Leaderboard

I send straight from Illustrator CS6

ditto on the servo.

Titan 2 with servo IS the best way to go IMUO.

I would stretch it to the titan2 - servos are the way to go - and the plotter is the heartbeat of any operation so not the place to skimp. you can get by with a sc2 or titan1 and then upgrade later or just bit the bullet and get the servo now

That's a "context sensitive toolbar" so it's content changes depending on what you are doing. Does it disappear and the work area moves up into it's place or does it just turn gray or does it go black? It will turn gray/tan when you are using a tool like the node-editor that doesn't have any extra settings until a node is clicked. Once you click on some part of a design the node-editor has something to work with and the toolbar populates with usable tools. I occasionally have the entire upper set of toolbars turn black when I have too many large tabs open. The only way to get it back is to close down a few files.

I've been getting by for years with the SC2. Probably the LP3 is enough bang for your buck. What price are you budgeted for?