Looking for portable Illustrator (or clone)

[mwortman]

Is there a way to load Illustrator onto a flash-drive? I have licensed
version of CS2

Is there a portable version available? Is there a plan for one? Or a
clone that opens and saves files in editable .pdf?

My office is increasingly moving to telecommuting and guest office
cubes loaded with standard software. That works well for most of my
colleagues, but I am the only one running Illustrator.

I tried inkscape, but Inkscape doesn't recognize .pdf files which is
the graphics format my corporation uses for Illustrator files. And it
also doesn't seem capable of saving files in an editable .pdf format.

Is there an extension or something that makes this possible? Or am I
missing something?

[scamme]

http://www.portablefreeware.com/?q=tomahawk&m=Search

OpenOffice can save in .PDF too.

[mwortman]

<<OpenOffice can save in .PDF too.>>

That is true, but not in one that has editable object based illustrations. The graphics it saves are bit mapped

[usdcs]

Hi mwortman,

If you have a legal copy of Illustrator, you might be able to make it portable for yourself. I haven't tried any of these methods. I've only watched from the sidelines. check out the following links:

JauntePE http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... php?t=1292 (But, might not be available any longer...)
RegRapper http://www.portasoft.org/e107/page.php?4
Portableapps.com has some information here: http://portableapps.com/development
Finally, thibeaz is trying to put toggether a team to develop another portable launcher: http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... php?t=1369

You might want to read the License Agreement for Illustrator to ensure that you won't be violating the agreement. As long as you only run your "portable" version, I cannot see how it would violate the spirit of the agreement in any case.

Regards,
Dan

[Darkbee]

My guess would be that you are going to be hard-pressed to find an existing portable solution, free or otherwise, because editable PDF's are typically the domain of commercial software and commercial developers seem to assume people are running software from fixed environments (not portable flash drives). Thus, the only solution that might be viable (and that is without regard to the legal issues) is to use some kind of registry wrapper to run your existing software.

One such program is called RegRapper, appropriately enough. However, be warned that this may or may not work, since I have tried this myself and had limited success with certain applications, particularly commerical software, since by its very nature was not designed to be run from portable locations. Another similar application has been developed and discussed extensively on this forum and you can find that thread here.

As a desperate last measure you could try using a Batch file (.bat), to dynamically create, remove and recreate necessary registry settings but this is a more detailed procedure and one that not even I'm fully familiar with.

Again, that is to say nothing of the legal issues which probably prohibit you from running the application in such a way anyway. However, I don't say that to discourage you, just to make you aware that such factors may have to be taken into consideration, particularly in a work environment.

[Darkbee]

It looks like usdcs and I posted at the same time!

As far as the "spirit' of the licence goes, naturally each licence may be different but I think the common argument is that usually the software is considered for use with one computer (probably by one user) and by making it portable, you are intending to use it on more than computer. Potentially, that means other users could make use of it aswell, and the developing company thereby loses potential sales.

Now I'm not saying whether this is right or wrong but that individual users must be careful, particularly in a corporate environment because employers (read companies) will usually choose avoiding legal action over retaining an employee.

[spchtr]

some licenses specifically mention considering a single hard drive to be a 'computer' also I'm pretty sure that if it's only accessible from one computer at any given time, then it will be ok. I believe there's a stipulation in most licenses for networked software. You can install the software to one computer, but if other computers are networked to it, and the folder is in a share, they may consider it more than one install. Incidentally Microsoft's own license for windows xp actually says you can install it on one desktop computer, and one portable computer. It's a loophole that allows some oem companys to sell an oem windows disk with just a harddrive or motherboard. The term computer in the licenses is usually somewhat ambiguous.

[freakazoid]

X-Inkscape:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=657#comments

[Andre]

mwortman,

Ok, what you are after can really only be handled using application virtualization. Thinstall is a rather expensive solution squarely aimed at the commercial / corporate environment. I've been testing this for work. So far we've had success with most Adobe products (except Acrobat Pro).

http://thinstall.com/

http://www.thinstall.com/mysupport/vs_apps.php

It is amazing how they have automated the whole install capture / app re-build process. However, in our case, we might wait a few more months for 1) the price to drop 2) to see if this level app virtualization is really worth the effort (esp. in a "thick" environment).

If you can convince the people at your office then ask them to register a 30 day demo for you for testing.

Back in Open Source Land, have you looked at Scribus? I've used this for a number of reports / presentations for clients and while it has a few bugs, I have to say I love using it. The user base is pretty high powered with people with a lot of experience in DTP. Through the forums you'll pick up some great tips and workarounds.

Portbale Scribus
http://www.quate.net/newsnet/read.php?id=31

Official Docs
http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Main_Page

Note that it is very selective about loading fonts. You might have to do some research into fonts, virtual font folders etc, if you are looking for truly mobile solution. Font management in a portable scenario is a tricky one ...

If you are including freestyle vector based illustration (using a tablet) I believe it's possible to make Art Rage 2.5 fully portable. Others here can confirm yes/no. While it's been built for "fun" that doesn't stop a number of cartoonists and illustrators using it on a regular basis for publication. Inkscape is great but for me AR seems to flow better.

Art Rage (payware)
http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

Then use Scribus for PDF output.
http://docs.scribus.net/index.php?lang= ... pdfexport1

Hope that at least opens up some options for you.

[andreas]

The Best ones are GIMP and Paint.NET
http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.filehippo.com/download_paint.net/

[webfork]

Old thread update:

I tried Inkscape, but [it] doesn't recognize .pdf files which is the graphics format my corporation uses for Illustrator files. And it also doesn't seem capable of saving files in an editable .pdf format.

Just an update here that – not only does it now support opening and saving to PDF, but it's remarkably good on files I tested. Even better than the very good LibreOffice PDF viewer+editor. If you frequently deal in PDF files and can't get a commercial program to manage them, Inkscape is a huge help.

[EmmyPx]

Try PDF-XChange Viewer Portable

[webfork]

Try PDF-XChange Viewer Portable

Great program and it's in the database, but it's edition capabilities are fairly limited in the free version.