Hey kids, remember Bob Dole?<\/p>\n
The last time I recall charting features in Adobe Illustrator getting an update, Bob was running for president\u2014in 1996. Later (c. 2000), Illustrator & ImageReady (later Photoshop) added the ability to bind text objects & shapes to variables. That would have been a godsend in my old graphics production life, but the world didn\u2019t seem to take much notice.<\/p>\n
Figuring that we were never going to get around to doing something natively in the apps, I proposed enabling HTML or Flash layers<\/a>\u00a0right on the canvas of Adobe design apps. That way a single HTML or SWF GUI could run right in Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.\u2014and remain alive & dynamic when exported. You could argue that I was on crack, or you could argue that had we gone that way, we\u2019d have had great charting a decade ago\u2014or both.<\/p>\n But may the future bury the past: it looks like Adobe is at last getting serious about delivering great infographic-making tools. Check out this sneak of \u201cProject Lincoln\u201d:<\/p>\n