Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems.

Systems

The latest version, Illustrator CS4, is the fourteenth generation in the product line. Numerous
new features include multiple artboards in a single document, a "blob brush" that is similar to the
brush in Adobe Flash,, and support for transparency in gradients among other features.

History
Version 1 (Illustrator 88)

Adobe Illustrator was first developed for the Apple Macintosh in 1986 (shipping in January
1987) as a commercialization of Adobe's in in-house font development software and PostScript file
format. Adobe Illustrator is the companion product of Adobe Photoshop.. Photoshop is primarily
geared toward digital photo manipulation and photorealistic styles of computer illustration,
illustration while
Illustrator provides results in the typesetting and logo graphic areas of design.. Early magazine
ads (featured in graphic design trade magazines such as Communication Arts)) referred to the
product as "the Adobe Illustrator". Illustrator 88 was released in 19
1988
88 and introduced many new
tools and features.

Versions 2–5

Although, during its first decade, Adobe developed Illustrator primarily for Macintosh, it
sporadically supported other platforms. In the early 1990s, Adobe released versions of Illustrator
for NeXT, Silicon Graphics IRIXIRIX, and Sun Solaris platforms, but they were discontinued due to
poor market acceptance. The first vers
version
ion of Illustrator for Windows, version 2.0, was released in
early 1989 and flopped. The next Windows version, version 4.0, was widely criticized as being
too similar to Illustrator 1.1 instead of the Macintosh 3.0 version, and certainly not the equal of
Windows'
indows' most popular illustration package CorelDraw.. (Note that there were no versions 2.0 or
4.0 for the Macintosh - although the second release for the Mac was titled Illustrator 88 - the year
of its release.) Version 4 was, however the first version of Illustrator to support editing in
preview mode, which did not appear in a Macintosh version until 5.0 in 1993.

Versions 6–10

Adobe Illustrator 10, The last version before the Creative Suite Rebrand
With the introduction of Illustrator 6 in 1996, Adobe made critical changes in the user interface
with regards to path editing (and also to converge on the same user interface as Adobe
Photoshop), and many users opted not to upgrade. Illustrator also began to support TrueType,
making the "font wars" between PostScript Type 1 and TrueType largely moot. Like Photoshop,
Illustrator also began supporting plug-ins, greatly and quickly extending its abilities.

With true ports of the Macintosh versions to Windows starting with version 7 in 1997, designers
could finally standardize on Illustrator. Corel did port CorelDRAW 6.0 to the Macintosh in late
1996, but it was received as too little, too late. Aldus ported FreeHand to Windows but it was not
the equal of Illustrator. Adobe bought Aldus in 1994 for PageMaker, and as part of the
transaction it sold FreeHand to Macromedia (which was later acquired by Adobe). Clarifying
difference in strengths between Photoshop and Illustrator with the rise of the Internet, Illustrator
was enhanced to support Web publishing, rasterization previewing, PDF, and SVG. Version 9
included a tracing feature, similar to that within Adobe's discontinued product Streamline.

Versions CS–CS4

Illustrator CS2 (version 12) to reflect its integration with the Adobe Creative Suite, was available
for both the Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the last version for the
Mac which did not run natively on both Intel and PowerPC processors. Illustrator CS was the
first version to include 3-dimensional capabilities allowing users to extrude or revolve shapes to
create simple 3D objects.

Among the new features included in Illustrator CS2 were Live Trace, Live Paint, a control
palette and custom workspaces. Live Trace allows for the conversion of bitmap imagery into
vector art and improved upon the previous tracing abilities. Live Paint allows users more
flexibility in applying color to objects, specifically those that overlap.

CS3 included interface updates to the Control Bar, the ability to align individual points, multiple
Crop Areas, the Color Guide panel and the Live Color feature among others.

CS4 was released in October 2008. It features a variety of improvements to old tools along with
the introduction of a few brand new tools. The ability to create Multiple Artboards is one of
CS4’s main additions. The Artboards allow you to create multiple versions of a piece of work
within a single document. Other tools include the Blob Brush, which allows you to make a more
natural paint brush stroke (reminiscent of Microsoft paint or other non-vector drawing programs)
which then becomes vectorized, and a new gradient tool that allows for more in depth
manipulation of colors.