Adobe Illustrator 8.01 Powerful New Tools Paul Jones
The familiar Adobe interface has now been applied to Illustrator 8, making it far easier for previous Adobe users to get the feel of the program. For most users, Illustration software has never been as easy to learn as paint programs, but the new features in Illustrator 8 make it far simpler to learn than it ever has been.
New features in Illustrator 8:
Brush Effects Create a variety of brush effects along a path simulating a paintbrush stroke, or stretch artwork along a path. You can use the default brush effects, import the ones in the Illustrator Extras folder on the CD, or create your own.
Gradient Mesh Tool Convert objects to multi-colored, mesh objects on which colors flow smoothly into one another. It's difficult to master, but it can create outstanding seamless blends, airbrush effects and complex shading.
Photo Crosshatch Filter Convert photographic images into layers, giving the appearance of a cross-hatched pen sketch.
Enhanced Blend Tool Blend two or more selected objects to create intermediate objects and colors. You can blend between open paths, closed paths, gradients, colors, and other blends. When you edit any part of a blend, the artwork reblends automatically.
Navigator Palette Just like the Navigator palette in Photoshop, you can view an illustration in reduced size to view different areas of the illustration quickly and easily.
Links Palette The Links palette lets you identify, select, monitor and update objects linked to external files and identify embedded files. You can check on an object's link to an external file.
Pathfinder Palette Modify shapes with Pathfinder commands directly from the new Pathfinder palette.
Actions Palette Another feature from Photoshop, the Actions palette lets you automate redundant tasks by grouping a series of Illustrator commands into a single action, like a macro. Use the preset actions or record your own.
Type Sampling This extremely useful feature lets you use the eyedropper and paint bucket tools to copy the fill, stroke, character and paragraph attributes from selected type and copy the attributes to selected type.
Enhanced Text Handling View non-printing characters, such as spaces, tabs, and paragraph marks on-screen.
Enhanced Layers Create a template layer when you want to base a new illustration on an existing piece of artwork. Template layers are locked, dimmed, and nonprintable. There is more flexibility in showing and printing layers, and you can now export Illustrator files as Photoshop layers.
Color Palette and Swatch Palette Enhancements It is now easier to use and create process or spot colors. Illustrator 8 also has improved spot color management when colors are merged from other files.
Bounding Box Editing Use the bounding box to scale, move, and duplicate objects by dragging a handle surrounding the selected objects.
Free Transform tool Use the Free Transform tool to reflect, rotate, shear, and distort illustrations without using the Transform palette.
Pencil tool Use the new editable pencil tool to easily lay down paths and then reshape them.
Smooth tool Easily smooth out sections of a path or object.
Erase tool Erase segments of paths or objects.
Smart Guides Smart Guides are temporary snap-to guides. Use them to assist you in creating, aligning and editing objects in relation to other objects in a file.
Registration color You can mark objects with a color that prints on all plates.
