In this week’s free episode of Deke’s Techniques, Deke takes a look at the history of Adobe Illustrator (which turns 30 this month) by playing around with Adobe Illustrator 88.

This was a team effort, with the Deke’s beleaguered Lynda.com support staff (finding and) installing all the necessary software, then Deke digging out his Mac Paint files, then finally my going over to the storage space to dig out a copy of Mastering Illustrator 88 that Deke wrote 29 years ago so he could remind himself how to use it.

Funny thing was, it didn’t turn out to be the laugh riot the way Deke’s Photoshop retrospective was in Episode 303. There was a lot that early Illustrator could do, even text if you were willing to put up with a dialog box like this.

Check it out, take a look back at the time where you made new anchor points with the scissor tool (?), and join us in wishing Illustrator a happy birthday.