Hue / Saturation Adjustments in Illustrator CS 5

I normally create my website designs in Photoshop - mostly because I find the pixel based platform the most conducive to HTML conversion.  However, when the time comes to carry a client design over to print in a brochure or large format sign, I rely on Illustrator and InDesign to construct the design files to ensure a crisp and clean end result.

Today I hit a snag. I had applied a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to a vector smart object in Photoshop, but when I went to use that vector graphic in InDesign, I no longer had the ability to use that same Hue/Saturation adjustment.  I was faced with the insurmountable task of adjusting all the individual colors through EDIT > EDIT COLORS > RECOLOR ARTWORK, which was very time intensive and about 30% of the way through I noticed it wasn't really coming out right.

With a bit of research I found the Phantasm Adobe Illustrator Plug-in.  Thanks to their FREE 7 day trial, I was able to convert the graphic over to the correct hue within a matter of seconds using the exact Hue/Saturation settings that I was using in my Photoshop adjustment layer. I also played around with the other tools that come with the plug-in like Curves, Levels, Duotone, etc.  It was very intuitive, and frankly I'm quite surprised that this feature doesn't come STANDARD with Illustrator, as it is a natural carry over for us designers who use the entire Adobe Suite and like to have similar tools across the board.

Needless to say, the moderate $49 license fee will be money well spent to ensure I have the tools I need to work effectively and efficiently on all my design projects.  KUDOS to Astute Graphics for a job well done on a well built and extremely useful Adobe Illustrator Plug-in.