Prepress and desktop print tool's tips sharing

Separations Preview
Avoid color output surprises such as unexpected spot colors, unwanted overprinting, overprints that don't overprint, white overprinting, and CMYK blacks in text and placed files.

Support for bleeds
Quickly set up your artboards for bleeds with the new Bleeds document attribute. You can choose to work with bleeds when you open a new document or add them later in the Document Setup dialog box.

Live Color for print and prepress
For reliable spot color printing, use Color Reduction tools in the Live Color panel to quickly find and convert colors in your artwork to a defined number of specific colors.

DeviceN colorspace
Place duotone or separated Photoshop images in Illustrator and preserve the file's native color space with DeviceN support. Use multicomponent and HiFi color, raster effects, transparency, and gradient meshes with confidence that your artwork will separate correctly.

LAB spot colors
Create LAB spot colors and use predefined spot colors from the Toyo, PANTONE®, DIC, and HKS libraries.

Separations
Print color separations using either host-based or in-RIP options and optimize output directly in the application, controlling screen angle, ruling, and dot size for each plate.

Intuitive printing interface
Enjoy consistent results with an intuitive, comprehensive printing interface that provides optimized presets for a wide variety of devices.

Page tile overlap control
Easily and reliably print oversize documents to standard desktop printers by controlling the overlap between tiled pages.

Fit To Page command
Print large designs on standard paper sizes using the Fit To Page command or custom scale options. Scale dimensions with precision to three decimal places.

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Web and interactive tools

Integration with Adobe Flash
Import native Illustrator files into Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional software, 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.

Live Color for web and interactive
Quickly explore, apply, and control color variations for web and interactive designs. Easily create multiple versions for any web prototype or interactive design.

Symbols for Flash
Use Symbols to animate repeated objects while keeping file sizes small. Define and name symbol object attributes, and preserve these properties when you take the artwork to Flash CS4 Professional for further editing.

Web and mobile device export
Easily export using the Save for Web and Devices dialog box, which lets you choose from HTML, SWF, GIF, and JPEG formats, along with color count, compression, file size, mobile output, and more.

Adobe Device Central CS4
Create rich graphic content for mobile devices and deliver engaging experiences to billions of subscribers with Adobe Device Central CS4. Design, preview, and test mobile content with this innovative visual testing tool that you can find within the Save for Web and Devices dialog box.

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Tools for automation

Automated processing
Make tools like Live Trace even more efficient by automatically batch-processing images in Adobe Bridge while continuing to work in Illustrator CS4.

Actions
Save time by recording frequently performed tasks as actions, which you can manage in the Actions panel.

Industry-leading scripting support
Extend the capabilities of Illustrator to automate repeated production tasks, build your own feature capabilities, or enforce a specific workflow by writing custom JavaScript, AppleScript, or Microsoft Visual Basic scripts.

Dynamic, data-driven graphics
Quickly create custom artwork variations using scripts to connect graphic variables to unique data.

Ability to save selections
Streamline a range of production tasks by saving complex selections so you can quickly reload them later.

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Shortcut and time-saver tips to share

Practical Smart Guides

Use more intuitive Smart Guides, with an unobtrusive appearance and new behaviors such as alignment to objects on the artboard rather than to the cursor. Get immediate feedback with on-object readouts that show x and y coordinates when you move objects, and show the angle when you rotate objects.

Powerful selection tools

Select all objects that share an attribute using the Select Same command in the Control panel or Select menu. Select by same color or opacity, by similar Live Paint fills and strokes, and even by shared appearance.

Isolation Mode advances

Take advantage of new functionality in Isolation Mode, which now supports more object types, including clipping masks. You can add new art to a particular place in the stacking order and be free of the menu commands for arranging and pasting in front or back.

New Document Profiles

Start creating new artwork quickly by selecting prebuilt profiles for various types of media. Save custom profiles that specify setup parameters such as multiple artboards, artboard dimensions, styles, and color spaces.

Graphic styles

Apply attributes to multiple objects, groups, and layers using graphic styles that you can save and reapply. Apply styles additively and see the results with accurate previews on both objects and text.

Templates

Reuse designs by saving files as templates that include objects you want to reuse along with setup parameters such as layers and placeholder elements.

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To run your work smoothly and more efficiently

Accomplish more and stay in the groove by working directly on the artboard. Interact with tools and options more easily and complete your projects efficiently using a wealth of innovative, timesaving features and shortcuts.

Workspace and tool accessibility

Multiple artboards
Create files containing up to 100 artboards of varying sizes. Display the artboards any way you want — overlapping, side by side, or stacked. Save, export, and print artboards independently or together.

In-panel appearance editing
Edit object characteristics directly in the Appearance panel, eliminating the need to open fill, stroke, or effects panels. Work with shared attributes and control display for faster rendering.

Actions on the artboard
Choose options without interrupting your train of thought. Actions on the artboard provide contextual menus right where you're working so you can set options without moving your attention to panels at the edges of your workspace.

Gradients exposed
Use gradient stop controls for color and opacity that appear right on your object, and directly control the angle and position of the gradient. Set dimensions of a radial gradient to create an elliptical gradient of any proportion.

Spring-loaded panels
Get to your panels and options even more quickly with spring loading. Panels now expand automatically when you drag an object on top of the panel icon.

Tabbed document view
Work with multiple open documents in a tabbed view so you can bring windows to the front with one click. You can also arrange multiple windows in tiled or cascaded views for easy visual comparison and to click and drag objects across documents for copying.

Control panel
Discover more options faster and free up screen space by accessing anchor point controls, clipping masks, envelope distortions, and more from the context-sensitive Control panel.

Flexible workspace
Increase your efficiency using space-saving features and custom viewing options. View the toolbar in one column, dock self-adjusting panels as icons, set panel overlap just the way you like it, choose darker or lighter workspace color, and more.

Color-blind workspace
Proof your artwork to help ensure that your color selections convey information properly for viewers who are color-blind. Illustrator CS4 supports proofing for both protanopia and deuteranopia, types of red-green color blindness.

Custom workspaces
Work more efficiently using custom workspaces that display only the panels you need for a specific task. Save, share, or access any workspace at any time, or use workspace presets.

Layers panel
Organize complex artwork using an unlimited number of layers, nested layers, and layer masks. Find selected objects quickly by displaying the layer selection color.

Photoshop layer comp support
Control the visibility of layer comps in linked, embedded, or opened Photoshop files from within Illustrator CS4.

Tool option quick access
Instantly access the options for tools, including the Brush, Eraser, Eyedropper, Graph, and Symbol tools, by double-clicking them in the Tools panel.

Adobe Bridge CS4
Use Adobe Bridge to efficiently browse and preview your creative assets, run automation scripts, access new Adobe services, and more.

Wacom tablet support
Take advantage of pressure-sensitive drawing and erasing with a Wacom tablet such as the Cintiq, as well as Intuous3 features like rotation, bearing, and tilt sensitivity. Enjoy even more pressure sensitivity and control in Illustrator CS4.

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Using gradients and transparency effect

Transparency in gradients
Create a gradient of many colors and define the opacity of any of the individual color stops. Create rich color and texture mixes using multiple layers, knockouts, and cover-up fades.

Elliptical gradients
Set dimensions of a radial gradient to create an elliptical gradient of any proportion. Gradient stop controls for color and opacity appear on the object, and you can directly control the angle and position of the gradient.

Unlimited transparency
Expand your design options with blending modes and transparency effects similar to those in Photoshop, including transparency controls within gradients.

Gradient Mesh
Simulate airbrush and watercolor effects by adding multiple colors and precisely controlling the transitions between colors.

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Creative tools bring you the power to design - Part 3

Color and creative effects

Live Color
Explore, apply, and control color variations using Live Color, which lets you select any artwork and interactively edit or replace colors to see results immediately. Use the intuitive Color Guide panel to quickly choose tints, shades, or harmonious color combinations.

Swatches panel
Organize swatches in groups and view them in organized hierarchies. Automatically name them by their color values, or name them intuitively. Easily access swatch libraries from a pop-up panel menu, view swatches in Adobe Bridge, and share them with Adobe Photoshop CS4 and InDesign® CS4 software.

Live Paint
Easily paint any closed or partially closed area of your artwork with the Live Paint Bucket, which automatically detects and corrects gaps and lets you interactively select colors from the Swatches panel for faster filling.

Refined graphic styles
Combine styles for unique effects and increased efficiency. Apply styles to an object without disturbing its original appearance. Preview styles applied to selected objects and to text. Choose from an expanded library of prebuilt styles to jump-start your projects.

Clipping masks demystified
Work with masks more easily, thanks to new viewing choices for both masks and masked objects. See only the clipped area, or visible parts, of your objects during moves and transforms. Edit the masking object in Isolation Mode or by using the Edit Clipping Path option.

Envelopes and live distortion
Warp, liquify, and distort artwork any way imaginable with envelopes and live distortion tools. Easily access envelope options from the Control panel.

Live effects
Apply live effects without affecting the underlying artwork, so you can edit at any time without starting over.

3D effects
Turn 2D shapes into fully editable 3D objects by extruding and revolving paths. Add lighting and wrap images around 3D shapes to easily create objects such as packaging mock-ups, and separate spot colors applied to 3D artwork.

Colorized grayscale
Assign a spot color to a linked, embedded, or opened grayscale image, or even apply a spot color to a drop shadow, and be confident that artwork will separate properly when printed.

Blend
Morph one shape into another to create smooth shading, complex contours, and basic animations.

Adobe Photoshop effects
Achieve a wide variety of looks by applying nondestructive live effects from the Adobe Photoshop Effect Gallery.

Symbol spraying
Add design elements to your artwork by spraying, scaling, colorizing, and adjusting the transparency of repeated symbols while keeping file sizes small.

Graphing tools
Communicate data clearly using powerful tools that make it easy to produce visually compelling charts and graphs, including quickly applying harmonious color groups with Live Color.

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