Avenza Systems (http://www.avenza.com), makers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop has released MAPublisher 8.3 for Adobe Illustrator. It's the latest version of mapmaking software used to produce maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution. New features of version 8.3 include:

° Compatibility with Adobe Illustrator CS5 for both Mac and Windows;

° A new Line Plotter function to create polylines by entering coordinates or the distance and bearing values between points;

° The ability to import MAP Objects to copy MAP objects between documents, including stylesheets and MAP selections;

° Enhanced MAP Selection functionality offering additional selection options including spatial, art and attribute;

° A new knockout function for creating knockouts for text objects;

° A Buffer Art function to create area objects around points and lines;

° MAP Attribute Panel enhancements and optimizations;

° New Layer Notes functionality to record information including original dataset path, format, co-ordinate system, object count and date;

° Enhanced export to Geospatial PDF functionality that now offers control over exported layers with attributes, the ability to assign attribute values to be used as object names, item sort order and round-trip data control;

° New MAPublisher JavaScript API [application programming interface] functionality including various runtime operations;

° New functionality to create MAP Views from Adobe Photoshop paths (Geographic Imager license required).

MAPublisher 8.3 for Illustrator is available free of charge to all MAPublisher for Illustrator customers with a valid maintenance subscription and as an upgrade for non-maintenance members at US$599. New licenses are US$1,399. Academic, floating and volume pricing is available.