January 20, 2001
Untitled
I’ve always said that it pays to register your software, sometimes in ways you never imagine. Since I’m a registered user of Illustrator, Adobe sent me an email this past week requesting that I participate in a web-based survey pertaining to daily usage, feature needs, and other such market research. I’m sure tens of thousands of other registered uses received one as well. After perusing a couple of the questions specific to future features and enhancements, I really started wondering what Adobe had up their sleeve for the venerable victor of vector. Check out these two wish lists, copied from the survey. Enhancements you feel should be made to Adobe Illustrator:
- Apply freeform enveloping to text and artwork
- Apply vector-based (not raster) effects like drop shadow, bevel, emboss, and glow
- Apply warps to artwork
- Apply warps to text (as in Photoshop 6)
- Asset Management functionality (WebDAV support)
- Automate Illustrator through the use of JavaScript
- Change art to Symbols for space saving and convenient export
- Create and preview rollovers
- Create dynamic charts for web sites
- Create dynamic artwork (like Generator)
- Distort artwork using Liquify tools (ala Photoshop 6) that work on vector artwork
- Export HTML pages
- Export SVG-based filter effects (bevel, emboss, glow, shadow, etc.)
- Import SVG files
- Integrate more seamlessly with other Adobe products
- New tools for quickly drawing lines, arcs, grids, and flares
- Optimizing portions of artwork via CSS
- Optimizing portions of your artwork via slicing
- Path combining abilities like those in Photoshop 6
- Prepare a file for hand-off by including fonts and images
- Save selections for use at a later time
- Save text styles to apply globally
- Select vector artwork using a Photoshop-style Magic Wand
- Speed and performance improvements
- Support for metadata in XML format
- Use alternate font glyphs from OpenType fonts
Other possible enhancements to Adobe Illustrator:
- A more modern interface
- Automatically convert scanned photos into editable vectors (like Streamlines)
- Blend colors between two spot colors
- Color Adjustment controls (Curves, Levels, Variations)
- Create 3D type and objects
- Create artistic graphs using Excel data
- Create dimensions for lengths, arcs, diameter and circle center
- Create flowcharts
- Create multiple pages
- Customizable menus/palettes/tools
- Display dithered color for web output
- High-end typography enhancements
- Interactive/animated help
- Make all tools “live” like Illustrator’s 9.0 Effects
- Place a stroke on the inside or outside of a path
- Record an undo history like Photoshop’s history palette
- Simplify the process of creating gradient meshes
I shudder to think what “a more modern interface” could entail… Certain items from both of these lists popped up more than once through the course of the 64 question survey. Topics such as dynamic generation of illustrations from external data, automation via JavaScript, XML support, SVG import and export, and Cacading Style Sheets all made several appearances. The mind boggles at the possibilities. Adobe might just have an alternative cooking to counter much of what the new Macromedia/Allaire juggernaut has to offer. Illustrator has always been a powerhouse creative tool for static print media projects. I’ve been using it on everything from packaging to typeface design to flowcharting for nearly 14 years. If it could be turned into a dynamic content image engine using XML, SVG, and CSS — whoa. I won’t hold my breath, but something biggish is definitly afoot at the big red “A”.
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