7 thoughts on “New Features in Illustrator CS5

  1. Hi James – and all,
    One other nice little tweak relates to art brushes.

    In CS4 and previously if you used an art brush, the art was stretched along your path in its entireity.

    In CS5 you can now specify where the stretch happens. So, for a tapered stroke for example, you can specify that the stretch just happens between the tapers. So, however long your path is, you get consistent tapers at the ends – great for construction type lines.

    Adobe have a simple video demonstration here:
    http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-illustrator-cs5/using-enhanced-art-and-pattern-brushes-/

  2. The Width Tool is worth it on its own, specifically if you do any type of commercial Line drawings that need to be legible at any size. The fact that it remains a stroke gives you a lot more opportunity to play with line weights at different sizes while saving time.

  3. One other thing…

    I’ve just realised that the new pathfinder tool also works on lines – as well as closed shapes. This sounds minor, but trimming lines was a major pain in previous versions – now it’s just a simple click and drag. Fantastic!

  4. Simon says

    …I have to repeat what the other guys are saying, the tapering of strokes alone will make this worth buying – hours saved! Thanks for pointing it out.

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