Illustrator CS2...

[magic_fella]

I use Illustrator more and more in my work. I've been working with Illustrator CS...and am curious about CS2. Are there differences significant enough to consider upgrading?

Anyone?

David

[Brooke]

I'm not sure if CS has it or just CS2, but there is the Live Trace and Live Paint options which are AWESOME.

I do a lot of recreating artwork for packaging. We'll get a JPeg or an actual bag, have to scan the logo, trace it and set it up for our industry. Sometimes, it could take hours depending on the logo.

Now? There's the Live Trace option and it makes me SO happy. Does the job in seconds/minutes that might have taken me all day 'by hand'.

From Layers Magazine (www.layersmagazine.com):

Live Trace in CS2 (http://www.layersmagazine.com/design/illustrator_livetrace.php)

[Scott]

Yup, CS2 has Live Trace and Live Paint. I never use them though. Actually I hate Live Paint.

CS2 is faster than CS.
Better text handling in CS2
MUCH better export to Photoshop
Common swatches between CS2 applications
Synchronize color settings between CS2 apps
The control bar, similar to Photoshop's options bar
Custom workspaces


Honestly, I find the sheer speed improvement worth the upgrade. But, the speed is more my workflow, you may not even notice the difference.

[graphixgeek]

Live paint is too "gimicky" for me...Live trace is ok, it does come in handy in converting hand drawn line work into vector lines. My humble opinion...:)

[Brooke]

[QUOTE=graphixgeek]Live paint is too "gimicky" for me...Live trace is ok, it does come in handy in converting hand drawn line work into vector lines. My humble opinion...:)[/QUOTE]

I totally agree -- that's what I use Live Trace for at least once or twice a week.

We have a new customer that doesn't have her logo as a computer file or a camera-ready black/white, at all. She has her bags, and that's it. She bought her bags somewhere else, which also means we don't have the artwork. So what does she do? She sends us the bag and asks us to copy it.

We had to scan (http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c37/Brookemegg/Scan1.jpg) the artwork on the bag. This border would have taken a LONG time to reproduce.

So I did a live trace and got the finished proof (http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c37/Brookemegg/MT_Vogue.jpg) ready in no-time at all.

That's the main reason I love CS2. But I jumped from v10 to CS2. It really saves a lot of time for me and our business using that sometimes. I guess it all just depends on what you're doing. :D