The Latest Update to Illustrator CC is Here!

****The June release of Illustrator is here and available to Creative Cloud members through the Creative Cloud desktop app. If you’re not a Creative Cloud member, you can test drive a free trial.

This release brings a number of great new features to explore:

• Export for screens — fast export of assets and artboards
• Live Shapes and Transform panel updates
• Better collaboration, efficiency with Creative Cloud Libraries:
  • Control assets in read-only libraries so they can be used by team members, but not changed or deleted.
  • Find the assets you need faster with a larger Libraries panel and a new filtered search.
• Work more efficiently with Adobe Stock:
  • License Adobe Stock assets in Illustrator via the Libraries or Links panels.
  • Open assets directly in Illustrator when browsing on the Adobe Stock website.
• Additional updates:
  • Scroll through stroke width and text sizes in proper increments.
  • Guides stay unlocked when hidden.
  • Turn the Pen tool into the Direct Selection tool by pressing CMD/CTL when drawing.

Let’s take a closer look at some of these features:

New Export for screens makes fast work of exporting groups of assets or artboards. Just select individual assets from one or more artboards, or choose a number of artboards, and one click exports them to multiple sizes, resolutions and formats all at once — perfect for screen, web and icon workflows.

An Asset Export panel lets you visually collect and organize individual assets for export by dragging or by adding art via menu commands to the panel. Export options include presets to quickly add the sizes and files types needed for iOS and Android icons, as well as the export settings for the various file types supported.

Art that has been placed in the Asset Export panel automatically updates to reflect changes made in Illustrator, such as color and transformations, and it also travels with the file

You can also export an entire set of artboards to multiple formats and sizes in one go, with the same options for multiple formats and sizes that are available for assets.

Updates to Live Shapes and the Transform panel make it easier than even to work with shapes in Illustrator. Live Shapes now have a consistent and uncluttered visual experience. Corner controls automatically hide as shapes are scaled to small sizes. The controls reappear at higher zoom levels or when the shape is scaled up, and are always accessible via the Direct Selection tool.

Polygons, which used to revert to standard — not live — shapes after non-uniform scaling or being skewed, now maintain their live characteristics. A new “Make Sides Equal” option in the Transform panel returns the polygon to its original proportions in one click.

Refinements to the Transform panel make object rotation more logical, always allowing a shape — or any object, including text — to be reset precisely to its original rotation.

To test out all these improvements, update your Illustrator app or download a free trial now!

For the latest updates, see the August 2020 release of Adobe Illustrator.