Adobe Illustrator CS 11.0 Complete package > Reviews (1)

Description

Adobe Illustrator CS is a highly developed graphical software program in the range of the Adobe Software products.

Illustrator is a so-called vector drawing program and therefore designed for drawings and less for photographic images. For those of you, who are not familiar with the expression of vector-drawings: The drawing is basically described by start and end points of individual lines and not by colour dots that builds a complete picture as in pixel images. This has the advantage to be a clearer and more accurate "description" of the drawing and easier changeable in size without loss of quality.

Cost

I haven't bought the software myself, as it already existed in the company. However, a quick look at Amazon.co.uk told me, that the price is round about £479.99.

Platform

This specific software is working for the following platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP

Features

When I started my current job nearly a year ago, I had never used it, but a 2-day training with a certified Adobe Trainer enabled me, to make use of a wide range of features and benefits, the software is able to offer.

Just to give you a brief overview, I'll give you a list of the key features, the software is to offer. For graphical software users, this is probably a good check-list, if Adobe Illustrator CS is made for you:

 Industry-standard tools
 Industry-standard drawing tools
 Integration with your favourite applications
 Advanced typographical controls
 Enhanced Adobe PDF file creation
 3D effects
 Powerful creative tools
 Creative effects
 Production automation
 Cross-media publishing

Templates

Illustrator CS includes a wide range of pre-designed templates and sample artwork, e.g. CD / DVD covers, cards and post-cards, certificates and stationery. These are a great help - easy to adapt, re-construct or develop further or simply to provide creative ideas. Especially the CD templates have been a great benefit to me. Thanks to the layer structure, Adobe Illustrator follows, i.e. each part of the drawing is on a different layer and can be shown or hidden, adaptations are easy. You can also create your own templates and save them as such. This make access easier the next time, when you just need smaller changes for the next print / production / creation.

New features

One of the big new features, Adobe Illustrator offers, is a 3-D tool. You can both automatically blow up items to a 3-D appearance or instruct the software manually about the exact details and measurements. It really is surprisingly easy and effective.

Font support is very well provided, supporting open fonts and providing a wide range of fonts.

Benefits

A big benefit of using Adobe graphical programmes in general is the integrator of Illustrator CS with both Photoshop CS, other Adobe Programs as the Adobe Acrobat 6.0 professional and Microsoft's Office. Images can be transferred and adapted in the other software, copies in different formats can be kept. With the "Save for Microsoft Office" option compatibility with PowerPoint, Word and Excel is provided.

A big benefit for me was also the quickstart training video that is provided with the software. It provides an overview about what the software is able to do. The user guide coming with at purchase is also quite detailed and helpful. If I should recommend another book that allows you basically self-learning of the software, I'd propose "How to do Everything with Illustrator CS" by David Karlins - ISBN 0-07-223092-4, which is my favourite "Look-up guide".

I hope this op was a bit helpful for you, even though I think software programmes are difficult to report on, as everybody needs it for different purposes and jobs. But I tried, to give the my best possible overview.