Multiple Artboards
For 13 versions (give or take a depending on what you consider a version), Illustrator has supported a grand total of one page. Yes there are clever workarounds (page tilling, resetting ruler origins, etc) and even a plug-in third party that cleverly automates layers to stimulate multiple pages. But reality is that Illustrator was always a single-page application.
Welcome to the New and Improved Appearance Panel
The Appearance Panel redefined how Illustrator was used, turning a powerful vector-illustration Application into the powerhouse it is today. Several versions later, Adobe added all sorts of great extras to the Appearance panel.
Enhancements include hiding and showing effects, quick access to stroke/fill/transparency attributes, and one-click access to applied effects. It’s all polish, but it’s the super-shiny kind.
In addition, the Graphic Styles panel icons are now much more representative of the actual style than in previous editions. Which makes the thumbnails much more useful than before.
Dropdowns (and popups) Aplenty
Those handy little dropdown lists (popup menus) you saw on the Appearance panel are in the Control panel too. And they’re just as handy there as they are in the Appearance Panel.
Smart Guides That are Really Smart
Smart guides used o be weak little guys, lining up to various objects and paths. Such as necessary but never really helping as much as they thought they were. CS4 Smart Guides, live up to their name by providing alignments that are intelligent and incredibly helpful.
The Blob Brush Tool
Ever wish you could just drag a brush around the screen and bunch all the Artwork under it into a single object. Well that’s what the Blob Brush tool does for you.
Color Separation Preview
If you’ve ever schlepped your Illustrator documents over to Photoshop just to see how they were going to separate. You’ll absolutely love the new Separations Preview Panel. It shows you not just CMYK separations but also spot color separations.
Color Blindness Preview
When doing Color Work, this handy new feature allows you to see what your documents look like to anyone who is color-blind. These options are available in the View Menu.
Gradient Enhancements
Gradients have been given a few notable enhancements, specifically the ability to apply opacity to a gradient stop and to edit gradients live directly on an object.
No more Filter Menu!
A relic from the early 1990s, the Filter menu has finally been removed from Illustrator.No longer will I have to patiently explain the difference between effects and filters. And why you should never use filters and if that’s the case, why does the menu exist?
Summary
Illustrator CS4 has some major changes and several minor ones compared to earlier versions. Today we have learnt:
1. Multiple Artboards are Illustrator’s Version
2. The Appearance Panel has been given a facelift to allow for hiding and showing effects.
3. Links and Dropdowns are now a part of the Control and Appearance Panels, allowing for quick access to a number of features.
4. Smart guides are now super smart, with the ability to help you align to anything else in your document.
5. Color Separation can now be viewed directly inside Illustrator, thanks to new Separation Preview Panel.
6. Gradients can have transparency applied to gradient stops
7. The filter menu is gone-and good riddance!
