Phantasm CS 2

When we reviewed Phantasm CS in issue 130, we couldn’t praise it enough. Not much has changed. Phantasm is one of those plug-ins that comes along very rarely – one that combines true innovation with real-life usefulness and value. It’s a great combination.

The plug-in brings Photoshop-esque image adjustment tools into the Illustrator interface, meaning you can quickly and easily change the Brightness and Hue, and use Levels and Curves dialogs to adjust Illustrator vectors and embedded graphics.

Now, with Live Colour shaping up as one of Illustrator CS3’s main additions, Phantasm could lose its appeal. However, the plug-in actually complements the Live Colour feature set. You can adjust your colour schemes before adjusting Levels, Curves and the like. This workflow offers colour control not seen in Illustrator until now.

New to version 2 is a better overprint functionality, including the ability to ignore white, rich black and pure black, remove overprint when white and add overprint to pure black. It’s features like this that transform Phantasm from a great tool for adjusting the colour balance of vectors into a brilliant tool for any Illustrator pro. The fact that Phantasm CS 2 filters now work with Illustrator Actions makes using the tool on a day-to-day basis as part of a pro workflow even easier. It’s also compatible with CS, CS2 and CS3.

Phantasm CS 2 is still excellent, and remains one of the best Illustrator plug-ins we’ve seen. We’re big fans and you will be too, especially when it sets you back just £19.