Adobe Illustrator CS3

FAQ

Product information

What is Adobe Illustrator CS3?

Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software is the essential vector drawing tool for originating designs that go everywhere. The Adobe Creative Suite® 3 family of software offers a choice of design environments, and Illustrator CS3 is an integral part of each. Precision drawing and typographic controls, advanced live effects, powerful object blends, brushes, color exploration tools, and much more provide the vector tools you need, no matter what your medium.

What are the key new features and benefits of Illustrator CS3?

Illustrator CS3 — the 13th full release of Illustrator — delivers exciting new and enhanced features in three key areas: creative power, ease of use, and integration.

Creative power

Live Color

Explore, apply, and control color using Live Color, which lets you quickly create color harmonies and dynamically apply colors to artwork. Use the Color Guide panel to choose tints, shades, or harmonious color combinations, which you can save as Color groups in the Swatches panel. The Live Color dialog box lets you test alternative color schemes for a logo or create captivating color shifts for use in animations created with Adobe Flash® CS3 Professional. When you need to reduce the number of colors in your artwork, Live Color intelligently remaps existing colors to new colors based on parameters you define, such as restricting the colors to a specific color library.

Point selection

Anchor points now automatically enlarge as you mouse over them so they are easily seen and selected. Even with no objects selected, the cursor shows a large square anywhere it detects a point. There are also preferences for setting the selection tolerance and the display characteristics of anchor points and handles.

Path editing

Now access path-editing tools and options from the Control panel, first introduced in Illustrator CS2. When points are selected, the Control panel shows the tools to delete and add points, cut and join paths, or convert anchors to smooth or corner. A one-click option for hiding and showing control handles is included in the Control panel.

Point alignment

You can now align and distribute points in the same way as you align and distribute objects, with the needed options displayed in the Control panel. Points can also be aligned to the artboard or to a crop area.

Improved operating performance

The underlying architecture of Illustrator has been improved to enable you to work faster. Scroll, pan, zoom, move, scale, and transform objects more quickly. Enjoy more responsiveness when you're working on complex artwork. Multithreading advances translate into even better performance if you're using multiple CPUs.

Ease of use

Control panel

The context-sensitive Control panel now puts even more tools at your fingertips. Access anchor-point controls, selection tools, clipping masks, envelope distortions, and more, all displayed as needed in the Control panel depending upon the objects selected.

Eraser tool

The new Eraser tool provides a fluid and intuitive way to modify objects or create entirely new, organic shapes. Quickly remove areas of artwork as easily as you erase pixels in Adobe Photoshop® software by stroking with your mouse or stylus over any shape or set of shapes. New paths will automatically be created along the edges of your erased stroke with points laid down economically, but still preserving the smoothness of your erasure.

Isolation mode

Edit objects in a group without disturbing other parts of your artwork. Isolation mode let you easily select hard-to-find objects without having to restack, lock, or hide layers. All objects are grayed out except for the selected object to provide intuitive visual feedback.

Integration

Integration with Adobe Flash

Import native Illustrator files into Flash CS3 Professional, or copy and paste artwork from Illustrator to Flash with paths, anchor points, gradients, clipping masks, and symbols intact. Layers, groups, and object names are also preserved. In addition, Symbol options in Illustrator CS3 now include defining a symbol type as a movie clip or graphic symbol, assigning the symbol a registration location in Flash, and enabling guides for nine-slice scaling.

New Document Profiles

Create artwork quickly by selecting prebuilt profiles for all types of media, from print and web to video and mobile output. New Document Profiles specify setup parameters such artboard dimensions, video safe areas, styles, and color spaces

Crop Area tool

Interactively define rectangular crop areas for print or export. Choose from preset print, web, video, and mobile formats with options for safe areas, rulers, and more, and set crop marks intuitively. You can also define multiple crop areas and easily move between them as needed.

Adobe-standard user interface

The familiar Adobe interface is now more intuitive and consistent across components of the Creative Suite 3 family, making it even easier to move between Illustrator CS3 and Flash CS3 Professional, Photoshop CS3, and InDesign® CS3 software.

Who should use Illustrator CS3?

Illustrator CS3 is the essential tool for graphic artists, video professionals, web and interactive designers, and professionals in other industries who use graphics to communicate ideas visually in print, on the web, in motion graphics, and via mobile devices.

How does Illustrator CS3 integrate with other Adobe products?

Illustrator CS3 is tightly integrated with the entire family of Adobe professional design, web, and video and motion applications. Use native Illustrator files in Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, Flash Professional CS3, and Adobe After Effects® CS3 Professional software for efficient production and reliable output. The familiar Adobe interface is now more intuitive and consistent across components of the Creative Suite 3 family.

Are there differences between the version of Illustrator CS3 sold as a standalone product and Illustrator CS3 included in the Creative Suite 3 family editions?

There is no difference between the version of Illustrator CS3 included in the Creative Suite 3 family and Illustrator CS3 purchased separately. Both versions include the same features, functionality, and additional content, including Adobe Bridge CS3. For more information on Adobe Bridge CS3, see the FAQ for Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium.

Pricing and purchasing information

Visit the Adobe Store online.

Support information

In what languages will Adobe Illustrator CS3 be available?: In addition to Universal English, Adobe Illustrator CS3 will be available in these languages: Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Swedish.; WinSoft is also expected to release Arabic, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian versions of Illustrator CS3. For more details, visit the WinSoft website.
What is product activation?: Product activation is an interactive interpretation of the licensing agreement that has always existed between Adobe and its customers. The activation process authenticates licensed users without hindering their ability to use the software the way they always have. It requires a series of simple, quick, anonymous steps upon product installation or within the grace period set by Adobe. Just as creative professionals use watermarks to protect their digital photos and artwork, Adobe is using activation as a way to curtail unlicensed copying of its products.; Adobe's activation process is required on both Mac OS and Windows systems for all editions of Adobe Creative Suite 3 and related standalone products. For more information about activation, visit the software activation page.
Do Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications run on Intel® based Macs?: Yes, every edition of Adobe Creative Suite 3 — Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium, and Master Collection — plus all the standalone Creative Suite 3 applications fully support the new Intel based Macs. For complete system requirements, visit the area on Adobe.com for the product you are interested in.
Do Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications still run on legacy PowerPC® based Macs?: Many of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications are universal binary versions, which means they fully support both legacy PowerPC based Macs as well as the new Intel based Macs. However, Adobe is introducing three applications on the Mac platform — Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3, Encore® CS3, and Soundbooth™ CS3 — that will run only on the new Intel based Macs. Adobe Premiere Pro and Encore were previously available only on Windows, and Soundbooth is a brand-new offering. In bringing these applications to the Mac — and considering the hardware needs of most video professionals — it did not make sense to continue supporting an older computer architecture that Apple no longer sells or supports. This means that Creative Suite 3 Production Premium and Master Collection — both of which integrate Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Encore CS3, and Soundbooth CS3 — claim support only for Intel based Macs, even though components of each are universal binary applications.
Do Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications fully support the new Windows Vista™ operating system?: Yes, every edition of Adobe Creative Suite 3, and all of the individual applications, such as Adobe Illustrator CS3, After Effects® CS3 Professional, and Dreamweaver® CS3, fully support Windows Vista. They are designed to run on four editions of Windows Vista — Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions).
Why don't Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications support the Starter and Home Basic editions of Windows Vista?: The Starter and Home Basic editions of Windows Vista are entry-level operating systems for the casual user. They do not offer the level of support that Adobe's professional creative products require. However, some Adobe products designed for the more casual user, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, do run on Windows Vista Starter and Home Basic editions.
Do Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications run on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista?: While Adobe Creative Suite 3 software is natively 32-bit, these applications will run on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. For an in-depth overview of 64-bit computing and its value, please see the blog by Adobe Photoshop software architect Scott Byer.

Next steps

This content requires Flash

To view this content, JavaScript must be enabled, and you need the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player.

Download the free Flash Player now!