Customer Reviews

Adobe Illustrator 10.0 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having been a working user since Illustrator 5.0, I've seen a great deal of changes in this fine design and production program. Adobe was in my opinion at their pinnacle with release 8.0. Version 9 added transparency effect, but it seemed to drag on the OS (9.x), and one huge change that was unnoticed by most designers put a huge thorn in the side of those working in print or production: Adobe changed their post script management in the exporting of most files to be ripped from true post script, to .pdf. This caused a myriad of problems in the rip world, where the "new and improved" .eps format would not rip, or caused serious rip problems, with images needed embedding (doubling or tripling the final file size), or other work arounds. Hence, many of us never used verion 9.0.

Now comes version 10. This version has the beautiful aqua interface, is much faster than version 9, and a lot of designers will love it for that. Have the problems been fixed? Well, no. As a matter of fact, some are worse. .eps files saved out of 10 as version 8.0 (to hopefully rip better) causes placed files to appear as fragmented, embedded, unnamed, files, causing a total re-design. Files with transparency often rip as solid blocks, or have Pantone colors fall out when used as transparency. While one could argue this is a problem with the rip, it's not the best business ethic to let your customers (production users) have to deal with these hassles, when they should have been ironed out between Adobe and other (rip) software manufacturers. Another feature that appeared in 9.0 is still useless: Automated (batching) actions. Illustrator 10 wants to name every single file the same as the file used in the writing of the action. Making what could be a huge, huge time saver for production works, totally useless. There are also network security issues, where OSX wants to hide AI 10 files when saved to a Windows based server. Adobe also missed the boat in that the save window doesn't allow anything other than the power user window in OSX, and won't allow collumn width adustments. Again, this may all be Apple, (or Windows). But I say iron these issues out before releasing the software and charging users for it, and letting them deal with the headaches.

But before I create a huge laundry list of things wrong with the program, Illustrator does deserve some praise. It's the best looking version to date, that isn't even close. It also makes jumping into basic design easier than ever. And it has many, many web friendly features. Most any designer out there working on basic (or complex) logos, designs and illustrations will find AI 10, for OSX to be the slickest version to date. So you're likely to see a lot of 5-star reviews from those users.

Bottom line: If you're a designer working in OSX, this is a much faster, and nicer version than 9. But a lot of prepress and production workers who use Illustrator day in and day out for print export and rip are going to find the program still has several problems that make it very difficult to use in a production environment. And as that was once Adobe and Illustrator's bread and butter, it leaves me having to give this somewhat negative review.

If you are thinking of using this program without having any art ability, I have one word for you: DON'T. Unlike Photoshop, which can be used by people with a variety of image needs, with Illustrator you better already be an artist. I am an artist and this program is taking everything I've got. I find it extremely difficult. This is not to say that it is more or less difficult than any other drawing based art program, just that it is hard. I've always been a better painter than a drawer so that could well be bedeviling me in learning it too. What lowers the grade to a 4 though is that Illustrator 10 seems to have a lot of bugs when you use it on Windows XP, which is what I'm using. I notice another reviewer here catalogs all the problems it presents on a Mac so I caution you that installing it on Windows may not solve those problems. Perhaps Adobe just rushed it a bit prematurely into production. If you go to the Adobe website and then to the Illustrator User Forums, you can see all the computer bugs that users are running into with Illustrator 10. That can give you a better idea than I ever could about some of the problems you will need to work around after installation... The reason I went with this program is that it is the one that is the industry standard. It is also the drawing program taught in most colleges' commercial art departments. Apparently some advanced drawers also use a program called Freehand so you might want to read about that one as well before taking the plunge with Illustrator 10.

Adobe no longer supports version 10. My software has stopped working, I have uninstalled and re-installed, and they are instructing me to buy the new $499 version when my 10.0 version is only two years old. They "do not" support version 10 any longer.

Frankly, with this policy, I'll be hard pressed to ever buy another Adobe product.

Before I begin, let me say this: Illustrator as a whole is a good product. Unfortunately, Version 10 is not. In fact, I am surprised it ever made it passed Beta testing. I am constantly plagued with "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." Adobe's programmers have also been playing with the grouping commands, and have failed address a significant (and obvious) flaw when attempting to align groups.

Yes, the ability to create symbols is incredibly helpful. And while the new morphing utilities are also quite interesting, the new features in Illustrator 10 have not outweighed its shortcomings. Perhaps when Adobe comes out with a patch for this block of wood I'll come back, but until then I'll continue using verion 9.

Great new features finally bring Illustrator up to and even beyond Xara levels, but the program is full of bugs and cannot export a decent PDF, bitmap or vector file. Even Photoshop compatibility is compromised as Illustrator vectors turn into jagged, aliased shapes when pasted into Photoshop. What an embarrassment! I suggest you get a copy of Xara--for a third of Illustrator's price, and you'll never look back. Otherwise, spend your money and suffer.

I have been a Graphic Designer for 6 years and I have been using Illustrator the whole time. The program has been upgraded with some good new features, although Corel (which is evil) has Illustrator beat with the Envelope feature. Illustrator is EXTREMELY glitchy with XP. I find that it works well with 2000 and even 98. This is the program to get if you are in the field of Graphic Art, I have been teaching it for 3 years as well and new users really enjoy this Program. Once you get the basics down you can go many places with Illustrator.

The composer Federico Busoni had a habit of writing music that was difficult to execute, technically. He didn't do so because particular musical ideas demanded it; his aim was merely to prevent amateurs from playing his works. I was somewhat reminded of him coming to Adobe Illustrator 10 after the intuitive logic of Xara X. Even though I am acquainted with the complex Adobe-style interface through Photoshop 7, Illustrator again has me convinced that Adobe program-designers go out of their way to make things deliberately esoteric. Now, that would be understandable and forgivable if the complex interface were necessitated by a wealth of options not offered by other vector programs. But though Illustrator 10 does offer a few extra's not available in Xara X (and no doubt the new Illustrator CS has yet a few more), none of these are essential and some are no more than fairly lame gimmicks ('lens flare', for instance). Other tools such as the scissors, the knife, or the magic wand may seem handy at first, but soon they reveal themselves to be just extra buttons for functions that Xara performs equally well simply using the line or shape tools. Of course, Illustrator being touted as the 'industry standard' for vector editing, you may want to pay the exorbitant price of this program merely to boost your self-confidence and credibility as a graphic artist. Some peer pressure may do the rest - according to some, if you don't use Illustrator, you're no more than a wannabee... But don't you believe them! I have yet to come across the first piece of vector art that was done in Illustrator and would be impossible to do in Xara. In fact, Xara is every bit as powerful as Illustrator, yet is generally faster, much easier to use, very visually oriented, with an uncluttered, cleverly thought out interface and lots of straightforward drag-and-drop functions. So if you define yourself as a graphic artist through your work rather than through your 'professional' (i.e. expensive) tools, I would advise you to save yourself a lot of money, a lot of time learning a needlessly complicated interface, and go for Xara X. After all, who ever heard of Busoni?

Where every Illustrator wants her but only Adobe Systems users dared to love her. It's like moving from "Vanilla Sky: Open Your Eyes landscapes" to "Moulin Rouge!"original, daring, shocking music and dance numbers. Enter the world of possible dreams and creative design work.

Adobe rewards graphic artists and PC Window users by giving them the necessary tools to fashion their original designs. Designers, Illustrators, graphic artists and PhotoShop users now can work their web design projects in harmony with Macromedia Flash and Adobe System programs.
What does Adobe Illustrator 10 offer graphic designers?

* Web Optimization Expansion. New slicing tools make Illustrator 10 an ideal choice for web development. Automatic object-based slicing combined with support for CSS layers can be used to create layer-based alternatives. Object-based slicing makes web pages loads faster.

* Symbols. In practice it works like a scatter brushes, with dialog box settings determining symbol density, size and area covered. Graphics can be modified using any of the symbolism tools which includes the symbol scruncher, shifter, styler, screener, spinner and sizer.

* Object-based slicing. New slicing tools make Illustrator 10 an ideal choice for web development. Automatic object-based slicing combined with support for CSS layers can be used to create layer-based alternatives.

* Dynamic data-driven graphics. Illustrator 10's Dynamic data-driven graphics lets you automate your artwork by linking graphics to a database.

* Enhanced SWF Flash support. Illustrator 10 has enhanced SWF support as in Macromedia Flash files allow graphic artist to add blurs and drop shadows to their vector artwork.

* Release to Layers command. You can take all the objects in a given layer and assign each object its own layer, which is useful for web animation. The Layers functions are useful to web designers using Adobe Illustrator 10 for improving their drawings. The new release Layers to flash function allows Illustrator 10 to be used to produce morphing object and animation effects.

* Transparency Palette. Adobe Illustrator 10 enhances the Transparency palette. You can now apply varying levels of transparency to any object, bitmap or type character. You can apply transparency to layers, groups of objects, knockout shapes, stroke and fill. Also, you can create special effects, such as confining blending to a group of objects. Now, graphic artist can create graduated transparencies on blends.

* New Styles Palette. Apply drop shadows, glows, scribbled outline effects or dozens of other visual effects to any object or text. The text remains fully editable.

* Pixel Preview Mode. Pixels are now supported as a measurement method. The new Pixel Preview mode allows you to preview your vector objects, as they would appear in a web browser. Objects snap to the nearest pixel edge in the document.

* Preview up to four different optimization settings for output to JPEG, GIF, PNG-8 or PNG-24 formats files. Now, you can adjust the resulting image quality, file size, blur, and number of colors in the image.

Pro Comments
Noted are Adobe Illustrator 10's new Symbols, Object-based slicing, Dynamic data-driven graphics and enhanced SWF support. Adobe Illustrator 10 has better Opacity masks, Layer Clipping masks and Feathering functions, and overprint preview. Adobe Illustrator 10 has Live Enveloping to create quick 3D simulations with more compact graphic files. Excellent hardcopy manual for learning how to use Adobe Illustrator 10 comes with the program. (No Missing Manual.)

Con Comments
Noted was the missing companion CD with Adobe Illustrator graphics that comes standard with Adobe PageMaker Plus application. Cannot generate JavaScript rollovers or GIF animation directly. Also, some of the Selection tools can be confusing. I found that Masking tool some times flattens layers.

Final Notes
No Limits, one rule, fall in love once again with Adobe Illustrator. Where the visual imagery strikes new emotions in you.
The most important changes to Illustrator 10 is its ability to work better, quicker and more effiicent with one's web design projects. Illustrator 10 combines illustration tools with improved typographic control and image support. Adobe Illustrator 10 offers graphic artist and web designers more flexibility, better integration, along with new object effects.

What a journey Adobe Illustrator 10 takes you on. A journey I will be sure to repeat over and over again.

Paul Gerstenbluth is President of the ARIE Foundation and is a Macintosh consultant. Visit his website at: [URL] today.

My Illustrator 10 it wouldn't work on Vista Home Premium 64 bit until in the Vista properties box for Illustrator 10 (to find properties right click on the Illustrator logo in the start menu) under the compatibility tab check the: Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows XP (service pack 2). Also Illustrator 10 runs fine in Vista 32 bit as well, if you have trouble with it try what I did for my vista 64 bit.

A clear fresh breeze that is what Illustrator 10 is compared to previous versions, particularly no 7. When I went to uni I was confronted with no 7 and it's inabilities, I was so annoyed over how hard it was to make the easiest thing and how un-intuitive this software was - but it has gotten so much better since. Sure it still isn't the most intuitive way to work with drawings when you put out two anchor points and create a shape from that, but the things you can do when you have learned how to work around your natural way of drawing it's excellent. No of undo's has increased, transparency works better a long with the new tools, it's great.