Comments on: Illustrator CS4 Announcement Round Up

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:17:38 +0000

The gradient transparency feature is super awesome! I also love the fact that Illustrator (at least the betas) launch faster than CS3 does on my MBP.

I also did a review here: http://tinyurl.com/4frnxk

By: Chris Leavens

Chris Leavens — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:28:39 +0000

Yeah, I’d have to agree with Rype on the speed issue. I use a Mac at home and Windows at work, but unless all of the keyboard shortcuts and interface is the same as the Adobe apps, I’d find a switch to another vector drawing tool quite difficult. Once you figure out all of the shortcuts and interface in one Adobe program, the others become really easy to pick up and switching between them is a cinch. When I’ve used other tools in the past (Macromedia suite, for instance), I found the differences in keyboard shortcuts a bit stifling. I’ll stick with Adobe stuff unless something really drastic happens.

By: Rype

Rype — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:15:47 +0000

Anon,

Thanks for the catch, changed it!

Jeff,

I’m in the same boat as Esben. I work on a Mac. Still, I’m pretty quick with Illustrator, even if I worked on a PC, I don’t think I would switch.

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:31:49 +0000

You spelled Lynda.com wrong. FAIL!

By: Esben Thomsen

Esben Thomsen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:30:21 +0000

Right one Jeff!

I would love to work at full speed in my vector app, but it just comes as a too great of a cause, since Im using Mac OS X on a PPC – but you clearly have a point!

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:45:07 +0000

“Create documents containing up to 100 artboards of varying sizes.”

Wow! CorelDRAW can have thousands of pages, and has been able to for over 10 years!

* Transparency In Gradients – Define the opacity of any individual color stop in a gradient.

Wow! CorelDRAW has had this for over 10 years!

* Gradients Exposed – Better gradient interaction.

CorelDRAW has had this for over 10 years!

* Enhanced User Experience – Enhanced user interface.

Yes, it’s looking Like CorelDRAW more and more!

* Refined Graphic Styles Clipping Masks Demystified – Work with masks more easily.

CorelDRAW’s power clipping has made this easy for 15 years.

* Separations Preview – Preview the separation of a file before print

Wow! CorelDRAW has had this for 15 years!

Seriously. If you like to work at Half Speed, Illustrator is the right choice!

By: Esben Thomsen

Esben Thomsen — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:46:02 +0000

hm well calligraphy brush is broken, since you manually have to adjust and play with the settings in a dialog box, without the possibility to test the settings. I don’t know if you are familiar with Painter X og Painter Essentials, but thats actually what I was hoping for

By: Spyece

Spyece — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:49:08 +0000

Great Resources. Thanks mate.

By: Rype

Rype — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:32:26 +0000

Esben,

Haven’t heard that much. When I watched the Blob Brush video from Layers, the settings looked the same as CS3 Calligraphic Brushes, so I think all the other tablet settings are going to be the same. I will keep an eye out and see if I hear different.

By: Esben Thomsen

Esben Thomsen — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:28:26 +0000

@Rype

What have you heard about the new tablet support? So far as I’ve seen, you still have adjust your brush settings in a pop up dialog :-/