ksbolduan@amherst.bitnet (11/28/90)
Well, I just got my copy of Illustrator 3.0. Wow. Actually, since I'm a dyed-in-the-wool FreeHand 2.02 user, I'm a bit skeptical about learning something new. But, if nothing else, the ability to make outlines out of fonts (wihtout buying Metamorphosis et. al.) is absolutely indispensible! Any comments, reactions, insights, ideas, neato, undocumented, or otherwise just way cool things to do with this new gem? Just thought I'd open the bandwidth to some discussion. Kevin Bolduan KSBOLDUAN@AMHERST P.S. I still think that FreeHand is a better program, and when 3.0 comes out next quarter, Illustrator will probably find a semi-permanent home on the shelf. P.P.S. I looked through the manual, but can't seem to find anyway to ALIGN objects. It _must_ be possible, e.g., to align centers, tops, distribute, etc., just like FreeHand's ALIGN command. All Illustrator knows about "Alignment" in the index is Left, Center, Right, and Justified!
egapmh@uncecs.edu (Paul M. Hudy) (11/28/90)
In article <11313.2752d91d@amherst.bitnet>, ksbolduan@amherst.bitnet writes: > Well, I just got my copy of Illustrator 3.0. > Wow. > Actually, since I'm a dyed-in-the-wool FreeHand 2.02 user, I'm a bit skeptical > about learning something new. But, if nothing else, the ability to make > outlines out of fonts (wihtout buying Metamorphosis et. al.) is absolutely > indispensible! Any comments, reactions, insights, ideas, neato, undocumented, > or otherwise just way cool things to do with this new gem? Just thought I'd > open the bandwidth to some discussion. > > Kevin Bolduan > KSBOLDUAN@AMHERST > > P.S. I still think that FreeHand is a better program, and when 3.0 comes out > next quarter, Illustrator will probably find a semi-permanent home on the > shelf. > > P.P.S. I looked through the manual, but can't seem to find anyway to ALIGN > objects. It _must_ be possible, e.g., to align centers, tops, distribute, etc., > just like FreeHand's ALIGN command. All Illustrator knows about "Alignment" in > the index is Left, Center, Right, and Justified! Aligning of text blocks (or anything else in Illustrator) can be done using the "average" command. With average, you have a choice of averaging the position of items along the horizontal, vertical axis or both. I have seen this tip several places, but it is mentioned in the documentation that came with 3.0 - maybe in the advanced techniques book. It is a great way to align - right or left justified lists of text, etc. Illustrator is and always has been a great program. I've been using exclusively since 1987. Some of the particularly good features of 3.0 that I have found so far are: 1. It comes bundled with ATM. I already had a copy, but you can't beat the value. 2. As already mentioned, the ability to make outlines from fonts is wonderful. 3. The way it treats text matches and sometimes exceeds the layout programs like Pagemaker and Quark. I have stopped using PM for my 1 page projects. 4. The font menu is superb. It has some Type Reunion-like features. Groups fonts by main families with the attributes -bold, oblique, etc on a tear-off menu on the side. Very streamline. Then it stores the fonts you have selected and shows *only* those fonts in the main font selection menu. Sort of like user selected default fonts for that document. You don't have to look at the numerous fonts you *haven't* used for that document. 5. All the fancy text bells and whistles are added - text along curved paths, circles, rectangles, linked across paths, inside shapes (boxes, circles, others) , etc. They are implemented simply, but powerfully. 6. The direct select tool is very handy. Modify attributes of an object residing within "grouped" objects without having to ungroup. 7. Graphs can be generated directly from inputted or imported data. The graphs can then be customized in any way you desire. Good-bye Excel graphs. 8. Implementation of "compound paths" - the ability to see thru objects - ie. the donut effect is very nice. 9. The toolbox menu has been reworked and allows the user to set their preferences to what versions of each tool they want in the tool box. 10. There are loads of other features. There even seems to be the ability to append your own bit of custom postscript code to file if you so desire. Hmmmm. Anyway, take a look at 3.0. It is very nice! -Paul Hudy <egapmh@ecsvax>
robertw@informix.com (Robert Weinberg) (11/29/90)
One of the nicest practical features of Illustrator 3.0 is the ability
to Preview just a selected object. This is a great speed-up, since a
good deal of the time you only want to preview the object you are
currently modifying.
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