When talking about the new features in Adobe’s newest release of its Creative Suite, no one can go without discussing the newly acquired “eraser” tool for Illustrator CS3. When working with vector graphics and images, nothing can be quite as frustrating as needing to trim up a layer/shape. Designers have been ever-longing for an easier route than make-shift divides and subtracts with the Pathfinder tool, or tedious adjustments of points and anchors with the pen tool. Now a user can very easily swipe pieces of vector shapes away, and are left with a just as beautiful vector in its place. Many speculate the slightly rough edge that it puts on, as almost no one can have that perfect curve when using a traditional mouse, but there are plenty of tools to help that, the easiest being the “Smoothing Tool” (looks like a pencil with lines all across it). To ensure a careful erase, make sure only the shapes in which you want to subtract from are selected. With the shapes selected just use the eraser tool similar to how you would in a photo editing program, such as Photoshop. This tool could quite possibly be the biggest advantage to the new release of Illustrator. Continue reading How to Use the Adobe Illustrator Eraser Tool →