Adobe Illustrator CS3 is a remarkable vector graphic software offering a wealth of innovative features. It is a powerful design tool for professionals yet easy enough for beginners to pick up and use for creating simple artworks.

Compared to previous releases, this version feels faster. Some improvements also make it easier to work with. Panels can be docked, color swatches can be grouped, new documents can be created in no time, improved tracing capability, better cropping mechanism, and so on.

Features and Highlights

Create Documents Faster

Adobe Illustrator CS3 comes with document startup profiles. When you need to create a new document, you can simply choose one of the pre-built profiles.

There are six of them, which include Print Document, Web Document, Mobile and Devices Document, Video and Film Document, Basic CMYK Document, and Basic RGB Document.

Each profile contains document settings, which can be customized and saved as your own profile so that you can use it as a template for future projects.

Live Trace

A photograph or a raster image created in another graphics program can be brought into Illustrator and converted into a vector color image by using Live Trace. This feature provides the easiest way to do the tracing. To use it, you just need to place the raster image you want to trace into Illustrator, make some adjustments to the tracing settings, finalize the tracing, and edit the vector image as needed for your artwork.

Vector Eraser Tool

Included in CS3’s release as a part of its new features is the vector eraser tool, which can be accessed quickly by pressing Shift + E. It can detect the pressure applied to a tablet pen. It can erase any vector object and is also selection aware. With a bit of creativity, it can also be used to create unique shapes in images.

Live Color

Live Color gives you more control over how you interact with colors, making it easier to find the perfect colors for your artwork. It has three main components: the color guide, the swatches panel, and the Live Color dialog box.

Color swatches can be grouped. Each group acts like a shortcut to a collection of color swatches that are used for different needs. For example, you can create a swatch group containing several shades to color certain objects such as fall leaves and green leaves.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Free Download

Similarly helpful is the Color Guide, which serves as a color inspiration by providing variations of any swatch color you pick. You can control the guide to only suggest variations from a specific palette of colors. Just press Shift + F3 and you will see a range of colors that match your palette.

The small enhancements that are added to this version should not be overlooked either. These include the small color proxies to identify certain layers, the crop tool that can be found in the control panel, and the control panel itself that can adjust its content according to your monitor resolution. You can click the link below to download Adobe Illustrator CS3 for Windows: