and I had hoped that we could somehow include rollover functionality as well. Being that Illustrator was a great tool for designing web navigation, I thought it was extremely important to get that feature, as an integral part of the slicing feature set. There were two main issues at hand: first, adding rollovers was incredibly expensive* and would require numerous additional user interface elements; second, the product manager of the GoLive team was telling me how JavaScript rollovers were going to one day be replaced by "this incredible CSS thing", and that a major investment in "yesterday's technology" wasn't the right move.

*In application development terms, "expensive" doesn't mean "a lot of money". Rather, expensive refers to the amount of development or programming time and number of resources or engineers such a feature would require.

Still, I knew what web designers were asking for, and as such, continued to fight for some way to bring a more robust web experience into Illustrator. Just doing simple web slices as images wasn't going to "cut" it for me (get it? slices? cut? oh, never mind...). The developer working in the slices feature at the time was Matt Foster, and we had many discussions about how we could get the most out of the slices feature. The first thing we came up with was a way to let ImageReady and Illustrator work more closely together. If Illustrator wouldn't get rollovers, at least let us find a way to bring ImageReady into the picture, and we came up with the following. If you placed an ImageReady file that already had slices and rollovers in it, we would pass that through on output. Which meant that a user could create art with rollovers in ImageReady, place the resulting PSD into Illustrator, and upon export to HTML via the Save for Web feature, the rollovers would work. Unless something happened to that code, that functionality should still be there today.

That was fine and nice, but as a young and ambitious (naive?) product manager, I wanted more. I knew that web designers wanted to design a website where a slice of a table might be a video clip, a flash animation, or some other image or text that may be fed in via a script. Until then, a designer would simply design a graphic placeholder, that a coder would eventually replace with real code in the resulting HTML file. But what if a person could add that code right in Illustrator? Wouldn't that allow a developer to email a few lines of code to a designer, who would then plug that code in? In that way, a designer would be able to get a real preview in their web browser, instead of a placeholder. And what about if all a user wanted was real live HTML text? Text that could show up in a search, or be copied from the browser window? Wouldn't that be possible as well?

And so was born the idea for a new type of slice - the "HTML Text" slice. It was so ingenious (we thought at the time), that I actually filed for a patent at the time (sadly, I never got the patent as it was too difficult for me to prove that my idea was unique enough).

THE ANATOMY OF A SLICE

Before we understand how to use the HTML slice, we need to learn a few of the basics about slices in Illustrator. There are two ways to apply a slice in Illustrator - you can either use the Slice tool (a dumb slice), or you can apply a slice to an object as an attribute by selecting an object and choosing Object > Slice > Make (a smart slice). Dumb slices just mark off a region on your artboard. But smart slices know the content contained within the slice. A smart slice moves and resizes itself when the object within it moves and changes in size. A smart slice also knows when its contents are text point text or area text objects.



A slice is really a cell in an HTML table (see this post to learn how to turn slices into CSS DIVs), and as such, the overall table must be rectangular. So when you create a slice, Illustrator may need to create additional slices to create an overall rectangle. Slices that you create (either smart or dumb ones) are referred to as User slices. Slices that Illustrator creates are referred to as Auto slices, or "linked" slices, as they are linked to the slices that you create and update accordingly to fill up the overall table.

There are three types of slices that you can define in Illustrator:

- IMAGE SLICE: This is the default setting for every slice that you define in Illustrator. It simply means that the area enclosed in the slice will be rasterized as an image.

- NO IMAGE SLICE: This setting uses the slice to define the size of the table cell, but allows you to define whatever you want to appear within that cell. When you choose this setting, you'll get an empty field where you can punch in whatever code you want. In this way, you are able to call a movie clip, a flash file, or anything else. The Text is HTML button allows you to tell Illustrator that you want your text to appear as HTML code (not as actual text). NOTE: It appears there's a bug here, at least in CS4, because it seems the button does nothing.

- HTML TEXT SLICE: If you select a type object in Illustrator and you turn it into a slice, using the Object > Slice > Make command, you can choose HTML Text as a slice type. This feature automatically takes the text that's in your slice and makes it HTML text. In other words, if on your Illustrator artboard, you code some HTML, this setting will turn that HTML code into live HTML text. The feature is even smart enough to detect the type of text in the slice. It will automatically sense if type is set to bold or italic, and it will even sense font size. My patent idea that I filed was that we created a real function that would allow a designer to design as normal, and that the code would look at the design and automatically convert to HTML code.



You can change a slice's type in one of two ways. On the artboard in Illustrator, select the slice with the Slice Select tool and choose Object > Slice > Slice Options. Alternatively (and the way I prefer to do it), choose File > Save for Web & Devices, and then double click on any slice with the Slice Select tool. When you're done editing your slices, you can click the Done button to return to your document.

So there you have it. It's possible to get real HTML text out of Illustrator, with hyperlinks and all. Would you WANT to do it? Well, today, there are plenty of tools that do it oh-so-much better. As I said, it's geeky to the max, but I do hope you've enjoyed the ride.

Illustrator and Dreamweaver Integration

As a core graphics program, Illustrator is used in just about every type of design workflow. Of all the applications found in Adobe Creative Suite (every edition), Illustrator has the most robust support when it comes to integration and file support. Illustrator is much like a universal bottle opener, supporting formats like AI, PDF, EPS, FXG, SVG, SWF, PSD, TIF, DXF, DWG, EMF, WMF, and just about any other 3-letter extension you can think of. When it comes to working with other applications, Illustrator has direct support with major applications like Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Flash Catalyst, Fireworks, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and heck, even Flex (Illustrator can create Flex skins).

A closer look at that list reveals a gaping hole... Dreamweaver. One of the big features added to the CS4 version of Dreamweaver was support for Smart Objects, or the ability to place native Photoshop files directly into a Dreamweaver layout. Oddly, native Illustrator support is missing from that feature, leaving Illustrator users to find other ways to get graphics into their layouts.



Adobe's now-defunct GoLive did have its limitations, but support for native Illustrator files wasn't one of them. But all is not lost, as there are still a variety of ways to use both Illustrator and Dreamweaver hand in hand. In this article, I present two ways to do so.

CREATING CSS LAYOUTS WITH ILLUSTRATOR
If you're paying attention to anything that's going on in the world of web design, you know that web standards, such as CSS-based layouts, are all the rage. And for good reason. The limitation of table-based layouts become immediately apparent when you consider that the web browser as we know it is fading from view, and we are accessing web content on all types of screens and devices. That being said, there are all types of layouts that work for various tasks. At times, I can quickly visualize in my mind where I want to go -- and others require a bit more work. I like to sketch out my layouts in Illustrator as it's so easy to make changes and experiment with ideas.

I use regular rectangles with different fill colors and NO STROKES to indicate the regions in my layout. These regions will eventually become DIVs in my CSS layout. I use no strokes to avoid any possible antialiasing issues. I use the Transform panel to quickly and precisely adjust the sizes and position of the rectangles. I then select my rectangles and choose Object > Slice > Make to convert all of my rectangles to slices.

You may stop me there and cry "Hey Mordy! Slices create HTML tables! Why would you want to do that?" And the answer is quite simple. Illustrator has a feature called Save for Web & Devices. Not many people realize that this feature was once a full-blown separate application called ImageReady (oh, the memories). As such, Save for Web & Devices has a lot of "hidden" functionality that you have to dig for. One of those hidden gems is CSS support.



Once my slices are created, I choose File > Save for Web & Devices. I don't care about what file format to use for the images, because I won't use the images at all -- all I want is for Illustrator to use the slices I created to generate CSS DIV tags for layout. If you double-click on any slice with the Slice Select tool in the Save for Web & Devices dialog, you can assign a name to each slice -- a name which will eventually become the DIV ID for that region. Click Save and then from the Save Optimized As dialog box, choose "HTML Only" for the Format and from the Settings popup menu, choose "Other...".



Now the fun begins. You're now accessing tons of settings that once belonged to the full-blown ImageReady application. In the HTML panel, check the "Output XHTML" button, then switch to the Slices tab. For the Slice Output method, choose Generate CSS. Click OK, and then Click Save to create your HTML file. Opening the resulting HTML file in Dreamweaver will reveal a layout with all of your regions set up as AP DIVs (Absolute Position DIVs), giving you a head start on your layout. At this point, you can simply drop images or graphics into any of your DIVs. If only you could drop native AI files right into those DIVs...

ILLUSTRATOR SMART OBJECTS IN DREAMWEAVER
OK, denial has run its course and I've now entered the acceptance phase. Dreamweaver snubbed us and doesn't support Illustrator Smart Objects -- Dreamweaver and Photoshop are obviously having a big party and Illustrator wasn't invited (I'm sure the invite just got lost in the mail or got caught in a spam filter somewhere). But that's OK, because Illustrator can sneak into the party anyway. Sure, DW doesn't support AI smart objects. But PS does. SCORE.

Place your Illustrator art into Photoshop as a smart object, and then place the PSD into your Dreamweaver layout. Want to edit the file? Click the Edit button in Dreamweaver to open the PSD in Photoshop. Then double click the Vector Smart Object in Photoshop to open the file in Illustrator. Make the required edits and save the Illustrator file. Save the Photoshop file. Return to Dreamweaver, and everything updates. SWEET. It's like Photoshop is a revolving door. Wham bam thank you ma'am -- you've just been served. It may sound like a lot of extra steps, but in reality, it's just one more double-click than a standard Photoshop smart object.

In closing, by using Illustrator in this way, you have the benefit of using Illustrator art in pixel form via Photoshop (GIF/JPG/PNG), while you can still dump the art into Flash or Flash Catalyst for vector art (SWF). If you'd like to see more support for Illustrator in future versions of Dreamweaver, please speak up and leave a comment here. I'd love to send the folks on the Dreamweaver team a few wishes for what I'd like to see in the new year :)

10 Illustrator Resolutions for 2009

A while back, I started putting together a list of the features I thought that Illustrator users didn't use enough. When Illustrator CS4 came out, that list was somewhat modified, and this list is one that I've built from what I've seen out in the field. Whether it's doing onsite training at a company, reading emails that folks send to me, comments from users on forums, from attendees at conferences or seminars, or what I see being passed around on Twitter (follow me!), i've noticed certain questions that always come up -- ones that can easily be solved by learning a little bit more about the application you already know and use.

I had originally built this list under the title "10 features most people don't use in Illustrator, but should", but in the spirit of the new year, I've modified it to instead reference 10 possible resolutions for the new year. In other words, you don't have to do them all -- just pick one! That's right, pick one! I guarantee you'll be a happier Illustrator user for it.

1. USE THE APPEARANCE PANEL

You knew this one was coming, right? The Appearance panel is "the source" of all things about modern Illustrator usage. IT is the path to righteousness. If you aren't using it yet, you need to get with the program. Especially now in Illustrator CS4, the Appearance panel is even more central to your Illustrator experience, with its ability to apply attributes and effects directly from the panel. In fact, the Appearance panel's new functionality has opened more screen real estate for me, as I no longer need the Color, Swatches, Stroke, or Transparency panels on my screen anymore.

2. CREATE YOUR OWN NEW DOCUMENT PROFILES

Illustrator comes with four NDPs (New Document Profiles) plus two generic ones (Basic CMYK and Basic RGB), but those profiles are really all generic. Do you need all the color swatches that the Illustrator team put into each of the profiles? Are you always creating documents with just one artboard? How about symbols and graphic styles? You need to create your own New Document Profiles, with YOUR custom settings, colors, and content. I have NDPs set up for specific clients, for specific jobs (preset ad banners or ad sizes, etc.) and more.

3. CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOM WORKSPACE

Adobe Illustrator CS4 ships with several wonderful workspaces already preset - such as "Like InDesign" and "Like FreeHand". There are also ones like "Web" and "Printing and Proofing". But again, these are general settings that aren't optimized for the way that YOU work. The point of Adobe including these workspaces isn't so that you should actually use them. It's so that you should be inspired to create your own. For example, I've created my own "Web 2.0" workspace for the way I like to work with web graphics in Illustrator. The Web workspace that Adobe made simply puts every single web panel on my screen. Make Illustrator your own by making your own workspace.

4. TRULY UNDERSTAND LIVE PAINT

Ever since Live Paint was introduced back in Illustrator CS2, I've been praising the feature. The problem? It's a horrible name to give a feature, considering that painting is only the least of what it does. Live Paint changes the way you THINK about Illustrator, and when you truly understand what it does and how it works, you'll find yourself in a whole new world, where vector artwork is pain-free. I even got Deke McClelland hooked on the feature a while ago.

5. LEARN LIVE COLOR

Much like Live Paint, Transparency, and the Appearance panel, the Live Color feature in Illustrator is a game-changer. It allows you to completely control color in your document, no matter how that document was created. If you are in prepress or are in art production, where you handle other people's files all day, you have GOT to learn to use it. I've always said that Live Color wasn't a specific feature, but more of a color "engine" that enables color editing in a whole new dimension in Illustrator. It seems Adobe listened because in CS4, the word Live Color appears nowhere at all. In fact, Adobe renamed the Live Color dialog to the Recolor Artwork dialog. Now THAT's a descriptive name. Now, if they could only make that dialog easier to use...

6. EXPLORE ILLUSTRATOR'S FREE CONTENT

Many Illustrator users are aware of the "annoying" standard swatches and symbols that appear in every document. Remember that Adobe provides these to help others learn how to reverse engineer them and create their own. But Adobe DOES ship with plenty of cool content that you CAN use. For example, Adobe includes some pretty cool brush and symbols libraries, features some great graphic styles, and comes with some really great templates (choose File > New From Template). And before you start rambling about how you're a real designer and you don't need templates, Adobe also includes a collection of helpful blank templates that make pretty good use of the multiple artboards feature.

7. USE ISOLATION MODE

There was a time (back in Illustrator CS2), when I hated the isolation mode feature in Illustrator. However, that's changed. Now, Isolation mode is a beautiful thing. Most Illustrator users are familiar with the whole "lock, unlock, lock, unlock" game that you play constantly when editing artwork. It isn't easy working on art when you've got tons of paths and objects all overlapping each other. In Illustrator CS4, you can even isolate individual paths. It's too powerful a feature to ignore.

8. TRY SMART GUIDES

With the updates in CS4, Smart Guides has a lot going for it. If you find the feature annoying, that doesn't mean your only course of action is to turn it off. Rather, learn how to control it. Smart Guides bring a new snapping behavior to CS4, and I suspect you'll like it.

9. GET ORGANIZED WITH LAYERS

I've always said that there are two kinds of people in this world: people who use layers, and people who don't. It's not much different than the clean desk/messy desk thing. But in reality, while using layers was just a "nice" thing in the past, there are just too many benefits to working with layers now to overlook the feature. Especially when you consider that now more than ever, we're repurposing art for so many different needs. In addition, so many other applications now recognize Illustrator's layers, including Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Fireworks, Acrobat, the new Adobe Flash Catalyst, etc. That list will only continue to grow. Getting comfortable with creating layered documents now will only make things better for you now and in the years to come.

10. THINK ABOUT WEB SLICING

OK, I'll admit it, this one took me by surprise. Are you kidding me? Web slicing in Illustrator? But the truth is, I just finished recording a new Lynda.com title covering using Illustrator for the Web and as I was messing around with a few concepts, I realized just how useful slicing can be. I'll plan do write up a blog post on this specifically, but unlike multiple artboards, you can create multiple-sized slices in a single document and name them all, and export them to a web format all in one step. And I've found that Illustrator is most useful for those one-off web graphics -- the banners, the buttons, the art elements, etc. Generating lots of those, if you use slices right, is not only easy, it's been there for so many years. And we've never used it. It's worth another look.

Have You Seen Thermo? The Sequel

About a year ago, I posted some information about a technology that I saw presented at Adobe MAX in Chicago. The technology was a future product called Thermo. At this past year's Adobe MAX conference, Adobe provided an update on the progress of this application, and also introduced the new official name of the product: Adobe Flash Catalyst. I've had a chance to play with a preview version of the application, and have written about my experiences and opinions on the application over at my MOGO Media blog. Take a look at let me know what you think!

Just in Time for the Holidays: Real World Illustrator CS4

Real World Illustrator CS4 is finally a reality! The book is at the printer and will ship from the publisher on December 18, 2008 - YAY! As most of you know, I started the Real World Illustrator Blog shortly after I published the CS2 edition of the book. And I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your wonderful support and participation over the years! Many of your comments and suggestions have helped me create what is the most significant update to the Real World Illustrator book since I've been working on it.



Here's an overview of what you'll find in the CS4 edition of the book:

FULL COLOR, THROUGHOUT
Past editions of Real World Illustrator were printed in black and white (with a small color insert), which unfortunately, didn't do justice to many of the features. So I was thrilled when I found out that my publisher approved my request to do the entire book in color this time! Screenshots look better, the instructions and details are more clearly understood, and the book looks bright, colorful, and great!

FEATURED ARTISTS FROM ISTOCKPHOTO
As they say, be careful what you wish for. Immediately after I got the approval from my publisher to do the entire book in color, I realized the ramifications of that -- I would need to create great looking art for the examples in the book! Rather than panic, I turned towards my friends over at iStockPhoto. Especially after meeting several artists during my visit to Melbourne this past summer, I was able to find some really amazing artists. All of the artwork that appears in the book is derived from a short list of iStockPhoto illustrators. I arranged it so that each chapter features the artwork from a different illustrator. I'm sure you'll enjoy their art that appears in the book, and you can also check out their artwork on iStockPhoto as well. In the order in which they appear in the book, the featured artists are: Julie Felton (jfelton), Simon Oxley (simonox), John Woodcock (johnwoodcock), Cheryl Graham (freetransform), Diane Labombarbe (diane555), Kemie Guaida Ortega (kemie), Che McPherson (chemc), Jennifer Borton (bortonia), Fanelie Rosier (absolutely_frenchy), and Sam Posnick (sposnick).

FULL COVERAGE OF CS4 FEATURES
In the book, as you would expect, I thoroughly cover the new features found in Illustrator CS4, including multiple artboards and the Blob Brush tool. Of course, I also go into my usual in-depth detail on all of the nuances of the application, and cover all of the enhancements like the Appearance panel, smart guides, Separations preview, color blindness preview, and more. I still think Real World Illustrator has more information on the Live Color feature (which was added in CS3) than any other book or training materials that I've seen to date.

COMPLETELY REVISED CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
Based on a tremendous amount of helpful feedback that I've received over the years, I have reformatted the structure of the book to better cover the features in a more conceptual way. In this new format, you can easily read the book from cover to cover, but even more so, the book serves as an incredible reference as the features are grouped together in a more intuitive fashion. I've also made significant updates and even complete rewrites of the chapters. For example, the chapter covering web graphics is almost entire new and covers the challenges of using Illustrator to create precise pixel-perfect and antialiased artwork. The featured artwork that I use throughout the book also allowed me to provide examples that are both clear and understandable.

NEW COVER ILLUSTRATION
Each edition of Real World Illustrator gets a fabulous new illustration, and CS4 is certainly no different. Von Glitschka was hired to create the cover illustration for the CS4 edition and he doesn't disappoint. Von's use of color and his style has always appealed to me, and in a blog post, Von goes into detail on what inspired him for this particular project. In fact, I enjoyed working with Von so much that I also asked him to create an identity for my upcoming relaunch of Mordy.com.

TECHNIQUE: Unembedding Images

Most people are aware that Illustrator allows you to place raster-based images (i.e., photographs) into your document. When doing so, you can choose to have that image linked or embedded. Likewise, once an image is already linked, you can choose to embed that image at any time by selecting the image on your artboard and clicking on the Embed button in the Control panel.

In my book, I detail the pros and cons of linking vs. embedding, but above that discussion is a request that I hear often enough. There are times when you have an image that is embedded in an Illustrator document, and you want to unembed that image. How does one go about doing that? This can be especially useful when you receive a file from someone else, and there are embedded images which you'd like to process or touch up in Photoshop.

In the past, there have been plugins or scripts that have come and gone to help with this specific task, but Jean Claude Tremblay has brought a technique to my attention that I was not aware of. It's actually pretty awesome if you ask me. For those who don't know, Jean Claude (JC as he's known amongst friends) is the Technical Editor of the Real World Illustrator book (including the soon-to-be-published CS4 edition). The technique is simple, straightforward, and utilizes a setting in Photoshop that I was not previously aware of. Let's take a look.

1. If your file contains embedded images, simply save the file as a Native Illustrator Document file (.AI). In the Illustrator Options dialog box that appears, make sure the Create PDF Compatible File option is checked.

2. In Photoshop, choose File > Open and choose the Illustrator file you just saved. The Import PDF dialog box appears, because as you've learned before, Photoshop sees the embedded PDF file.

3. At the top left of the Import PDF dialog box are two options: Pages, and Images. We don't want to place the entire page here, we just want the images, so choose the Images option. Photoshop will then display thumbnails of all of the embedded images that are in the file. You can hold down the Shift key to select multiple images. Click OK to open each image as its own individual Photoshop file.



4. Use Save As to store the images on your hard drive or server.

What's great about this technique is that the images open in Photoshop at their original size and resolution -- even if they have been scaled in the Illustrator document.

New Script "Sews" Illustrator Text Together

Many are familiar with a common challenge in Illustrator -- a bunch of text that should all be contained within a single string of text, but that instead is broken up and spread about your file as multiple individual text blocks. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but most commonly it is because you've moved text from the newer text engine that was added in Illustrator CS to an older version (or "legacy" version) of Illustrator, or because you've opened a generic PDF file.

Many people aren't aware that you can simply select all of the individual text objects, choose Edit > Copy, and then simply paste into an existing text object -- all the text will be magically "sewn together" into a single string. There are also several scripts out there (Rick Johnson's Concat Text being one of them) that help this process along as well, without the manual process of copying and pasting.

Now, Justin Putney and Amy Petersen of Ajar Productions, have developed a script as well, which when run, throws up a dialog box asking how you'd like to join the text (other scripts usually rely on stacking order or the order in which the text was created). In addition, the script is installed using Adobe's Extension Manager, which is actually a nice little AIR application that Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks have utilized in the past, but it's refreshing to see it being used now with Illustrator as well (CS4 required for that version of the script).

More detailed information as well as the script itself can be had here. Once the script is installed, launch Illustrator, select your chopped-up text and choose File > Scripts > MergeText_AI. Season to taste, and enjoy!

Trial versions of CS4 now available on Adobe.com

If you've been waiting to give Illustrator CS4 a whirl before you decide to buy, part of that wait is now over. Adobe has now posted trial versions of Illustrator CS4 as well as all other CS4 application. I say the wait is partially over because now the next step of waiting begins -- waiting for the download that is...

So head over to Adobe.com and see for yourself if multiple artboards, the Blob Brush, and new gradients in Illustrator CS4 live up to the hype.

Mordy @ Adobe MAX 2008: San Francisco

Anyone going to be attending Adobe's upcoming MAX conference in San Francisco (11/16/08 - 11/20/08)? If so, I hope to see you there! I will be at the show the entire week and will be giving the following sessions:

- Russell Brown is doing his awesome hands-on ADIM class at MAX this year, and I'll be doing several special presentations on Thermo.

- On Monday, from 11:30 - 12:30, I'm giving a special presentation sponsored by Lynda.com. The title of the presentation is "A Hidden Gem in Illustrator: Live Paint". It's a life-changing session.

- On Wednesday, from 9:30 - 10:30, I"m giving a session called "Designing for Mobile with Creative Suite 4 and Adobe Device Central CS4". That's a long title, don't you think? It will be a fun session focused on designing for mobile.

I'll also be hanging out at the Partner Lounge, as MOGO Media will have a presence there. If you're around, try to stop by! I always love meeting up with my readers!

CS4: Be Smart - Give Smart Guides a Chance

If you have Illustrator CS4, you have undoubtedly noticed something different since you started using it. As you mouse around your screen, objects "light up" and words like "path" and "anchor" pop up everywhere. These are all part of the Smart Guides feature found in Illustrator -- and in CS4, Adobe has decided to ship the product with the feature turned on.

The immediate reaction from most people is to yell out in frustration and quickly find a way to turn the feature off. After all, nothing is more annoying than paths and anchors highlighting all over the screen as you move your mouse around. And in all honesty, I agree -- Smart Guides in this way is totally annoying -- I too would turn it off. While I could probably find some benefit to having the boundaries of paths light up, I can find even less reasons for having Illustrator identify objects as "paths" or "anchors" -- first of all, I like to think I'm smart enough to figure that out on my own, and second, what can I DO with that info? When would there EVER be a reason for why I'd need to have something identified as a path or an anchor?

OK, so most people run to the View menu and choose Smart Guides -- which effectively disables the Smart Guides feature in Illustrator. Here's where I offer my plea: Don't turn off Smart Guides. There are just too many important benefits to the feature, and by turning it off, you are doing yourself a disservice, especially so in Illustrator CS4. Let me explain.

Have you ever tried snapping an object to a guide or another object, thinking those objects were perfectly aligned? Only to zoom in really close and see that there's actually a gap? Of course you have. A common misconception about Illustrator is that you have to zoom in REALLY really close in order to make sure that object line up correctly, and that this is a cause of Illustrator not being accurate enough. In reality, it's due to the fact that the snapping behavior in Illustrator is calculated from the position of the CURSOR, not the object you're moving. That means if you click on a particular anchor point and move your object to snap to a guide, you might THINK that you're snapping the point to the guide, but you're really snapping the position of your cursor to the guide. In other words, if you don't click directly on the anchor point, your anchor point won't end up being aligned perfectly to the guide.

That changes in Illustrator CS4 -- IF -- Smart Guides is turned on. When Smart Guides is on, Illustrator can snap the object bounds of objects to paths and guides (the way InDesign does). In other words, with Smart Guides on, your objects will snap, and you won't have to worry about exactly where you click to move an object from, and you won't need to zoom in really really really close to ensure your objects are aligned correctly. That's a pretty big benefit, don't you think? Then add the additional benefits of Smart Guides -- quickly aligning objects as you move them around. You'll find yourself using the Align tools a lot less. And you'll find yourself zipping around your work, and being more productive.

But what about all the highlighting and stuff? Well, Smart Guides is actually a complex feature that encompasses six different TYPES of guides. In my book (shameless plug -- it's coming out December 18!), I detail each of these six guides. But here, I'll tell you which guides I use and find to be important.

Illustrator has a preferences panel specifically for Smart Guides.



The Smart Guides behind the flashing and the highlighting are Object Highlighting and Anchor/Path Labels. Turn those off for a heaping dose of peace of mind. TURN ON ALIGNMENT GUIDES -- this setting allows you to easily align objects as you move them around the screen, and more importantly, it activates the snapping behavior I mentioned above. As an added benefit, Alignment Guides also work on Artboards when you're in Artboard Edit mode. Finally, as an added suggestion, I personally like the Measurement Labels setting -- this displays values as you move, draw, and transform objects.

So instead of turning off Smart Guides, learn to control them -- make them do only what you want them to do. In the end, you get a better Illustrator experience overall.*

*Go ahead, I know you've got a burning question: why did Adobe turn on the Object Highlighting and Anchor/Path Labels setting in Smart Guides? Did they really think people would find it helpful? I don't have a good answer. Maybe it was so that I would be able to write this blog post :)

Scripts make multiple artboards in Illustrator CS4 even better

I'm really starting to get used to having multiple artboards in Illustrator. Already, I can't imagine living without them. That being said, I wish there were a few things that would be added to the feature. For example, it would be nice to be able to name artboards, making it easier to keep them organized.

In addition, there are two other enhancements that come immediately to mind:

First, while Illustrator does offer multiple artboards within a single document, Illustrator only provides one ruler for an entire document. Meaning that you have a single set of coordinates for the entire canvas, and each artboard in your file shares this. This makes it incredibly difficult to position objects precisely by the numbers when you have multiple artboards in a file. Either you have to continuously reposition the origin point of your ruler (which will also shift the positioning of patterns), or you have to do a whole lot of math. And you know I'm no huge fan of math. What we really need is a set of ruler coordinates for each individual artboard.

Second, you'd think that with multiple artboards, I should be able to open a multipage PDF document in Illustrator, and have each of the pages turn into artboards. Yes, I know that Illustrator really shouldn't be used for PDF editing, but in many cases, it's a great solution for that. Alas, upon opening a multipage PDF file in Illustrator, a dialog box appears asking which single page you'd like to open.

So it's with great elation that I inform you of two AppleScripts that address these two issues. The genius behind these scripts is a dear friend, Shane Stanley, who calls Australia his home. Funny thing -- while I've known Shane for what has to be more than ten years now -- we've never actually met. At the same time, Shane has generously shared his AppleScript expertise over the years. Shane also runs an AppleScript conference and does consulting.

As these solutions are based on AppleScript, they come with their share of limitations. These scripts will run on Mac only (sorry Windows users), and you'll need MacOS X v. 10.5 or higher to run the scripts.

The first script, Artboard Coords creates a mini Transform panel that displays the coordinates for objects, relative to each artboard. To use it, launch the script, select an object and click on the 9-point proxy and punch in a value. Download the script here.

The second script, PDF Pages to Artboards, is a droplet. Drag any PDF document onto the script and a dialog asks how you'd like the pages to be arranged in the new document. Then sit back and relax. The script will create a single Illustrator document that contains each of the PDF pages as a separate artboard. You can then make edits and quickly save as a new multipage PDF file. Nice, eh? Download the script here.

The scripts are provided "as is" without technical support, and are totally free. Thanks to Shane Stanley for these -- I hope they prove helpful to Illustrator CS4 users out there!

My Review of Illustrator CS4

In case you haven't already seen it, my review of Illustrator CS4 was posted to CreativePro.com last week. Head over and give it a read.

I short order, I'll start posting some content about the features and functionality found in Illustrator CS4. As always, you know how to get in touch with me if you have any questions :)

Cool Art Alert -- Hidden Gems Found in Illustrator CS4! (Oh, and a FREE gift!)

So I got my official copy of Illustrator CS4 today and was kicking the tires some (previously I only had access to a prerelease beta copy), and was having some fun fooling with the new Blob Brush tool. I decided to load some brush libraries and noticed something that was named "Grunge Brushes Vector Pack". Hmmmm -- don't remember coming across that one before. I loaded the library and was pleasantly surprised to find 7 awesome brush strokes that created some totally rad grunge art (and if you know me, I'm not the biggest grunge fan around).

Turns out, there are several new brush and symbol libraries that you'll now find included and installed in Illustrator CS4: Florid Vector Pack; Regal Vector Pack; Grime Vector Pack; Dot Pattern Vector Pack; Grunge Brush Library; Hand Drawn Brush Library. These royalty-free libraries were licensed by Adobe from a company called GoMedia, who sell an "arsenal" of fonts, textures, photoshop brushes, and vector packs.

Of course, I had to reach out to these guys -- they are a design studio based in Cleveland and they do some pretty cool stuff. In fact, GoMedia has been kind enough to extend a gift to all the dedicated readers of the Real World Illustrator Blog -- a FREE vector pack sampler with 44 pieces of art! (click here to download the Illustrator file)

As if that weren't enough, I've also secured a 10% discount on any orders from GoMedia's website -- just use the code mordypack (all lowercase) when you check out at their website.

CS4 is shipping - Lynda.com training now available

In case you haven't already heard (or seen), Adobe Creative Suite 4 is now shipping from Adobe.

I have two Lynda.com titles that are currently available now as well:

- Adobe Illustrator CS4 New Features
- Adobe Illustrator CS4 Essential Training

I'm currently working on two additional lynda.com titles which I hope to have ready by the New Year:

- Adobe Illustrator CS4 Beyond the Basics
- Adobe Illustrator CS4 for the Web

I have a few others on the horizon as well. I'll let you know when those are complete and available as well.

:) Mordy

Adobe Illustrator CS4 Community Help is Live

One of the "little" things that's new in CS4 -- not just in Illustrator, but across the entire Suite -- is something called Adobe Community Help. Even though CS4 isn't shipping as of yet, Adobe has gone live with this new help service. Specifically, you can find the Illustrator CS4 Help here, and the Illustrator CS4 What's New section here.

All aspects of this new help system aren't in place yet -- for example, the ability to comment on the help files isn't available yet, and the links to video content aren't working yet -- those will come when Illustrator CS4 actually starts shipping (no idea on exactly when that will be, but I have to assume it isn't too far off).

I've always lamented at how "unhelpful" the help files for Illustrator are. If you think about it, the help files are being written and developed at the same time the application itself is being written and developed. In reality, that doesn't leave Adobe's technical writing team to do much more than struggle to keep up with changes as they happen, and to figure out how to use the features before they can even use them (even authors such as myself have working beta software to help us tinker and play with features until we "get it" and can find uses for it and to teach real-world applications for how they can be used).

That being said, Adobe's new Community Help is a HUGE step in a new direction for Adobe. Rather than try to write everything themselves, Adobe realizes that there's plenty of other great content out there. And so the Community Help system uses Adobe's files as a base, but Adobe uses Google technology to add other content from the 'net. Even better, Adobe has asked some leaders in the field to be moderators (including yours truly) to continuously add new content and comment on items and to generally make the Help system more Helpful :)

So take it for a spin and see what you think. As time goes on, the system will grow and become even better. And if you have suggestions on how to make it even better, don't be shy - let Adobe know :)

Dear Adobe - A quest for the perfect feature request

I once worked at Adobe. I was the product manager for Adobe Illustrator from January 2001 through January 2004. During that time, I've had the opportunity to speak with many folks who use Illustrator. From all over the world. At the same time, I've realized that it's impossible to meet with everyone personally -- and so I've tried where possible to participate in as many online forums and communities as possible to stay in touch with the Illustrator community at large. Even after leaving Adobe, I still enjoy participating in online discussions about Illustrator and Adobe products in general.

So it was with interest that I saw some recent mention on InDesign Secrets and John Nack's blog as well as other places about this website called Dear Adobe - a place where users could make requests for their favorite Adobe applications. What a great concept! Even though Adobe does have a feature request form that anyone can use, admittedly, it doesn't feel the same when you're making a request to someone who you "think" is not paying attention anyway.

So I took at a look at some of the requests, and was disappointed to see that most of them were just rants that were useless in the form of any type of request. I understand the frustration users may feel (I feel it too), but if you really want to help the situation, you're better off providing useful feedback.

Back when I was the Illustrator product manager, I tried to help Illustrator customers provide me with useful feedback. I was then able to use that feedback to do whatever was possible to improve the product. Comments like "make Illustrator suck less" isn't very useful to the team. I also worked closely with beta testers at the time, teaching them how to write better bug reports and feature requests -- which ultimately helped the team identify issues quickly and fix them.

So I wanted to take this opportunity to do two things. First, I took the 25 top Illustrator requests from the Dear Adobe website and have responded to each of them. Some are valid, some are actually addressed in CS4 (I guess that shows that Adobe is listening to customers on some level), and some are really good examples of what isn't useful feedback at all. Hopefully my responses will give readers some idea of what kind of feedback is useful to Adobe.

Second, I thought I'd share some instruction for what kind of feedback is useful to Adobe -- how to write a great bug report or a great feature request. In fact, I'll talk about this first.

Tips on Providing Feedback to Adobe

First, let's talk about bugs. If you think you've found a bug, or are experiencing an issue, the first thing to do is try to replicate it. If you can reproduce the issue, that's easier to work with. A bug that happens once but never again is much harder to deal with. This is because Adobe can only log a bug in their system if THEY can repeat it themselves. Adobe has labs with all types of computers running all types of operating systems. Once a bug is reported, the first thing Adobe will do is assign someone from Quality Assurance Engineering to try to replicate the issue. The most important reason for this isn't because Adobe doesn't believe you really have a bug -- it's because if they develop a fix for the problem, they need a way to verify that the fix actually solves the problem.

If you can replicate the issue, you should clearly list to Adobe 4 important items:

1. What is your system setup? Sometimes, a bug occurs on Windows but not Mac, or on a specific operating system, or with a certain graphics card. Where you can, fully describe your platform, your amount of RAM, your operating system, and probably most important of all, which version of software you're using. I can't tell you how many times I see people post issues on user forums but who don't state which version they are using.

2. What are the exact steps you did? This is important, to ensure that the folks at Adobe are following the exact same steps you are. You might even number this. For example: 1. Launch Illustrator. 2. Draw a rectangle. 3. Rotate it 37 degrees. etc.

3. What was the result? Tell Adobe what it is that you saw. Did the program crash when you rotated the object 37 degrees? Did the object disappear?

4. What was the expected result? This just makes sure Adobe understand what you were trying to do -- to make sure everyone is on the same page. You might say "I expected the object to rotate 37 degrees and NOT crash" :)

Although not necessary, you might also include additional information (for example, you might state you tried rotating the object 38 degrees and everything was fine, etc.)

As for feature requests, things like system information or exact steps aren't necessary at all. But what is necessary is a clear description of what you're asking for. What are your expectations? What are you trying to accomplish? More so, Adobe is REALLY good at solving problems that designers face. If you describe WHY such a feature would be important to you (i.e., I am constantly getting Excel files from clients and want to be able to import those directly into Illustrator) instead of just making a blanket statement (i.e., "graphs suck, make them better"), Adobe can build case studies and examples and prove to their managers that they are solving real world problems.

Dear Adobe's Top-25 Illustrator Requests

1. Why is it easy to make a transparent gradient in Photoshop and so damned involved in Illustrator. Could they not be the same?

Pixels and vectors are different. That aside, Illustrator CS4 (finally) features the ability to add opacity values to any gradient stop.

2. Could you please add auto-saving to Illustrator? It crashes more than the auto-saving InDesign. And I can't keep punching through laptop screens like this. Cheers!

If Illustrator is crashing that much, there must be something going on with your system. Are you working directly off a server? Maybe some corrupt fonts in your system? I've can't remember the last time Illustrator crashed on my system. But that issue aside, I do hear a lot of folks ask for an auto-save feature. Considering how long is can take to save an Illustrator file, I don't think it's in the best interest of anyone to every 5 minutes have Illustrator tell you to hold on for a while as it saves your file. What I think people are really asking for is something like InDesign's ability to automatically write to a temporary file every 60 seconds, basically ensuring that you never lose more than 60 seconds of work. Alas, InDesign was built from the ground up as a fail-safe application. I too would love to see this added to Illustrator. It's a valid request. But it's also one that I know would probably require a tremendous amount of architectural work under the hood.

3. It would be nice if Illustrator didn't attach 20 unused brushes and 40 unused styles to every new document that is saved.

You have complete control over what Illustrator does or does not add to a file. The default profiles that Illustrator ships with does contain sample content (brushes, styles, swatches, etc.), but you can change that to your needs and liking. For more information on how to do that, read this.

4. All I ever want in Illustrator is to make a SYMMETRICAL FREAKING CURVE, but that's apparently an unreasonable request.

Not sure exactly what this request is referring to, as it could mean one of several things. It's a perfect example of a comment that isn't very helpful to the Illustrator team (or to any team at Adobe for that matter).

5. Fix Illustrators 'export to psd' so the outputted psd actually looks EXACTLY the same as the illustrator file... please...

There are two options available when exporting a PSD file from Illustrator: Flat Image, and Write Layers. Due to the ways that an Illustrator document may be structured and any of those elements that may or not have compatible appearance equivalents in Photoshop, your document may change in appearance when opened in Photoshop. However, if you want the EXACT same image in Photoshop, use the Flat Image option. If you really need the layers in Photoshop, my suggestion is to remove any transparency from the Illustrator and file, and then reapply the transparency as needed when you open the file in Photoshop. At the end of the day, it's the transparency structure that causes the "issues".

6. When I move my Illustrator palettes to my second monitor, could they stay there? Instead of hopping back to my primary monitor?

My understanding is that this was a limitation of the user interface infrastructure. The new user interface added across the Suite products in CS4 (what Adobe internally refers to as "OWL 2.0") now supports two monitors and you should now be able to also save workspaces across multiple monitors.

7. Make the text tool in illustrator able to scroll type choices like in photoshop.

How crazy is this? This is a feature that works just fine in Windows, but is "broken" on Mac OS. It works on Mac in Photoshop and even InDesign. I share this user's frustration with this issue. It's a valid request and something Adobe is well aware of.

8. If I have an object selected and I zoom in, why can't you zoom in on that object?

I usually zoom in with the Zoom tool and by drawing a marquee around the area I want to zoom in on. But this is actually a valid request -- if you have an object selected, Illustrator should zoom in on that area when the general zoom functions are applied. InDesign does this perfectly. Illustrator should follow that lead. Good request.

9. Why the hell would I need a QuickTime codec to see a picture I dragged into Illustrator? It works fine if I use your [expletive deleted] import function.

I don't know WHY this has been an issue for so long now in Illustrator. I do this all the time -- when trying to drag images from a web page in Safari right into an Illustrator document. The good news? This is fixed in Illustrator CS4.

10. Fix your memory issues in Illustrator, I'm so tired of waiting for my files to save.

Here's another example of a request that is of absolutely no help to Adobe. First of all, why are you so sure that your long save times are related to memory issues? Second, what KIND of files are you saving? Do all files save slow? Maybe there's something else that is causing the delay? I'm not saying that Illustrator doesn't have memory issues -- maybe it does. But a comment like this doesn't give Adobe anywhere to start looking. More detail or a description would be helpful.

11. Please make Illustrator handle actions the way Photoshop does.

Photoshop has Actions that support "if-then" functionality -- something I know that John Nack, the PM for the Photoshop team, has specifically pushed for. Sadly, automation in general has been somewhat lacking in Illustrator over the years. This is a good request, but it would be extremely helpful to know exactly what it is you're looking to do in Illustrator. A lot can be done with Actions, so rather than leave it up to Adobe to decide what they can add in that area, why not take your great request and make it even better by articulating exactly what you'd like to be able to do with better Actions in Illustrator?

12. Masks in Illustrator need some major re-thinking.

I would agree, and as such, I'm happy to see that masks are much improved in Illustrator CS4. While the request itself is extremely vague, my hope is that the user was looking for easier ways to work with masks, where artwork that falls outside the masked areas doesn't get in the way.

13. Why has "Lock Guides, Clear Guides, New Guide…" it's on menu section and only "Show—Guides" is hidden somewhere else?

Not exactly sure what this request is. Illustrator's Show Guides feature is a toggle. When guides are visible, it reads "Hide Guides". When guides are hidden, it reads "Show Guides".

14. Give me layer comps in illustrator.... and the ability to organize layer comps into folders like you can with layers.

Illustrator "kinda" has Layer Comps if you consider using the Custom Views feature (see this link for more info). That being said, I do think it's a valid request -- it should be easier to manage multiple design ideas now with the Multiple Artboards feature in Illustrator CS4 -- but a Layer Comps-like feature would be welcome in a future version of Illustrator.

15. Mouse-wheel scrollable layers palette in IllustratorCS3

Now that just about everyone has a scroll wheel on their mouse, I think it's important for software developers to extend that functionality wherever possible in their applications. Thankfully, Illustrator CS4 does feature support for scrolling in panels with the mouse wheel.

16. Please fix all the (expletive deleted) that used to work in Illustrator 10, that you then broke in CS1 (and CS2 and CS3)

Wow. That is an AWESOME request. I'm sure the team will get right on it. Don't get me wrong -- I totally understand the frustration of users. But a comment like this doesn't give any direction to the team. If there's something specific, then spell it out.

17. Fix snap to pixel in illustrator

Hmmm. I'm not aware of anything wrong with the Snap to Pixel command in Illustrator. Again, this request kinda leaves it up to the imagination of Adobe to decide what the "problem" is. I can never emphasize this enough -- if you are seeing a problem, then clearly describe it. That being said, as I had mentioned, I am not aware of Snap to Pixel being broken. What I am aware of is an extremely difficult to manage antialiasing issue in Illustrator in general. While Pixel Preview helps to display where bad antialiasing happens, it provides no way to fix it. And the current toolset in Illustrator makes it difficult to get great looking web graphics out of Illustrator -- especially where text is involved. My request would be "make it easier to avoid nasty anti-aliasing issues where art is blurred, and give us better antialiasing settings for text, like Photoshop has".

18. Please educate Illustrator how to deal with the situation of 2 files open with the same name.

Um, OK. I just tried opening two files with the same name in Illustrator. No problems there. Another great example of a request that doesn't really help Adobe understand what the issue is.

19. I've been sitting here for the last 5 mins looking through all the bitching and that spinning ball of death is still going for no reason in Illustrator.

Again, I totally understand the frustration, but what can you do with this comment? It's not like Adobe is purposely adding the spinning beach ball of death as a feature of the program. So it's not like they can say "oh, sorry about that -- we'll just remove the spinning beach ball of death -- sorry for the inconvenience". What would help would be some more details about what you're doing when that occurs. Is it repeatable or does it happen often? Is it a specific file that causes the problem? Where you copying and pasting something? These types of clues can help engineers guess at where a problem might occur and find it.

20. Why do i require a quicktime codec to view the image i just dragged into illustrator from my browser. and why does this quicktime file not exist

This request is similar to the one above -- and is fixed now in Illustrator CS4.

21. Give Illustrator some upgrade love, already...

Well, in my own opinion, Illustrator CS4 is a pretty suite upgrade (as were the previous ones). But I'll let others decide that for themselves. From a feature request perspective, this doesn't give Adobe any specific direction, but it does a good job at expressing an emotion. I too have sometimes felt that other applications have gotten more "love" than Illustrator. But in reality, each application has a dedicated team that cares very much about their product and that do their best to produce the best upgrades possible.

22. Update your Illustrator graphing tool. It hasn't changed in 10 years. Needs more options.

From your keyboard to Adobe's ears, buddy. I have been advocating a modern graphic and charting tool in Illustrator for many years now. Excel and Powerpoint shouldn't be a designers' only hope for creating graphs or charts. Ordinarily, this request is too general, but this is an exception because the entire feature as a whole needs serious work. Still, if Adobe WERE to revamp this feature, how would they know what specifically this user wanted it to do? Rather than have Adobe do a whole bunch of work and STILL be disappointed, a request like "I want to be able to import an Excel spreadsheet and maintain a live link so that when the Excel file is updated, the graph in Illustrator automatically updates" will ensure that the user and Adobe are both thinking the same thing.

23. Fix Illustrator's terrible font rendering. Make it look like it does expanded.

When is this happening? How is this happening? More detail is required. Is this when rendering type for web graphics? If so, I do agree that Illustrator lacks the superior antialiasing options that Photoshop offers for type. But the wording of this request doesn't clearly describe the issue. Adobe is really good at solving problems.

24. Please give us gradient strokes in Illustrator. Please.

A valid request. InDesign can do this easily enough -- why not Illustrator? Sure, you can get this to work using the Appearance panel and a variety of effects, but still, why not just allow gradients on strokes?

25. You kindly turn off the highlight on text when choosing a color for it, but not when choosing a different weight. Would you kindly do this, or kindly jump off a cliff?

I think I'll choose to jump off the cliff. I was unable to reproduce this, but it could be because I don't completely understand the issue. More detail would help.

My intention here wasn't to answer requests in any official capacity, but rather, to hopefully shed some light on how we, as users, might help Adobe by providing useful feedback. Please don't get me wrong -- we have every right to complain or push back on features or functionality that we feel doesn't help us or is not representative of what we expect. After all, we are the ultimate consumers of the product. At the same time, if we don't clearly communicate our requests to Adobe in any meaningful way, we can't assume Adobe can read our minds. Hopefully, this post helps in that regard.

New Lynda.com Movies Posted

Adobe has allowed Lynda.com to make more CS4 movies live. Yes!

While the two movies that cover Multiple Artboards and Clipping Masks are free to anyone, these additional movies do require a Lynda.com membership. If you don't already have one, remember that you can also sign up for a free 7 day trial by visiting this link.

Here is a list of the features that are covered in this new batch of movies:

- The improved Appearance panel (totally awesome)
- The all-new expressive Blob brush (draw draw draw!)
- Easy-to-edit transparent gradients (finally!)
- Intuitive smart guides (great for productivity)
- Isolation mode enhancements (probably the best enhancement in CS4)
- The color blindness preview (this is totally cool)
- ConnectNow (the new Share My Screen feature)

INTERVIEW: David Macy, Illustrator Product Manager

Now that the details of Illustrator CS4 are out in the open, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some insight on the release straight from the source—the current product manager of Adobe Illustrator, David Macy. I've had the pleasure of meeting David on several occasions, and his enthusiasm about Illustrator and the community is clearly evident. David was more than happy to answer a few of my questions, which follow below:

MORDY: First, congratulations on the release of Illustrator CS4. Having been a product manager myself, I know how it feels when you can finally tell the world about what you've been working on for the past couple of years. If you had to pick a central theme that defines this new version, what would it be?

DAVID: Thanks Mordy. Yes it is a great feeling. The central theme of CS4 is productivity. That sounds pretty generic, but really almost all of the features we've worked on for CS4 have been about making Illustrator easier and more productive. From long-standing feature requests to some great enhancements of existing features, everything is focused on making it easier to get the job done and easier to focus on creativity.

Multiple pages-I mean multiple artboards-yay! Finally! People assumed that Illustrator would never get multiple pages because Adobe already had a multiple-page product called InDesign. What makes Illustrator's multiple artboards feature unique?

When you're working in Illustrator, you don't always start with a fixed specification for your finished product. Illustrator encourages a fluid and creative way of working, so we had to make Multiple Artboards fit that mindset. This is why it is so important to allow artboards of any size and position, even overlapping, so that you can work with them in whatever way you want without being restricted to the traditional concept of a multiple page document. If your client comes back and says "can you show me this with a different color scheme?" or "can you make this work for my website", you can easily pull this off without reworking the whole document. Even moving between artboards in Illustrator is very fluid. Yes, there's an artboard navigator on that status bar like InDesign, but you really don't even need to use it. Simply click anywhere you want to work with any selection or drawing tool and where you clicked becomes the active artboard.

To FreeHand users (I was once in that category), Illustrator CS4 offers some welcome enhancements, especially the multiple artboards and clipping mask features. Is the Illustrator team still dedicated to helping FreeHand users become more comfortable with Illustrator?

Absolutely. When Adobe announced that we would not continue development of Freehand in the spring of 2007, a lot of Freehand users were forced to make a choice about their future. There was always a rivalry between Illustrator and Freehand, so it isn't easy emotionally for people to switch. The reality is that there were some great features in Freehand that were never matched in Illustrator and users built very efficient ways of working based on some of those features. What we're trying to do is to work on improving Illustrator based on some of those concepts, and to go beyond what Freehand could do when possible. A great example in CS4 is the Appearance Panel. On top of this, we continue to make it easier to open Freehand files in Illustrator - now when you open a multiple page Freehand file, Illustrator automatically maps the pages to artboards. What is really fun is talking to people who have switched to Illustrator and hearing about some of the things that they never knew Illustrator could do.

In the past, Illustrator had a reputation of adding new features, but never really going back to refine them in subsequent versions (i.e.,gradient mesh, 3D, brushes, graphs). With an improved Appearance panel, more capable graphic styles, a revamped gradient feature, better clipping mask behavior, isolation mode, and Smart Guides in CS4, it's refreshing to see the team adding much needed polish to some of these "older" features. Is there now a dedicated effort on the Illustrator team to focus on making existing features even better?

Yes, funny that you use the word "polish". I look at Illustrator as a treasure chest - when you open it, you see many beautiful glimmering gems and gold coins at the top, but as you dig inside you find an endless assortment of wonders. Some of these amazing treasures hidden beneath the surface are in need of repair, rebuilding or simply polishing to make them into valuable prized possessions. A really good example of this is Graphic Styles. Illustrator's graphic styles are a very efficient time saver, but until now they were limited by the fact that applying a graphic style to any object would totally wipe out the original appearance of the object. Effectively this meant a lot of extra work to use graphic styles with a variety of objects. In CS4 we've polished this feature by allowing users to add a graphic style (or even multiple graphic styles) to an object without removing its original appearance. I think this refinement will turn this hidden gem into a real must-have treasure for lots of users.

One of the cool new features in Illustrator CS4 is the Blob Brush. I was particularly "drawn" to it (sorry, couldn't resist) because of how easy it was to create expressive art with my Wacom tablet. What was the inspiration behind adding the Blob Brush feature?

The Blob Brush started as part of the concept around Live Paint. The idea was to build a new kind of drawing mode where you could focus on what the artwork looks like instead of how it is constructed. Live Paint, the Eraser tool, and now the Blob Brush tool all work well together to make up this straight forward method for drawing and coloring. As these tools were built, people started to see parallels with Flash or even Photoshop and it emerged as really a different way to "paint vectors" than anything Illustrator had before. To me, one of the great things about the Blob Brush is that when you finish drawing a series of overlapping strokes you end up with one object instead of a bunch of paths that are hard to work with.

Illustrator CS4 has its share of big features, like the ability to adjust the opacity value of any color stop in a gradient. At the same time, I have come to appreciate many of the smaller features that go unmentioned in Adobe's marketing materials. For example, the Smart Guides feature allows objects to snap to each other and to guides (previous versions only allowed the cursor to snap), and you can now (finally) drag images directly from a web browser like Safari into an Illustrator document. What other "small but significant" features can users expect to find in Illustrator CS4?

Wow, this could go on for several paragraphs. I'm sure you'll have future blog entries about some of the details... a few of the important ones: Clipping Masks behave like you would expect - no more accidentally selecting clipped objects, in the Color Guide we added a nice indicator of the base color and the variation type, when you have several objects selected you can click on one of them to make it the key object for align and distribute functions and it is clearly indicated by a heavy outline, we fixed the problem of Outline Stroke creating too many points, Tiff import now supports all of the features that PSD does - layers and blend modes etc., Type On Path positioning has been improved a lot. You'll probably be better at filling out this list than I will Mordy! The great thing about these type of enhancements is that they address real problems that many users face every day, and a lot of them are reasons that the learning curve for Illustrator is steeper than it needs to be.

People are often quick to accuse Adobe of not listening to their customers. Can you talk about how the Illustrator team "tunes into the user" and keeps abreast with issues, feature requests, and the challenges Illustrator users face on a day to day basis?

I think that any company that is successful and grows based on this success becomes a target of this sort of accusation. The Illustrator team, like a lot of Adobe teams, tries to stay in touch with users through multiple channels. We read and respond to the User to User forum and blogs like yours, we have a very active and dynamic prerelease program where we share feature ideas and early builds with a small set of customers representing a broad range of markets under non-disclosure, we visit customers on-site on a regular basis, and we have a lot of interaction with Adobe's sales and support staff who are facing customers every day. In addition to this, we all use the software - many of the folks on the Illustrator team have some form of design or artistic background and we see firsthand some of the problems that users face.

Adobe Photoshop is now 64bit on Windows, and plans are to do the same for the Mac version in the future. It seems the main benefit of 64bit support is the ability to address more than 4GB of memory - something that certainly fits within the realm of Photoshop, but maybe not as much in Illustrator. Even so, are there any plans for a 64bit version of Illustrator?

Photoshop is blazing the trail for Creative Suite applications because it will see the biggest benefit, but as we've all seen the Photoshop team is also finding hurdles that they need to jump in this process. For Illustrator, it only makes sense to respond to changes in computing platforms, but as you said there will not be as much of a direct benefit for most users from a 64 bit app. So, yes we will be there eventually, but in the meantime there are a lot of other architectural areas we can focus on for performance improvement.

I have fond (and not so fond) memories of my days at Adobe. What do you enjoy most about your job as Illustrator product manager? What part do you find to be the most challenging?

The best thing is meeting Illustrator users who absolutely amaze me with there creativity, their craft, and their love of their work and Adobe products. When I look around the world at things that have been designed, regardless of the media I see so many things that Illustrator has touched and it blows me away. The most challenging thing is balancing all of the different needs that are present for different markets. Since Illustrator is used by such a diverse set of customers, it is tough to juggle all of the opportunities for product enhancement and weigh that against real limits of time and resources.

While Illustrator CS4 is about to hit the shelves, you've no doubt already started thinking about CS5 and beyond. How can we -- the Illustrator community -- help you do your job better?

Great question. Well, obviously helping to make CS4 a big success is the start! Try out the new features and talk to friends and colleagues about them, and be vocal. The more active the Illustrator community is, the easier it is to push the product forward in meaningful ways. So, discuss Illustrator on blogs, write tutorials and articles, show off your work and let people know it was done with Illustrator (or even that some parts of it were). Focus especially on talking to anyone you know that works in web design or any kind of non-traditional media and let them know how Illustrator can contribute to their projects. Support others in the community as well - when someone writes a good book about Illustrator, buy it and recommend it to friends. It is easy for people to feel jaded about a "mature" product, so if you really love Illustrator let people know it!

Beyond that, if you want to give direct input on features for "CS-Next", make sure to log requests through the Feature Request/Bug Report Form on Adobe.com.

FREE Lynda.com CS4 Movies

I've recorded a title at Lynda.com called Illustrator CS4 New Features, which covers the new features found in Illustrator CS4. Two movies from this title are currently live and free to watch -- they cover the new Multiple Artboards feature in Illustrator as well as the new Clipping Mask behavior.
- Illustrator CS4 New Features

In addition, here are some links that cover the new features in other CS4 applications:
- Flash CS4 New Features
- Photoshop CS4 New Features
- Fireworks CS4 New Features
- Soundbooth CS4 New Features
- Dreamweaver CS4 New Features
- After Effects CS4 New Creative Techniques

Illustrator CS4: The Facts

If you want to know everything about the 14th version of Illustrator— Illustrator CS4—you’ve come to the right place. As with any major upgrade, there’s a whole lot to talk about.

While I have my own opinions about each feature and about the entire release in general (and beyond that, the entire Adobe Creative Suite 4 offering), I’m going to hold those in check for now and serve you up with “just the facts, ma’am”. Why? Because I’d like to get some unbiased opinions from you on what you think of the release. In addition, I want to provide as much detail as you need—so your feedback will help me prioritize what features you want to know about first. (Don’t worry, my opinions will make their appearance in short order).

In essence, over the next several weeks, I’d like to open a dialog—a discussion if you will—about the new release. Rather than just provide a dump of information, your questions about features and details will allow me to provide you with the content you need and want.

So with that, I present a comprehensive list of what you’ll find in Illustrator CS4. I’ve broken the items down into several categories, making the list easier to digest. After you’ve read the list, take a moment to add a comment or drop me an email stating your initial reaction and a list of items you’d like more information on.

SIGNIFICANT ADDITIONS

Each new version of Illustrator features the “big ones” – major features that add new functionality. In the case of CS4, multiple artboards and the Blob Brush tool fit into that category.

Multiple Artboards. The number one feature request of all time, multiple artboards have finally arrived in Illustrator. Notice the phrase is multiple artboards, not multiple pages. There’s a difference, and that’s something we’ll be talking a lot about. But the feature has just about everything you’d ever want. Really. Each artboard can be different in size and orientation. You can easily create multipage PDF documents. You can place multiple artboards easily into InDesign and Flash. There are no master pages (you can always use Symbols), and there’s a specific tool that you use to add, delete, and modify artboards.

Blob Brush. Illustrator sports a new brush, named “Blob”. Based on the Calligraphic brush, the Blob brush is pressure sensitive, allowing you to draw expressive artwork with variable thick and thins. So what’s so special about it? Well, the Calligraphic brush—and all other brushes for that matter—are applied as live “appearances” along a single path, making it difficult to perform edits to art until they are expanded and combined. The Blob brush draws with expanded paths. More so, the Blob brush “intelligently” merges with existing art, making drawing and editing a simple task. Since the paths are expanded, you can just “flip” your Wacom pen over and erase parts of paths as you draw them, using the Eraser tool that was added in CS3.

SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENTS

Here’s a new one. If you take a look back at previous versions of Illustrator, you’ll find that new features are added all the time, but rarely are features revisited, or refined (things like brushes, gradient mesh, 3D come immediately to mind). That changes in CS4, where you’ll find significant enhancements to core features like the user interface, gradients, clipping masks, graphic styles, and my favorite – the Appearance panel.

Common Adobe User Interface. Illustrator CS3 featured a new user interface, but apparently it was just a stepping stone to get to what is now truly a common user interface for Adobe applications. Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, InDesign, and Photoshop now all share the exact same user interface. Significant enhancements include tabbed windows and a unified application frame on the Mac.

Gradients. There are several major enhancements to gradients in this release. At the top of the list is a long-time request – transparency support. Each gradient stop now has an opacity slider (similar to the Alpha value in Flash). A redesigned and enhanced Gradient panel makes it easier to work with gradients, but why would you want to? Illustrator CS4 now has the ability to edit gradients in-context, directly on the artboard. Use the Gradient tool to click on any object filled with a gradient and an on-screen widget appears, giving you full control over the gradient. You can also scale radial gradients to create oval gradients as well.

Clipping Masks. One of the biggest complaints about the masking features in Illustrator has been that when artwork is clipped, you can still select that artwork—even if it isn’t visible. In Illustrator CS4, masked artwork is now truly hidden—from view and from your selection tool. However, this new functionality is only in place for clipping masks, not for layer clipping masks.

Appearance panel. A long-standing feature request has been to add eyeballs to the Appearance panel, to allow users to hide or show effects without having to necessarily delete them. Well, Illustrator CS4 has granted that wish and apparently, there were some extra wishes left because there’s a whole lot more in the Appearance panel now. So much so, in fact, that I might consider putting this “enhancement” at the top of my CS4 list, but more on that later. For now, know this: You can now edit and apply attributes and effects directly through the Appearance panel. That means you can change fill and stroke colors, change stroke weights and dashes, add and edit effects, and more, all directly from the Appearance panel.

Graphic Styles. Two key enhancements here: Graphic Styles can now be added, in a non-destructive way, to objects. Meaning you can now cumulatively apply multiple graphic styles, and each one is simply added to the graphic, rather than replacing the existing attributes. In addition, graphic styles can be created “headless”, meaning a style can contain just an effect and no fill or stroke attributes. To tie these two concepts together, think about how you might be able to create a graphic style that adds a drop shadow, and that you can now quickly add a drop shadow to an existing object, even if that object already has effects or attributes applied to it. If you aren’t already using graphic styles, this enhancement forces you to take another look.

THE “LITTLE THINGS”

While the big juicy features always take the center stage for any release, most people realize that at the end of the day, it’s the small enhancements that really make the biggest impact on the day-to-day use of any application. To me, this list is always the most exciting part of a release.

Smart Guides. Remember back when Smart Guides was introduced? Remember how quickly you turned them off? In the past, Smart Guides were more of a nuisance than otherwise. That’s changed now. Smart Guides are more refined (lines only appear where necessary, not across the entire page), and there are some additional options, including the ability to see measurements and values as you work (i.e., the rotation value is displayed as you rotate an object).

Snapping Behavior. This is a big little thing that no one will talk about. When Smart Guides are turned on, Illustrator has the ability to snap OBJECTS to each other. In the previous 13 versions of Illustrator, only the cursor position snapped, but now, the boundaries of paths also snap.

Isolation Mode. Adobe keeps making this functionality better. Introduced in CS2, Isolation Mode was enhanced in CS3, and now in CS4, it is even better. You can now isolate individual path objects. Isolation also takes on new meaning with the new clipping mask behavior, as you can double click to edit the contents of the mask, etc.

Alignment. Defining key objects is now simple and clear, and small modifications to the align functions make errors appear less frequently. Basically, the Align functions are now much easier to understand and use.

Bleed. Yes, you read that correctly. In addition to multiple artboard support, you can also specify bleed for your documents. The bleed translates perfectly to PDF documents and when you place art into InDesign. Bleed is applied at the document level, meaning that all artboards in a single document have the same bleed setting (you can’t have different bleed settings for different artboards within a single document).

Pathfinder. While nothing about the Pathfinder functions have changed in Illustrator CS4, their default behavior HAS changed. In previous versions of Illustrator, using a shape mode created a “live” compound shape. Many users are aware that you can press the Option (Alt on Windows) key while applying these functions to instantly expand the shape as you create it. Adobe apparently received many complaints about this behavior, so they reversed it. Now, in CS4, applying a shape mode with Pathfinder creates an expanded shape, and you need to use the Option (Alt) key to create a live compound shape.

Text on Path Issues. Cartographers complained bitterly since Illustrator CS was released that text on a path looked horrible. Kerning and typesetting along a path got a significant downgrade when the new text engine appeared. Now, in CS4, text on a path looks great. So much so that at a recent “sneak” at a cartographer’s show, this feature got a standing ovation.

Improved tablet support. Illustrator CS4 includes some important enhancements around the area of Wacom tablet support, most significantly in how pen rotation is processed. Paths drawn with the new Blob brush and the Calligraphic brushes are now more precise and respond to gestures better.

Drag Images from Web Browser directly into Document. If you’ve ever tried to drag an image directly from a web browser like Safari into Illustrator, you’ve experienced the frustration that many others face. Illustrator CS4 finally addresses this issue and you can now blissfully drag images directly into AI from your favorite browser.

Filter Menu. The Filter menu is now gone. Anything that used to be in that menu has either been moved out or relocated. The Crop Marks filter now appears in the Effect menu as a live effect.

Enhanced TIFF file format support. Illustrator CS4 now understands transparent layered TIFF files.

Offset path fixed. Illustrator CS3 “featured” a well-documented issue with the Offset Path command, where extra anchor points were unnecessarily added. This issue is fixed in CS4.

OTHER ADDITIONS

While not necessarily “significant”, these features add to an already impressive list, and rounds out the Illustrator CS4 release.

Separation Preview. As in both InDesign and Acrobat Pro, Illustrator now has a panel that allows you to preview color separations on screen. It’s a barebones implementation and doesn’t feature the all-powerful Ink Manager, or even the ability to calculate ink limits. But it does as advertised—for process colors and spot colors.

Color Blindness Proofing. Illustrator CS4 now features the ability to proof artwork on screen as a person with colorblindness might see it. This allows designers to design art with the right amount of contrast so that anyone could view it. Cool. Approximately 7 percent of Americans are color blind (that’s 10.5 million people), and I’m included in that group. The Japanese government has been particularly vigilant in taking steps to ensure that public signage is clearly visible to all.

FXG Support. I’ll talk a lot more about this in the coming days, but FXG (Flex Exchange Graphic) is a new file format that can be used with Adobe’s much-anticipated Thermo application.

Gesture Support. I haven’t been able to try this yet myself since I don’t have one of Apple’s newer computers, but Illustrator CS4 apparently has support for Gestures, a new feature that allows you to perform specific functions based on how you move your fingers across a touchpad.

New Templates and Content. As with any new release, Illustrator CS4 features new templates and content. But there are a few things that a different now. First, the templates have been updated to take advantage of multiple artboards. These templates are a great resource (one, for example, contains a variety of sizes of standard web banners). Also, Adobe has commissioned some GREAT artists who have not only created sample files, but who have also included PDF documents showing HOW they created the sample files.

Online Services. As we’ve seen with Acrobat.com and kuler, Adobe has been moving towards offering more online services and connectivity. Three specific things come to CS4: Connect Now is a service that allows you to share your screen with others, and is basically a Lite version of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Kuler, Adobe’s community built around color, has some extended functionality and is accessible directly from within not just Illustrator, but Photoshop, InDesign, Fireworks, and Flash as well. Finally, each CS4 application now features a Search field directly in the user interface, allowing you to search Adobe’s help files, but more importantly, other articles on the web as well. Adobe actually licensed Google technology for this, and you can almost think of it as Google for Adobe products.

So there you have it! Everything you need to know about Illustrator CS4. Of course, this is only the beginning—we’ve got lots to discuss in the coming hours, days, weeks, and months—so let me know your thought on the release, and more importantly, let me know what specific items you want more information on. Based on that feedback, I’ll find some creative ways to make it all happen!

Illustrator CS4 Pajama Party - LIVE TONITE!

At 12:01 AM, Eastern Time, 9/23/08, the wraps come off Adobe Creative Suite 4 along with all of its components, including Illustrator CS4! Join me for an Illustrator CS4 Pajama Party LIVE TONITE! Through the magical wonders of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, I will conduct a live chat to answer all of your CS4 questions. My Connect room has a capacity of 200 attendees, so first come, first served! Here are the details:

WHAT: Illustrator CS4 Pajama Party LIVE CHAT!
WHERE: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/illustratorcs4/
WHEN: 12:01 AM - 1:01 AM EASTERN TIME on 9/23/08 (That's TONITE!)

Remember to bring your questions and your favorite beverage!

(If you miss it, no worries, I'll try to schedule another soon -- keep posted for additional times!)

Wait for it... Wait for it...

The hours, minutes, and seconds tick by. Wanna know what's really cool about CS4? The logo. Seriously. Adobe created a really cool CS4 logo. I can't show it to you yet. Soon. Soon.

By the way, I hope you don't have plans for TONITE... we're having a pajama party at, oh say 12:01 AM, Eastern Time (That's when it's officially the 23rd). Hope to see you then! Bring a beverage! Or two!

CS4 - How do you want it?

I hope you're planning on sleeping this weekend -- because next week you'll be up finding out everything you can about CS4, right? Then again, who needs sleep anyway?

OK, so I have a big question for all of my readers -- how do you want it? Over the years, I've tried to deliver the best kind of content to my loyal readers. I've done things in writing, I've done the video podcast thing. I've done live events, eSeminars, the whole deal. But when it comes to learning about a new product -- when it comes to really finding out about the things that matter -- how would you prefer to learn about the new versions of software that will be announced next week? What matters most to you? Pretty screenshots? Live action video podcasts? Movies of screens? Lots of written content about all the new stuff? How about everyone just comes over to my house and we'll all huddle around my desk and chat about what's most important to you? I'd like to make things as personal and interactive as possible :)

Also, which applications do you want to know about? I've already covered most of the things that are in Fireworks CS4. Obviously, I'll cover Illustrator CS4 in exacting detail. But do you also want to know about what's new in Flash CS4? Device Central CS4? What about any other CS4 apps? (I know where I stand in regards to InDesign or Photoshop -- for info on those apps, I will happily direct you to InDesign Secrets and Deke.com respectively).

So sleep well...