You can set the height in pixels, for instance, to match the height to a graphic, and it’s a big time saver over the previous manual manipulation method. This allows you to set the height of the capitals, the x-height or the current text frame. There’s also a new way to set text size, activated by choosing Show Font Height Options from the pop-up menu in the corner of the Character panel. It’s surprisingly faithful, and a color wheel shows pins marking all the colors used so that they can be tweaked individually. It’s a straightforward process: you choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork, and the artwork is immediately matched to the photograph. Illustrator is now able to recolor artwork by sampling colors from placed photographs. First, let’s get the desktop update out of the way. The really big news – the huge news – is that Adobe has now released a version of Illustrator for iPad, and it’s fantastic.

The 2021 version of Adobe Illustrator brings few interesting new features, although they should prove useful.