The Best Adobe Illustrator Alternatives of 2023

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Do you the best software you can use to make graphic designs, photo enhancements, drawings, 3D graphics, video edits, and game development? Here are some of the best Adobe illustrator alternatives that you can use.

What does Adobe Illustrator do?

Are you aware of what you can use Adobe Illustrator for? Well, it can be used in a wide variety of industries. It can even be used to make 3D printed objects for home use, video game development, graphics, drawings, logos, wearable devices, package design, emojis, cartoons, icons, charts, diagrams, illustrations, and motion graphics, You can use Adobe illustrator on Windows or macOS computer. It saves files in the form of PDF, EPS, WMF, VML, SVG, and much more.

What is a Vector editor?

The Vector Editor allows users to compose, manipulate, and edit vector graphic images and save them in many popular formats. The editor is used for the creation of logos, typography, and illustrations. Adobe Illustrator is an example of a vector graphic editor.

Top 8 Adobe Illustrator Alternatives for Vector Design

1. CDR – CorelDRAW Graphics suite

CDR

Corel Draw is a graphics tool that you can use to design virtually on any device using the vector, illustration, photo editing, and typography tools. It is readily available for Windows and macOS to perform any of your DIY or professional projects. You can use it to design flyers, brochures, graphics, and much more.

Why can Corel Draw be an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • It features a CorelCAD feature that offers 2D drafting and 3D design tools that you can use in making models.
  • It also offers affordable licensing options, creative inspiration from the community of designers, and collaboration with clients and teams.
  • It has a professional vector illustration, A. I powered image solutions, typographic technologies, layout, and photo editing tools.

Cons of Corel Draw

  • The import feature doesn't work for AI images.
  • Integration with other design software is not perfect.

2. Affinity

Affinity

It is one of the fastest graphic design and photo editing software that you can use for making your graphics. It allows you to do more with technology than you can think of. It will take your professional editing to a whole new level. It can be used on macOS, iPad, and Windows

Why can Affinity be an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • It provides font packs, illustration kits, brush packs, and much more for making designs.
  • It can be used to make illustrations, icons, branding, UI designs, print projects, mock-ups, pattern designs, and concept arts.
  • The zooming features, advanced grids, flexible guides, precision guides, snapping options, game design, precise curves, and snapping options help to make more accurate designs.

Cons of Affinity

  • Different terminologies of the different tools.
  • Tool crossover from other affinity products.

3. Amadine

Amadine

Amadine is a vector graphic software specifically for Mac. It is ideal for both professionals and amateurs with creative minds. It uses every tool and function to bring your ideas to life. The cutting edge vector drawing tools help guarantee a smooth learning curve. You can use it to create, print projects, illustrations, web design, user interface, and branding.

Why is Amidine an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • The software has a convenient UI that guarantees easy workflow, multiple stroke effects, and precision-driven curves.
  • Graphics made from the software tend to resemble a hand-drawn image and allows you to create variable unique strokes and utilize a wide variety of colors.
  • It also allows you to alter your graphics and add depth to your illustrations to make them stylized.

Cons of Amidine

  • It is only supported on macOS.

4. Vectr

vectr-editor

It is a free graphics software that allows you to create vector graphics easily. It can easily help to bring your creativity to life. The intuitive tools allow you to create beautiful graphics at ease. It is quick to learn, use, and has a shallow learning curve. Not only that, but vectr is also easy to share, and provide a separate URL for each design.

Why is Vectr an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • It promotes team collaboration, hence others can see what you are working on in real-time.
  • It also allows you to scale design to any size without losing clarity and offers image customization features.
  • It is a free, cross-platform that features a pen tool, shape tool, arranges elements, align elements, pathfinders, fills, and gradients for better designs.

Cons of Vectr

  • It lacks several advanced features of the high-end applications.

5. Gravit

GravitGravit is a free, fully-featured vector graphic design app that helps unlock the power of your creativity. It allows you to create shapes, lines, points, and provide perfect work. It helps you find everything you need for the UI design, create mockups and wireframes. You can do this using shared styes, symbols, anchors, and pages.

Why is Gravit an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • It offers color and lighting adjustments to filters and blending making image editing easy.
  • It is supported on Linux, Mac, and Windows and allows collaboration. It has an easy learning curve to help in creating solutions.
  • It works perfectly for building wireframes and mockups. It also offers flexible non-destructive object styling and allows you to export multipage pdf documents for professional printing.

Cons of Gravit

  • It only supports web-based devices and online not on mobile.

6. Boxy

BOXY SVG

Boxy is a scalable vector graphics editor that helps create the best tools for editing SVG files. It is ideal for website designers and web developers. It has a simple UI that allows you to navigate easily without getting confused.

Why is Boxy SVG an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • Unlike most graphic design software it doesn't have a crowded workspace with overlapping dialog, toolbars, or palettes.
  • Most of the tasks take place directly on the canvas and many features are accessible through keyboard shortcuts.
  • It can also be supported on any device or operating system.

Cons ot Boxy SVG:

  • Lagging zoom feature
  • No trial version for Mac and requires an internet connection to work.

7. Inkscape

Inkscape

This amazing software allows you to draw freely. If you need some outstanding vector images, this is the right software for you! It features flexible drawing tools, broad file format compatibility, powerful text tool, bezier, and spiro curves.

Why is Inkscape an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • It allows object creation and manipulation using the drawing, shape, text, embedded bitmaps, and clone tool. Through manipulation, you can transform, group objects, use layers, and align the objects.
  • The fill and stroke feature allows you to play around with the colors, gradients, and textures to get the ideal color that you need.
  • It also offers text support, rendering, and different file formats. You can also use the command-line options for export and conversions.

Cons of Inkscape

  • The interface visuals are not that amusing.
  • It has a problematic mac version.

8. SK1

SK1

SK1 is a professional open-source illustration software for Windows, GNU/Linux, and macOS platforms. It makes users productive and provides the best tools to make graphics. Whether you are a newbie or professional the software cant brings you many issues. It also provides one of the best color accuracies and drawing flexibility.

Why is SK1 an alternative to Adobe Illustrator?

  • It uses platform-specific controls and supports professional publishing features.
  • SK1 also supports multipage documents, CMYK color, separations, color management, and precise printing.
  • It is also enhanced by UniConvertor that is a command-line tool or library that uses the SK2 document object model to convert one file format to another.

Cons of SK1

  • It is not that powerful as other related software.

Conclusion

Corel Draw is one of the best alternatives to Adobe Illustrator because of the various features it has. All the other options are great but can’t compare to the flexibility and extensionality of Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator. Whether you want to make photo enhancements or drawings you can find an ideal software for that.

You may want to read more on the 10 best digital art software and Photoshop alternatives.


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