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Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based drawing program developed and marketed by Adobe Systems.

History

Versions 1–88

Adobe Illustrator was first developed for the Apple Macintosh in 1986 (shipping in January 1987) as a commercialization of Adobe's in-house font development software and PostScript file format. Adobe Illustrator is the companion product of Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is primarily geared toward digital photo manipulation and photorealistic styles of computer illustration, while Illustrator provides results in the typesetting and logo graphic areas of design. Early magazine ads (featured in graphic design trade magazines such as Communication Arts) referred to the product as "the Adobe Illustrator". Illustrator 88 was released in 1988 and introduced many new tools and features.

Versions 2–5

Although Adobe developed Illustrator primarily for the Macintosh during its first decade, it sporadically supported other platforms. In the early 1990s, Adobe released versions of Illustrator for NeXT, Silicon Graphics IRIX, and Sun Solaris platforms, but they were discontinued due to poor market acceptance. The first version of Illustrator for Microsoft Windows, version 2.0, was released in early 1989, but it was a flop. The next Windows version, version 4.0, was widely criticized as being too similar to Illustrator 1.1 instead of the Macintosh 3.0 version, and certainly not the equal of Windows' most popular illustration package CorelDraw. (Note that there were no versions 2.0 or 4.0 for the Macintosh - although the second release for the Mac was titled Illustrator 88 - the year of its release.) Version 4 was, however the first version of Illustrator to support editing in preview mode, which did not appear in a Macintosh version until 5.0 in 1993.

Versions 6–10

With the introduction of Illustrator 6 in 1996, Adobe made critical changes in the user interface with regards to path editing (and also to converge on the same user interface as Adobe Photoshop), and many users opted not to upgrade. Illustrator also began to support TrueType, making the "font wars" between PostScript Type 1 and TrueType largely moot. Like Photoshop, Illustrator also began supporting plug-ins, greatly and quickly extending its abilities.

With true ports of the Macintosh versions to Windows starting with version 7 in 1997, designers could finally standardize on Illustrator. Corel did port CorelDRAW 6.0 to the Macintosh in late 1996, but it was received as too little, too late. Aldus ported FreeHand to Windows but it was not the equal of Illustrator. Adobe bought Aldus in 1994 for PageMaker, and as part of the transaction it sold FreeHand to Macromedia (which was later acquired by Adobe). Clarifying difference in strengths between Photoshop and Illustrator with the rise of the Internet, Illustrator was enhanced to support Web publishing, rasterization previewing, PDF, and SVG. Version 9 included a tracing feature, similar to that within Adobe's discontinued product Streamline.

Versions CS–CS4

Illustrator CS2 (version 12) to reflect its integration with the Adobe Creative Suite, was available for both the Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the last version for the Mac which did not run natively on both Intel and PowerPC processors. Illustrator CS was the first version to include 3-dimensional capabilities allowing users to extrude or revolve shapes to create simple 3D objects.

Among the new features included in Illustrator CS2 were Live Trace, Live Paint, a control palette and custom workspaces. Live Trace allows for the conversion of bitmap imagery into vector art and improved upon the previous tracing abilities. Live Paint allows users more flexibility in applying color to objects, specifically those that overlap.

CS3 included interface updates to the Control Bar, the ability to align individual points, multiple Crop Areas, the Color Guide panel and the Live Color feature among others.

CS4 is set to be released in October of 2008. It features a variety of improvements to old tools along with the introduction of a few brand new tools. The ability to create Multiple Artboards is one of CS4’s main additions. The Artboards allow you to create multiple versions of a piece of work within a single document. Other tools include the Blob Brush, which allows you to make a more natural paint brush stroke (reminiscent of Microsoft paint or other non-vector drawing programs) which then becomes vectorized, and a new gradient tool that allows for more in depth manipulation of colors.

Branding

Starting with version 1.0, Adobe chose to license an image of Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" from the Bettmann Archive and use the portion containing Venus' face as Illustrator's branding image. Warnock desired a Renaissance image to evoke his vision of Postscript as a new Renaissance in publishing, and Adobe employee Luanne Seymour Cohen, who was responsible for the early marketing material, found Venus' flowing tresses a perfect vehicle for demonstrating Illustrator's strength in tracing smooth curves over bitmap source images. Over the years the rendition of this image on Illustrator's splash screen and packaging became more stylized to reflect features added in each version.

The image of Venus was replaced (albeit still accessible via easter egg) in Illustrator CS (11.0) and CS2 (12.0) by a stylized flower to conform to the Creative Suite's nature imagery. In CS3, Adobe changed the suite branding once again, to simple colored blocks with two-letter abbreviations, resembling a periodic table of elements. Illustrator was represented by the letters Ai in white against an orange background (oranges and yellows were prominent color schemes in Illustrator branding going back as far as version 4.0). The CS4 icon looks identical, except for the letters which are dark gray in color.

Internationalization and localization

Language Availability

Adobe Illustrator CS4 is available in the following languages: Arabic (Middle Eastern version), Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Hebrew (Middle Eastern version), Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Turkish,Indonesia, Ukrainian.
Adobe Illustrator Middle Eastern language versions available from WinSoft..

Specific Features for Arabic and Hebrew languages

The Middle Eastern/Hebrew and the Middle Eastern/Arabic versions are specifically developed for Arabic and Hebrew languages.

Text Settings

Illustrator Middle Eastern versions come with special settings for typing and laying out Arabic or Hebrew text, such as:

Possibility to use Arabic, Persian or Hindi digits
Use kashidas for letter spacing and full justification
Set vowels /diacritics positioning
Ligature option
Justify text in three possible ways: Standard, Arabic, Naskh

Additional Fonts

Illustrator Middle Eastern versions support most fonts shipped with the OS as well as a large number of third party fonts widely used by graphic designers in the Middle Eastern regions.
Illustrator Middle Eastern versions install one additional font that facilitates your work in Middle Eastern languages: WinSoft Pro, which is available in four styles: Medium, Medium Italic, Bold and Bold Italic.

Bi-directional Text flow

In Illustrator Middle Eastern versions, the notion of right-to-left behaviour applies to several objects: Story, Paragraph and Character. You can easily mix Right-to-Left and Left-to-Right Words, Paragraphs and Stories in a document.

Dictionary and Hyphenation Module

Illustrator Middle Eastern versions come with a comprehensive dictionary for Arabic allowing you to spell check Arabic text with a choice of rules, like Strict Aleef Hamza, Strict Final Yaa, both or none.
Illustrator Middle Eastern versions come with a Dictionary and Hyphenation Module for Hebrew.

Find / Replace

You can search for and change specific occurrences of Middle Eastern text. Illustrator Middle Eastern versions include a "Ignore Accent" option. When checked, the user can search for a string of text whether it contains some accents or not.

Import/Export Options for ME characters

Illustrator Middle Eastern versions include improved import and export options for RTF, Unicode, Word, Freehand, CorelDraw, PDF, SVG, PSD, EPS, EMF and DXF/DWG files including Middle Eastern text.
Encodings has been added for Middle Eastern characters to facilitate text import and export, Save for Web and DXF/DWG file import.

Freehand Hebrew text

Illustrator Middle Eastern versions come with an enhanced filter to import Macromedia Freehand Hebrew files.

The Middle Eastern versions are also available for Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy, Adobe Dreamweaver and for Adobe Creative Suite (Design Standard, Design Premium, Web Premium).

Release history

Version	Platforms	Release date	Code name
1.0	Mac OS	January 1987	Picasso
1.1	Mac OS	March 19 1987	Inca
88	Mac OS	March 1988
2.0	Windows	January 1989	Pinnacle
3	Mac OS, NeXT, other Unices	October 1990	Desert Moose
3.5	Silicon Graphics	1991
4	Windows	May 1992	Kangaroose
3.5	Solaris	1993
5	Mac OS	June 1993	Saturn
5.5	Mac OS, Solaris	June 1994	Janus
4.1	Windows	1995
6	Mac OS	February 1996	Popeye
7	Mac/Windows	May 1997	Simba
8	Mac/Windows	September 1998	Elvis
9	Mac/Windows	June 2000	Matisse
10	Mac/Windows	November 2001	Paloma
CS (11)	Mac/Windows	October 2003	Pangaea/Sprinkles
CS2 (12, 12.0.1)	Mac/Windows	April 27, 2005	Zodiac
CS3 (13)	Mac/Windows	April 2007	Jason
CS4 (14)	Mac/Windows	October 2008	Sonnet