If you've been around long enough to remember the days of Adobe Illustrator CS4, you'll know exactly how far the software has come. Back then, vector graphics felt a bit more… rigid. Tools were powerful but rough around the edges, hardware was slower, and designers had to work around the limitations of the era. Fast forward to today, and Illustrator has evolved into a sleek, cloud-connected, performance-optimised creative machine. Let's take a relaxed walk through its journey.

When CS4 Ruled the Studio

Illustrator CS4 (released 2008) was iconic for its time. Multi-artboards arrived. That alone changed workflows. For the first time, designers could keep variations in one document instead of juggling multiple files. CS4 also introduced a cleaner workspace, better panel organisation, and smoother object appearance editing. Was it perfect? Not really. Performance could be sluggish, and advanced operations sometimes felt like waiting for a bus in the rain. But CS4 set the foundation.

CS5 and CS6 — The "Growing Up" Phase

By CS5 (2010), Illustrator started expanding its toolset. Remember Perspective Grid? Some designers loved it, others ignored it forever, but it represented Adobe's push towards precision. Width Tool, Bristle Brushes, Shape Builder — these were big deals for creatives who wanted more natural drawing and simpler shape manipulation.

Then came CS6 (2012), the last of the "Creative Suite" era. Faster performance, Mercury Performance System, a darker UI, and improved image trace made CS6 feel modern even today. For many designers, CS6 was the comfort zone — stable, fast enough, and free from the subscription model that was around the corner.

Enter Creative Cloud — Everything Changed

When Adobe switched from CS to CC in 2013, the design world had mixed feelings. But looking back, this shift may have been Illustrator's biggest turning point.

CC meant continuous updates instead of waiting two to three years for a new version. Tools quietly got smarter. Live Shapes arrived. Typekit integration (now Adobe Fonts) made typography far more seamless. Workspaces sync across devices. Cloud saving removed the "I forgot to copy the file" panic.

Little improvements added up — better pencil tool, touch-friendly path editing, and more stable performance on modern hardware.

Illustrator 2018–2020: Precision Meets Speed

As vector work grew more demanding — UI design, iconography, large-scale prints — Illustrator had to evolve. And it did.

The jump in efficiency here was obvious. These features weren't flashy, but they made everyday work noticeably smoother.

Illustrator on the iPad — A Bold New Chapter

One of the most exciting steps came when Illustrator finally arrived on the iPad. Vector work became portable. Drawing with the Apple Pencil changed how designers sketch, trace, and build shapes. The interface wasn't a copy-and-paste of the desktop version — it was redesigned to be touch-first. This kept Illustrator relevant for the next generation of artists who rely more on mobility and tablets than traditional desktops.

The AI-Driven Era: Illustrator Today

Today's Illustrator feels very different from the CS days. The introduction of Adobe's Sensei AI brought a new layer to the experience:

And everything sits in a cleaner UI, with better GPU acceleration, cloud document versioning, and smoother collaboration features. Illustrator is no longer just a drawing tool — it's a connected design ecosystem.

Looking Back, It's a Massive Transformation

From CS4's multi-artboard breakthrough to today's AI-enhanced workflows, Illustrator has grown into a far more powerful, accessible, and efficient application. The core idea stayed the same — clean, scalable vector graphics — but everything around it modernised.

If you stopped using Illustrator after the CS6 days, today's version would feel like stepping into a completely different studio. And if you've been there since the beginning, it's hard not to appreciate how much more fluid, stable, and creative the software has become.

Illustrator didn't just evolve — it matured into a full-blown creative partner.