Adobe Illustrator CS6 is a major upgrade that brings in innovative new features and improvements. Its user interface, for instance, is now more convenient to work with, largely thanks to its darker theme.

While the dark theme is not an earth-shattering improvement, it is a very welcome change to people whose eyes are sensitive to bright screen. Additionally, there are other minor changes that make the user interface easier to use. Overall it feels more intuitive than previous versions.

Features and Highlights

Dark or Light Theme

In Adobe Illustrator CS6, you can switch between a light or dark theme. There are two options to do it. First, you move the slider to the left or right until you get the brightness level that suits your personal preference. Second, you can choose one of the available themes: Dark, Medium Dark, Medium Light, or Light. In addition, the canvas color can be adapted to the brightness level of the overall user interface.

Getting More Done With Panels

Panels allow you to access tools quickly. By default some panels are visible while the rest are hidden in the Window menu. You can, however, adjust the panels to suit your workflow by displaying only the ones that you really need to complete your design project.

Also, the panels can be rearranged. You can stack, dock, undock, or group panels. If you make a mess, or if you have finished your project and need to rearrange the panels for a completely different one, there is a reset option that will move the panels back to their original locations.

Enhanced Tracing Engine

Adobe Illustrator CS6 comes with a brand new tracing engine, called Image Trace, that can produce much better conversion output at faster speed than the Live Trace, its predecessor which had been a part of the software since CS2.

It has also become easier to convert raster images to editable vector graphics. Unlike in the previous versions where users have to interact with complex options, now there is only a docked panel which contains all the essential features to do the conversions.

Easier Pattern Creation

Creating seamless patterns was hard. Even creating a simple one took a lot of efforts. Fortunately, Adobe Illustrator CS6 has made it much easier–so easy that even a beginner can create a seamless pattern without too much difficult. This is why this specific update interests some users.

Significant Performance Upgrade

Thanks to the new Mercury Performance System architecture that supports 64-bit native support, Adobe Illustrator CS6 can fully utilize all of the RAM on your computer. As a result, it can handle large and complex files smoothly. This is the update that benefits all users.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 Free Download

Although it may not be as significant as the new tracing engine and Mercury Performance System, the changes to the Gaussian Blur effect are worth mentioning. In addition to the improved performance of drop shadows and glows, it also comes with a live preview–when you apply or edit the effect, you will see the change instantly on the artboard.

The list of features above are by no means the only features you will get from Illustrator. If you’re eager to find out more, you can click the link below to download Adobe Illustrator CS6 for Windows: