Chapter7.Using Adobe Illustrator CS2

Chapter 7. Using Adobe Illustrator CS2

Illustrator is a program that seems to have an identity crisis. By that, I mean it's a tool that can do many of the things that InDesign can (such as page layout), and it can also do many of the things that Photoshop can (such as web design). Of course, there are also plenty of things that Illustrator alone can do (such as edit PDF files or create 3D graphics). As you'll see in this chapter, one thing is certain: Illustrator is a very deep program, with a wide range of features and uses.

What's New in Illustrator CS2?

If you've used Illustrator before, here's a quick overview of what's new in the CS2 version of Illustrator: a context-sensitive Control palette and the capability to save custom workspaces; a vector-tracing feature called Live Trace; a new and intuitive way to color artwork using a new Live Paint Bucket tool; enhanced support for Wacom tablets and the Wacom 6D pen; the capability to align strokes to the inside, outside, or center of a vector path; enhanced spot color support, including the capability to specify spot color drop shadows and to colorize grayscale images; PDF/X support and the capability to save tiled pages as multiple-page PDF files; strikethrough and underline attributes for text; support for Photoshop layer comps; and enhanced Flash export options and support for the SVG-Tiny and SVG-Basic wireless format standards.