White lines and fat lines in PDF files

My good friend Von Glitschka posted the following tweet the other day:

Hey @Adobe will you ever fix this preview bug? It's nearly a decade old now. My client: "Your pdfs make the “l” (el) look bold."
— Von Glitschka (@Vonster) January 21, 2014

Many people experience this issue, along with another good one -- seeing white lines within PDF files. Both of these screen artifacts (and they are just that -- screen artifacts -- they don't show up in print) are caused by the same culprit -- antialiasing. As I explained in this previous post, antialiasing is a double-edged sword. It solves some problems (gets rid of the jaggies), but it can also introduce other issues (on-screen artifacts). It's like any medication -- it aims to solve one thing, but often can introduce side effects.

You can easily get rid of the side effects (the white lines and the fat lines) by disabling the specific antialiasing settings that introduce them -- directly in Adobe Acrobat Preferences. The two culprits in this case are Smooth Line Art and Enhance Thin Lines.

For a more in-depth understanding of when these issues occur, why they occur, and how to adjust your settings to get rid of them, I recorded this 12-minute clip for your viewing pleasure:



If you have additional questions about either of these issues, don't hesitate to drop a comment into this post or the YouTube link.

ADDED:

By the way, I didn't mention this in the video clip above, but it's POSSIBLE that you could see these white lines appear in print. How? OK, let's assume this scenario -- you create an ad in InDesign or Illustrator and create a PDF/X-1a file. This is a GOOD move on your part. Sending a validated PDF/X-1a file is the best way to submit files to someone else when they are going to print it.

The assumption is that the person who receives your file will open the PDF in Acrobat (or place it into InDesign) and then print it from there. If that's the case, all is right in the world and your clients will sing your praises (although they will surely still only want to pay you barely minimum wage).

HOWEVER, there are those (evil people) who will choose to open your PDF file in Photoshop. Perhaps because they think this is better. In that case, depending on how the file is saved from Photoshop, those white lines could get baked into the file itself (as once the file is in Photoshop, it's all converted to pixels). I've seen "smart" prepress operators think that due to the white lines they see in Acrobat, it's better to open the file in PS instead and then apply blurs or other effects to try and "get rid" of the white lines. This is silly behavior and can cause numerous other problems in the PDF (i.e. loss of spot colors, font hinting, etc).

Bottom line -- if you have a PDF, print it from Acrobat or InDesign (or Illustrator). NOT from Photoshop. Your designers (and clients) will thank you.

Web designers rejoice! Adobe releases HTML5 pack for Illustrator CS5

If you use Illustrator for web design, and if you consider yourself on the cutting edge of web design, life just got a whole lot more interesting. Adobe has just released an HTML5 Pack for Illustrator CS5 that introduces some advanced SVG support, support for the HTML Canvas tag, and support for export to CSS3.

Adobe released the Adobe Illustrator CS5 HTML5 Pack as a technology preview on Adobe Labs (you can get it here) so it isn't a full-blown solution -- it actually takes a bit of grunt work to get it installed. Then again, HTML5 and CSS3 aren't anywhere near complete or fully supported across all browsers, either. Consider this a peek into the future, and a GREAT way to experiment on your own, and live on the blistering edge of web design and development.

When Pixels Snap: Antialiasing in Illustrator CS5

Over the years, designers using Illustrator to create web graphics have faced two main issues:

• Graphics and text often appear soft or fuzzy when exported, especially when compared to similar graphics or text exported from Photoshop
• Extra pixels are sometimes added when artwork is exported, resulting in images with incorrect pixel dimensions

Both of these issues are actually caused by antialiasing, which is a double-edged sword. Antialiasing is supposed to make your art look better on a digital screen, but sometimes the side effects work against you. There are ways to build your art carefully to try to avoid issues, but with Illustrator CS5, Adobe added a slew of features that can help your artwork look better after being antialiased. The question is, at what cost? In this article, we’ll get a better understanding of what antialiasing is and how you can learn to control your art’s destiny when using Illustrator CS5.

Simulating the CSS Box Model in Illustrator

Illustrator is a great tool for mocking up websites. In Illustrator CS5, Adobe added an Align to Pixel feature that ensures crisp antialiasing, and in a recent episode of Fridays with Mordy, we spoke about using Illustrator for various web design projects.

When designing for the web -- specifically for sites that will be built with CSS -- it's a good idea to get into the right mindset, so that you can easily translate what you create in Illustrator into code later on. In a previous post, I spoke about limited CSS export from Illustrator, but today, I'd like to share a way that you can simulate the CSS box model in Illustrator, which will ultimately help you create better design mockups.

Illustrator and Dreamweaver Integration - TAKE 2

A while back, I blogged about using Illustrator for web design. Specifically, I wrote about using Illustrator and Dreamweaver together, lamenting about the lack of integration between the two applications. I've even had numerous discussions with the product managers for Dreamweaver over at Adobe about the topic.

To summarize, I questioned the apparent lack of support for moving art quickly from Illustrator into Dreamweaver via Smart Objects. The team kept asking me why I would care to bring vector art into Dreamweaver, and whatever would I do with it once it got there? My response was that I didn't want the vectors - I wanted Dreamweaver to generate pixels a la Smart Objects from the GoLive days.

Boy was I shortsighted. What was I thinking?

Each year, Adobe has their MAX conference. Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, I was not able to attend this year's conference in LA. One of the best sessions is something called "MAX SNEAKS" where Adobe shows tasty nuggets of technology from their labs. I'll mention that these aren't usually sneaks like features from the upcoming releases. Rather, the demonstrations are from Adobe's engineering scientists and generally cover things they are "messing with" that are often a while out, if at all. These are rarely polished demos and as I stated, the presenters aren't professional demo masters (of the likes of Greg Rewis or the incredible Jason Levine).

TECHNIQUE: Distribute Art Around a Path

A reader from Poland wrote in that he was trying to recreate the European Union flag - where 12 stars are distributed in a circular pattern. This reader tried several techniques including a blend, but wasn't getting the result he was looking for.

In reality, there are many designs that call for distributing art along a path. And while Illustrator has some nice Align and Distribution tools, and even Smart Guides, they won't help when you're trying to align your objects to something other than a straight line.

Enter the Blend feature - yes - the very same Blend feature that has been in Illustrator since the beginning of time. When the main purpose for blends was to create shading or blends between colors (something we all use Gradients for these days). But blends are more powerful than people think. And more importantly, when you understand what makes a blend tick, you can use it for a variety of purposes -- including distributing art along any path -- even if that path isn't straight.

ASK MORDY: Threaded Type on a Path

Today's question comes in from Donna Tracy:

Is there a way to create text in a circular shape with a text flow like in InDesign text boxes?

This is a great question (and kudos to Donna for also including an image in her email which made it easy to understand what she was asking for), as it exploits one of the strengths of Type on a Path in Illustrator -- which is that Path Text objects can be threaded. If you're unfamiliar with the differences between Point Type and Area Type in Illustrator, refer to this post. Since Illustrator CS, when the newer text engine was introduced, Type on a Path in Illustrator acts like Area Type - and can be threaded just like text frames can be threaded in InDesign.

Rather than try to explain to Donna how to perform the technique she was after, I recorded a quick video, which you can view below. You can also download a full-res version of the video here.

Illustrator Type on Path Tutorial from Mordy Golding on Vimeo.

Clipping Drop Shadows in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

On my Mordy.com blog, I made note of my quest to create an iPhone skin entirely in Illustrator. In the process, one of the elements I had to create – the alert dialog – presented an interesting “problem” in that the dialog had an opaque stroke and a transparent fill. OK, so we know that in Illustrator, you can easily apply an opacity setting to fills and strokes independently, but the dialog also has a drop shadow. And if the fill of the object is transparent, you can see the drop shadow through the fill, which isn’t called for in the design.



Before we learn how to make this work in Illustrator, let’s take a look at two other Adobe applications – Photoshop and InDesign. Why? Because interestingly enough, they both have something that Illustrator doesn’t have.

Photoshop has two opacity settings: Layer Opacity, which applies to the entire layer, including its layer effects; and Fill Opacity, which applies only to the pixels that are drawn in the layer, and not its layer effects.



In our example, if we wanted to create an object that had a transparent fill and a drop shadow, we’d first apply a drop shadow layer effect. But we wouldn’t want to reduce the Layer Opacity, because that would lower the opacity of the drop shadow along with the art itself. Instead, we’d adjust the Fill Opacity, which will allow the just the art to be transparent, leaving the drop shadow at full strength.

But notice that the drop shadow isn’t visible through the art of the object itself. It’s as if the artwork “knocks out” the drop shadow beneath it. How did that happen? The answer lies within the Drop Shadow section of the Layer Styles dialog box. There you’ll find a checkbox marked “Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow”, which is turned on by default.



If you head over to InDesign, you’ll find a similar option in the Drop Shadow section of the Effects dialog box as well. There, a setting called “Object Knocks Out Shadow”, also on by default, helps designers keep drop shadows from being seen through objects with transparency settings such as opacity or blend modes.



Now let’s come full circle back to Illustrator, where the Drop Shadow dialog box (found in the Effects > Stylize menu) has no setting to instruct Illustrator to knock out the effect, and we’ll create the iPhone dialog step by step.*

1. Use the Rectangle tool to draw a shape. If you’d like, choose Effect > Stylize > Round Corners to round the corners of the rectangle.

2. Fill the rectangle with a dark blue color and choose a light blue color for the stroke.

3. Choose Window > Appearance to open the Appearance panel (and shame on you if the panel wasn’t already open). Target the dark blue fill and change its opacity to 80%.



4. Click on the word “Path” at the top of the Appearance panel to target the entire object.

5. Choose Effect > Stylize > Drop Shadow, and apply your desired drop shadow settings. At this point, you’ll be able to see the drop shadow through the fill of the object. But we’ll fix that next.

6. With the object still selected, open the Transparency panel and expand it so that all of its options are visible. Check the box marked Knockout Group (you may need to click twice to get a check mark in the box).



If you want to know WHY the Knockout Group setting effectively clipped the drop shadow, you can read my explanation in this post, where I used a similar technique to simulate stitched lines for apparel designers.

I should point out that when I asked Adobe why Illustrator didn't have a check box in the Drop Shadow dialog box that would clip an object's shadow, I got an interesting response: "the real world doesn't really work that way". I can't argue with that logic. If you think about it, if an object were semi transparent, it would likely still be dense enough to cast a shadow beneath it. I'll have to pose the question to the folks over at Apple who designed the interface I guess.

One final note: the Object Knocks Out Shadow found in InDesign will only work when your entire object has an opacity setting applied to it. However, if you try to simulate this exact effect in InDesign, where you apply an opacity value just to the fill of an object, you’ll have to use the same technique as we used in Illustrator – you’ll have to turn on the Knockout Group option for that object.

*OK, so in the final version of the iPhone alert dialog, I had to do a little adjusting. Turns out that the opaque stroke that appears around the perimeter of the dialog is actually filled with a gradient. Alas, gradients can’t be applied to a stroke in Illustrator. I had to create a separate compound path in order to apply the gradient.

Deke McClelland's Illustrator One-on-One movies released

Lynda.com just released Deke McClelland's first of three Illustrator One-on-One video training titles, Fundamentals. As always, Deke presents Illustrator's features thoroughly, and methodically, in his trademark style.



One my favorite parts of this particular title is when Deke compares Illustrator's anchor points to boys and control handles to girls. Deke must have had Valentines Day in mind when he recorded that.

As always, if you're a Lynda.com subscriber, you already have access to this title. If not, you can get a free 7 day trial to Lynda.com here.

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 :)

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.

ASK MORDY: Limitations between Flash and Illustrator

As they are both lumped together in the category of "vector" applications, one can easily assume that objects can be moved freely between Illustrator and Flash. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Today's question comes in from Elisabeth:

I work for scientists and make presentations for them in Flash. I create the storyboards to go with them in Illustrator. In doing this I often have to copy and paste text from Flash to Illustrator and instead of text I get vector objects. Is there any way to get around this?

The reality is that when it comes to integration between these two powerhouse applications, there's a big fat "one way" sign, and the arrow points from Illustrator and leads to Flash. Try going from Flash to Illustrator and you're faced with a huge "Do Not Enter" sign instead.



Actually, go back a few versions and you couldn't even find a reliable way to go from Illustrator into Flash. While Illustrator and Flash are indeed both vector-based applications, their graphic engines and the way they export those vectors aren't the same. In fact, if you think about it, Flash was built to display artwork in one place, and one place only -- the Flash Player. Even as recently as Flash 8, importing Illustrator artwork into Flash resulted in some pretty ugly paths. In the CS3 release, Flash actually implemented Illustrator's vector graphics engine under the hood, which finally allowed Flash to interpret and maintain the integrity of each anchor point and respective control handle.



To understand the significance of this, take into account the screenshot that appears above. I drew a circle in Illustrator and copied and pasted it into Flash. The circle on the left is how the circle appears when pasted into Flash CS3. The circle on the right is how the same circle appears when pasted in Flash 8. Sweet, eh? In fact, Flash CS3 is pretty intelligent when it comes to pasting content from Illustrator -- live drop shadows from Illustrator become live editable drop shadows in Flash, gradients come in as gradients instead of bitmaps, clipping masks come in correctly, text become editable -- the list goes on.

Here's the thing though -- the code for bringing artwork into Flash was updated, allowing art to move from Illustrator into Flash, but the code for exporting artwork FROM Flash hasn't changed at all. Meaning that while there's a way to get awesome graphics INTO Flash, there's no way to go the other way around. Hence, if you try drawing a circle in Flash and then copy and paste it into Illustrator, you'll get the same result as you see in the circle on the right, in the above image. Likewise, text is also lost when going the "wrong way".

As I mentioned in a previous post, Fireworks CS4 now shares the same text engine as Illustrator does, making it now possible to move text easily between FW and AI -- but sadly, that isn't the case for Flash.

Looking forward, Flash Player 10 (recently released) does have support for something called FTE (Flash Text Engine -- formerly known by its codename, "vellum"), although support for this isn't available within the Flash application itself just yet. I would guess the hope would be that at some point, the FTE technology and the ATE technology (Adobe Text Engine) found in Illustrator, Fireworks, Photoshop, After Effects, etc, would be able to communicate with each other to allow text to move freely between all of these applications.

To wrap up, my understanding is that MOST people need to bring content from Illustrator into Flash, and so that workflow has a higher priority, and those pain points were addressed first. Workflows where designers need to bring content from Flash into Illustrator aren't nearly as common (although I'll admit I've been hearing more people ask for this lately). But since this workflow isn't as mainstream, it doesn't get a high priority at Adobe. If you're a designer and you feel differently, let Adobe know. Either comment here, or contact Adobe directly with your requests (yes, Adobe actually does listen).

Making Illustrator and Fireworks Fit

Me love Illustrator long time. I use it for many many things, including web design. I even have an entire video training title dedicated to creating pixel-based graphics with Illustrator.

At the same time, I have always been aware of another application called Fireworks, which admittedly, I've ignored somewhat. Ok, so that isn't really fair. When it was originally released, Fireworks was touted as a crossover application -- it was like one of those vanilla and chocolate swirl soft ice cream cones (yum) -- handling both vector- and pixel-based graphics. Back then, I can't say that I was doing enough web design to care, especially considering that back then, it was also easy enough to use Photoshop and ImageReady (remember that sweet app?) to handle my needs. Fireworks also lacked a sophisticated user interface or advanced text features. I also had trouble adjusting to the drawing tools, again, coming from an Illustrator perspective.



When Adobe and Macromedia merged and Creative Suite 3 was released, there was no FreeHand, but there was a Fireworks and there was an Illustrator. I took another look at Fireworks, considering that I was now doing much more web work. There was some cool stuff to find in Fireworks, but the barriers were still there.

A few months back, Adobe released public betas of some of the CS4 products -- and Fireworks CS4 was included in that. Since then, I've played a lot with Fireworks. Now, with the rest of the CS4 apps on the horizon, I thought it might be a good time to take a closer look at what Fireworks has to offer.

For the first time since I've looked at Fireworks, I can say that I now "get it". I grok FW. Especially when you consider not only the kind of work I do on a daily basis that involves web graphics, but when you also consider that it isn't just about graphics anymore. Web 2.0 standards have given reason for designers to think carefully about how they create content. And it isn't just web stuff either. Designers also work on user experiences and other interactive elements.

First, let's take a look at some of the stuff that Adobe packed into Fireworks CS4:

- A new user interface. If you haven't already seen it, you should take a look at the new user interface in Fireworks CS4. Why? Because it's the new user interface that Adobe has integrated across all CS4 applications. With this new interface, I now feel comfortable in Fireworks. Yeah, it's a small thing, but sometimes these small things mean a lot.

- The Adobe Text Engine. Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects all share the same underlying text engine code. Now, Fireworks joins the party, making it possible to move text easily between these Adobe apps.

- PDF Export. It's now easy to create a PDF of your design to send off to a client for review. Sending JPEG files were always a pain, especially for multiple-page designs. Uploading content to a server meant clients couldn't access or review content off-line (or required logins, etc).

These items have certainly removed the barrier -- I can now find my way around Fireworks and using it isn't the frustrating experience it once was. But I'll admit that I was still wondering why I would want to do all my work in Fireworks when I was able to accomplish just about the same stuff in my far more comfortable environment of Illustrator. After all, I could crank stuff out MUCH faster from AI than I ever could in FW. The lightbulb went on when I began to understand the significance of some of the other features that are new in Fireworks CS4:

- CSS and Images Export. As I understand more and more about how the web works, and what Web 2.0 really means, I have come to understand the importance of CSS. One of the key concepts of CSS is being able to understand that content and structure are two very different things (traditional designers always combine the two). To contrast, when you draw a rectangle in Illustrator, you get an image on export. Draw that same rectangle in Fireworks and on export, you get a "div". Even more amazing, Fireworks can even write CSS for auto-expanding elements that stretch to fit content. With Illustrator, I'd design something, slice it into bits and then try my hand at coding it in Dreamweaver. In FW, it just happens. This is SIGNIFICANT. One could argue that Illustrator should have such functionality built in. I for one would love to see it. But at the same time, Fireworks CS4 has it, and I LOVE it. Now I can design stuff and have the code written for me. Isn't that the way it was always supposed to be?

- AIR Authoring. OK, I can hear you all snickering now. Mordy has gone off the deep end. AIR authoring is for developers, not designers. Why would a designer even THINK about writing an AIR application? And the answer is, never. For the same reason as I stated above. Because Fireworks just does it for you. It's literally a mouse click. And so you ask why you'd ever want to create an AIR app. And the answer is that Fireworks has the ability to build interaction into a design. I'm not talking about Flash animation stuff -- I'm talking about building a prototype. Maybe it's a 4 page website. You want your client to see a design mockup and you want it to WORK so that when they click on the buttons, the pages turn, etc. You want rollovers to work. Well, Fireworks was always able to do that. And now, when you need to show the client a comp, you create an AIR app and send it to them. AIR apps run right on the desktop. No need for a browser. No need for an internet connection. Mac, Windows, it's all good. And the comp WORKS. Again, it would be totally awesome if Illustrator could do something like that. But it can't even come close. And FW not only does it, it does it really well.

OK, so after all this, I'll admit I was still not totally sold on Fireworks. After all, I need to repurpose my art all the time. When you're in Illustrator, you can go to the web, to print, to video, and practically to ANY app with no barriers. Fireworks is a one-trick pony -- it's great for designing something specifically for the web, but what do I do if I need to move something into InDesign? Besides, I'm too reliant upon Illustrator.

Well, two things have since caught my eye.

1. Fireworks now does a really awesome job on importing art from Illustrator. In fact, you can use Fireworks CS4 to open native Illustrator files directly. Layers are maintained, text is completely compatible. It's awesome. Basically, I can create my initial designs in Illustrator and bring them right into Fireworks when I'm ready to take it to the next step. So my initial problem of not being comfortable with the drawing environment is a non-issue. I can create art in AI and bring it into FW as needed.

2. Speaking of the drawing environment, Fireworks DOES have some really sweet drawing tools, which are LIVE editing tools. Unlike Illustrator, where once you let go of an object, it becomes a static path, objects created in Fireworks are editable. For example, you can click and drag on a star to change the number of points. You can draw arrows and adjust them as needed, at any time. What a concept. WHY Illustrator can't do this is beyond comprehension, but I have found inner peace. Fireworks has a command in the Edit menu called Copy as Vectors. And wouldn't you know, you can move content from FW right into AI. Of course, the object isn't live once it gets to AI, but it's just as easy to readjust in FW and repaste it into AI again. Go figure -- now I'm using FW to create art that I'm using in Illustrator!

At the end of the day, even beyond the anti-aliasing issues that Illustrator has, I've found reasons to look to Fireworks. Especially when working on designs that require Web 2.0 compatibility. Hopefully, this post will be helpful to those who find that they are at the limits of what Illustrator can do in regard to web and interactive design. If you haven't looked at Fireworks CS4 yet, it's worth heading over to Adobe Labs for a look. At the very least, you'll get some experience with the new CS4 user interface. At the very best, you'll have found a new application in your design tool box.

Got additional comments about Illustrator or Fireworks? Discussion is ALWAYS encouraged!

RESERVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2008

Clear the calendar! Adobe will officially announce (announce, not ship) Adobe Creative Suite 4 on September 23, 2008! Woohoo! I got an email today with the following:



Obviously, Illustrator CS4 is a part of that announcement. Want to know what's in Illustrator CS4? I can't tell you -- YET anyway. But you can be sure that on the 23rd, I'll have all the info you'll want... and maybe even some more... (oh I love to tease)...

In any case, be sure to clear that day, because we're going to have LOTS to talk about -- you and I -- oh yes. OH YES!

By the way, you can head over to Adobe.com and register for their online event.

UPDATE: Considering we have some time on our hands, I thought I'd compile a list of known details about future Adobe products, compiled from other sources on the 'net. Note that this list is purely hypothetical, considering that while Adobe has shown these technologies in public (usually at conferences or large public gatherings), they are always shown as "technology previews" and hence aren't guaranteed to appear in a particular version. That being said, if anyone has more items to add to the list, let me know!

ALL APPLICATIONS: Based on public betas we've seen of some CS4 apps, it appears all new CS4 apps will feature a new unified user interface.

ILLUSTRATOR: At the Icon conference in NY this past July, Adobe showed a paintbrush-like tool that paints with expanded paths and that can auto merge with other existing paths.

PHOTOSHOP: Several websites have spoken about OpenGL support for increased pan and zoom performance.

FLASH: Several sneaks at some Flash conferences have previewed 3D functionality as well as something called Inverse Kinematics.

INDESIGN: A sneak peak at several conferences revealed a Flash export capability as well as a format where InDesign content could be brought directly into the Flash application.

DREAMWEAVER, FIREWORKS, SOUNDBOOTH: These CS4 apps have been available as a public beta download at Adobe Labs for some time now.

Rotating Effects (Drop Shadows, etc)

Illustrator (and just about all Adobe apps for that matter) has the ability to apply the most over-used design effect of all time -- Drop Shadows (look out Drop Shadows, reflections aren't far behind). Drop Shadows are applied as live effects, meaning that if you update your artwork or move it, the drop shadow updates and moves as well.

But have you ever applied a drop shadow to an object, and then ROTATED that object so that it's upside down? Have you then taken a closer look at the drop shadow and realized that the drop shadow DIDN'T rotate? Even worse, did you ever see that problem AFTER your job was printed? What I describe happens not only in Illustrator, but in InDesign as well.

Let's take a closer look at what is happening here. A drop shadow is an effect, and is therefore applied to the overall object. The shadow isn't "baked in" to the art, and so if the art changes, the drop shadow simply updates itself to match any edits applied to the object. If you flip your artwork upside down, Illustrator (and InDesign) rotates the art and then reapplies the drop shadow to the art. The result is a drop shadow that may be set to offset down and to the right, but when the art is flipped, the drop shadow is still applied with an offset down and to the right (as seen below).



For those people who regularly do imposition, or those in packaging, this presents a huge problem, and often, these problems aren't detected until it's too late. A workaround I've seen from folks is to use the Expand Appearance command (from the Object menu), but that means the effect is no longer "live" and hence, the art can't be easily updated.

Here's a solution -- create your artwork and add the Drop Shadow effect. Then, convert your artwork to a Symbol (if you use this artwork in multiple places, this is a good idea anyway). If you aren't familiar with how to create a Symbol in Illustrator, just select your art and press F8. When you rotate the Symbol, the drop shadow will now appear rotated correctly (in the example, I've been using, rotating the symbol will mean the drop shadow will be offset up and to the left).



If you ever need to modify the art or the shadow, simply double-click on the Symbol to edit it. Illustrator CS3 makes this almost too easy.

If you're in InDesign, you don't have symbols, so this solution won't work. However, there is a solution there as well, as long as you're using InDesign CS3. Create your artwork element in a new InDesign document, add the drop shadow, and then save your InDesign file. Then, PLACE your InDesign document INTO another InDesign file where you're doing your layout. You can now rotate the artwork at will, and if you need to edit the art, do an Edit Original on the placed ID file.

Oh, and BTW, how do you like them interlocking Olympic rings? If you think I used Pathfinder to create those, think again. It's all about Live Paint baby. Maybe in my next post, I'll talk about how I created those...

Illustrator vs. InDesign Smackdown (oh yeah, and Photoshop too)

First, a little background is necessary here in order to set some context.

Mike McHugh, author, instructor, and host of Creative Sweet TV wrote an article entitled InDesign vs. Photoshop Smackdown: Who Will Be the Winner? where Mike focuses on some of the new strengths found in InDesign CS3. Of course, no one is suggesting that InDesign actually REPLACE Photoshop (Blasphemy! only David Blatner can make such statements), but Mike's article is a healthy experiment in understanding the myriad ways of using applications and their features. Mike chose to highlight six specific workflows in his smackdown:

1. Recolor Artwork from a Grayscale File
2. Recolor Artwork from an RGB File
3. Create Reflections
4. Play with Special Effects-a-go-go
5. Create a Vignette
6. Create an Editable Contact Sheet

There's only one problem. Where was Illustrator? During the entire smackdown, Illustrator was only mentioned once -- and that was when Mike placed an Illustrator file into InDesign and gave it a reflection.

For anyone who knows me, I consider myself somewhat of an Illustrator evangelist, and nothing gets me going more than a challenge. I wonder why Mike didn't mention anything about Illustrator in his smackdown -- could a possible reason be that Illustrator might indeed win the smackdown over Photoshop AND InDesign in these workflows? Hmmmmm... let's see.

Round 1. Recolor Artwork from a Grayscale File

We all know that you can convert any image into a Monotone in just a few steps with Photoshop. Mike also spoke of InDesign's ability to colorize any linked flattened grayscale image. How does Illustrator match up? Well, you can colorize any placed PSD grayscale file -- linked or embedded. The PSD file can even be layered. And what if your image isn't a grayscale image? You can simply select the placed image within Illustrator and choose Object > Rasterize and choose Grayscale as the Color Model. You can then apply a color to the image.

Already, Illustrator has the advantage here, but what if your artwork isn't an image? What if it's vector artwork? Or text? Hmmm.. InDesign has no way of easily colorizing those items. But Illustrator has a totally fantastic Live Color feature that makes recoloring artwork nearly instantaneous. Within seconds, you can colorize just about anything in your design with Illustrator.

Illustrator 1, InDesign 0.

Round 2. Recolor Artwork from an RGB File

In this round, Mike spoke of using the Color blend mode to turn any placed image (grayscale or otherwise) into a color. This is almost too easy, considering that Illustrator has the same blend modes too. Follow Mike's instructions to reproduce this in Illustrator. Of course, you have patterns in Illustrator which allows you to add textures. But go a step beyond and use your image as an opacity mask (which are like Photoshop Alpha Channels) and the sky is the limit.

Illustrator 2, InDesign 0

Round 3. Create Reflections

I'll be the first to admit that InDesign CS3's new gradient feather feature is quite fantastic. I use it often (too often maybe). But reflections are also quite easy in Illustrator with the use of an Opacity Mask. You can easily craete a copy of any artwork and flip it upside down like Mike describes in his article, and then adding an opacity masks to complete the effect. But what about text? In Illustrator, you can use the Appearance panel to make a reflection that can be easily edited.

Start by creating a Point text object. Then, use the Appearance panel to add a new Fill. Apply a Transform effect to flip the new fill (use the Reflect Y option) and to also move it down so the baselines match. Now use a gradient as an opacity mask so that the upside-down text fades to transparent. The key here is that you haven't made a physical copy of the text for the reflection, so simply editing the text object automatically updates the reflection. The use of an opacity mask ensures that you can place the text over any colored background or image.

Illustrator 3, InDesign 0

Round 4. Play with Special Effects-a-go-go

Everyone loves Photoshop effects, and the InDesign team did a nice job in mimicking the design of the dialog to match that of Photoshop, as well as offering some nice effects -- even Bevel & Emboss. Sadly, Illustrator doesn't have a Bevel & Emboss filter. However, Illustrator has far more effects than InDesign or Photoshop, including 3D, Warp, Transform, Pathfinder... the list goes on. Through the use of multiple fills and strokes, you can build endless complex appearances. And they can all be applied with the click of a single button with Graphic Styles.

Illustrator 4, InDesign 0

Round 5. Create a Vignette

Mike's examples of using Inner and Outer Glow are nice, but they are no match for Illustrator's Opacity Mask feature. You can draw any shape and either fill it with a gradient or apply a feather effect to it and then use that object as an opacity mask to create a vignette in Illustrator.

Illustrator 5. InDesign 0

Round 6. Create an Editable Contact Sheet

I'll admit -- at first glance, I thought Illustrator wouldn't stand a chance here. I mean, come on -- InDesign is a page layout application and Illustrator doesn't have multiple pages. But there are still plenty of times you just need to create a single contact sheet. Could Illustrator possibly compete here? Hmmmmm... InDesign doesn't really have a Contact Sheet feature per say, but Bridge has a cool script that uses InDesign to build a contact sheet using the images you've selected in Bridge. I wonder if there's a script for Illustrator? Ya think?

Open your Illustrator CS3 application folder. In your Scripting > Sample Scripts > AppleScript (Visual Basic on Windows) folder is a script called Contact Sheet. The script is a droplet -- drag any folder of images onto that droplet and Illustrator will ask you how many images you want across and down and then sit back and watch. Of course, once the contact sheet has been created, you can customize it as you would any Illustrator document. The results look prettier than you'd find in Photoshop's Contact Sheet feature and of course they are customizable.

I'd call this a draw. A final tally of the score puts Illustrator well in front. Now of course, if Mike would have chosen some other workflows (like creating interactive PDFs, long documents, master pages, etc.) the results would be quite different.

Naturally, this is all a fun experiment -- but as I do with all my students and clients, I urge you to always use the tools at hand to best do your job. For now, I'm heading back to my glass of Cabernet.

Oh, and the next time there's a smackdown, make sure Illustrator is around. Please.

Technique: Scaling Area Text

I often get questions with regards to scaling text. For example, some users are looking to scale their text frames, but find that the text within the frame becomes scaled as well. Much like in InDesign, the user is looking to simply resize the frame, allowing the text within to simply reflow. The reason why I get questions about this stems from the fact that it often seems that sometimes it DOES work as the user wants it to, while other times, it doesn't -- which leads to frustration and other acts of computer violence.

The first thing to understand is that Illustrator has two types of text objects -- one called Point Type and one called Area Type. Point Type is used most often for random text objects that appear in your document and aren't bound by any shape or frame. Area Type is used for larger blocks of text where lines flow from one line to the next and are encompassed within a shape or a frame (just a note here -- I'm using the term "frame" here only because it's a familiar term for InDesign users, but Illustrator really has no concept of a frame at all).

Normally, it's pretty easy to make a distinction between Point and Area Type simply by looking at it when it is selected. Point Type (lower left) shows a single point on the first line and other lines are underlined. Note that the line endings shown here are manual, using hard or soft returns. Area Type (lower right) also appears underlined, but is also enclosed within a shape that contains small boxes on the upper left and lower right sides (those boxes are called "ports" and we'll talk about them in detail in a moment). The text within the Area Type object shown below has no specified line breaks -- the text simply reflows on its own to fit within its frame.



However, when you have the Bounding Box option turned on (View > Show Bounding Box), and you use the Selection tool to select your text object, both Point Type and Area Type appear nearly alike when selected.



The trick is, you have to pay attention to the ports -- those are the boxes we spoke about before. It's really the only way to differentiate a Point Type object from an Area Type object. The bounding box gives the Point Type an appearance that makes it look like Area Type.



These ports are used with Area Text to help manage "threads" of text, or text that is linked from one frame to another. It works just like InDesign, and different icons in the in or out ports will indicate functionality.



Now that you know how to identify the two kinds of Type objects, we can understand how to scale them and get the results we expect.

Point Type has no frame or shape that holds it. Therefore, scaling Point Type will always result in the text becoming distorted -- after all, you are scaling the text.



However, if you use the Selection tool to scale an Area Type object, the object itself will scale, but the text within the object will NOT scale, and will simply reflow to fit within the new shape.



As a nice little feature, you'll even notice that while you're scaling an Area Type object, Illustrator will preview live how the text will reflow (InDesign can do that if you click, hold for a second or two, and then start dragging).

However, if you're like me, you'll also want to use the Transform panel (or the Control panel) to resize Area Type frames numerically, to fit a specific dimension. But in doing so, you'll notice that the text within the Area Type object will also becomes scaled. Is there no way to scale an Area Type frame numerically without scaling the text within it?

There are two ways:

1. Double click on the Area Type object to select all the text. Copy. Apply your scale numerically, then select all, and paste. Silly, right? That's why there's option 2...

2. Use the Direct Selection tool to select JUST the side of the frame (see figure below). Now when you apply a numerical scale via the Transform or Control panel the scale will apply to the frame and the text within will reflow as expected.

Real World Illustrator CS3 Now Shipping!

I just received my own copy today!

The CS3 version of the book contains many improvements based on suggestions by the readers of this blog. Thanks to all of my readers, both of the blog and the book -- I really appreciate your support.

Once again, Ron Chan has done a superb job of creating the illustration for the cover of the book, and Ron has captured the true focus of the CS3 release, which obviously was all about color.



Besides covering all of the new features in detail, the CS3 edition of the book contains an all-new chapter called Working with Color which covers every aspect of the complex Live Color feature in detail. The book also contains a 16-page color insert which breaks down every color feature in Illustrator (as well as kuler) -- and I'm in the process of trying to convince my publisher to allow me to turn that into a full-color poster as well.

Now that the book is out, the videos are out (and the SAMS Teach Yourself Adobe Creative Suite 3 All in One book is going through final PDF proofs as we speak), I can once again focus my efforts back on updating this blog more regularly (I hope). Maybe I can even get a few video podcasts out there :)

In addition, I have a couple of things I've been working on, which I hope to share with you as well in the near future.

As always, if you have ordered the book and have any comments, questions, or corrections, don't hesitate to drop me an email and let me know! And don't be shy about adding your reviews to Amazon either :)

Enjoy the book!

CS3 Training videos now all available on Lynda.com

My latest video title, Illustrator CS3 and Flash CS3 Professional Integration is now available online over at Lynda.com. If you're looking for CS3 content, you'll find the following titles from me now:

Illustrator CS3 Essential Training - This title covers general training on using Illustrator CS3. As the title implies, the content here covers the essentials of using Illustrator. While the title is geared towards beginner and intermediate users, advanced users may find some of the content enlightening and extremely helpful.

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator CS3 - This title helps you make the jump from FreeHand to Illustrator CS3. Most of the tutorials start out in FreeHand and then progress into Illustrator, taking the time to explain differences in terminology and workflow.

Illustrator CS3 and Flash CS3 Professional Integration - This title is geared towards those who use both Illustrator and Flash. The title covers the differences and similarities between these two vector-based applications and explains key functionality and workflows when creating art in Illustrator and then moving that content into Flash. The title also covers the use of Adobe Device Central to create and test Illustrator and Flash content for mobile devices.

If you don't have access to the Lynda.com Online Training Library, you can use the link on the right side of this page to get a free 7-day trial. In general, I do find the Lynda.com offering to be an extremely good value.

By the way, if you are perusing the Lynda.com Online Training Library, check out Deke McClelland's Illustrator CS3 One-on-One series. In the Advanced Techniques title, make sure to check out the very last video (entitled "see ya") where Deke tells a wonderful (and humorous) story about me :)

Illustrator CS3 Update (13.0.1) now available

Adobe has posted a 13.0.1 update to Illustrator CS3. Unlike previous versions where Adobe created special separate installers for these updates, the update mechanism for CS3 apps are all handled through the Adobe Updater application which is built in. To download and install the 13.0.1 update, launch Illustrator (or any other Adobe CS3 application for that matter) and choose Help > Updates. Then follow the directions and prompts.

Here's an overview of some of the things I'm aware of that are addressed with the 13.0.1 update:

- Performance is enhanced. I have no idea how much or where in the app specifically. This seems to be a general statement.

- An issue where removing a color from the color wheel in Live Color causes a crash has been fixed.

- An issue where some linked transparent PSD files exhibited some stitching artifacts during the flattening process has been fixed.

- An issue where legacy text that has been updated disappears has been fixed.

- An issue where default postscript printer screen settings were incorrect has been fixed.

- An issue where a crash or error occurs when closing certain paths in Live Paint groups has been fixed.

- An issue where Illustrator CS3 crashes on a Mac when opening a Graphic Style library containing a graphic style that uses the Crystallize effect has been fixed.

- An issue where a crash sometimes occurs when canceling a live effect progress bar has been fixed.