Major news for Illustrator users and those looking to get into HTML5, in particular. Adobe has now released their version of the HTML5 pack for Illustrator CS5. The release is available on Adobe Labs and will drastically change the way you design vector illustrations for the web. This pack allows graphic elements created in Illustrator to be directly displayed in SVG capable web browsers or converted to CSS3 code to render directly in the browser.
As HTML5 gets close to becoming a web standard, one of the new features is called Canvas and allows for Scalable Vector Graphics using the SVG format Adobe first designed years ago as part of the original LiveMotion ‘Flash-killer’ app. SVG hasn’t been used that much since its’ introduction but now with HTML5 Canvas, it’s now possible to programmatically create vector graphics either in HTML5 or CSS3. With the new Illustrator HTML5 pack, you can do this without learning how to code or at the very least, reduce the need to code as much as you currently might.
The features in this release include the ability to efficiently design for web and devices by exporting Illustrator Artboards for unique screen sizes using SVG and CSS3 media queries. You can also create web widgets with Illustrator by generating dynamic vector art for data driven web work-flows and take advantage of the latest enhancements to SVG and Canvas to generate interactive web content. You’ll also be able to map artwork appearance attributes from designer to developer tools export from the Illustrator Appearance Panel to CSS3 for streamlined styling of web pages.
In order to use these new features, you will need the latest update to Illustrator CS5 (Illustrator 15.1) and then download the Illustrator HTML5 pack from Adobe Labs and install it.
We’ll have a lot more on this at our HTML5 and the Future of Web Design meeting on Thursday night, September 23rd at 7pm at the offices of Border Stylo in Hollywood.