• Take advantage of a more efficient workspace.

  
  

  Updated interface — Work efficiently with an interface common to Adobe Illustrator CS3, Photoshop® CS3, InDesign® CS3, and Flash® CS3 Professional software. Enjoy space-saving features such as a single-column toolbar and self-adjusting panels that dock out of your way as icons when not in use.

  Control panel — Discover more options faster by accessing anchor point controls, clipping masks, envelope distortions, and more from the context-sensitive Control panel.

  Custom workspaces — Optimize your screen area using custom workspaces that display only the panels you need for a specific task.

• Extend your creativity.

  
  

  Live Color — Explore, apply, and control color in a completely new color environment. Select any artwork and interactively edit the colors with live feedback, and use the Color Guide panel to quickly choose tints, shades, or harmonious color combinations.

  Live Trace — Quickly and accurately convert photos, scans, or other bitmap images to editable and scalable vector paths.

  Live Paint — Apply color to any area of your artwork and use overlapping paths to create new shapes with Live Paint, which intuitively colors artwork and automatically detects and corrects gaps.

• Work more productively.

  
  

  Integration with Adobe Flash — Import native Illustrator files into Flash CS3 Professional software, or copy and paste artwork from Illustrator to Flash with full fidelity.

  Integration with Adobe design applications — Open native Illustrator files in Photoshop and edit them using Smart Objects; place native Illustrator files in InDesign layouts and edit them in that application.

  Integration with Adobe video tools — Edit native Illustrator files in Adobe After Effects® CS3 and Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3 software for efficient motion graphics and video production.

  Adobe Bridge CS3 —Quickly organize, locate, and view all your creative assets using the Adobe Bridge CS3 visual file browser.

• Create more quickly.

  
  

  Improved operating performance — Stop waiting for the application to catch up with your hands and your thoughts now that Illustrator CS3 has been optimized for improved performance.

  Multi-threading enhancements — Scroll and zoom more quickly and enjoy snappier screen refreshes and overall responsiveness while working with complex artwork. Experience even greater performance on multi-CPU systems thanks to multi-threading advances.

• Design for the web, video and motion graphics, and mobile devices.

  
  

  Animations in Flash — Confidently use Illustrator artwork as the foundation of rich, interactive web animations.

  New Document Profiles — Jump-start web, video, and mobile artwork with profiles that set your artboard to the correct size, proper color mode, and raster effects setting, and can include title-safe guides, crops, and more.

  Save For Web/Mobile — Choose from HTML, SWF, GIF, and JPEG formats, as well as specific options for both web and mobile output.

  Adobe Device Central CS3 — Preview your artwork as it will appear on a variety of mobile devices.

• Take your text to a new level.

  
  

  OpenType® support — Simplify cross-platform font management and take advantage of alternate glyphs and extended character sets. More than 100 OpenType fonts are included with Illustrator CS3.

  Character and Paragraph Styles — Apply formatting to individual characters, lines of type, or entire paragraphs with a single click.

  Paragraph composition — Optimize line breaks throughout an entire paragraph with minimal hyphenation and better word and letter spacing.

  Transparent text effects — Expand your typographic options using ghosted text, transparent drop shadows with soft edges, and other effects for transparent text.

• Generate reliable output.

  
  

  PDF/X support — Create reliable, press-ready layouts using ISO-standard and ANSI-standard PDF/X formats.

  Near-universal graphic file format support — Work with almost any type of graphic file, including AI, PDF, EPS, SVG, Photoshop (PSD), TIFF, GIF, JPEG, SWF, and more.

  DeviceN colorspace — Place duotone or separated Photoshop images in Illustrator and preserve the file’s native color space with DeviceN support. Use multi-component and HiFi color, raster effects, transparency, and gradient meshes with confidence that your artwork will separate correctly.

  LAB spot colors — Create LAB spot colors and use predefined spot colors from the Toyo, PANTONE®, DIC, and HKS libraries.

  Intuitive printing interface — Enjoy consistent results with an intuitive, comprehensive printing interface that provides optimized presets for a wide variety of devices.

Macromedia FreeHand to Adobe Illustrator CS3 migration FAQ

Get answers to frequently asked questions about migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator.

View or download a PDF file (PDF, 166k)

FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide

Learn how to easily transition from FreeHand to Illustrator CS3 and discover the power of integration between all Adobe applications.

View or download a PDF file (PDF, 6.5M)

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator CS3 with Mordy Golding

Let Adobe Certified Expert, Adobe Certified Print Expert, and longtime production artist Mordy Golding show you how to migrate from FreeHand to Illustrator CS3 in this training video from lynda.com.

Watch the video

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator

Use this technical resource to learn the best way to move your legacy FreeHand content into Illustrator and handle different file formats.

View or download a PDF file (PDF, 1.0M)

Migrating from legacy versions of Illustrator

Learn how to transfer previous versions of your favorite designs to newer Illustrator releases and reap the benefits of integration with other Adobe products.

View or download a PDF file (PDF, 326k)

Migrating from CorelDRAW to Illustrator

Make your switch to Illustrator CS3 more streamlined with tips and techniques from this technical guide.

View or download a PDF file (PDF, 345k)

Adobe ICC profiles

Find out more about the Adobe RGB (1998) color image encoding used for the Adobe RGB (1998) color space.

Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP)

Find out about how Adobe's metadata technology is helping to create meaningful workflow solutions for content creators and industry partners alike.

Support for OpenType fonts

Illustrator CS3 provides advanced support for OpenType, the cross-platform font file format developed jointly by Adobe and Microsoft. Read all about the advantages of OpenType.

Adobe Print Resource Center

As a print production professional or designer, find the latest tools to help you meet the demands of your customers and partners. Find printing guides and other documentation to help you with the printing process.