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JETalmage
LEGEND
JETalmage
LEGEND
Activity
‎Apr 02, 2010
11:58 AM
You sure can apply a global drop shadow to contents of Area Type Optioned box No, you cannot. The content of a textFrame is a textRange (characters). You cannot apply Drop Shadow Effect at the character level; only at the level of the whole text object (the textFrame). In other words, as already explained, you cannot have both the company name and the "tm" in the same textFrame and have a live Drop Shadow applied to the company name, but not to the "tm". Your Character Style cannot contain a Drop Shadow. A Graphic Style can, but a Graphic Sytle also cannot be applied at the character level. JET
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‎Apr 02, 2010
10:28 AM
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE WHO CAN HELP? Depends on what you mean by "help." Are you asking someone to do the whole thing for you (would require more detail), or do you intend to do it yourself, but are stuck on something? (You say you "tried to work with ESTK" and "can't find anyone who really knows how to use ESTK correctly"; but you don't say specifically what you're struggling with in ESTK.) ...doc is already configured with art board, pre-defined type box (Area Type Optioned), Charater Styles, Drop Shadow parameters set. Much of what can be done with any approach depends largely upon what Appearances and/or Effects are involved, and where. You imply that you want all of the "logo" to be contained in a single textFrame object. But Drop Shadow Effect cannot be applied at the character level, so it can't be included in a Character Style. So if you don't want all the text to have the same drop shadow, you will be involving multiple textFrame objects. That will lead to the complication of having to position the two textFrames relative to each other, depending on their dimensions after the varying text is inserted. Retrieve the word string from a cell in Excel worksheet (or CSV??) With scripting, it would be inefficient and unnecssary to go back-and-forth to the spreadsheet to extract values one at a time. Typically, you would create an array containing the full set of values, and then iterate through the elements of the array. Some are single words, first letter capped. Some are two to four words Camel Cased. Example: "DinnerPartiestm". So you're going to need a sub-routine of some kind (in Javascript, a function) to find capital letters. There are two additional charaters "tm" at the end of the word string that will be acted upon... If this is the same in each instance, and if you are going to script this, there is no need to include it in the data. Insert the "tm" programmatically. That is, in Illustrator, "select" the type box so the cursor is at first position and place the word string — copy from Excel & paste into Illustrator? Using script, you don't have to select the textFrame, copy, or paste in order to insert content. You would declare a variable, assign its value (from the above-mentioned array), add the variable's value as text to textFrame's content. Apply character style 1— font with point size, letter spacing, stroke and colour (It just happens to be red). Example: DinnerPartiestm Here you will run into a difficulty inherent in Illustrator's poor implementation of stroked text. You can apply a Stroke at the Character level and include that Appearance in a Character Style. But Illustrator always positions such strokes in front of the fill--something you almost never want, because it "chokes" the fills, wrecking the shape of the characters. The workaround is to Add New Stroke and position that below the Characters listing in the Appearance Palette. But script provides no access to added strokes or fills and Added Strokes cannot be applied at the character level. Select all caps in word string. Example: DinnerPartiestm Illustrator cannot select discontiguous text strings. Again, script does not have to select objects in order to change their properties. Apply character style 2 — Caps Only (selected) — New point size, baseline offset. Example: DinnerPartiestm Apply character style 3 — last two letters only (selected) — New point size, change colour, baseline offset. Example: DinnerPartiestm The applyTo method of the CharacterStyle object. Or, just set the size and baselineShift properties of the characterAttributes property of the textRange directly. Apply Stylize > Drop Shadow — On contents of text box Drop Shadow Effect cannot be applied to the contents (character level) of a textFrame--only to the textFrame object itself. My very limited understanding of ESTK is that it is a scripting tool for use in Illustrator. It's a script text editor included with the Creative Suite. You can use it to build scripts for any of the CS products (or entirely other purposes, for that matter). Or, you can choose to not use it at all. A Javascript is just a text file. Tools like ESTK add conveniences, references, etc., geared toward scripting. So, I'm only acting on the word string.... But I am also not a coder... Which is why I would look into simpler already-built methods before jumping into a tedious solution scripted for Illustrator. For example: Many, if not most, AI users are familiar with InDesign. InDesign provides a proper dataMerge feature that can handle ordinary tab-delimited text. It's handling of strokes on text is correct, unlike Illustrator. If you set it up accordingly, it can create all the separate pages for you. You would: 1. Draw the fixed graphic in Illustrator. 2. Place the Illustrator graphic on InD's master page. 3. Set and style the text objects. Insert DataMerge tags. 4. Import the data and run the Merge function. InD builds individual pages for each row of the data. You're done. Export to PDF. InD and Acrobat also have their own scripting models. Either one can handle the specific naming convention, if really needed. Again, it depends on what exactly is "special" about the text object(s) you are manipulating with variable content. For example, if you're using an AI-specific Warp effect, you'd be back to Illustrator. Anyway, you want a paying gig? I do some freelance work as time permits and interest strikes, but I'm not cheap, and that's not why I frequent these forums. Scripting your solution entirely in AI may very well be possible, but whoever does it will need to see the specific objects, styles, etc., involved to avoid unnecessary guessing and time-consuming round-tripping. Why don't you post an image and/or an AI file? JET
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‎Apr 02, 2010
08:16 AM
It sounds like what you're trying to do might be appropriate for Illustrator's Variables feature. You can pre-stylize textFrame objects, "bind" those objects as variable text objects, and then replace their contents with DataSets (records). The iterations can then be automatically swapped-out and saved by running an ordinary Action in batch mode. The feature is dependent upon a cumbersome implementation of XML. For my own purposes, I hacked out a Javascript that creates DataSets from ordinary tab-delimited text. See the description and PDF example of JET_VariablesFTROU. Depending on how graphically-elaborate the styling of the variable elements, you may also find this much more direct by using InDesign's data merge feature. As for the re-formatting of the text strings, I'm wondering why you would want to do all that in Illustrator. Why not use the intelligence already built into a spreadsheet or database or even word-processor to do the necessary find/replace operations to insert spaces, special characters, etc.? (The values you're describing look like values that would have been auto-concatenated from separate field values to begin with.) Ideas for AI scripts often seem to want to reinvent the wheel. You also seem to be confusing Illustrator Actions with its scripting. Actions and scripts are two different things, and in Illustrator, they don't talk to each other very well. JET
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‎Apr 02, 2010
05:49 AM
Actually, the white layer is for light cutting. i mean that area will be transparent, so that light passes through that area If the purpose of the white is only to result in transparent areas when printing (not cutting), why does all the white have to be on a separate Layer? White objects in Illustrator do not print. A white fill or stroke simply means "non-image area" or "paper color." So if that's the case, the white stroke could simply be included in the artwork of your Symbols. Draw the path. Give it a fill. Give it a white stroke. In the Appearance Palette, drag the stroke to below the fill. Convert the path to a Symbol. If, on the other hand, the white is intended to provide an actual cutting path (as for a knife plotter), then a Stroke is not going to do the job; you'll need an offset path (and possibly a slightly inset path to provide a "bleed" if the colored fill is to be cut also). Since Illustrator provides multiple-object level (Group, TextFrame) settings for strokes and for live Effects (like offset path), and the ability to "expand" such constructs to simple paths, I don't yet see why you need separate white objects corresponding to each of your shapes. You could probably generate the white cut paths using a macro (Actions) rather than a script. Even if the white objects do need to be on a separate Layer, that should be a simple matter of duplicating the original colored objects, applying a Graphic Style to the duplicate, and sending it to its own Layer. Again, that's just normal UI stuff that can be automated with an Action. I might also be inclined to take another route for the spreadsheet-to-Symbols portion. For example: Assuming this is a recurring kind of project, and assuming the shapes are represented in the spreadsheet as alpha-numeric values, using a font editor to create a custom dingbat font would let you simply copy/paste the tab-delimited text from the spreadsheet into Illustrator, and the whole thing would remain an editable text object unless/until you decided to convert it to paths. The color could be applied at the character level by either using Find/Replace in conjunction with Character Styles or Graphic Styles, or by a script that does essentially the same thing. You have three shapes and eight colors. Both color and font can be applied in either Illustrator or in a spreadsheet program: If you're using Excel for the spreadsheet (or FileMaker for the database), you can use Conditional Formatting to automatically apply the color and/or font based on the cell's value. JET
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‎Mar 30, 2010
08:54 AM
2 Upvotes
Someone is not listening. The question IS NOT ABOUT SORT ORDER. It's about which file in the Portfolio is initially displayed when the Portfolio is opened. I have a Portfolio containing five PDFs. The sort order is determined by a SortOrder field I specified. Upon opening, the Portfolio documents are sorted correctly. But it DOES NOT OPEN with the first file being the one displayed. It opens with the fifth, or third or whatever file being the one initially displayed. In Acrobat 8 there was a specific setting for this. I can't find that setting in Acrobat 9. JET
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‎Mar 30, 2010
06:07 AM
It depends on what exactly you want to do to live text with the Free Transform tool. The Free Transform Tool does not apply live Effects. So if you just use its basic scaling features, yes, you can do that to live text. If you want to use its so-called "perspective" tricks, no, because that kind of reshaping is not a live Effect (like an Envelope), it's an actual reshaping when done to paths. You can, however, apply the Free Distort Effect to live text. JET
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‎Mar 29, 2010
05:09 AM
1 Upvote
1. Rectangle Tool: ShiftDrag to draw a small square. Black fill. Stroke of None. 2. DoubleClick the Rotate tool. Enter 45°. 3. Delete Anchor Point tool (The minus Pen tool. Tap the minus key to invoke it.): Click the leftmost anchorpoint. 4. Drag the resulting triangle and drop it into the Brushes Palette. In the resulting dialog, select ArtBrush. In the ArtBrush dialog, make sure the blue direction arrow is pointing rightward. Okay the dialog. Draw any path with any tool. In the Brushes palette, click the Brush you just created. Adjust Stroke Weight of the path to adjust the maximum width of the brush stroke. See online Help; search for Brushes for explanations of more options. Create additional ArtBrushes based on similarly simple shapes and you'll have pretty much the same thing as Xtreme's menu of stroke shapes. Two very useful ArtBrushes are: The right-pointing triangle as described above. A small circle. A "football". (Draw a small circle; convert its left and right anchorPoints to corner points.) A little additional forethought makes the Brushes you build more useful and compatible. For example, after drawing each of the shapes, turn on the proportional checkbox in the Transform palette, and set their heights to the same meaningful value. For example, if you prefer to define stroke weights in points, you might make the shapes 10 pt. in height each. Then, as you apply the Brushes to paths, you'll always know that a stroke weight of 1 pt. results in Brush strokes that are 10 pt. at their widest. JET
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‎Mar 28, 2010
04:29 AM
3 Upvotes
It's just one element of Illustrator's inferior Bezier interface. Too many tool changes; too little functionality. In too many circumstances, you can't adjust one segment without wrecking the shape of the adjacent one. Related to this is the inability to bend a straight segment by dragging its middle, without introcucing an additional anchorPoint. Remember the convert anchorPoint buttons in the Control Panel. Instead of switching to the Convert tool and dragging, you can select the anchorPoint(s), click the Convert to Curve button, then drag the unwanted handle back into the anchor. Be sure to have Snap To Points turned on, with a higher-than-default SnapToPoint tolerance set in Selection prefs. Compare to FreeHand: Convert one, several, or all selected anchorPoints at once. ((Illustrator still can't do all points of a path in one move.) Choose whether to auto-extend or auto-retract the associated handles. Click a button to extend / retract just the ingoing or outgoing handle(s), without worrying whether Snaps are on. AltDrag to pull just one handle out of an anchor. Bend a straight segment without changing tools. Connector points to lock tangency between adjacent straight and curved segments. Do all the above without changing tools; without need for two different selection pointers. JET
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‎Mar 24, 2010
07:30 PM
It's happened again. This time I'm now JETalmage-HJ6L6A. JET
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‎Mar 24, 2010
06:28 PM
It's pretty simple really. I am wondering if there is a way to have more than one variable in a textframe? What do you mean by "variable"? Illustrator has a whole feature set in the UI called Variables. There's a dedicated Variables palette. If that's what you're talking about, then no, you cannot bind multiple variables to a single text object. The so-called data-driven Variables are bound at the object level. If you're talking about the generic term "variable" in the sense of a scripting language, then yes, of course you can replace different text ranges within a single textFrame with the values of multiple variables--so long as the values of the variables in question are text. Or, you can use the text of text ranges in one or multiple textFrames as the values for multiple variables. Or should I abandon this script and write my own? Again, I have nothing more than a very vague and general description of what exactly you are trying to do. So, yes, given that the express purpose of that script is to merely concatenate the contents of several textframes into one, and that it's pretty elaborate, my guess would be that you should write your own. Basically, if I have a list of addresses and hours of operations in a dataset. Right now they are broken into separate textframes. Again, you are using a term (dataset) that implies you are referring to Illustrator's Variables feature. If you are just talking about joining the text from multiple separate textFrames in Illustrator into one, you can do that in the UI without any script at all: Just copy the multiple text objects, get the Text tool and create a new text object, and paste. If you need spaces, paragraph returns, or some other delimiter inserted at the start or end of the separate objects before joining them by normal means in the UI, you might want to take a look at the descriptions of the scripts here named JET_ConcatenateTextAtEnd and JET_ConcatenateTextAtStart. JET
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‎Mar 24, 2010
06:10 PM
1 Upvote
I wanted a script I can run everytime I need to start a project that would have that drawing/object in it. You could store it as a Symbol. You could put it in your startup files and/or templates. You could save a new template that contains the object. It would be different if you wanted to, say, have a script that draws a particular kind of graphic according to some programmatic variable. But there are so many UI mechanisms for simply replicating an object, I also have difficulty imagining a need for drawing a single instance of the very same path by code. Even if you were going to script this, you could have the script (or just an Action macro) copy an existing instance of it. Since so far only you know what kind of drawing/object we're talking about...have you looked at the Javascript Reference to learn about the properties and methods of pathItem, pathPoints, etc., and how to access them? JET
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‎Mar 19, 2010
06:02 PM
Describe more clearly and thoroughly exactly what you are trying to do. JET
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‎Mar 09, 2010
06:52 PM
Tried that. It did not work. Thanks for fixing it. JET
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‎Mar 07, 2010
05:14 AM
Where does one go to get a forum account straightened out? Through no action of my own, my forum account (JETalmage) suddenly started acting like it was a new account, and all my many existing posts became marked as JETalmage-mzVC8V. That account contains my avitar, history, etc. I didn't do this; the system did. Who can fix it? Thanks, JET
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‎Mar 05, 2010
09:26 AM
...couldn't duplicate it in inDesign... Where are you having difficulty with this in InDesign? Simply apply a stroke to the selected text. InDesign properly sets the stroke of live text behind the fill, so as not to choke the glyphs. No need to muck with additional "Appearances" as in AI. JET
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‎Mar 01, 2010
06:39 PM
3 Upvotes
You may have accomplished a Compound Path. Select it, look at the Appearance Palette (Illustrator's poor excuse for an object inspector) and see what kind of object it is. Illustrator is not nearly as intelligent as FreeHand regarding path direction. You may very well have a Compound path, but some of the subpaths need their winding direction corrected. DirectSelect (white pointer) one of the subpaths that did not become a hole, and try toggling the Reverse Path icons in the Attributes palette. JET
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‎Feb 20, 2010
03:14 PM
1 Upvote
And describe dimetric as having two equal angles and one that is not. That is but one characteristic of dimetric projection. But another of all flavors of axonometric projection (isometric, dimetric, and trimetric) is that the relationship between the angles and the lengths of the axes is not arbitrary. It's is either correct or it isn't. It is dictated by geometry. It's not important. It's important for the reasons I explained: Failure to correctly build dimetric projection results in obvious disproportion. Game designers have simply disregarded that, and so consider it "unimportant." Tech illustrators cannot disregard it, and it is anything but unimportant; it is essential. Game designers have misappropriated the terminology from a discipline developed for technical illustration. That perpetuates the misconceptions and errors. I just wanted an easy way to build a dimetric grid, and apparently illustrator is not capable of that... DJ asked how to draw an isometric grid in Illustrator. Simple and straightforward questions revealed that he actually wanted to draw upon a mere 1:2 aspect ratio grid. It was clearly demonstrated that one can quite easily set up a grid to facilitate that in Illusrator and most any other program with ordinary XY ruler grids, because the whole purpose of that method having been adopted by early game designers was to enable them to work with a simple 1-to-2 pixel rise-to-run aliasing of square pixels. The grid DJ thinks so necessary for this is functionally the same thing as simply using half-measure for the verticals, as proved yet another way by this overlay of an Inkscape grid (blue) with Illustrator's (orange): The fact that major increments are displayed as heavier than minor increments (divisions) also helps to make this simple use clear. It is of course not as nice as having diagonal lines displayed (if you use them; remember, most grid features, including Illustrator's, let you choose dots instead of lines). But DJ asked for help with this in AI, and received explanation of how he can do it, at no cost. I doubt that anyone familiar here would call me a defender of Illustrator's shortcomings. Indeed, I agreed at least twice in this thread that AI should provide proper axonometric support. But simply using half-measure in the vertical direction is quite trivial on any square grid. And that's really all this archaic convention is all about. JET
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‎Feb 20, 2010
01:19 PM
DJ, I am well aware (as I stated) that game developers often refer to the 1:2 aspect ratio method as dimetric, just as they also inaccuately refer to it as isometric. It is neither. Example: Your wiki link states that it is "...described as a variation of dimetric projection, since only two of the three angles between the axes are equal.." The use of "projection" emphasizes my point: that is a direct reference to orthographic projection. The link provided is even to another wiki page describing orthographic projection. As I pointed out, the mere use of two equal angles between the three axes does NOT alone make a dimetric orthographic projection. And popular frequency of error does not negate the fact that it is error. And I have 30 years experience with this. If a cube is tilted such that the edges of its top surface orthographically project to the picture plane at an the arctangent of 1/2, the cube is necessarily tilted 30 degrees. That means that on the same orthographic projection, its front edge necessrily projects to the picture plane with a length of cos(30°). JET
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‎Feb 20, 2010
12:09 PM
DJ, First, understand, this is a public forum. Replies are not just for the benefit of the one posting a question. Isometric games or not actually isometric, they are in fact dimetric Again, if you are talking about a 1:2 aspect ratio in which to draw the unit cube, it is no more dimetric than isometric. Dimetric requires more than merely having two axes at the same angle off horizontal. The only way the diagonals of a 1:2 aspect ration could be correctly called dimetric is if the vertical scale were 86.6%, not the 50% you see in the old method. That's why things look disproportionally squat in the vertical. It is not dimetric; it is merely an oblique designed to accommodate square pixel bitmaps. that method takes waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much work Also again: Even if Illustrator provided a 1:2 diagonal grid, it would be no less work than simply using a 2:1 rectangluar grid with 2 units for horizontal and 1 unit for vertical, because it's geometrically the same thing. That's what the old bitmap routine was all about. JET
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‎Feb 20, 2010
11:08 AM
DJ, Does anyone know how to easily create an isometric grid in Illustrator? While I quite agree that all modern 2D vector drawing programs should provide at least some basic support for axonometric drawing, drawing a grid is fairly trivial. But you still have not stated the specifics of the grid you need. of course it's actually dimetric That is not a matter "of course." One certainly can construct dimetric drawings in either Flash or Illustrator, but assuming you are referring to the old 1:2 pixel rise:run oblique method commonly employed in old games to accommodate aliased bitmaps, that can properly be called neither isometric nor dimetric. (I realize many commonly do, but doing so is both erroneous and confusing to others interested in axonometric drawing--especially those discussing axonometric in the context of mechanically correct technical drawing). I'd like to have a layer with a grid, and be able to adjust...the row and column count, and the pixel width.... I can of course make the grid in flash using code... Well, if you did choose to code it in Flash, you could easily export that to Illustrator (even by copying via the clipboard), place it on its own layer, and proceed. Changing its width would be a simple matter of scaling it. Again, assuming you are talking about the old 1:2 aspect oblique grid, it can be created in Illustrator in any of several ways. One is to use a simple Pattern Swatch. The Swatch can be scaled interactively, with or without scaling the path that is filled with the Pattern. (Pressing the Shift and Tilde keys lets you scale a Pattern Fill: To make it snap-sensitive, expand the Fill after creating it. Put it on its own layer(s) so you can lock/unlock and show/hide it as needed. Another method is to draw the grid with the Line tool, with verticals spaced at whatever you want for the unit cube width, and diagonals at 26.565° off horizontal duplicated vertically at 50% of that. Really, though, for the sake of the 1:2 oblique, you can forget drawing diagonal grid lines altogether. Just set the Ruler Grid to major increments equal to the desired width of your unit cube, with 2 subdivisions, turn on Snap To Grid, and start drawing. (For convenience, also set SmartGudes custom angles to 26.565, 153.435, and 90.) The increments of that simple grid will effectively provide your diagonal snap points. Draw a subdivided unit cube by using the Rectangular Grid tool to draw a square grid half the desired width of your unit cube width and subdivded as desired. Rotate it 45°, scale it vertically by 50%. Lock its proportion, and set its new width to the cube width. Scale a copy of the same original grid to 50% vertically, and skew it vertically 26.565°. Reflect that for the opposite side. Record those same transformations as a set of three Actions to then be able to "project" an object of any shape to the three unit cube sides with a single click. Adobe needs to make their apps more game development friendly and useful. Otherwise why use Flash at all Adobe needs to do alot of things to flesh out Illustrator's archaic functionality. But if the kind of grid described above is what you are using, I'm inclined to ask why. The entire benefit of Flash is scaleable vector graphics, rasterized and antialiased on-the-fly. Why limit yourself to an antequated, out-of-proportion drawing method? Are you using a bunch of aliased bitmaps for your sprites? You could be just as easily using proper isometric, assuming vector graphics and/or antialiased raster images. JET
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‎Feb 18, 2010
09:56 PM
Since you specifically mention using pixels as a unit of measure and creating artwork for games, I'd first ask you to answer these questions: Do you mean you want a true isometric grid, or the "cheat" isometric grid sometimes used for that? (And do you know the difference?) Is the game artwork going to be vector artwork or raster artwork in final form? If it's going to be vector artwork in final form, are you employing Flash? If it's going to be raster images in final form, do you intend to draw it in Illustrator as vector artwork first, and then rasterize it? I do alot of isometric drawing, and don't use a grid per se. In Illustrator, I set SmartGuides to 30° increments and use a few isometric Symbols (for repeatedly-needed elements), a drawing of a Unit Cube and isometric protractor (for true measures and off-axis rotations), and a couple of scripts. Using those devices, I draw directly in the isometric without need for a grid. If you feel you need a grid, you can simply construct one with open paths and either store it on its own locked layer or convert it to pathGuides. The only drawback to that is, it doesn't span the entire pasteboard. But you can build several such grids (for example, at several scales) and just turn them on/off as needed. If you intend to use a "cheat" grid, you might do well to take a look at Xara Xtreme. That program is inexpensive, and includes that kind of "isometric" page grid. Corel Designer includes a proper feature set to facilitate correct axonometric (including isometric) drawing. Inkscape includes a user-definable axonometric grid feature, and can be had for free. So far as plug-ins, as I recall, HotDoors CAD Tools includes an isometric grid. But the plug-in is not cheap, and you'd be mostly paying for its primary focus: multi-view ortho "drafting" features. I know of no real reason to use a cheat grid if the final artwork is going to be vector, and don't see much reason to do it if the artwork is going to be raster (unless it will be strictly aliased raster artwork). If I were building an isometric game with Flash, I'd use entirely vector artwork and would use a true grid, not a cheat grid. JET
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‎Feb 17, 2010
03:36 PM
I often lurk in the newsgroup. JET
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‎Feb 17, 2010
01:59 PM
5 Upvotes
Do not, I repeat do not, ask James or Scott or Hans. Indeed. Only ask Jacob, who is still using a four-version out-of-date copy of Illustrator and who tries to personify it as a female idol. If the comparison is to be "fair" (which it clearly will not be, at least from your perspective), it should compare Corel Draw X4 to Illustrator CS3 or CS4. Release dates being what they were, X4 would more legitimately be considered Draw's answer to CS3; since it long predates CS4. Talking about earlier versions of either program is not very meaningful, except in the sense of history of development. When I compare the release histories of Draw, FreeHand, Canvas, and Illustrator, Illustrator comes in an often-embarrassing last in terms of features long taken-for-granted in other programs. im an illustrator freak,but my annoying boss wants me to learn corel...i need some facts [that] I can shove his face.. Shove in your boss's face? For presenting you an opportunity to escape fearful dependency upon a single software? i need the pros and cons...to outline to him why illustrator is better... Why don't you simply welcome this opportunity to actually know something about that which you claim a completely bogus "preference"? Were you at all interested in gaining input that would help you help your boss reach a rational and objective decision, you would at least describe something about the kind of work your boss pays you to do. What kind of business employs you? Is the Macintosh platform even relevant to your boss's business market? How large a workgroup is affected by the software choice? What kind of artwork does that workgroup produce? How is it delivered? What are its initial content sources? Who are the end-users of the artwork? In how many different ways is it delivered, and in what formats? Yet here you are, soliciting predisposed "why Illustrator is 'better' than Draw" advice from a handful of users who, so far, admit themselves having either no, or practically no, experience with Draw! If that's not blind-leading-the-blind, I don't know what is. You are by admission predisposed toward Illustrator, even though you are not at all equipped to say why. Reason is pointless with so irrational a mindset. Since no one responding yet seems to actually know anything about Draw, I will instead offer some ammunition I hope your boss uses to see if you are even objective enough to consider it. The following is a just-off-the-top list. Should you actually try to counter it, you should be prepared for more: General: Lower cost, both initially and in upgrades Better support for non-current versions Faster performance Better support for several vertical-market industries (signage, embroidery, engineering-related) More robust CAD and more business-centric import/export formats Better multiple page implementation Better-organized interface Highly-customizable workspace Features: User-defined drawing scales Reliable snaps Dimension tools Callout tools Connector lines Flowchart Tools No-nonsense, 2D vector face extrusion Live shape primitives Smart Drawing tools (freehand shape recognition) Virtual Segment tool Ability to properly cut/crop vector and raster content Contour tool (multiple parallels) Export selection only Barcodes Print Merge Bundle for Output Bureau Scan directly into Draw Trim (not merely mask) vector artwork to any path Fit Text To Path Text stats Export artwork as Type 1 font. Lens Fills (live details) Live Perspective Object Data (spreadsheet-formatted database of user-defined object data fields) Fillet / Chamfer / Scallop User-defined Arrowheads Shared Features Better Implemented in Draw: Mesh Grads Dynamic Guides (with increment snaps) Independent control over Snaps for Guides, Grid, Objects, Dynamic Grids Property Bar (far more sensible and useable than AI's poorly-designed and buggy Control Panel) Status Bar with context-sensitive instructions Elastic Mode (vs. AI's Reshape tool) Add/remove/line/curve/cusp/symmetrical curve commands properly implemented for all nodes (points) in a selected path Logarithmic and Symmetrical spirals Macro Recording (vs. AI Actions) Envelopes (retract envelope handles without wrecking artwork) Old-Saw Arguements Based on Overstatement, if not Myths: Adobe's cross-app "integration" is more hype than substantive advantage. Illustrator's text handing is worst among Adobe apps and worst-of-class among its direct competitors. Draw opens and creates PDFs just fine. Claims of AI superiority regarding importing of raster images is practically immaterial. In fact, Corel Draw's interaction with Corel PhotoPaint is at least as "smooth and seamless" as AI/PS, if not more so. Using vector artwork created in Draw (or any other mainstream Bezier drawing program) in page-layout programs is no more difficult than using AI. This stuff has been being done for decades. Again, this is just a beginning. You do yourself a huge disservice by declaring (let alone attempting to defend) a "preference" to the only choice with which you have experience (and evidently only beginning experience at that). That's true regardless of which program you claim to "favor." How can one, with any trace of intellectual honesty, claim to have a "favorite" of anything--when one has no exposure to any of the considered alternatives? Since you already have Illustrator, you should absolutely welcome your Boss's willingness to provide you a current copy of Corel Draw. Here's an opportunity for you--at no personal cost--to actually learn something about another program; to potentially have some clue as to what you're talking about when you claim to "prefer" one over the other; to benefit from knowing more than one particular tool, and to overcome the fear of learning your way around more than one offering among similar programs. For all you know, you may be arguing against the program you would actually end up preferring. I could also build a bullet list of better-than-Draw AI features. It would not be as long as its opposite. Nor would the AI-favoring listings be as broadly practical. Fact is, anyone can build a bullet list to favor any of them. (Just look at the sides of the boxes, or each vendor's self-serving "competitive comparisons" on their respective websites.) Fact is, all of them are really rather mediocre; mostly 20+ years-old technology. You really should have no axe to grind in this, unless you can state something specific to your work that strongly favors the relatively few functional advantages of AI. JET
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‎Feb 13, 2010
06:46 AM
Doug, Park wants the shading object (the brush or blob stroke) to be automatically cropped to within the object being shaded--as if painting into the content of a clipping path, but with the new object actually being cropped, not just masked. Example: Select a red-filled circle. Swipe along its edge with a marooon blob or brush. The swipe is automatically trimmed where it extends beyond the bounds of the circle. JET
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‎Feb 12, 2010
09:28 AM
I think is Inkjet print but I really don't know. You need to know. If you design something for print, you have to know something about how it will be printed. "Printed on fabric from a big roll" doesn't define the printing process. Bedclothes and curtains are printed on fabric from a big roll. But that's a whole different world away from ordinary CMYK offset printing. Large format low-quantity inkjet printing can be done on fabric from a big roll. Some such devices use inks that fairly replicate ordinary CMYK offset printing. Others use specialized inks (dyes, really) or additional colors (six color is not uncommon) to achieve more brilliance, and those devices often prefer RGB input. You need to talk to the printing vendor about his preferred input. He may tell you to work in RGB, and may even have a color management provile for you to use. JET
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‎Feb 12, 2010
09:03 AM
How to get BRIGHT Colors for print? Put BRIGHT colors in the press. In a later post, you mention that this is for printing on fabric. Are you sure the printing method that is going to be used is regular CMYK process? CMYK separation may be entirely inappropriate for what you are doing. You may need to be using spot colors. You need to obtain specific information from the printing vendor about how this is going to be printed. JET
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‎Feb 12, 2010
07:08 AM
From a mathematical point of view there is no reason that such a feature could not exist. And where did I say that "such a feature could not exist"? Park asked how to do something similar to what he does when painting inside a selection in Photoshop. He didn't say he was making a "feature request." And nowhere did I say that such a feature would be impossible. Of course it could be done. It would be much the same as a re-work of path operations (Pathfinders), just as many "new" features of Illustrator are just re-works of existing functions. Example: FreeHand's Combine functions work better than Illustrator's. Applying the Intersect function does not wreck the existing fills and strokes of the involved paths. You have the option to press a modifier key to retain the origninal objects. So, sure, such a thing could be programmed to auto-trim the painted path to where it intersects the target path. But Illustrator has no such feature. I was just offering the existing workarounds, and expressed surprised that someone long experienced in Illustrator didn't know that. JET
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‎Feb 11, 2010
10:12 AM
For the record, the question I'm asking isn't actually that strange. It's strange in that one would expect a long-experienced Illustrator user to understand what I already mentioned: That "painting" in Illustrator amounts to creating additional objects. To "contain" those newly created objects (be they generated by swiping with a stylus or not) to other pre-existing shapes entails masking, because each swipe with that stylus is creating a new object; not just "recoloring" something that already exists. The same principle applies to flood-fill features. Illustrator's flood fill feature, so-called "Live Paint," is effectively "autotracing" regions bounded by existing paths to create new paths and then giving the new path a fill. But Live Paint doesn't include any functionality that would let you swipe with your stylus (creating a new object) and then auto-combining it with the pre-existing region in which you painted leaving just the intersection of the two paths. As demonstrated, you can emulate that kind of behavior by exploiting Isolation Mode. Another way is to apply Pathfinder Effects or Shape Modes to Layers or Groups and create your new objects within those Layers or Groups. But it all still comes down to one form of masking or another until you Expand, Flatten Transparency, etc. JET
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‎Feb 11, 2010
09:47 AM
1 Upvote
Odd question from a longtime AI user. When drawing in programs like Illustrator, you are creating objects, not merely recoloring existing pixels. So the objects you draw either have to be shaped exactly like you want them to show, or you have to use other paths to mask them or trim them. This PDF shows one method of "painting into" a masked area. It was done as an example of exploiting the so-called Isolation Mode which appeared somewhere around version CS2, as I recall. It sort of emulates painting with an airbrush inside regions masked by frisket material, by drawing paths with a Brush appearance and a blurr Effect applied inside nested clipping paths. JET
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‎Feb 11, 2010
07:55 AM
for teaching purposes Tony, Just FYI: Deneba Canvas (a drawing program in the same category as Illustrator) has a feature for generating curves by formulae. JET
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