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Adobe Illustrator Alternatives

Written by on Sep 10
alternative to adobe illustrator

Tired of paying monthly fees to Adobe, but not sure how you can survive without Illustrator?

What if I told you there is an alternative? Several in fact.

No matter what you need, from blazing fast speed to full 3d mock ups there is an illustration program, or app out there with your name on it.

Best Adobe Illustrator Alternatives

Inkscape

Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format.

Key feature: Scalable Vector Graphics

Price & platform: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It’s free and open source.

DrawPlus Starter Edition

Easy-to-use graphic design tools Use intricate vector drawing tools to create technical drawings, shapes, logos and animations with this free graphic design software. The flexible shapes, and natural brushes provide you with the easy-to-use tools to create amazing designs.

Key feature: Easy logo design, precise graphic design tools, realistic painting techniques

Price & platform: Free. PC.

Sketch3

Sketch is built for modern graphic designers, and it shows in every fiber of the app. From a flexible workflow with support for Multiple Pages and Artboards. Powerful features like Symbols and Shared Styles are there to make reusing elements quick and easy. Sketch’s fully vector-based workflow makes it easy to create beautiful, high-quality artwork from start to finish.

Key feature: CSS Styles.

If you’re designing for HTML, images aren’t the only thing you’ll want to get out of your design. Sketch also makes it simple to export CSS properties of individual shapes and text objects.

Affinity Designer

Tired of spinning beach balls?. Working in Affinity Designer is always live – pan and zoom at 60fps, transform objects in correct z-order, make adjustments or apply effects in real time and always see live previews of brushes or tools. Whether it’s a 100 megapixel image or the most complex vector drawing with thousands of curves, it’s still the same and never runs out of memory.

Key feature: Compatibility.

Price & platform: $49.99. Mac

From Affinity. “Experience the best PSD import engine out there – meaning you can reliably collaborate with Adobe® Photoshop® users whilst enjoying the unique benefits of Affinity Designer. Full support for AI (PDF stream), PSD, PDF and SVG files gives you all the flexibility you need and means whether you switch to Affinity Designer for all your work, or just elements of what you do, it’s completely painless.”

Drawplus X6

DrawPlus X6 offers the complete drawing and editing experience. Simple vector drawing tools help you create custom lines, shapes and curves, with advanced tools for targeted drawing, merging and blending. And because the final image is a vector drawing, you can easily rescale artwork without losing quality.

Key feature: Create keyframe and stop frame animations

Price & platform: $99.99 PC.

Now that you know there is a whole world of non Adobe choices out there, go give each of them a try. It shouldn’t take long to get a feel for which one

Verdict

Now that you know there is a whole world of non Adobe choices out there, go give each of them a try. It shouldn’t take long to get a feel for which one is your new secret weapon.