Adobe Illustrator CS4 Details Released!

If you aren’t aware, Adobe is announcing the CS4 update the their Creative Suite design software package today. Photoshop always gets the spotlight, but us vector artists want the scoop on our baby: Illustrator CS4. I guess the gag order was lifted as of midnight, because details are pouring in, and even Adobe has updated their site to feature CS4.

Illustrator guru Mordy Golding over on his Real World Illustrator blog has a nice detailed overview of the major new features and refinements in Illustrator CS4.

Some of the features that have got the vector geek in me drooling:

Blob Brush: Create a single, clean vector shape as you sketch, even when strokes overlap. Use the Blob Brush tool together with the Eraser and Smooth tools for natural vector painting. Just the other day I was wishing Art Brushes has live previews as the calligraphic brushes do. This sounds like just that and a whole lot more. Excellent!

Gradients: Each gradient stop now has an opacity slider, the ability to edit gradients in-context, directly on the artboard. How it should have been all along.

Clipping Masks: Masked artwork is now truly hidden-from view and from your selection tool (for clipping masks, not for layer clipping masks).

In-panel appearance editing: Edit object characteristics directly in the Appearance panel, eliminating the need to open fill, stroke, or effects panels. Work with shared attributes and control display for faster rendering. This sounds like a HUGE timesaver.

Isolation Mode: You can now isolate individual path objects, and you can double click to edit the contents of the new clipping masks.

Bleed: Illustrator now has bleeds. Finally. Sheesh Adobe, what took so long?

Improved tablet support: Illustrator CS4 includes some important enhancements around the area of Wacom tablet support, most significantly in how pen rotation is processed. Paths drawn with the new Blob brush and the Calligraphic brushes are now more precise and respond to gestures better. More pressure sensitivity and control in Illustrator CS4. Yes!

Drag Images from Web Browser directly into Document: Needs no explanation, and awesome.

Supposedly one of the huge features people have been drooling for is multiple document/page features. While this isn’t something that has bothered me, perhaps it’s something I have been so used to finding workarounds for that I didn’t realize I could use it. Will have to wait and see on that one, but if you’ve been wanting it, it’s here now and supposedly pretty well-thought out.

To me, it sounds like a nice update to Illustrator. The new features sound like stuff you will actually use, instead of new splashes of arcane, clever tools that no one has the time to learn.

Geek link: for those wondering why CS4 is out so “quickly” since the CS3 release, I guess Photoshop/Creative Suite releases have always been 18–24 months between, at least according to Photoshop Product Manager John Nack.

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