Adobe Illustrator CS5 offers dozens of essential vector image editing tools, allowing users to create simple and complex illustration for a wide range of projects. It is a perfect choice for projects that need to be scaled to different sizes because it uses vector-based graphics that allow for scaling without losing the quality.

The vector image editor has come a long way since its early days of development. Today it is used by millions of people around the world. While its enormous amount of features can make users feel overwhelmed, they make it possible to create graphics for various needs.

Features and Highlights

Templates

Adobe Illustrator CS5 comes with a good variety of templates, so you don’t have to start drawing from scratch. There are templates to create banner ads, brochures, labels, business cards, and so on.

Each template serves as a starting point that you can customize to your liking. There is no need to worry about writing over a template because what you actually open is a copy of the original file. Having said that, you can delete any template you don’t think you’ll ever need to reclaim a bit of space of your hard drive.

Presets

When you create a new document, there are several presets you can choose from. If you need to create a document for web, choose Web. If it is for print, choose Print. The other available presets are Mobile and Devices, Video and Film, Basic CMYK, Basic RGB, and Flash Catalyst. The last mentioned is the new addition to Adobe Illustrator CS5.

Multiple Artboards

Artboard is where you work on your artwork. You can create up to 100 artboards in a single document, each of which can have different sizes and be positioned anywhere on the screen.

There are several ways to create artboards. The new method is by using the Artboards panel. Some minor improvements are also made to improve the organization of artboards.

In addition to specifying custom names for artboards, you can also duplicate and reorder them. Four layout styles are available as well to rearrange artboards on your document.

Perspective Grid

The Perspective Grid is one of the new features in Adobe Illustrator CS5. It displays a perspective grid with up to three vanishing point perspectives to help users create the illusion of space and depth.

Three presets are available: one point perspective that provides a single vanishing point, two point perspective that provides two vanishing points, and three point perspective that lets users work with three vanishing points.

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Free Download

Complementing the Perspective Grid tool, the Perspective Selection tool provides the ability to interact with the objects in perspective. Objects can be moved, transformed, copied, and scaled. Normal objects can also be placed in the perspective grid.

Overall, Adobe Illustrator CS5 is a nice upgrade. The more features it has means the more users can do with it, so it is not a surprise that it has become a favorite tool for many designers. You can click the link below to download Adobe Illustrator CS5 for Windows: