[Editor’s note: I’ve been using CS5 for a while now and I think you’ll like it as much as I do. This release is focused on making existing work flows easier, faster, and more enjoyable. Check out the official promo at Adobe. Mordy has a great screencast showing off some of these features, as well.]
Joining lines
Freehand-style line joining! No longer required to select endpoints of two line, it just works with 2 or more lines selected. Did I mention it works on more than 2 lines at once? Super smart, huge time saver.
Caveat: if you are looking for very complicated GIS-style (angle, gap, etc) line joining, you’ll still need to use an advanced plugin. This one will work 90% of the time.
Select behind
Like Freehand and InDesign
Quibble: Doesn’t work on strokes, only on fill
Symbols
Now can have layers! This will allow us to work around many long standing sublayer bugs.
Can have masks and not selectable beyond the mask (if content is not visible, it is not selectable)
Bounding box no longer includes guides
Selection based on content, not bounding box
Actually use the registration point
Can transform symbols with respect to the registration point.
9-slice scaling now works, have guides for them (important for preserving the shape of corners when scaled)
Breaking link to symbol preserves symbol sublayers
Can align the symbol content to the pixel grid (for pretty web output)
Quibble:Â Before you could register via the bounding box (using preview bounds). Now you can’t. Instead, set a key object and then use 0 as the offset and use the distribute space button.
Strokes
Variable width (think tapered streams, see screenshot below)
Better corner control (miter, see screenshot below)
Better dashing (including centering dashes on corners, see screenshot below)
Better arrowheads (registered to the tip of the line or beyond the tip of the line)
Setup width profiles (even on calligraphic brushes and pattern brushes)
Segmented art brushes (similar to 9-slice scaling for symbols, no longer distorted shapes)
Fills
Pattern fill now stable between artboards (they don’t shift)
Pixel Perfect Drawing
Get your artwork to the web with crisp, on pixel lines rather than grey anti-aliased crap.
Also Flash- and Photoshop-style text anti-alias settings
See pixel grid on zoom in
Quibble: only works at 100% 72 ppi. If you scale up your artwork to get it on the web via Save For Web, this will not work for you. You must scale it up before exporting.
Draw behind mode
Or in front or inside, like Flash.
Useful for cartoonists, especially.
Flash (FXG) exchange format
Better round tripping of graphics to Flash for interactive graphics
Made for working with Flash Catalyst
Artboards
Can now be named!
Easier to reorder, delete empty artboards
Can rearrange artboards automatically.
Rulers
Now measure Y down rather than up
Measure per artboard and globally.
Paste in same “relative” place across multiple artboards at once
Makes consistent with Photoshop, Flash, InDesign and most other design apps
For us programmers, the true mathematical Y measures up is still there, though
Shape builder
Making a map icon? You’ll find Shape Builder way more intuitive to use than the Pathfinder panel buttons
Just click and drag between part, kinda like Live Paint.
Resolution independent effects
Now changing the document raster effects resolution (or scaling the object up and down will NOT change the actual effect spread)
This is important for “design once, distribute in web, print, etc”
Eddy and I are very pleased to announce the release of the scripts library for the Adobe Software and desktop publishing and photography.
Pointing out the dispersion of the scripts over the Internet, we have decided to offer a unique space gathering the best in the automation field.
Javascript, Applescript, VisualBasic or action scripts will be warmly hosted here.
If you want to make part of this adventure and help us filling the base, don’t hesitate and contact us !
We hope you enjoy surfing on this site and using the scripts as much as we had creating Scriptopedia.org.
[Editor’s note: The 1.1 update is out for Color Expert, the interactive color wheel and swatch library that helps artists and designers identify, translate, capture and showcase color (iPhone + iPod Touch @ $10 or free update). New feature include top-level option to snap a picture and a utility that auto-extracts swatches from photos. Also adds sending of ASE files to open up your swatches in Adobe Create Suite desktop apps and CMYK values. Thanks Matheau!]
Unlimited Palettes, Unlimited Colors, Unlimited Power
Powerful, interactive Color Wheel with multiple color schemes including Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Split Complementary and Triadic. Custom colors can be added to any scheme to complement your harmonious palette. Color palettes include values for RGB, CMYK and Library values.
The quick to inspire Image Picker extracts dominant colors from any photo you throw at it—from your library or from your camera. Choose from the top 16 hits, or drag the screen to add your own colors, loupe and all. Color palettes include values for RGB, CMYK and Library values.
Deftly search through PANTONE® solid coated, PANTONE® solid uncoated, PANTONE® Goeâ„¢ coated, PANTONE® Goeâ„¢ uncoated, Web Safe Colors, HTML Colors. And with version 1.1, we’ve added the PANTONE® fashion + home libraries. Swatch info includes RGB, HSB and Hex. Most libraries even include Lab and CMYK.
Color Expert’s exclusive “snap & tap” technology. Just snap a photo and let your finger select that perfect color. From your eyes to the screen.
Send palettes to yourself or to friends via email. And new to version 1.1, you can use those palettes in your favorite design applications by including Adobe Swatch Exchange files.
I’m still digging out from the big storm this weekend in Washington, DC. I received 24″ at my house, ranged from 14″ to over 30″ in the metro area with heaviest around Columbia, Maryland. I worked during the storm and Laris and I tallied the NWS weather spotter reports of snowfall and used the GIS to krig the a map of average depth from about 50 points (which had to be filtered to remove expired values). Then used Illustrator’s Live Trace functionality to vectorize. Preview above (for the local home page promo which didn’t have room for legend, so directly labeled the contours), full graphic below with explainer of how the storm happened (with Laura and Larry).
[Editor’s note: Their screencast is impressive. Background app that tracks file time usage for billing and how your files are related to each other (what’s placed where) and can search inside documents for layer names, etc). Sounds like a version of Adobe Bridge that’s actually useful!]
Flow is the world’s first Visual Workflow Manager, built from the ground up to keep creative professionals streamlined and informed. Flow gives you a total understanding of your project, visually and intuitively. In one simple interface, you’ll see all your project files, how they’re related to each other, and where they’re located – on a local drive, on a network volume, even on a DVD you burned a few months ago.
This new birds-eye-view of your project gives you instant access to any file you need—and any version of that file, even if you’ve overwritten it while making changes. Flow even alerts you if you try to modify or delete a file that you shouldn’t. Bottom line: no more lost files, no more accidents, and no more all-nighters. You’ll find yourself delivering everything right the first time—without doing anything different.
John Nack, Principal Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop, calls Flow “one of the slickest, most potentially transformative applications I’ve seen in years.” Could it transform the way you work? Check out Flow’s features to find out.
[Editor’s note: Expression Builder gets a needed upgrade, too, and the web map authoring tool’s new features deserve a second look. The ESRI GeoDB support (Windows only for now) comes with a $349 upgrade price tag for existing maintenance customers. I’d like to see scripting (recordable with Illustrator actions) in their next release, and a method to export cut map tiles for mashups.]
Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce the release of MAPublisher 8.2 for Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher 8.2 is the latest version of this powerful mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution and now offers support for both creating geospatial PDF files from within Adobe Creative Suite and importing GIS map data directly from ESRI geodatabases.
MAPublisher 8.2 for Adobe Illustrator is a full product upgrade that is free of charge to all current MAPublisher Maintenance Program subscribers and replaces the current shipping version of MAPublisher, version 8.1, for all new customers using Adobe Illustrator CS3 and/or CS4.
“MAPublisher 8.2 is another major advance for this powerful and widely used cartographic and map-design platform,†said Ted Florence, President of Avenza, “MAPublisher now offers the first and only solution for creating geospatial PDF files from within Adobe Creative Suite and with the inclusion of import support for ESRI geodatabases offers a truly comprehensive map design and publishing solution.†he added.
MAPublisher 8.2 includes all the significant functionality introduced in earlier releases of MAPublisher as well as the following new features and enhancements.
New Features of MAPublisher 8.2 for Adobe Illustrator
Export to Geospatial PDF with optional retention of attributes and referencing for re-import to Illustrator
Support for the new MAPublisher spatial database import system for ESRI geodatabases (additional license required. Windows only)
Upgraded functionality for the MAPublisher LabelPro collision-free rule-based labeling system (additional license required)
Dozens of improvements & enhancements for the MAP Web Author Tool for automatic creation of interactive Flash maps
New MAP Measurement tool for measuring lengths, perimeters and areas in page or map units
Import and export of KMZ files
Enhanced grid and graticule functionality with a number of new features including full support for rotated MAP Views
New functionality to create attributes for text objects from corresponding map features
New functionality to create a map index using additional feature attributes
Enhanced Expression Builder with recently used list and many new functions
Enhanced Preferences options includes dozens of new customizable items for most MAPublisher functions
Upgraded MAP View panels with new functionality
Various other user interface improvements and performance enhancements to improve usability
Features of the MAPublisher Geospatial PDF Exporter
The MAPublisher Geospatial PDF exporter offers the ability to generate Adobe Acrobat PDF files that contain all the cosmetic features of the completed Adobe Illustrator map document as well as all the GIS data attributes and co-ordinate information of the original GIS data files, such that within Adobe Acrobat the following functionality can be performed without the aid of any special tools, plugins or other special extensions to Adobe Acrobat.
View map locations in various coordinate systems including decimal degrees, DMS, Military Grid and more.
Find a location in a map and mark it with a comment
Measure distances on a map using real-world units (miles, kilometers, feet, etc.)
Reveal the attributes of map features by clicking on the feature within the map document
Search by map attribute values to reveal all map features that satisfy the query
Option to retain attributes and georeferencing for re-import to Illustrator/MAPublisher
Features of the MAPublisher spatial database importer
Direct import from ESRI Personal Geodatabase (requires ArcGIS license)
Direct import from ESRI File Geodatabase (requires ArcGIS license)
Direct import from ArcSDE servers (requires ArcGIS or ArcReader license)
Support for point, line, polygon and Bezier curve geometries
Support for Annotations
SQL attribute query support executed on import to enable import of specific features only
Spatial filter executed on data import to enable selective importation based on defined data extents
Support for subtypes and domains during import
The MAPublisher spatial database importer for Illustrator is available as an add-on option for MAPublisher 8.2, for Windows only, for US$599. MAPublisher users with active MAPublisher maintenance may purchase the MAPublisher spatial database importer for only US$349. New MAPublisher 8.2 licenses including MAPublisher spatial database functionality are US$1549. Academic, floating license and volume pricing is available. Prices include 1 year of maintenance. Full details are available at www.avenza.com.
More about MAPublisher for Illustrator
MAPublisher for Illustrator is powerful map production software for creating cartographic-quality maps from GIS data. Developed as a suite of plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator, MAPublisher leverages the superior graphics capabilities of this graphics design software for working with GIS data and producing high-quality maps with efficiency.
MAPublisher 8.2 for Illustrator is available free of charge to all MAPublisher for Illustrator customers with a valid maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance members at US$549. New licenses are US$1249. Academic, floating and volume pricing is available. Prices include 1 year of maintenance. Full details are available at www.avenza.com/mapublisher.
[Editor’s note: I’ve known about the FXG format for exchanging content between Illustrator and Flash via Flash Catalyst for a while now but have never been excited about it until seeing this video from Adobe’s MAX Sneaks session last week. It previews how FXG might one day (CS5?) allow live data binding (read automatically updating charting, etc) based on a design mocked up in Illustrator but deployed via Dreamweaver as HTML 5 (and iPhone compatible) or Flash via SWF.]
So take a look at this video that someone captured from this year’s Adobe MAX Sneaks session — a demo of technology showing integration between Illustrator and Dreamweaver. If it isn’t clear in the video clip below what is happening, I’ll spell it out for you: He starts by taking art drawn in Illustrator and copies it to the clipboard. Then he goes into Dreamweaver, selects a DIV and chooses a function called Smart Paste. Dreamweaver then pastes an FXG conversion of the Illustrator art directly into the page. If you aren’t familiar with FXG, it’s basically a better SVG (you can get more information on the open source FXG spec here). In other words, you draw in Illustrator, copy and paste into Dreamweaver (which converts it to code), and the art displays as vector art in a web browser. What’s more, the engineer proceed to actually bind XML data to the chart.
As I mentioned, I think this is probably something that is way way off in the future, but it’s still quite incredible. Maybe there’s some hope for us all, after all 🙂
UPDATE: Adobe has released a non-activation registration file to address Warning 1 below. Read more »
[Editor’s note: Cartographers still migrating to Illustrator from Freehand MX should be wary of upgrading to the new Mac OS as it breaks your Freehand install due to the licensing restrictions the app uses on startup. There is a workaround, but only if you have a volume (company) license code. Thanks Curt!]
I had been unable to replicate the success of others which was quite frustrating but I finally got everything working and wanted to post my solution. I think it either comes down to lack of complete details in the posted instructions, here is how I was able to get it working properly:
Step 1: Delete your local installation of Freehand. This *includes* the /Library/Application Support/Macromedia directory (well, place it on the desktop)
Step 2: Reinstall Freehand. VERY IMPORTANT—DO NOT RUN FREEHAND AFTER INSTALL OR PROCEDURE WILL FAIL
Step 3: Recreate the Macromedia directory
Step 4: Place your “FreeHand MXa Registration” file back into the newly created Macromedia directory
Step 5: Run Freehand
For whatever reason, this was the only way I was capable of repairing my licensed copy of Freehand. Simply updating the “FreeHand MXa Registration” file or installing a new copy ofFreehand *without* first removing the Macromedia directory did nothing to help my situation.
A couple of things you should be aware of:
Warning 1: You may need a serial number which starts with WPD700… [Editor: WPD700 serial numbers are volume (corporate) licenses, your personal license will likely not work.]
UPDATE: Adobe has released a non-activation registration file to address this. Read more »
Warning 2: If you had other registration information for Flash, Fireworks etc, you can safely move those back into the Macromedia directory.
I remember spending hours in my introduction to computer cartography lab class at Humboldt State University “building polygons” in the Adobe Illustrator design software package. We started with state “lines” and, one by one, duplicated and joined them into polygons by painstakingly selecting matching endpoints and cursing the Illustrator error dialogs that kept coming up. Fast forward 5 software versions and 10 years and we can now accomplish the same workflow in seconds using the new “Live Paint” feature available in version CS2 and newer. Maybe this is old news, but it’s sure makes things easier on the Natural Earth Vector project!
Download native Illustrator CS3 file and follow along with sample linework.
Step 1: Start with lines for 1st order, country, and hydro coast, rivers on separate layers (like you’d normally layer your map file).
Step 2: Duplicate all related lines onto one “building” layer (the next step would group originals if you don’t do here).
Step 3: Select all those duplicated “building” lines (interior state boundaries, exterior country boundary, and exterior shorelines for that country, the more linework, the slower it goes), choose the live paint tool and click on the selection. It will turn into a “live paint group”. If you are viewing the bounding box, it will appear slightly differently than normal handles (see below).
Step 4: Make sure the toolbox fill is a color like yellow (the default is set to no fill, so you won’t get the tool to work unless you change it). Click and drag the live paint tool over all implied polygons between lines. Watch them turn into filled polys!!!! If you don’t get an implied polygon to fill, try adjusting the gap tolerance at Object > Live Paint > Gap Options. The default settings worked fine for me, though. Not shown here are the reddish thick highlight around target polygons as the Live Paint tool is dragged acros the artwork.
Step 5: Once you’re done and all your implied polygons are colored in like a coloring book, expand the live paint group (Object > Live Paint > Expand, or use the Expand button on the control panel button strip). Ungroup twice (Object > Ungroup). The polys, lines, and hydro will all be on the building layer. Use select by similar to select just the filled polys you just made and move them to the First_order_admin_polys layer. Delete the left over country and hydro lines (you have originals elsewhere).
Step 6: Color code new state polygons and compound path related admin units (none in this instance). That’s it!
Ortelius was demonstrated at the AAG conference in Las Vegas in mid March and looks promising. It’s billed as an affordable middle-way between Adobe Illustrator + MaPublisher and ArcGIS and it works on Macs, which ArcGIS does not. It’s a graphics design package that can import shapefiles and purports knowing object topology. It also has an integrated database so you can view and edit map object attributes. Map projections are supported and the package comes with pre-loaded map files to get you started.
Ortelius is currently under development and version 1.0 will be available in the first quarter of 2009. The intention is to release standard and “pro†versions with a starting price of $79. Thanks to Martin for this tip.
and click on the selection. It will turn into a “live paint group”. If you are viewing the bounding box, it will appear slightly differently than normal handles (see below).
