Write Effective in < Five Words
A Quick Type Tip for Papyrus Users
| Blog Home |


Adobe Illustrator CS3 - Cool Live Color Feature!

Just had a chance to take the new Adobe CS3 product for a spin, and I got caught up in the new Live Color feature in Adode Illustrator CS3. A short Adobe Labs video covers the basics. And I haven’t even started to uncover the potential for Live Color in the short time I’ve spent. However for those color challenged designers like myself, this is a dream. (If you haven’t purchased the Adobe CS3 Design suite but want to test Live Color, visit kuler.adobe.com.)

Just to highlight a few of the features of Live Color:

  • Quickly create and use color groups to color (and recolor) artwork
  • Create color groups in an intuitive, visual interface
  • Use preset relationships based on complex color theory (great for those who prefer monochrome, and forgot the differences between complementary and analogous shortly after Color 101.)
  • Quickly adjust the entire range of colors in an artwork with a simple mouse click (recolor)
  • Reduce the color in an artwork to 2, 3, 4 or more inks - a great tool for planning spot color printing

I’ve only touched on a few of the basics. There’s lots more I’m sure. However I thought I just give Adobe a bit of praise. CS2 never impressed me. CS3 - I can’t wait to learn more.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007 at 12:30 am and is filed under Color, Software, Graphic Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Adobe Illustrator CS3 - Cool Live Color Feature!”

  1. Terry H. Says:
    May 9th, 2007 at 4:58 pm

    Hi Nate,

    By way of introduction, I’m the marketing manager for Illustrator and for the EM+T team (Emerging Markets + Technologies), the group that built kuler and knowhow.

    Great to hear you’re having fun with Live Color. One item you may not have yet discovered in Illustrator CS3 is the Adobe Labs panels for kuler and knowhow. These panels, which are created entirely in Flash and are currently available only in the English builds of Illustrator CS3, were not marketed for the release of CS3 as they are “experimental” technologies from Labs.

    The kuler panel gives you a direct connection to the kuler RSS feeds for Highest Rated, Most Popular, and Newest themes, as well as the ability to search for themes by tagword or creator and subscribe to custom feeds.

    kuler themes can be downloaded to the Illustrator Swatches panel in a single click, and themes created in Illustrator can be uploaded to kuler as easily.

    knowhow provides direct, contextual access to hints, Adobe Help, and, most importantly, to the wide range of content created by users on the web. There’s more info on knowhow on Adobe Labs at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/knowhow/