Ranked: Top 10 Illustration Apps in 2021 | Webdesigner Depot

Illustration is a big trend in 2021. Every designer should have some ability to illustrate, whether that’s producing icons, creating lettering, mocking up layouts, or crafting full-blown illustrations.

Designers’ workflows are as varied as their work, and one designer’s favorite tool is a frustrating mess to the next designer. Most design apps have a free trial, so it’s worth trying out a few before committing.

Counting down to the best illustration app for designers in 2021, all of the apps on this list are worthy of at least a second glance:

10. Vectr

Vectr is a simple vector design tool. It is heavily geared towards layout and even product design. It’s difficult to use it for many illustration jobs, but simple icon and UI creation are possible. It scrapes into our top ten thanks to the fact that it’s free to use.

9. Paper

Paper is a sketching app developed by WeTransfer. It grabs number nine in our top ten thanks to its simplified interface that is perfect for generating ideas. It may not be the most flexible app, but it’s free to download, making illustration accessible to anyone with an iOS device.

8. Inkscape

We love the fact that there’s someone out there producing a professional-grade artwork app for free. Inkscape is available for GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS. If you’re interested in exploring this design area without signing up for a subscription or buying an iPad, Inkscape is a great place to start.

7. Assembly

Assembly is another app that’s dependent on the transition of illustrators from desktop machines to mobile devices and is available for iOS. Assembly does things a little differently; instead of manipulating boolean curves, Assembly builds illustrations out of shapes. If you’re someone who thinks they can’t draw (spoiler alert: everyone can draw), this is the app for you.

6. Sketch

It’s a shock low-rating for Sketch, the highly popular product design app doesn’t make it out of the bottom half of our list. The reason for the lower ranking? Sketch is an incredible design app, but its greater investment in prototyping features has come at the cost of drawing innovation. It’s still a great choice for crisp icon design, but it’s not flexible enough to take a higher spot in our list.

5. CorelDRAW

If you’re getting the impression that design apps are mostly for macOS or iOS, then you’d not be alone. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is one of the few that began its life on Windows before being rebuilt for Mac. CorelDRAW is a premium option, but like Adobe’s offering, it is a suite of tools that cover everything you’ll need to create any form of design work you could ever need.

4. Vectornator

Moving closer to the top spot, Vectornator is an up-and-coming tool. Like many other apps further up our chart, Vectornator does a lot more than simply illustration. Its underlying tools provide a solid foundation for a flexible set of tools that you can use for any artwork. Vectornator does an awful lot, awfully well.

3. Procreate

Procreate is one of the finest apps on this list, thanks in main to its incredible brush studio; being able to edit the marks you make is essential for any expressive artwork. Procreate enables expressive illustration, typography, and simple sketches. The only downside to this app is that it’s iOS only; if available on more platforms, it might have been even further up the list.

2. Adobe Illustrator

That’s right; we don’t think design giant Adobe’s illustration app Illustrator is worthy of the number one spot.

Illustrator is an excellent tool and arguably deserves to be considered Adobe’s flagship product. Since Adobe relented and allowed individual app subscriptions, it is also reasonably priced. It does everything you could want in an illustration app, from designing icons to creating original artwork.

So why not the top spot? It wasn’t so much that Illustrator fell down anywhere, as a different app pipped it to the post…

1. Affinity Designer

The best app for illustration in 2021 is Affinity Designer. We’ve been fans since its first beta version, and we’ve watched it go from underdog to champion.

On top of being an excellent vector app, Designer is comfortable with raster graphics. Although it certainly can’t compete with Photoshop (Affinity built Photo for that), Designer is more than adequate for many image tasks, making it a great all-around design app. Designer was also the first design app to support macOS’ new M1 chip natively.

The knockout blow is that Affinity Designer is available as a desktop app and an iOS app; the two apps have minor differences in their interfaces; what matters is that both apps use the exact same file format. You can seamlessly switch between desktop, iPad, and back to desktop, taking advantage of the precision of a mouse and the expression of a stylus.

It’s this kind of flexibility that bends Affinity Designer to your workflow instead of the other way around, and that’s why it’s top of our list.

Illustrator

Illustrator 1 Creating and Designing Graphics

Introduction Adobe Illustrator, part of the Adobe Creative Suite package, it is a powerful application used to create and edit vector graphics. This extremely popular application is a considered an industry standard, and is used widely by graphic designers to create logos, illustrations, and artwork for signs, posters, packaging and many other printed products. Adobe Illustrator can also be used to create illustrative web graphics. About this Class This manual provides a basic introduction to the Illustrator interface and explores commonly used features by guiding students through various exercises and applying those skills and tools in creating an e-card. During this class, students will: Become familiar with the Illustrator environment and workflow

Gain experience drawing graphic elements using common Illustrator tools

Gain exerience creating web and print document layouts Illustrator 1 is the first in a series of Illustrator classes and is intended to serve as an introduction to the application and to vector graphics in general. In order to explore more advanced techniques, students should consider enrolling in Illustrator 2. In addition, after completing Illustrator 1, students are eligible to enroll in Illustrator special topics classes, such as Logos and Typography. Prerequisites Basic computer operation skills (mouse, keyboard, file management) Other requirements Access to Adobe Illustrator CC software

The Illustrator Interface This section provides a brief overview of the Illustrator interface and describes its commonly-used components. Interface Overview The portion of the Illustrator interface that is used to view and edit documents is known as the Workspace. A wide variety of windows, tools and menus (known as Panels) can be displayed within the Workspace in order to provide quick access to the feaures needed for a given task. Creating a New Document Open the Illustrator application. Click Create New In the New Document window, adjust the settings to those shown below and click Create. Interface Components Application Bar The Application Bar contains the Workspace Switcher menu and a shortcut to Adobe Bridge and Adobe Stock. The Application Bar also contains the File, Edit, View, etc menus. The Workspace Switcher menu can be used to arrange multiple windows. Depending on your project, there are a variety of window layout options that will suit your needs. Use the drop-down menu to choose one of the many available window layout options. For the rest of this tutorial, we will be using the Essensials workspace. Document Window The Document Window displays the file that you are currently working on. If you have multiple files open, each file appears as a tab in the Document Window, as shown above. The white rectangle inside the Document Window, which displays the printable area of the Workspace, is called the Artboard. Tools Panel The Tools Panel contains tools used to create and manipulate artwork (like a toolbox). To select a tool, simply click it. Tools with a triangle in the lower-right corner have additional tools hidden beneath them. To display hidden tools, click and hold a tool icon; a drop-down menu showing the hidden tools will appear. alt="The tools panel showing the various tool options that can be hidden under a given tool icon and revealed by clicking and holding"> Control Panel alt="The tools panel showing the various tool options that can be hidden under a given tool icon and revealed by clicking and holding"> The Control Panel displays options for the currently selected tool. Control Panel options are generally a small subset of those available in other panels and menus. Keep in mind that there may be additional options for your selected tool beyond those displayed in the Control Panel. Control Panel Not Appearing? As of Illustrator 2020, the Control Panel is off by default. To enable this feature for easier access to alignment and fill/stroke tools, go to Window > Control Properties Panel The Properties Panel offers options to further monitor and modify your artwork, and some of these settings can also be found in the Control Panel. There are also two other panels: the Layers Panel and the Libraries Panel. We will delve more into the Layers Panel later in the workshop; however, you will not be using the Libraries Panel. Each panel is displayed on a separate tab. To bring a Panel to the front, click its tab.

Illustrator Practice Files For the first half of the workshop, we will learn about the different tools available in Illustrator by working through different exercises. We will start by going to Files > Open and then selecting Illustrator-Practice-2020 Layers Panel In many of the Adobe Create Suite applications, documents are often organized and separated into different components called layers. You can edit and modify objects in each layer without affecting items in other layers. The Illustrator practice file has multiple layers, and throughout this exercise, we want to work within the 'Practice' layer in order to utilize the tools. Go to the Layers Panel and select the 'Practice' layer. Smart Guides Before you begin, let's turn on Smart Guides. Smart Guides allow you to allign objects on your artboard easily, and it will greatly aid you on your projects. To enable this feature, go to the Application Bar and select View > Smart Guides.

Navigating the Workspace Working in Illustrator often involves moving around the workspace in order to focus on different portions of your project. In this section, we discuss a few methods of navigating the workspace. Zoom Tool Zoom Tool: The Zoom Tool lets you zoom in or zoom out to increase or decrease the document display size. Quickly zoom with any tool by holding Alt/Option and scrolling with the mouse/trackpad or by hitting Ctrl/Command and + / - Hand Tool Hand Tool: Used to move around the Artboard when the document is zoomed in beyond the workspace.

Shortcut: Hold Spacebar while dragging with the mouse. Zoom in on Artboard so it extends beyond the Workspace

In the Tools Panel, Click the Hand Tool.

To pan around the Artboard, Click and Drag in the Document Window. Fit Artboard in Window Fit Artboard in Window Used to quickly fit the artboard within the current window. In the Application Bar, go to View > Fit Artboard in Window Shortcut: Ctrl/Command + 0

Creating and Altering Basic Shapes In this section, we will create basic shapes with the Shape Tools and alter its form with the Selection Tool. We will also learn how to change the appearance of a shape by modifying its Fill Color, Stroke Color, and Stroke Weight. Creating a Square Rectangle Tool Use the Rectangle Tool to draw rectangles and squares. Hold the Shift key to draw a perfect Square. Hold the Alt/Option key to draw the shape from the center out (rather than from one corner to the other) Shortcut: M In the Tools Panel, Click the Rectangle Tool to select it. Create a square by holding the Shift Key while dragging out. Selection Tool Selection Tool Use this tool to select, move, resize, rotate, etc. entire objects or groups of objects. Select multiple objects by holding Shift and clicking each additional object, or by clicking and dragging a box around the objects you'd like to select. Shortcut: V In the Tools Panel, Click the Selection Tool

Click on any object in the Artboard, a box with control points appear to designate an onbject is selected.

Hold down Shift and Click to select multiple objects In order to create a copy, first select the square with the Selection Tool. Next, hold down the Alt/Option key while dragging out. With the Selection Tool, move the copy over to the neighboring template. We want to resize the shape while maintaining the same proportions, so hold the Shift Key while dragging out a corners until it matches the template. In the Tools Panel, double-click the white swatch in order to change the Fill, which is the color of the shape. To change the color of the outline, go to the Tools Panel and click on Stroke. In a similar fashion, double-click the stroke swatch to change the Stroke Color. We can increase or decrease the stroke weight by going to the Control Panel. Locate "Stroke" and input a value to your liking for the Stroke weight. Creating a Circle In this case, we do not want an outline for our circle. In the Tools Panel, click the stroke swatch then select the small white box with a red slash through it, which means none. Ellipse Tool Use the Ellipse tool to easily draw ellipse and circles. Hold the Shift key to draw a perfect circle. Hold the Alt/Option key to draw the shape from the center out (rather than from one corner to the other) Shortcut: L In the Tools Panel, hold down on the Rectangle Tool to display the hidden tools, and select the Ellipse Tool In order to draw a circle, we would hold the Shift Key, but before we do that, we want to make a minor change. By default, we start by creating shapes from the corner, but we can also draw shapes from the center out by holding the Alt/Option key while dragging out. Combine both of these steps and hold the Shift Key and Alt/Option key while drawing a circle. Make a copy then move the shape to the right. Hold Shift and resize the shape. Creating a Triangle In the Tools panel, select Fill and set it to none. Change the Stroke to any color that you like. Hold down on the Ellipse Tool and select the Polygon Tool from the hidden panel. If you draw a shape with the Polygon Tool it is likely that it is not a triangle, but we can change the number of sides of the polygon. Drag out a shape (don’t let go of your click) and tap the down arrow key from your keyboard to change the number of sides until you get a triangle. Before you let go, hold down the Shift Key to align the base then let go of the click. While moving the triangle, make sure to click directly on the stroke to move it because the shape does not have a Fill Color. With the Selection Tool, stretch the top of the triangle upwards and move the sides inward, matching as closely as possible to the template. Make a copy. The second triangle is rotated 90 degrees clockwise, and instead of trying to rotate the triangle to exactly 90 degrees, let's set the rotation to 45 degree increments. Select the copy of the triangle with the Selection Tool and hover over the corner until the cursor becomes a double-sided arrow. Next, hold down the Shift Key and rotate the triangle 90 degrees. Resize the triangle and you are done!

Transforming Shapes with Anchor Points In Illustrator, every shape is composed of points connected by paths; we can change a shape by manipulating individual points with the Direct Selection Tool. In this section, we will focus on utilizing the Direct Selection Tool to create unique shapes. Transforming a Rectangle Draw a rectangle and reposition if necessary. Make a copy of the rectangle. Direct Selection Tool Direct Selection Tool: Use this tool to select individual anchor points within a shape. Select individual anchor points or path segments by clicking on them, or select an entire path or group by selecting any other spot on the item. Select multiple anchor points by holding Shift and clicking each additional point, or by dragging a box around all points you would like to select. Shortcut: A From the Tools Panel, choose the Direct Selection Tool. Click once on the top-right anchor point to select it and then click and drag the anchor point inwards. Creating an Organic Shape Draw a circle and reposition if necessary. Make a copy and use the Direct Selection Tool to select the bottom anchor point. Click and drag the point downwards. We can adjust the curvature of the shape with handles. Depending on the angle and length of the handles, it changes the direction and size of the curve. Select the bottom anchor point with the Direct Selection Tool then drag the handles away from the shape until curvature of the shape matches the template. Make a copy then click on the left anchor point with the Direct Selection Tool. Rotate the handles slightly inwards by dragging the top handle to to the right. Afterwards, select the top anchor point and drag it downwards. Creating a Rounded Square Draw a square and choose a Fill Color. Inside the shape, there are four white circles near each corner, and these allow us to round the corners of the square. Click on a white circle and drag it inwards. The previous step rounded all the corners at once, but we can also round out a specific corner. Click on the anchor point with the Direct Selection Tool to active it and drag the the white circle inwards. Let's adjust the transparency of the shape by lowering its Opacity. Go to the Properties Panel and change the opacity to 50%.

Pen Tool In Illustrator, the Pen Tool is used to draw custom shapes from scratch by laying out a series of curve and corner points connected by paths. We’ll complete a few practice exercises. Exercise 1: Straight Lines Before you start drawing, make sure that the Stroke Color is set to a color that you can see easily and that the Fill Color is set to none In the Tools Panel, select the Pen Tool. Pen Tool The Pen tool is used to create anchor points and adjust the angles of the curves connecting them. Click once to create an anchor point. A line appears from the last anchor point you've placed, connected to wherever your mouse cursor is on screen. Click again to create additional points. Click and drag to set the angle for the control handle, which affect the angle of lines (also known as paths) that connect the anchor points. Click the first point you created to close your shape and stop adding new points. To stop creating new points without closing your shape, hit the Esc key or select another tool. Click once in the center of point 1 to place your first anchor point. The Pen Tool creates paths between multiple points, so we won’t see a line appear until we place the next point. Click once on point 2 to place another anchor point. This time, a line should appear between points 1 and 2. Click on points 3 and 4 to continue drawing the shape. Modifying Shape Use the Direct Selection tool to move individual points at any time. To close the shape, hover over point 5 until you see a small circle appear next to your cursor. This indicates that Illustrator will now close the path. Click on point 5 to close the path. Here is a clip of the whole process: Exercise 2: Curved Lines For this exercise, we will be creating a curved line with handles. With the Pen Tool still selected, click on point 1 and drag upwards toward the red circle and release the mouse. Though we won’t see a line appear until we create the next point, adding these handles to our first point sets the stage for a curved line. Click in the center of point 2 and drag downwards toward the red circle. A curved path is created between points 1 and 2. Note that if we dragged upwards at point 2, the curve would have formed an S shape instead of a U shape. Finish the curved line by Clicking once in the center of point 3 and drag upwards toward the red circle. Since this is not a closed shape, we will need to press the Enter key in order to move on to another task. Using the Direct Selection Tool, we can move the handles to adjust the curves. Exercise 3: Heart The first two exercises covered the bare essentials of the Pen Tool; now, we will apply what we learned by drawing a heart! We will use this heart in the e-card later. Make sure that you are not still editing your curve from Exercise 2. Either press the Enter key or switch to the Selection tool, then back to the Pen tool. Before moving onto the next section, try to do this exercise without help. . Click on point 1 to start the shape. Click point 2 and drag upwards to create a set of handles. It will help to hold Shift while dragging handles -- this will restrain their angle to 45 degree increments. Click on point 3 and drag slightly to the left. Click point 4, but do not drag! We want this to be a corner. Click point 5 and drag your cursor to the left. Click point 6 and drag your cursor downward. Hover over point 7 until you see a small circle appear next to your cursor. This indicates that Illustrator will now close the path. When you see the circle appear, click point 7. Here is a clip of the whole process: If needed, adjust the shape of the heart by using the Direct Selection Tool and playing with the handles and anchor points to match the dotted outline as closely as possible. Change the Fill Color to a light red and set the Stroke to none. If you have time, practice making your own shapes with the Pen Tool! The kind of curve that the Pen Tool makes is called a bezier, and it is used in an extremely wide variety of softwares including programs for design, sound production, and animation. For even more practice, here’s a fun game to help you master the pen tool:

Shape Builder Tool The Shape Builder Tool allows us to combine and delete shapes. We will explore these two features in the Cloud and Moon exercise. Cloud First we will use the rubberband method to select all of the shapes. Use the Selection Tool and drag over the area to select the shapes. From the Tools Panel, click on the Shape Builder Tool. Drag over all the shapes to create a line connecting all the pieces. Let go of the click and the shapes should be combined into a large cloud. Moon Using a similar process, select both circles with the rubberband method. While on the Shape Builder Tool, hold the Alt/Option Key while dragging a line though the left circle to delete that part of the overlapping shape.

Pathfinder Like the Shape Builder Tool, Pathfinder also allows us to combine and delete shapes. The only difference is the fact that we can choose from a list of preset options in Pathfinder to create our unique shape. Let's look at how Pathfinder works by applying it to the two previous exercises. Pathfinder The Pathfinder Panel allows you to create more complex shapes by combining or subtracting two or more overlapping shapes. Access Pathfinder via Window > Pathfinder Select two or more overlapping shapes and use the Shape Modes buttons in the Panel to combine them. The four modes are: Unite: Combine two or more shapes into one, eliminating internal paths that overlap.

Combine two or more shapes into one, eliminating internal paths that overlap. Minus Front: Subtract the shape in front from the shape behind.

Subtract the shape in front from the shape behind. Intersect: Keep only the areas where both shapes overlap.

Keep only the areas where both shapes overlap. Exclude: Remove the areas where both shapes overlap. Pathfinder options Original Unite Minus Front Intersect Exclude Cloud Undo the changes with Ctrl/Command + z until you revert both the Cloud and Moon examples to its orginal state. Use the rubberband method to select all of the shapes. In the Application Bar, go to Windows > Pathfinder. Select Unite from the list of Shape Modes. Moon Select both shapes with the rubberband method. From Shape Modes, select Minus Front. As you can see, Pathfinder and the Shape Builder Tool accomplishes the same task, and it all comes down to personal preference.

Type Tool The Type Tool is very similar to other programs that utilize text. We will look at how we can change the properties of the text with the following exercise. From the Tools Panel, select the Type Tool. Drag a text box that matches the dotted template and write a message of your choice. Highlight the entire message to select it. Go to the Properties Panel and change the Fill and/or Stroke Color. Use the dropdown to explore the variety of Fonts and choose one to your liking. Change the Font Size, and if part of your text is missing it means your text is too large for the size of the text box. To fix this, you need to decrease the size of your font or increase the size of your text box.

Grouping Shapes Grouping shapes is a useful feature in Illustrator because we can move all the shapes at once without having to select all of them each time. We will group the shapes of the eye to help us create the second eye. Select all the shapes with the rubberband method then right-click and select Group. In order to create the other eye, right-click and select Transform > Reflect... From the menu, choose to reflect over the Vertical axis and click Copy. Move the copy and align it to the other eye. With the exercises completed, we will apply these skills in our next project! Don't close this tab because we will use the heart we created from this file in the e-card later.

Creating an E-card Now that we have gained a better idea of the program, we will utilize these tools in this e-card exercise. Document Setup Use the blank document you created at the beginning of the workshop. Refer to these document settings if you need to recreate it: Modifying Shape Paths for the Body In the Tools Panel, Click the Ellipse Tool. Create a vertical ellipse. With the ellipse selected, go to the Tools Panel and locate the Fill. Change the Fill Color of the ellipse to dark blue. Since we do not want a stroke, click on the stroke swatch and select the white square with the red slash through it, which means no color. In the Tools Panel, select the Direct Selection Tool then click on the right-most anchor point of the body. Hold the Shift Key and click on the left-must anchor point. Now that both points are selected, drag one of the anchor points downwards. You should see both anchor points moving at once. In order to finish the body, we will flatten the top of the shape. With the Direct Selection Tool, click and drag the top-most anchor point downwards. The finished shape should look something similar to this: We want to recreate the shape for the belly so use the Selection Tool to select the blue body. While holding the Alt/Option key, click and drag the body to create a copy. In the Tools Panel, change the Fill Color to white. While holding down Shift, downsize the shape using the Selection Tool. Position the shape on the lower half of the body. Creating the Beak Next, add a beak to the penguin by creating a small horizontal ellipse. Change the Fill to coral and position the beak above the belly. Using Pathfinder for the Eyes and Wings For the next two body parts, we will be using the Pathfinder Tool. First, we will create the crescent shaped eyes. Click on the Ellipse Tool and create a horizontal ellipse that is slightly circular. Create a horizontal ellipse then position it on the lower half of the circle. Select both shapes with the Selection Tool. In the Application Bar, go to Windows > Pathfinder. From the Shape Modes, select Minus Front to create the crescent shaped eyes. While holding Shift, resize the eye using the Selection Tool. Now position the eye on the body and change the Fill to white. Create a copy of the eye then position the second eye on the body. The last body part we will be using Pathfinder for are the wings. Eyedropper Tool Eyedropper Tool Use this tool to select color from another area of your artboard and replicate the color for an object. Shortcut: I Use the Ellipse Tool to create a long horizontal ellipse. We want the wings to be the same shade of blue as the body, so select the ellipse then go to the Tools Panel and click on the Eyedropper Tool. Click on the body to replicate the color. Using the Rectangle Tool, drag a rectangle up to the halfway point of the ellipse. With both the rectangle and ellipse selected, click on Minus Front from the Pathfinder options to create a half ellipse. Resize and rotate the wing then position it on the body. For the second wing, use the Selection Tool to select the first wing and right-click. Select Transform > Reflect. From the panel, choose Vertical axis then click Copy. Move the wing to the right side of the body. Combining Shapes with the Shape Builder Tool Draw a circle with the Ellipse Tool by holding Shift while dragging out. Select the Eyedropper Tool and Click on the beak to replicate the shade of coral for the feet. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Begin moving your cursor to the upper right area above the circle until the Smart Guides indicate that your cursor is above the “intersection” point of the circle. From that area, drag a rounded rectangle to the point where the Smart Guides indicate the location of the “anchor” point. Rounded Rectangle Tool Not Appearing? As of Illustrator 2020, the Rounded Rectangle Tool is hidden from the Tool Panel. To enable this tool, go to bottom of the Tools Panel and click on the icon with three dots. From the expanded panel, select the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Right now, the circle and the rounded rectangle are separate shapes, but we can combine both shapes using the Shape Builder Tool. First, select both shapes then click on the Shape Builder Tool. Click and hold while dragging a line through all the pieces. Resize the shape and allign the foot with the halfway point of the eye. Make a copy of the foot and position it the same manner. Moving Objects to Another Document We will now drag the heart we created from the practice files. Click on the Illustrator Practice Files tab, and within the Pen Tool Exercise, find the heart we created earlier. With the Selection Tool, click and hold while dragging the heart to the other tab. Release once a green plus sign appears on the Penguin E-Card document. Finally, position the heart on the belly. Removing Shapes with the Shape Builder Tool For this part of the tutorial, we will add dimension to the penguin by creating shadows with the Shape Builder Tool. First, we will add a shadow to the beak. Drag a rectangle to the halfway point of the ellipse then change the fill to black. In order to have a more shadow-like effect, go to the Properties Panel and lower the Opacity to a somewhere between 10-15%. In this case, we do not want to use the rubberband method to select the beak and the rectangle because it will also select the shapes behind it, so we will have to use a different method. Using the Selection Tool select the gray rectangle then hold Shift while clicking on the beak. Next, click on the Shape Builder Tool in the Tools Panel. Hold down the Alt/Option key and click the gray area outside of the beak. In a similar fashion, we will add a shadow that covers half of the penguin. Drag a rectangle to the vertical halfway point of the penguin and change the Fill to black. Go to the Properties Panel and lower the Opacity to a somewhere between 10-15%. In order to get rid of the unnecessary gray area, first use the rubberband method to select all the shapes. Click on the Shape Builder Tool then hold the Alt/Option key and click the gray area outside of the penguin. Grouping Objects Right now, all the parts of the penguin are individual pieces, but you can group these shapes together. This allows you to easily move and resize the penguin without having to use the rubberband method each time. First, select the penguin using the rubberband method then go to Object > Group. To ungroup the shapes, go to Object > Ungroup. Creating A Background With the completed penguin, it is time to place a background. To start, select the Rectangle Tool and place your cursor at the corner of the document where the Smart Guides indicate the “Intersect” point. Drag a rectangle to the opposite corner. In this tutorial we end up choosing a solid background, but you can choose between a solid and a gradient background. With the background shape selected, click the Gradient Fill (highlighted in green in the picture) from the Tools Panel under Fill/Stroke Color. Make sure the the solid color swatch square in on top of the hollow square (since we want to change the Fill not the Stroke), then choose a type of gradient. Double-click the solid color swatch in the gradient slider bar to change the color. In order to change the color mode, click the icon in the upper right corner of the panel and select RGB. From there, choose any color that you like. By moving the gray diamond shapes above the Gradient slider, it allows us to adjust the color transitions in the gradient. Play around with it until you end up with a product that you like. In order to add more colors to the gradient, hold down the Alt/Option key while clicking and dragging a swatch on the gradient slider. Change the color in the same way as mentioned in steps 2 and 3. Once you are pleased with your gradient, you can either leave it as your background or change the fill of the rectangle to a pale pink color. Our rectangle is currently above the penguin, but we can change the order of the layers. Right-click the rectangle then go to Arrange > “Send to Back”. We are almost down with our e-card! The final part is adding text. In the Tools Panel, select the Type Tool. Drag out a text box and add a message. Change the size of the text by going to the Properties Panel and increasing the font size to 115 pt. In this tutorial we use the font Rockwell, but you can play with the style of fonts in the dropdown bar to find the font that you like. With the text box selected, use the Eyedropper Tool and click on the body of the penguin to replicate the shade of blue for the text. We are done assembling the ecard! Next, let's finish the project by exporting and saving our work.

Inkscape vs Adobe Illustrator: Detail Comparison (2022)

Adobe Illustrator is almost the most popular professional graphic design software besides CorelDraw. You’ve probably already considered Illustrator vs CorelDraw, but how about Inkscape?

Inkscape is gaining popularity because it’s free and it offers tools that can create vector graphics. That’s why it’s considered one of the top Illustrator alternatives. But can Inkscape replace Illustrator? Which one is better?

My name is June. I’ve been using Adobe Illustrator for more than ten years, and I also use Inkscape from time to time. Both programs are great for creating vectors, but they have their differences and “best-for(s)”.

In this article, I’m going to share with you my thoughts about Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator, including their main differences, and detailed comparisons of features, ease of use, interface, compatibility, and price.

What’s Inkscape best for?

Inkscape is a free open-source software for creating vector graphics. It has drawing tools and shape tools that are great for making icons and illustrations. Honestly, pretty similar to what Adobe Illustrator can do.

The program has a simple interface and the tools are easy to learn, which makes it a perfect choice for self-taught beginners who are new to graphic design. It’s also ideal for designers and illustrators who are looking for free vector design programs for digital work.

Notice that I said digital work? That’s right. Inkscape is not ideal for desktop publishing, printing, or handling images.

The main reason is that Inkscape doesn’t have CMYK color mode. Although you can save it as CMYK, you won’t be able to choose the color mode as you work, which can lead to serious color differences in print design.

In short, Inkscape is best for making vector graphics for digital use.

What’s Adobe Illustrator best for?

Adobe Illustrator is best for creating vector graphics, typography, illustrations, infographics, making print posters, and other marketing materials. Basically, anything you want to create from scratch. In short, Adobe Illustrator is best for creating graphic design artwork for digital and print.

It’s the best tool for branding design because you can have different versions of your design in various formats, and it supports different color modes. You can publish your design online and print them out in good quality.

Adobe Illustrator is also many illustrators’ top choice for its sophisticated drawing tools and features.

In short, Adobe Illustrator is best for professional graphic design and illustration work.

Quick Comparison Table

Here’s a quick comparison table that shows the basic information about each of the two software.

Inkscape Adobe Illustrator Common uses Drawing, create vector graphics for digital use Logo, graphic vectors, drawing & illustrations, Print & digital materials Compatibility Windows, Mac, Linux Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad Pricing Free 7 Days Free Trial

$19.99/month Ease of Use Easy, beginner-friendly Beginner-friendly but requires training Interface Old-fashion but customizable More tools are handy to use.

Inkscape vs Adobe Illustrator: What’s the difference?

The biggest difference between Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator is that Inkscape is free and open-source, but Illustrator isn’t.

You can directly download and use Inkscape but if you want to use Adobe Illustrator, you need to choose a subscription plan and it can be expensive for some users.

Another difference is that Inkscape uses nodes editing and Illustrator uses the direct selection tool, which gives more flexibility. I see Inkscape more for hobbyists or creating basic graphic work, while Adobe Illustrator is more of a professional graphic design program.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t use Inkscape for professional work, but it’s true that some tools and features are not as flexible or convenient because of the node editing method. I find it somehow limits the “freestyle” creation.

Inkscape vs Adobe Illustrator: Detail Comparison

In the comparison review below, you will see the differences and similarities in features & tools, compatibility, ease of use, interface, and pricing between the two programs.

Both Inkscape and Illustrator offer drawing and shaping tools for vector graphic design. The basic pen tool, pencil, and shape tools are quite similar, but the brush tools are quite different.

I have to say that I really like Inkscape’s brush tool (it shows as Draw calligraphic or brush stroke) because they are more practical and pressure-sensitive when drawing with a graphic tablet.

Adobe Illustrator does have more brush options like watercolor, ink, etc but you can always create your own custom brush in both software.

Inkscape brushes

Adobe Illustrator brushes

The shape tools are also quite similar. Besides the basic shape tools like ellipse, rectangle, stars, etc, in Illustrator the shape builder tools and pathfinder tools are essentials for creating shapes.

You can find the same pathfinders in Inkscape from the overhead menu Path.

Besides the drawing and shaping tools, you’d also want to look at the text tool because typography is an important part of graphic design.

The font and text tool in Inkscape isn’t as convenient as the text tool in Adobe Illustrator mainly because, in Inkscape, you can’t preview the text when you change font or size. I mean, you can see the font style in the text panel, but it wouldn’t show on your canvas.

The fact that I have to click twice to change the font and am not even sure if I’ll like it it’s actually quite frustrating because without the preview I have to go back and forth to change the font and size if I don’t like how it looks on my actual design.

In Illustrator, on the other hand, it shows directly on the artboard as you hover on the font style and if you like how it looks, simply click on it. Talking about efficiency, it’s two steps less than choosing a font in Inkscape.

I also find that handling images in Adobe Illustrator is easier and the fact that I can freely transfer them to Photoshop and work between two programs is a plus.

Even though neither of them is an expert in image manipulation, we can simply look at the image trace tool (it’s called Trace Bitmap in Inkscape) which you can use to vectorize a raster image.

In Adobe Illustrator, the image trace tool is better developed. Not only does it have preset options, but it also makes it so easy for you to edit in the Image Trace panel, and recolor the artwork after.

In Inkscape, you’d have to figure it out on your own. It’s not a bad thing, because you get more flexibility, but it does take more time.

Another feature that I have to mention again is the color modes. Inkscape doesn’t have the option to choose CMYK as the document color mode. That’s a big down point because there is a huge difference between CMYK and RGB color modes when you send the artwork for print.

Winner: Adobe Illustrator. I prefer Inkscape for freehand drawing, but for graphic design in general, Adobe Illustrator is definitely the winner because of its more advanced tools and features.

2. File formats & Compatibility

Both programs support SVG files, which allows you to edit and scale the design without losing its quality, and you can save or import files in different formats.

When you save a file in Inkscape, its default file format is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), but you can also choose to export the files in other formats like eps, gpl, fxg, etc. Besides the saving options, you can also export the file as svg, png, jpg, tiff, and webp.

Although the saving and exporting options are quite similar (png, jpeg, svg, pdf, etc), Illustrator supports more formats than Inkscape. Some common Adobe Illustrator supported file formats are CorelDraw, AutoCAD Drawing, Photoshop, Pixar, etc.

Both Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape are compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux. However, I find it quite unstable on Mac (I’m using MacBook Pro 2018).

When I downloaded the latest version of Inkscape on my MacBook, it took a while to run the program and it quit by itself twice after opening it.

Winner: Adobe Illustrator. I have to say it’s pretty close to a tie here because both programs support most of the common file formats, and you’d barely run into an issue opening a file.

However, the fact that Inkscape isn’t running smoothly on MacBook is a down point for me, because frequent crashes can affect efficiency.

3. Ease of Use

Inkscape is easier to use because the tools are intuitive. It’s not a bad option for beginners who want to explore the illustration or graphic design field, because there’s a shorter learning curve.

If you already have experience with other design programs. It’s like grab and go, selects a tool, and you’d know what to do.

Adobe Illustrator has more tools and features than Inkscape, that’s why the learning process will take longer too. If you’re new to Adobe Illustrator, it’ll take you about three to five months to get the hang of the program.

Winner: Inkscape. Inkscape’s tools are easier to get started with, but no matter which program you choose, there are a bunch of tutorials for both.

4. Interface

Interface is an important factor to look at because it’s closely related to your workflow. If you can’t find the tool that you need or working in a disorganized working space, it’s going to interrupt your working process.

Inkscape’s interface is a bit old-fashion, basically showing all the essential tools on the main working space, and on the right-hand side, there’s a “panel” area which you can select which panel to show.

I like the ready-to-use color swatches and panel area because it’s a designated area for all the panels, so it’s organized.

Unlike in Illustrator, the opened panels can get a bit messy, and you’ll need to organize it.

However, both programs allow you to customize what you want to show and whatnot, so the interface can be as “clean” as you want it to be. Or if you like to have the handy tools right there, you can as well.

Winner: Tie. I almost prefer Inkscape’s interface but since you can customize the interface, so there isn’t a winner here.

5. Pricing

Price is always something to consider, especially if you’re not using it for professional use. If you’re drawing as a hobby or creating simply marketing material, maybe you don’t have to pay for a design program.

However, if you want to become a graphic designer, you should consider paying for a more sophisticated design program like Adobe Illustrator. Heads up, it’s expensive. I do recommend trying out its free trial and seeing whether it is for you.

Adobe Illustrator is a subscription design program, but there are different membership plans you can choose from. You can get it at as low as $19.99/month with an annual plan (if you’re a student) or as an individual like me, it’d be $20.99/month.

Winner: Inkscape. Even though Adobe Illustrator has a free 7-days trial, it doesn’t have a free version, so it’s obvious that Inkscape’s the winner here.

Inkscape Pros & Cons

After comparing the important points that you should look at, here’s my quick sum-up of Inkscape’s pros and cons.

The good:

Free and open-source

Easy for beginners

Good for drawing and making vectors

The so-so:

Doesn’t have CMYK Color Mode (Not ideal for print work)

Unstable for Mac

The preview function isn’t great

Text tool isn’t convenient

Adobe Illustrator Pros & Cons

Now let’s look at a quick sum-up of Illustrator’s pros and cons.

The good:

Full features and tools for graphic design and illustration

Compatible and works well on Windows and Mac

Support different file formats

Cloud storage and file recovering work great

The so-so:

Heavy program (takes up a lot of space)

Steep learning curve

Can be expensive for some users

FAQs

Got more questions about Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator? See if you can find the answers below.

Do professionals use Inkscape?

Yes, some professional graphic designers or illustrators use Inkscape. Maybe not as the main or only tool, but using it as an alternative because Inkscape isn’t the industry standard (yet) for graphic designers when you look for a job.

Inkscape vs Adobe Illustrator for beginners, which one is better?

Inkscape is easier to get started with because the interface is more intuitive. The fact that Inkscape is free also makes it a good choice for beginners who wants to explore drawing and some graphic design basics.

Is Inkscape good for logos?

Yes, you can definitely use Inkscape to design logos. You can use the path tools, shape tools, and text to make logos.

Is Inkscape worth learning?

Yes! It’s always a good idea to learn the alternatives. And if you already know how to use Adobe Illustrator, it’s going to take you no time to get the hang of Inkscape.

Can Inkscape do everything Illustrator can?

No. Inkscape can do most of the things that Illustrator does, but definitely not everything. It could replace Adobe Illustrator if you’re using it for drawing, however, it can’t do all the graphic design work that Illustrator does.

Final Verdict

Adobe Illustrator is the industry-standard graphic design software, but Inkscape is becoming more and more popular. Both programs are great for drawing and creating vectors, I guess that’s probably why you’re doubting which one to use.

Many designers use both but I can’t say that Inkscape can replace Adobe Illustrator, so if you’re looking for a graphic design job, I highly recommend you consider Adobe Illustrator.

However, if you’re drawing as a hobby or using it for some simple task, Inkscape would be more than enough. Actually, why not try both? Inkscape is free anyways and Adobe Illustrator has a free trial