Phantasm CS Publisher: bringing superior design and pre-press features to Adobe Illustrator

Building on the release in 2008 of Phantasm CS Studio, Astute Graphics is reaching out further to the high-end design and pre-press markets with the latest in its award-winning and acclaimed Adobe Illustrator plugin range; Phantasm CS Publisher. Unique in its combination of fantastic value for money and critical features to enhance workflow and boost creativity, Phantasm CS Publisher has been developed and tested by professionals for professionals.

The key additions to Phantasm CS Studio's features are:

• Exposure Filter and live Effect that work with all embedded artwork, both vector and raster
• Advanced Swap Channels tools adding process to spot channel swapping plus the copying of channel levels (more...)
• Advanced Ink Coverage tool providing individual ink usage levels; percentage and area (more...)
• Bitmap Alpha adjustment in Curves and Levels tools giving contour control of standard live Effect Drop Shadows, Outer Glows and Blurs (see sample styles...)
• Link embedded images , allowing for easy image extraction and storage for common use across multiple documents (more...)

An illustrated example of the new tools' capabilities may be found in this PDF file...

Click here for full details of the plugin's features including a revised plugin range feature matrix.

Available for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7, with versions available for Adobe Illustrator CS2, CS3 and CS4, the user manual provided in both English and German.

Phantasm CS Publisher is priced at £139+VAT (approximately €155 / $231) with discounts for multi-licenses and upgrade paths for all existing customers.

Updated combined Trial plugin now available

To coincide with the release of Phantasm CS Publisher, the combined Phantasm CS Trial plugin is now available to give greater insight into the new features on offer.

Those who have previously downloaded a Phantasm CS Trial plugin from this site are able to quickly upgrade by visiting the Trial page and entering the same email address. No further confirmation would then be necessary.

If you have not previously downloaded the Trial software, which offers a free Brightness/Contrast toolset, the procedure is very quick and simple. Why not have a look today for how to experience Illustrator creative freedom?

New free Styles for Phantasm CS Publisher customers

New to Phantasm CS Publisher is Bitmap Alpha adjustment. This was developed primarily for the profile control of live Effect Drop Shadows, Outer Glows and Gaussian Blurs.

To both demonstrate the power of this new feature, plus to provide Phantasm CS Publisher customers with over 15 new Styles, a new entry has been added to the Customer Styles page. This may also be previewed here...

UK VAT increase

From 1 January 2010, the UK will be increasing its VAT (purchase tax) rate from 15% to 17.5%. This will affect all customers within the EU.

Revised plugin range and official latest OS support

With the release of Phantasm CS Publisher, the Phantasm CS range of leading Illustrator plugins has been revised:

• Removal of Phantasm CS (base version)
• Now available for Illustrator CS2 and above
• Tested with the latest operating systems; Mac OS 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and Windows 7 (note that Adobe has offered guidelines for running Illustrator on the latest operating systems).

Click here for full system requirements.

The decision to remove the base version of the plugin was in response to the overwhelming number of sales being for the Designer and Studio editions. It now also means that one of the most popular features, vector Halftones, is present in all versions of the plugin.

When Phantasm CS was originally launched in 2006, it catered for Illustrator CS and CS2. With the subsequent releases of Illustrator CS3 and CS4, further control of spot colors was offered (multi-ink images being the main feature) which Astute Graphics has made full use of. This means that older versions of Illustrator offer reduced support with certain tools such as the Full Separation system. As Illustrator CS would have been too compromised for Phantasm CS Publisher, plus virtually no sales of the Phantasm CS range for this version of Illustrator, it was logical to increase the minimum Illustrator version requirement.

If you wish to upgrade your existing product from the Phantasm CS, you will now be offered the new minimum versions.

You subscribed to this list by downloading Phantasm CS Trial or having bought the full product. To unsubscribe, click here.
Astute Graphics Limited, PO Box 33, Hereford, Herefordshire, HR1 9DG, ENGLAND   Click here for the contact page