Description from the Publisher:

Adobe Illustrator 11 CS software is an essential tool for anyone who needs to express ideas visually in print, on the Web, and in any other medium. With powerful new 3D features, advanced typographical controls, smooth Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) integration, enhanced printing options, and faster performance, this indispensable design tool helps you explore your creative vision and efficiently publish your artwork anywhere.

Explore your creative vision

3D effects

• Extrude and revolve
  Turn 2D shapes into fully editable 3D objects by extruding portions of your artwork or revolving it around an axis.
• Bevels
  Add bevels to 3D shapes to create chiseled effects.
• Image and artwork wrapping
  Wrap raster images or vector artwork around 3D shapes to easily create packaging mock-ups.
• 3D lighting
  Add realism to your 3D objects by interactively positioning multiple light sources and controlling brightness.
• Animated 3D blends
  Add motion and depth to Web sites by blending 3D objects and then exporting as an animated Macromedia® Flash™ (SWF) file.

Creative effects

• Envelopes and live distortion
  Easily warp, liquify, and distort artwork any way imaginable with envelopes and live distortion tools.
• Live effects
  Apply live effects without affecting the underlying artwork, so you can edit at any time without starting over.
• SVG effects
  Instantly add drop shadows, Gaussian blurs, and other effects to vector artwork that remains crisp at any size and editable at any time.
• Photoshop filters
  Achieve a wide variety of effects by applying Photoshop filters as nondestructive live effects.

Unlimited options

• Blend Morph one shape into another to create animations, smooth shading, and complex contours.
• Release to Layers
  Quickly create animated graphics by blending two objects, using the Release to Layers command, and then exporting the graphic as a SWF file.
• Professionally designed content
  Get projects off to a quick start with more than 200 professionally designed templates and over 100

Use essential design tools

Beautiful typography

• Transparent text effects
  Expand your typographic options using ghosted text, transparent drop shadows with soft edges, and other effects for transparent text.
• OpenType fonts
  Simplify cross-platform font management and take advantage of alternate glyphs and extended character sets with more than 100 OpenType fonts.
• Text on a path
  Create an infinite variety of typographic designs with dramatically enhanced options for flowing text on a path.
• Custom tab leaders
  Customize the appearance of tab leaders with bullets, dashes, periods, or any other character.

Expert precision

• Precise layout tools
  Design with expert precision using Smart Guides, the Align and Transform palettes, and more.
• Multiple undos and redos
  Easily retrace your steps as you work by using the undo and redo commands.
• Powerful graphing tools
  Communicate data clearly using powerful graphing tools that make it easy to produce visually compelling charts and graphs.
• Clipping paths and opacity masks
  Crop portions of a design using clipping paths or opacity masks.
• Magic Wand
  Instantly select objects that share similar attributes, such as color, stroke width, or opacity.
• Eyedropper
  Copy color, text formatting, and other attributes from one object to another using the Eyedropper tool, which works just like the Eyedropper in Photoshop.

Smooth workflow

• Save As Template command
  Reuse designs by saving files as templates that include artboard dimensions, styles, symbols, layers, and more.
• Vector and raster support
  Create graphics for any use with full support for vector-based artwork and pixel-based images.
• Adobe-standard user interface
  Move easily between Illustrator® and other Adobe products using the familiar Adobe user interface.
• Video tour of new features
  Learn how to use the new features in Illustrator 11 CS with the special quick-start training video, included free.
• Text outlines
  Turn text into individual vector objects so your artwork can be viewed or printed by others who don't have the fonts installed.
• New library access
  Enjoy easier access to Style, Swatch, Brush, and Symbol libraries.
• Layers palette
  Organize complex artwork with support for unlimited numbers of layers, nested layers, and layer masks.

Work efficiently

Enhanced Adobe PDF file creation

• Adobe PDF presets
  Choose from three included presets for more consistent creation of Adobe PDF files, or define your own presets.
• Transparency Flattener
  Ensure the best results when printing or creating Adobe PDF files with artwork that contains transparent elements using Transparency Flattener presets.
• Adobe PDF layers support
  Create separate layers in Adobe PDF files that can be displayed or hidden within Adobe Acrobat® 6.0 software to organize your work or to show different design options.
• Compression options
  Apply the same file compression options offered by Acrobat Distiller®, including the new JPEG 2000 compression standard.
• Adobe PDF-based print workflow
  Include printer's marks and bleeds in your Adobe PDF files and share files confidently with service providers, thanks to more consistent Adobe PDF file generation.
• File security
  Save Illustrator files in current or previous versions of Adobe PDF in combination with a range of security options, including 128-bit encryption.

Integration with your favorite applications

• Adobe Photoshop integration
  Preserve layers, transparency, editable text, slices, and more when moving files between Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Adobe Acrobat integration
  Use the Acrobat 6.0 Layers palette to view layers in your Illustrator file, and create Adobe PDF files right from Illustrator 8 using options consistent with Acrobat Distiller.
• Adobe digital video product integration
  Use your Illustrator artwork in Adobe Premiere® video productions and Adobe Encore™ DVD and After Effects projects to create title sequences, animations, and more.
• Tighter Microsoft Office integration
  Export Illustrator graphics in a format optimized to print and display in Microsoft Office products.
• Adobe InDesign integration
  Bring Illustrator artwork into InDesign layouts and edit objects directly with the Pen tool in InDesign. Transparent Illustrator artwork remains preserved and interacts with elements in your InDesign layout.
• Adobe GoLive integration
  Drop native Illustrator files into your Web layouts using the Smart Object technology in GoLive, which includes support for Illustrator variables and optimized slicing.
• XMP support
  Make your graphics more intelligent by embedding customized metadata, including IPTC properties, so that they are easier to track in asset-management applications and other network publishing-savvy tools.

• Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor
• Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 3 or Windows XP
• 192MB of RAM (256MB recommended)
• 470MB of available hard-disk space
• CD-ROM drive
• For Adobe® PostScript® printers: Adobe PostScript Level 2 or PostScript 3™