Upgrading from CS3 to CS4?

[nkre8]

Hi Everyone,
I haven't been on the forum since Illustrator Techniques was "merged" into Layers, so it's been a while but it's nice to see that there's still a place for Illustrator users to discuss and share our issues with our beloved program.

What I would like to ask is who out there is using Illustrator CS4 and do you think it's worth the upgrade or does it really depend on how and what you use Illustrator for? I've tried it out and the one thing I really like is that the gradient tool is easier to use. But the way in which I use Illustrator I don't know if it would be worth the upgrade. I mostly do detailed illustrations using fine lines, flat colors and blends. No 3D or mesh work but every now and then I use it with Flash. So I'm also wondering is there better integration with other programs or is CS4 more trouble than what it's worth?
Thanks for any insights that anyone can give.

[TORCH511]

Personally, I love CS4. CS4 is what I wanted CS3 to be. And I mean that across the board.

Above all else, The fact that I have had ZERO issues with Illustrator CS4 makes it worth the upgrade alone. The new multi-artboard format, improved gradients and the revamped smart guides and the improved UI all all a plus. AICS3 on PC crashed on me quite a bit. I managed to get it not to quit on me for no reason all the time but I still had video card issues with several nvidia based cards. On Mac I found it a bit better but it was still prone to crashing from time to time, especially with larger files with linked images and all the troubleshooting in the world never fixed any of the issues. As I said, the fact that 500+ hours of Illustrator time later (about 300 on PC, 200 on Mac) and I have not had one issue, bug, glitch.

Worth the money? Me, I find that if you build a new feature I will find uses for it. Sure, I could live with going back to Illustrator 8, that does not mean I want to.

I can't say that CS4 will be worth the money for you, however I can tell you that I never felt I got my $$$ worth with CS3 wheras I think CS4 was totally worth it.

[Husker]

I've only had CS4 for a week now and I can definitely say it's worth it. I got the Premium Design Suite and integration across all Adobe apps is great. My favorite things on Illustrator CS4 is the multiple art boards, gradient tool, appearance pallet eyeballs, and tabbed interface.

It seems to load a lot faster too. I also like the smart guides now. I never used them in CS3 just because I hated how obtrusive they were. Now they give me all the info and stay our of the way. The tabbed interface threw me off a little bit because I kept going to the upper right corner to close a file. Now switching between files is as easy as clicking on the tab. Art boards were a little confusing at first because I didn't now about the art board tool. Now adding, resizing and aligning art boards is a snap and moving from one to the other is as easy as clicking on them.

I helped my daughter with a homework project of creating a 15 page book with pictures and text. It was easy to set up each artboard as a page, add text and graphics and then save out to a multipage pdf. Nice!

P.S. The blob brush is fun!