- Drawing tools are intuitive - The new Blob Brush tool for natural sketching results in a single, filled object. Advanced path controls and graphic styles make drawing with vectors intuitive.

- You can design with multiple artboards - Create files containing up to 100 artboards of varying sizes. Display the artboards any way you want - overlapping, side by side, or stacked.

- There's help out there - Find community websites, associations, user groups, and blogs that all have the same interest in mind: Adobe Illustrator.

Top New Features:

- Multiple artboards - Create files containing up to 100 artboards of varying sizes and display them any way you want - overlapping, side by side, or stacked. Save, export, and print artboards independently or together. Save a selected range or all artboards as a multipage PDF file.

- Transparency in gradients - Define the opacity of any individual color stop in a gradient. Reveal underlying objects and images, and create rich color and texture mixes using multiple layers, knockouts, and cover-up fades.

- Blob Brush tool - Sketch with a brush that generates a single clean vector shape, even when strokes overlap. Draw naturally, using the Blob Brush tool together with the Eraser and Smooth tools.

- Gradients exposed - Interact with gradients right on your object. Set gradient angle, position, and elliptical dimensions. Add and edit colors using sliders - all with immediate feedback where you work.

- Integration and delivery - Collaborate with your team, work across products, and deliver almost anywhere thanks to integrated tools and extensive format support. Confidently design for print, interactive experiences, motion effects, and more.

- Enhanced user experience - Stay in the creative groove thanks to interface improvements that include on-object controls. Interact with tools smoothly, and increase your efficiency using new timesaving features and shortcuts.

- In-panel appearance editing - Edit object characteristics directly in the Appearance panel, eliminating the need to open fill, stroke, or effects panels. Work with shared attributes and control display for faster rendering.

- Refined graphic styles - Combine styles for unique effects and increased efficiency, and apply styles without disturbing an object's existing appearance. Enjoy new thumbnail previews and an expanded library of prebuilt styles.

- Clipping masks demystified - Work with masks more easily by viewing only the clipped area of your objects during editing. Take advantage of Isolation Mode, and use Edit Clipping Path for even more control.

- Separations Preview - Avoid color output surprises such as unexpected spot colors, unwanted overprinting, overprints that don't overprint, white overprinting, and CMYK blacks in text and placed files.

System requirements (Windows):

- 2GHz or faster processor
- Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and Windows Vista)
- 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
- 2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)
- 1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
- DVD-ROM drive
- Broadband Internet connection required for online services.