Intuitive Tools for Digital Artists

DrawScribe for Illustrator CS6 (Mac) now available!

DrawScribe for Illustrator CS6 (Mac)

DrawScribe first appeared earlier this year and has already gained a strong following amongst professional designers and organisations. Many have found life with CS6 to be impossible without the InkScribe tool which replaces the standard Pen tool, providing much greater flexibility and accuracy when drawing vector paths. Draw lines and curves quicker and then fine-tune the results with such tools as Smart Point Removal and intuitive click-dragging of curves.

Direct YouTube HD movie link: http://youtu.be/z_vHscJTmZE

As with all previous releases, you can see that we have taken great care to fully integrate the tools within the look and feel of Illustrator. This continues with DrawScribe’s second tool – Dynamic Sketch. Once again, you can harness the power of either your Wacom tablet or mouse to draw more naturally in Illustrator. And the tool’s dynamic nature allows every designer to refine, adjust and correct with ease at any stage.

We continue our tradition of providing experienced users the chance to tailor how the tools work to best suit their own workflow. For example, the InkScribe tool’s preferences provide unique drag-’n-drop control over the on-screen annotations and quick-select presets to swap between favoured work environments.

Windows variants

With the final Mac plugin release for CS6, attention has already turned to rolling out Windows releases for all plugins. Much work has already taken place with very positive results. We anticipate Windows releases to be available by the end of October and appreciate the patience shown by many customers.

Beta status

As with the initial release of Phantasm CS and VectorScribe for Illustrator CS6, it is initially being offered as a stable and mature beta. We are aware of no significant issues at present.

The new installer also features new beta versions (v1.2.0) of builds for Illustrator CS3 to CS6. If you operate these earlier versions of Illustrator, you may wish to upgrade to these latest versions which feature internal technical enhancements.

If any issues are found, please do not hesitate to contact us via beta at astutegraphics dot co dot uk

Upgrading

Existing Mac OS DrawScribe users can download the CS6 installer from www.astutegraphics.com/download/.

Simply quit Illustrator CS6 and run the installer, following the instructions.

All DrawScribe license keys are ready for Illustrator CS3 to CS6 (click here for our automated license key reminder) and if you are operating a computer previously licensed for DrawScribe using CS3 to CS5, no further activation action is required.

14 day full trial

DrawScribe is available to download as a full 14 day trial from www.astutegraphics.com/download/

Enjoy!

Comments (41)

  1. The END of October for a Windows release now? And here I was thinking that they were just around the corner. I’m rapidly losing patience. Considering these are “stable and mature betas”, I think us Windows customers would appreciate a supposedly “unstable” beta right now rather than have nothing at all (with the prospects of waiting over a month still). The lack of these plugins is really hurting me. As others have said, if I had known it would take months to get these out I would have held off upgrading to CS6.

  2. Hi Kelsey – point taken. Which of the plugins or functionality in particular are you finding hardest to live without?

  4. Kelsey: Not to be rude, but as a professional you should have done your research regarding the plugins you can’t live without and got some sense of how big of a job Adobe had to do to rewrite the whole application to 64-bit. Of course smaller developers like this will need some time rewriting their products.

    Just reinstall CS3-5.

  6. I could not find the DrawScribe CS6 version on the download page. It still downloads installer for drawscribe version 1-1

  7. Hi Tshepho – can you see the green button on the second row titled “DrawScribe (BETA) for Illustrator CS6 (Mac)” ?

  8. Nick – mainly VectorScribe.. (and thanks for keeping up the communication with users – I can appreciate that!)

    Chris – That may be true, and I took the risk in the assumption that the plugins would be out within a reasonable timeframe. However I’m fully willing to admit that I don’t actually know what goes into the development of these plugins (it’s pretty difficult to “research” that) and therefore couldn’t really say what a “reasonable timeframe” is…

    Nevertheless, it’s a blow to hear they’re going to be another month still. I wasn’t aware that I could reinstall my older version. An Adobe rep told me that I’d no longer be able to use them but it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve been wrong.

  9. Hi Kelsey – it would have indeed been hard to research the internal development timescales required. I believe that Avenza managed to release their CS6 upgrades to MAPublisher a couple of months ago which is a great achievement. We’ve taken a different development route – each route has different pros and cons, but we fully intend to demonstrate certain benefits in the near future.

    I believe that other Illustrator plugin developers are also playing catchup such as HotDoor. What we have in common is that many involved UI elements need recreating from scratch.

    Regarding running CS3/4/5 and CS6 simultaneously, we understand many of our plugin customers have taken this approach or simply held off with the CS6 upgrade after assessing the merits of doing so or not. But this decision has to be based on many internal factors and unfortunately we can’t give you any official word on Adobe’s own licensing policy which became more involved since the introduction of the Creative Cloud.

  10. Hi Nick,

    Although it’s been months since I was starting to get comfortable with (all) your plugins, I really appreciate your candor about the magnitude of this development effort. To rebuild all your products at once in a substantially redesigned environment can at best be a huge and perilous undertaking. But having worked with these tools for a couple of months, I know how great it will be to get them back. It’s not practical for me to run an old version of Ai, but reverting to “pre-astute” functionality will make their ultimate re-release all the more fulfilling.

    Keeping my fingers crossed for late October (and you know how hard it is to do graphics with your fingers crossed),

    Allen

  11. Given how lousy an upgrade CS6 is anyway, going back to CS5 may be a good idea. Not sure what the experience has been with the new illustrator for others, but for me it’s been a real pain. It has more bugs than any release from Adobe to this point and there doesn’t appear to be a fix in sight. I’ve had issues with redraw, memory leaks, and the latest discovery a wonky gradient tool problem that shouldn’t have ever gotten through alpha testing let alone beta. Sure there are new features, but they’re hardly worth the hassle of the bugs. At least this is the case for me.

  12. PS, if it’s any consolation, CValley’s updates aren’t slated to be out until December.

  13. It’s Friday, October the 5th, and I sit and wait for the Windows versions of the greatest plug-ins EVER for Illustrator to be unleashed. I have no more fingernails left to chew, my hair has turned grey and fallen out, and my withered gnarled old hands are itching…. but still I wait patiently. PATIENTLY I TELLS YE! Arrrrrrrrrghhhh! (please hurry….whimper)

  15. I pray to the gods of PC Illustrator plugins that the CS6 versions are nigh. Blood sacrifice of my second favourite chicken should seal the deal. Plus, chicken for dinner tonight!

    Any news, Nick?

  16. Hi Henry,

    I got a lovely response to my post to the effect that we PC devotees shall have our lovelies before this month be out. Huzzah! I pray/prey that your chicken sacrifice/dinner be blessed/tasty in the sight of the Illustrator Plugin Deities.

  17. Illustrator vector drawing tools are making me crazy–I’ve been using vector drawing tools almost daily since 1988. Illustrator’s pen tool and node editing are the worst of any program I’ve ever used but I’m stuck using Illustrator for all illustrations where I have to hand over the vector files–conversion of complex illustrations is just too risky on deadline. Illustrator’s tools require that I slow down to a crawl on tasks that should be a breeze or they take a half a dozen actions when it should be done in one.

    Please, please, please hurry with your windows versions. My sanity is at stake.

    Thanks

  19. Hi Sharon – noted and we’re going as fast as we can with the remaining conversions for Windows. Just to save your sanity ;-)

  20. Waiting on this cs6 update for the PC still… I now have my plugins back on my MAC at work finally, but still waiting on this windows plugin for my home machine, and given how much I work between my house and the office, this is a real inconvenience. I don’t understand why a company that makes tools for illustrator, which is available on two platforms, would not be ready for both platforms at the same time… Your tools are absolutely fantastic, but your development practices blow.

    I got all excited about having these tools back and tonight when I needed them at home, for something I started at the office, during the week, I went to do the install and found out those of us on the PC are just SOL. Now I either have to forget using the tools at all, or drive to the office (an hour away) and work there, and both of those options suck.

  21. Hey Guys…

    We are in the 3rd week of October…. Thought we would have 1 or 2 PC plugins for CS6 ready by now…
    any updates???

  22. Hi Ray – we’re getting things ready. Unless some major issue occurs, we are looking to make new stuff available this week. We’ll keep you all posted.

  23. Hi Nick– I just wanted to say thanks for developing these tools. I bought them recently even though I couldn’t use them on Illustrator CS6 on Windows. They have totally changed my workflow around (I’m using them on CS5 at the moment).

    I think the people who are angry about the development time is actually a great sign that your product is good. It means they can’t have enough of it. I check daily to see if the Windows version is out. I can’t wait to uninstall CS5, haha.

    Please continue to develop amazing products and don’t let the frustration of the customers from this major change get to you too much.

  24. Thanks Rodo – very much appreciated. I do understand people’s frustration, but yes – in a way it reaffirms how important our tools are to designer’s workflow. Which is nice…

  25. Hi Nick

    I agree with Rodo, your products are awesome.

    Have you considered doing to Illustrator font management what you’ve done to it’s drawing tools? Font management in Illustrator is cack-handedly abysmal, and suitcase fusion isn’t a lot of help. I’m sure you guys could shake things up.

  26. I agree with Henry and Rodo and me…. AG rocks. I too check every day…. roll on the day when I can finally free up all the room CS5 is taking up on my machine. :)

  32. Well… I guess a major issue occurred…Cause I did not see any new stuff available last week….

  34. Guess I’m just gonna have to write MY OWN darned plugins. I think I can still remember some FORTRAN and COBOL.

  36. Adobe CS7 will be out in around 18 months or so. You guys better start working on upgrading your plugins now . . .

  37. I will be upset when the plugins are finally released, I won’t be able to come back here and make silly remarks.

  39. Ooh, ooh, ooh, Mr Kotter Mr Kotttter…. (aka. Nick)

    Thanks for your response to my queries (got a great quote for the bulk-license, and the Gods are now considering). Hats off to the code-monkeys, they’ve made the beasts look really purty. ‘Can’t wait’ (well, I can actually) to see the rest of the menagerie in a few weeks.

  40. LOL! Must admit I had to look up that popular culture reference – but sorry to disappoint as I lack the ‘tash ;-)