Apple's LaserWriter and Adobe's PostScript page-description language introduced the world to low-cost, graphic-arts-quality output. But PostScript's full drawing capabilities have remained hidden to most users. Existing drawing programs don’t quite satisfy the needs of professional illustrators. For example, MacPaint's bit-mapped images are too rough for many architectural and medical applications, and programs like MacDraw that provide the precision of structured objects don’t take advantage of the power and flexibility built into PostScript.
With the introduction of its new product, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe makes many of PostScript’s unique drawing routines available to non-PostScript programmers for creating illustrations on the Macintosh. Designed primarily for professional and technical illustrators, and for graphic designers requiring precision line art, Adobe Illustrator lets you draw with PostScript quality on screen.
The program has two modes: drawing and preview.
In the drawing mode you start with a bit-mapped image. For example, you can scan in rough sketches, import MacDraw files, or draw freehand. The bit-map is used as a background template to build the structured PostScript drawing. Using a pen tool with the mouse, you trace the outline of the bit-mapped image. The resultant tracing represents the structured PostScript image.
The tool palette includes functions for fills, gray levels, line weight, squares, circles, end joints (miter, round, or square), and rotating, mirroring, and skewing parts of a drawing. In addition, the program offers eight zoom levels for precise adjustment. And you can specify color (PostScript supports color) for doing color separations on the Linotronic or on a color PostScript printer when it becomes available.
The program’s text options are designed for annotating drawings, rather than publication layout. You enter text in a dialog box and specify leading, font, font size, type style, and kerning. You can rotate and scale text, but can not wrap it around images.
The Preview mode bypasses QuickDraw, using a subset of the internal PostScript routines to show images on screen; there’s a noticeable difference because PostScript’s line-drawing routines are three times faster than QuickDraw’s. A text editor lets you edit the PostScript file, so you can add special effects that Illustrator can’t handle on screen.
Illustrator drawings are stored as PostScript text files rather than Macintosh resource files, so they’re compact and transportable to any computer or printer that reads PostScript. This will make the planned IBM PC version of the product fully compatible with the Mac version. Adobe is also publishing the file format so that other applications can import and export Illustrator drawings. Eventually, Adobe expects more specialized applications such as ad makeup systems to evolve from Illustrator.
Farber, Daniel. (January 1987). The Illustrators' Magic Wand. Macworld. (pg. 73).
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Applications
out of 10 (1 vote)
444 / 
2014-04-14 / 
160587ef34496b47213d034365fe7e6e4a1e7aa8 / 
/ 
adobe_illustrator_1.1.image_.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
