Now comes version 10. This version has the beautiful aqua interface, is much faster than version 9, and a lot of designers will love it for that. Have the problems been fixed? Well, no. As a matter of fact, some are worse. .eps files saved out of 10 as version 8.0 (to hopefully rip better) causes placed files to appear as fragmented, embedded, unnamed, files, causing a total re-design. Files with transparency often rip as solid blocks, or have Pantone colors fall out when used as transparency. While one could argue this is a problem with the rip, it's not the best business ethic to let your customers (production users) have to deal with these hassles, when they should have been ironed out between Adobe and other (rip) software manufacturers. Another feature that appeared in 9.0 is still useless: Automated (batching) actions. Illustrator 10 wants to name every single file the same as the file used in the writing of the action. Making what could be a huge, huge time saver for production works, totally useless. There are also network security issues, where OSX wants to hide AI 10 files when saved to a Windows based server. Adobe also missed the boat in that the save window doesn't allow anything other than the power user window in OSX, and won't allow collumn width adustments. Again, this may all be Apple, (or Windows). But I say iron these issues out before releasing the software and charging users for it, and letting them deal with the headaches.

But before I create a huge laundry list of things wrong with the program, Illustrator does deserve some praise. It's the best looking version to date, that isn't even close. It also makes jumping into basic design easier than ever. And it has many, many web friendly features. Most any designer out there working on basic (or complex) logos, designs and illustrations will find AI 10, for OSX to be the slickest version to date. So you're likely to see a lot of 5-star reviews from those users.

Bottom line: If you're a designer working in OSX, this is a much faster, and nicer version than 9. But a lot of prepress and production workers who use Illustrator day in and day out for print export and rip are going to find the program still has several problems that make it very difficult to use in a production environment. And as that was once Adobe and Illustrator's bread and butter, it leaves me having to give this somewhat negative review.

66 of 69 found the following review helpful:


For Artists Only Plus Buggy  Nov 20, 2002 By carol irvin "carol irvin"
If you are thinking of using this program without having any art ability, I have one word for you: DON'T. Unlike Photoshop, which can be used by people with a variety of image needs, with Illustrator you better already be an artist. I am an artist and this program is taking everything I've got. I find it extremely difficult. This is not to say that it is more or less difficult than any other drawing based art program, just that it is hard. I've always been a better painter than a drawer so that could well be bedeviling me in learning it too. What lowers the grade to a 4 though is that Illustrator 10 seems to have a lot of bugs when you use it on Windows XP, which is what I'm using. I notice another reviewer here catalogs all the problems it presents on a Mac so I caution you that installing it on Windows may not solve those problems. Perhaps Adobe just rushed it a bit prematurely into production. If you go to the Adobe website and then to the Illustrator User Forums, you can see all the computer bugs that users are running into with Illustrator 10. That can give you a better idea than I ever could about some of the problems you will need to work around after installation... The reason I went with this program is that it is the one that is the industry standard. It is also the drawing program taught in most colleges' commercial art departments. Apparently some advanced drawers also use a program called Freehand so you might want to read about that one as well before taking the plunge with Illustrator 10.

18 of 18 found the following review helpful:


DON'T BUY IT  Jul 18, 2005 By SPM "SPM"
Adobe no longer supports version 10. My software has stopped working, I have uninstalled and re-installed, and they are instructing me to buy the new $499 version when my 10.0 version is only two years old. They "do not" support version 10 any longer.

Frankly, with this policy, I'll be hard pressed to ever buy another Adobe product.

17 of 18 found the following review helpful:


A step backward in the Illustrator franchise.  Dec 14, 2001
Before I begin, let me say this: Illustrator as a whole is a good product. Unfortunately, Version 10 is not. In fact, I am surprised it ever made it passed Beta testing. I am constantly plagued with "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." Adobe's programmers have also been playing with the grouping commands, and have failed address a significant (and obvious) flaw when attempting to align groups.

Yes, the ability to create symbols is incredibly helpful. And while the new morphing utilities are also quite interesting, the new features in Illustrator 10 have not outweighed its shortcomings. Perhaps when Adobe comes out with a patch for this block of wood I'll come back, but until then I'll continue using verion 9.

11 of 11 found the following review helpful:


Buggy and slow  Dec 14, 2001 By Daniel Attila "Daniel Attila"
Great new features finally bring Illustrator up to and even beyond Xara levels, but the program is full of bugs and cannot export a decent PDF, bitmap or vector file. Even Photoshop compatibility is compromised as Illustrator vectors turn into jagged, aliased shapes when pasted into Photoshop. What an embarrassment! I suggest you get a copy of Xara--for a third of Illustrator's price, and you'll never look back. Otherwise, spend your money and suffer.

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