Adobe Illustrator
(4.5/5)
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Price: Free Trial or $20.99/month
Price: Free Trial or $20.99/month
VERDICT: Illustrator is a product developed by Adobe for the purposes of working with vector graphics. You can easily find Adobe Illustrator for Mac and Windows OS, which pleases graphic designers with a decent selection of drawing tools, a huge choice of customizable brushes and text management functions.
This program is a perfect fit for working in the fields of external advertising, printing, web design, publishing and more. Illustrator boasts a simple interface and decent functionality.
Picture contours are easy to edit, a highly qualitative zoom, maximum clarity of contours and lines are present.
At the moment, this Adobe product is referred to as the leader among programs that are designed to work with vector graphics, so no wonder many people want to buy Adobe Illustrator. You may effortlessly create a top-notch picture that is small and easy to transfer.
Complete Adobe Illustrator Review
Illustrator is notable for an extensive selection of customizable brushes that are totally indispensable when it comes to working with vector graphics. To simplify the workflow, a large number of supported plugins is offered. With this program, you may bring to life projects made at a professional level using the latest functions and tools.
Remarkable Quality at any Scale
With the Adobe Illustrator program, you are given the ability to use all the tools for drawing, color settings and tools for text editing in order to create different pics. All illustrations that you create, such as logos, book or magazine covers, websites and more, will be vector pictures.
Considering this fact, you may modify the scale of the picture without losing quality. You may, for instance, reduce the logo to the size of a screen saver for a smartphone, or vice versa, increase it for advertising on a large billboard. After all these scale modifications, your illustration will preserve its ideal quality.
Simple Work with Text
Working with vector graphics, you often encounter the problem of using text or text documents while creating a cover or brochure. In Illustrator, you may effortlessly add text to a contour or shape via “Text”, “Text in Area” or “Vertical Text in Area” tools.
According to many Adobe Illustrator reviews, you may also import text to a contour or shape from text documents with a.txt or .rtf file extension. It is very convenient if you are creating websites, book covers, brochures and other kinds of illustrations.
- Check out Free Fonts for Illustrator.
Helpful Tools for Drawing
Since Illustrator is a program for drawing vector graphics, it provides plenty of professional tools for the task. These tools include Pixel Perfect which assists in creating clear web graphics with pixels aligned on a grid.
As for the Puppet Warp tool, it enables performing more complete editing of complex shapes. The tool lets users block certain areas when manipulating adjacent areas, rather than doing it point by point. Apart from these tools, the software offers such standard features as pen, ellipse, rectangle and others.
Simple Hand Drawings
In case you feel inclined to add something unusual and exclusive to your Illustrator project, you may draw it by hand. When working with shapes or different pics, you may draw outlines by hand and modify the color as you wish.
You may create a contour not using a straight line or a polyline but simply by drawing a line in any way you wish. This is how you turn your artwork into a real masterpiece.
Small Size of the Output Files
Adobe Illustrator review produces a small size of the output files, which is very convenient for data exchange. For instance, if you wish to demonstrate an illustration or presentation to your team, you won’t have any problems transferring the file to a flash drive – the process will take a few seconds.
This graphics editor saves files with the .ai extension, they are of 20-30 MB in size and are well compatible with the PDF format.
Essential Coloring Tools
Working with vector graphics, you need to color the finished shapes and elements of your illustration. Using the Fill tool in Illustrator, you may effortlessly color an entire shape or its selected area with a single click.
You may also take advantage of custom brushes to apply contours or just color the drawing by controlling the width and size of the brush. The selection of brushes includes quick fill, eyedropper, ruler, gradient, grid, inkblot brush.
Converting a Bitmap Image to a Vector One
Working in Illustrator, you have the ability to create a vector image out of a pixel one. It is very convenient if you need to increase the size of the picture without losing its quality. With the "Image Trace" function, you may effortlessly turn a bitmap shot into a vector picture and resume editing it without any limitations.
Advanced Plugins
Adobe Illustrator has an extensive number of supported plugins, both built-in and custom ones. You may download and use various brushes, logos and other cool effects while working with vector pictures in Illustrator.
Helpful Functions for Slicing
Using slicing and cutting tools, you may gain ultra-fine control over lines and shapes. Also, you may use the Navigator tab to perform the following operations: combine, exclude, intersect, merge and split. Try experimenting with this variety of features to achieve often unexpected and unique results.
Tight Integration with Adobe Products
Using Adobe Illustrator, you can always get in close contact with other software from this company. In case you face the issue of bitmap picture post-processing while working, simply open Adobe Photoshop and use it to fulfill the task.
Once you are done with Ps, resume working in Illustrator. All Adobe products are closely related to each other and it is a very big advantage. Thanks to this, users may complete any task they can think of in the field of graphic design. On the other hand, if you use other programs, it will be difficult to combine them with Illustrator.
- Learn how to get Photoshop free.
Easy to Copy and Cut Objects
When working with vector graphics, you often have to resort to copying a shape or a part of it, and then inserting it into a new place. In Adobe Illustrator, the “Copy”, “Paste” and “Cut” functions simplify this process.
For instance, when creating a hedgehog, you need to draw a lot of needles on its back. With the “Copy” and “Paste” functions, you may generate a prickly hedgehog’s back in a few minutes, and it won’t be difficult at all.
Convenient Working Interface
At first glance, the working interface of the Illustrator graphics editor may seem complicated, especially if you are a newbie. To help you get a hang of the program, there are plenty of Adobe Illustrator tutorials found on the net.
After working in this graphics editor for a few hours, you will understand that it is intuitive and very convenient. Besides, you have the ability to set keyboard shortcuts for frequently used functions or tools.
Adobe Illustrator Price
It is $20.99/month for a standalone program and $52.99/month for a program in the Creative Cloud package.
In case you aren’t satisfied with using just Illustrator, you may purchase the Creative Cloud package. It includes a collection of more than 20 programs, up to 10TB of cloud storage. Payment is made monthly, but you can also buy an annual license for $599.88.
Apart from these packages, you may use Adobe Illustrator free if you aren’t 100% sure that this software is a perfect fit for you and your needs. You can install the 7-day trial version and test all the capabilities of this graphics editor.
- Learn in more detail about Adobe Illustrator Free Trial.
Similar Products
Freebies
Would you like to simplify the process of working with vector graphics in the Adobe Illustrator program? Then you need to try our brushes. Using them, you will be able to fill the image with the right colors or pictures easier and faster.
Snow
While working on winter pictures or logos, you may feel inclined to create beautiful white snow. With this brush, you can easily add snow and achieve a marvelous atmosphere.
Fog
While working on illustrations for children or just beautiful images with a background near the river or near the mountains in the early morning, you will need to add fog. With this brush, you can draw fog on any picture, and it will not take much of your time.
Cloud
This brush can help you create covers for children’s books, leaflets with nature or illustrations depicting a sunny day. Use it to add clouds that will naturally blend into any drawing.
Fire
If you have ever tried drawing fire, then you probably know how time-consuming and difficult it is to depict this beautiful natural phenomenon. But if you use this brush, the process won’t take you long, and you will be able to draw a truly realistic fire.
Star
If you wish to create a postcard template or business card and draw stars on it, you don’t need to copy and paste them many times, modify their sizes and shapes. Just use this brush and you will add stars to your project easily and quickly.
Ann Young
Hi there, I'm Ann Young - a professional blogger, read more
