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4.7 star rating
0
What is the best alternative to sK1?
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Inkscape
All
29
Experiences
Pros
13
Cons
15
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Inkscape is GPL-licensed and maintains public repositories.
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Con
Very slow startup on some systems
Depending on factors like how many fonts you have installed, Inkscape can take upwards of 30 seconds to launch.
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Pro
Opens lots of file types
Inkscape supports many common formats for import (including SVG, Photoshop and Illustrator) and its plugin architecture allows more to be added.
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Con
Uses its own SVG-format by default
Inkscape might use SVG as its default format, however this SVG's contains some additional SodiPodi/Inkscape additions that can be troublesome if you want to import the SVG into some other application.
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Pro
Export to different file types
Files can be exported and saved as a "normal" svg, png, jpg, bmp etc. file.
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Con
1.0 is sluggish
Inkscape 1.0 uses GTK 3 which is sluggish and slow for low spec systems( eg. ARM, Celeron, Pentium, Core-i3, Ryzen 3 or Athlon ) compared to previous versions.
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Pro
Cross-platform
Pre-built binaries are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Inkscape can be built from source on additional platforms.
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Con
Buggy
Application is often buggy so it happens from time to time that the popup / right-click menu won't close and stays open. It crashes also sometimes randomly. This makes it almost unusable for productive / business use.
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Pro
Integrates well into a X11-System
Its uses the X11 icon theme and desktop theme(GTK).
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Con
Crashes very often
Inkscape encountered an internal error and will close now - is one of its standard messages.
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Pro
It can do anything
A very powerful software that can do pretty match anything!
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Con
Since 0.91 the gradient editor is gone
It is now only possible to edit a gradient on screen. but you can't set a stop to a specific percentage anymore.
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Top
Pro
Measurement Tool
This tool is extremely handy and can not be found in any other vector graphics programs out there.
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Con
Limited work with ICC CMYK color scheme
Support for ICC color profiles only in SVG files.
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Pro
Live Path Effects
Extremely powerful menu that offers more than 30 powerful Live Path Effects to apply to paths vastly enhancing the application functionality.
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Top
Con
Y-axis inverted
0,0 coordinates begin in lower left corner, not upper left corner as SVG standards define in Inkscape 0.92.x. It seems this is now fixed in the 1.0 beta 2 version of the program.
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Top
Pro
Guides, Grids, and Canvas Rotation
Extremely handy features when building complex graphics using Inkscape.
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Con
Uses GTK
It looks an feels like an alien. It also uses now touch-based widgets instead of professional widgets.
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Pro
Dark Theme Support
The new 1.0 beta 2 version finally got support for dark theme which normally is only available for commercial software like Affinity Serif, Adobe Illustrator.
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Top
Con
A toy for facebook-ist enthusiasts, not for professionals
It's a Linux niche mumbo-jumbo, same as GIMP for raster edit .
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Pro
The new version 1.1 is looks and feels fantastic
Inskape got UI update: new dockable dialogs.
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Con
Based on the GTK widget toolkit
Software is based on GTK, so it might not integrate well in non-GTK environments. It also requires many dependencies on those non-GTK desktops. It also adds dependencies to GTK-environments since it is written in C++ which requires the gtkmm wrapper/interface.
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Pro
Interface is available in 29 languages
Basque, British English, Brazilian, Portuguese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Swedish.
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Con
Mac version does not look as polished as its versions for Windows/Linux version for the 0.92.x version
It seems that Inkscape 1.0 beta 2 for Mac got some needed attention and it looks a lot better with dark theme support. native DMG installer and they got rid of X11 which is great.
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Pro
It's really easy and fun
Vector graphics can be created and edited with Inkscape.
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Con
Incompatible with previous versions
Sometimes backward compatibility breaks. For example, pre 0.92 SVGs are incompatible with later releases (due different default resolutions).
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Top
Con
No support for large printing machine system
No support for large printing machine environment, except exporting the resulting artwork to PDF.
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Con
Under GNU GPL
It is released under GNU GPL which one of the restricted open source license.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix
License:
GPL-2.0-or-later
Technology:
C++
Initial Release:
2003
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Experiences
Free
249
52
Boxy SVG
All
3
Experiences
Pros
1
Cons
2
Top
Con
No trial version for Mac
You can't really check if it's worth the money.
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Top
Pro
Good toolset
Has a good number of tools to use.
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Top
Con
Laggy zoom
When zooming in, there is a noticeable stutter.
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$10
10
0
Xara Designer Pro X
All
14
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
2
Top
Pro
All-in-One suite
It has extensive built-in tools and features for all your design needs.
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Top
Con
Lacks starting page size options and file creation wizard
It has a few and outdated templates for file creation and no wizard. So many times, you'll have to customize page sizes to your needs after creating a random A4 project.
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Top
Pro
25000% zoom
Quick speed to zoom in and out with the mouse-wheel whilst editing.
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Top
Con
Expensive
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Top
Pro
Integrated Google Fonts installer
Easily install fonts from Google Fonts repository to use in all your projects directly from the font interface.
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Pro
Automatic backup and costumizable version control
Automatically backups your projects every few minutes and has version control, which allows you to always go back to an user-defined number of old versions of your files.
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Top
Pro
Xara's cloud integration
The new Xara Online Designer allows you to work on-the-go.
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Pro
Tutorials and Demos
Xara constantly publishes tutorials and always has updated demos of new features.
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Pro
Xara apps smooth integration
Smoothly switches between any Xara / most MAGIX apps like Xara 3D Maker, PhotoStory, MAGIX Video Edit, etc...
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Pro
Import from.. / Export to.. other graphical suites
You can easily import from and export to Adobe and Corel suites in their native file formats.
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Pro
Community friendly
Xara and MAGIX have a very close relationship with its user community.
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Pro
PDF-X export
Perfect PDF-X export for a better product design printing experience.
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Pro
Built-in Pixabay free image library
Search and download free images from Pixabay to add to your projects without ever leaving Xara Designer Pro.
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Top
Pro
Plugin support
It recognizes and fully support plugins from Photoshop and others.
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Experiences
Paid
11
1
Affinity Publisher
All
8
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
One-off reasonable price, with no upgrades or monthly subs
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Top
Con
No EPub options (yet?)
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Top
Pro
Very comprehensive set of features
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Top
Con
No Linux version available
Unfortunately, there is no Linux version available in 2021, despite of numerous requests of the users.
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Top
Pro
Has become sufficiently popular over the past year that there is an excellent knowledge base
You can quickly find solutions, tutorials, etc. online when you need help. Contrast this to Scribus, which despite its rich feature set, is often unintuitive and awkward to use, and help from other users sometimes difficult to find.
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Top
Pro
Lots of Resources to Learn
Serif's forums, videos and other sites offer good resources to learn this tool, which has a very intuitive interface.
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Top
Pro
Most intuitive interface
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, iPadOS
License:
Proprietary
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Experiences
Free / paid
46
5
Corel Draw
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Advanced tools for a fast workflow
Symmetry tool, pages, copy attributes, etc.
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Top
Con
Expensive
In US it costs $499, and although it's worth the money for advanced users, for ordinary users it's too much.
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Top
Pro
Efficient and intuitive UI
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Top
Con
UI can be confusing for users coming from Adobe
It might need some time to adjust.
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Top
Pro
Great for large scale prints
Corel Draw can handle large sized printing projects. You can use the feet as the unit for output size and it can still export the graphic without problems to your computer's system resource.
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Top
Pro
Price is good
The no-subscription option is $449.00 and subscription is $198.00 per year.
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Specs
Initial Release:
1989
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Experiences
$18.25 / MO
26
4
Figma
All
7
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Works in the browser
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Top
Con
Inefficient workflow
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Top
Pro
Live previews for mobile
Mirrors your designs to your phone in realtime.
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Top
Pro
Allows for real time collaboration
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Top
Pro
Has all the core functionality you'd expect from something like Sketch
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Top
Pro
Integrates with Slack
Provides integration with Slack.
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Top
Pro
Provides a free version
Does not require a paid subscription for use. Can be used freely with a lot of features. The free use allows very limited collaboration.
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Experiences
Get it
here
103
13
Affinity Designer
All
15
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
One-time purchase
Rather than a monthly subscription based model, Affinity Designer instead has a one-time fee ($49.99).
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Top
Con
No plug-in architecture, so can't be tailored to specific purposes
Some applications (e.g. Sketch) have an open plug-in framework, by which the software can be extended by independent/third-party developers according to popular trends.
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Top
Pro
Intuitive user interface
The user interface of many graphic editing software programs can often be discouraging for beginners. Affinity Designer, however, has a very well laid out and intuitive user interface with a small learning curve.
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Top
Con
Treats all objects as filled
You can't select objects on the canvas by clicking on them, if they're surrounded by another object (like a rectangle or a frame). Designer treats all objects as filled, so if you've drawn a frame or outline or an object with a hole in it, you can't select objects within that hole directly. You have to laboriously iterate through all objects in a list until you get to the one you want. This is an extremely common situation, which cripples the entire product. Very surprising and unfortunate defect.
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Top
Pro
Powerful artistic tools
Extensively tweakable brush types, color options...
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Pro
Extended slicing and export possibilities
An object can easily be transformed into a slice that can then be exported in various sizes end formats in 1 go. E.g. Export slice A as PNG 1x, 2x and 3x AND GIF 1x AND SVG.
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Pro
Powerful symbol managemment
Symbols can get individual property changes (color, shape, layer effects, fonts text...) while the other properties stay linked with the base symbol.
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Pro
Sketch Alternative (Great for Mixed OS Teams)
For those working in mixed environments that aren't 100% MacOS, you'll find devoting yourself to Sketch.app brings with it...pain. If this fits the bill for what you need feature-wise and you're in a mixed OS environment, it's a very capable replacement for Sketch.app. Note that it doesn't have all the same features, but then again it doesn't need all the same features. Short of organization differences inside the document you're working on, there shouldn't be anything you can't do with Affinity Designer that you could have with Sketch.
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Pro
Cross platform
Available on both Windows and MacOS
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Top
Pro
SVG Support
In the era of "retina" displays, 4k UHD, 5k, and even 8k, Scalar Vector Graphics - independent vector images that can scale to any resolution without any display quality loss - are more important now than ever. And this tool is quite capable of rendering true SVG output suitable for consumption at any display resolution (not a big bunch of rasterized bits in the document, actual paths, points, etc.).
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Top
Pro
Focused vector graphics tool
Unlike some design tools, Affinity Designer isn't trying to be all things to all people. It's focused on its main area of expertise: vector graphics. That's not to say you can't use a raster image (think a photo in *.jpeg format for example), but it's not built to do much with that other than using it somewhere amidst the layers and that's about it.
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Top
Pro
Integrates well with Affinity Photo
These are companion apps & switching between them is built in - Photo is a very powerful raster tool with a feature set close/better to Photoshop, it will also use some Photoshop plugins. This allows you to add-on powerful raster capabilities if you want them - put doesn't force you to.
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Top
Pro
Excellent Photoshop/Illustrator import & export
Best I have seen in a non Adobe app, you can use most of the Photoshop mock-ups and templates easily. Opens most Adobe files to a level to be able to effectively use the content. Allows cross team collaboration across tool-chains.
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Top
Pro
Powerful
The new version 1.5 has a very powerful feature set such as support for symbols and asset windows, as well as constraints controls and improved export options. This all adds up to an interesting alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, MacOS, IOS
Export image formats:
PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PSD, PDF, SVG, EPS, EPS, EXR, HDR
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Experiences
$49.99
120
15
MyPaint
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Interface gets out of the way
MyPaint mostly consists of the canvas. The interface to select different brushes can be brought up if needed, but it generally stays out of the way of getting things done.
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Top
Con
Is not stable at all
I could not even open a png file to start without the software to freeze.
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Top
Pro
Good support for pressure sensitive graphics tablets
MyPaint was designed specifically with pressure sensitive graphics tablets in mind.
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Top
Con
Not a lot in terms of image manipulation
MyPaint focuses only on drawing. It has very little in terms of post processing or image manipulation features.
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Top
Pro
Good media emulation
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Top
Pro
Forgo the need to resize the canvas
If a user needs a bigger canvas all they need to do is zoom out instead of re-sizing.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
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Experiences
Free
24
5
Gravit Designer
All
12
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Simple to understand and use
Very friendly interface.
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Top
Con
Too simple
If you have used vector illustration software for 10 years or more, you may find Gravit Designer too simple and confusing. Trade in your oil paints and brushes for Legos simple.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
It offers total portability to almost any platform.
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Top
Con
No longer offically licenced with a GPLv3+ version
In 2014 Quasado released Gravit.io having dual licensing: GNU GPLv3+ or a commercial license. This effectively made Gravit.io opensource, when they transitioned to "Gravit designer" they essentially dropped GPLv3+ license. You can still get the GPLv3+ licensed version of Gravit.io here: https://github.com/OliBridgman/gravit You can read the GPLv3+ licensing here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
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Top
Pro
Modern UI
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Top
Con
Confusing bugs
Sometimes Gravit Designer can randomly duplicate your files, causing you to waste a large amount of time trying to find the right one.
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Top
Pro
Friendly keyboard shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts are very easy to access and remember.
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Top
Con
Pro Subscription
Gravit's many basic features are now included in Pro Subscription. Font Import, Bezigon, Swatches and various Blending Modes fall in Pro Subscription now.
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Top
Pro
Essential Tools and Effects
Gravit has many tools like Pen tool, Bezigon tool, Lasso tools. We can add Multiple Fills to an element also. It has many effects such as Drop Shadows, Blur, Recolor, Glows, etc. and much more.
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Con
Very little information
Official sources do not provide a lot information about the program.
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Con
No integration into the system
It uses it own theme and icons.
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Specs
Platforms:
Linux, MacOS, Windows, ChromeOS, WebApp
License:
Commercial
Company:
Corel Corporation
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Experiences
$99/yr
56
11
Invision Studio
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Built-in marketplace
Going beyond tradition, Invision Studio includes a Marketplace in the application itself to install icon toolkits, design toolkits, whenever, whatever you want to.
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Top
Con
No Linux support
Despite its amazing portfolio, Invision Studio lacks Linux support - a boon for some people but Invision has openly said they will support it when there's demand.
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Top
Pro
Integration with invision cloud
Being a Invision product, it tightly knits with Invision's own cloud services. You can upload prototypes from Invision Studio to Invision Cloud.
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Top
Con
Requires Invision login
You'll be required to login to Invision to use Studio for now. But after logging in, you should be able to access Studio without any hiccups.
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Top
Pro
Sketch imports
Unlike most tools, Invision Studio openly allows imports from sketch files, allowing you to use Sketch with Invision Studio
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Pro
Offline support
Invision Studio allows offline use, and you can save files offline, even without logging in to an Invision account.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac
Exports:
.png, .jpg, .studio
Real-time collaboration:
Yes
Imports:
.sketch, .svg, .png, .jpg, .studio
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Experiences
Free / paid
8
2
Krita
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
Easy to use layout
All the most used and useful tools are easy to find in Krita's UI and are often just one click away. They are not hidden behind menus or dropdowns.
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Top
Con
New features are not tested thoroughly
Since releases are so often and with little time between them, usually new features are not tested a lot and this can bring a lot of bugs with them. Which fortunately are quickly patched in the next release.
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Pro
Constantly updated
Krita is getting constant releases with updates and bug fixes. New features are added at a pace that far surpasses the other alternatives.
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Top
Con
Documentation is lacking
Krita's official documentation is incomplete in some areas, especially for new features that are constantly added. But this is compensated with it's great design and usability which makes it easier to understand how things work.
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Pro
Free and open source
Krita is completely free and open source. They have raised a couple of successful Kickstarters in the past to get the initial financing and now they are accepting donations.
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Top
Con
Poor touch controls
They are still pretty much a WIP. But they are getting there.
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Pro
Developed in part by KDE, which has a great community and therefore great support.
KDE has a long history of making solid applications.
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Con
Working with text is not that pleasant
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Pro
Amazing support for displaying brushes
Krita's preset brushes are one of the default dockers. Each brush has a preview on mouseover that shows a detailed view of the type of brush involved. All the brushes also have useful and descriptive names such as "HP Pencil" or "Textured Fuzzy".
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Pro
Very customizable
Although the UI is rather busy, Krita is very customizable. The editing window can be themed and the sidebar can be customized extensively throw many dockers or panes.
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Pro
Easy editing in a tiled view
Tiled view that shows your image tiled in the editor, and permits you to edit it as you are seeing it tiled. If the brush passes out of your texture, it will just automatically wrap back the painting to the other side of the original texture, while permitting you to paint and see the results on any of the tiled "clones" (the shortcut key to activate this is w by default).
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
License:
Open source
Technology:
C++, Qt
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Experiences
Free
489
77
GIMP
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Con
Unintuitive interface
GIMP doesn't embrace OS X application design, thus Mac users might have a hard time wrapping their heads around GIMP's interface.
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Pro
Free, open source and cross-platform
GIMP is completely free and open source, meaning you can use GIMP and all of its features without spending a penny. This makes it an excellent case for artists or designers who may not have the budget to spend over 700 USD on Photoshop. It is also available for free on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. It's licensed under GPL with source code available here.
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Con
Less features than other programs
Being a free program, it shouldn't be surprising that it has limited features. For those needing more advanced features for something more professional, GIMP just isn't for you.
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Pro
Powerful
GIMP is the most feature rich free image editing tool. It has most image manipulation and workflow tools that you would expect from an image editing software and what it lacks it makes up with plugins.
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Con
Lacks adjustment layers
Adjustment layers offer a non-destructive way of combining different photo manipulations. Without adjustment layers the only way to see changes is by irreversibly editing the image. They are promised in future updates.
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Pro
Content-aware tools with a plugin
There's a content-aware fill plugin available for GIMP.
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Con
Poor performance
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Pro
Modular & single-window interface options
By default GIMP splits out each window, but you can check to use the one screen mode in options if you prefer.
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Pro
Lightweight
Compared to to other photo editing software, GIMP is very light weight. In addition it isn't very resource-intensive, meaning you can put it on a flash drive and have it with you to load up on just about any computer.
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Pro
Beginner-friendly
Gimp has less features than programs like Photoshop, but for a beginner, or someone not needing complicated options, Gimp is the perfect choice. It allows you to quickly do basic photo manipulation so you can easily get the product you need without having to worry about complicated features getting in the way.
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Pro
Full channel support
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS
License:
GPLv3+
Tethered capture:
No
Non-Distructive Editing:
No, Feature in development with GEGL
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Experiences
Get it
here
283
60
Vectr
All
11
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Intuitive
Vectr is simpler than other web design or vector graphics design tools, and has all the features needed to make designs beautiful.
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Con
Requires an Internet connection to work
Must be tethered to an Internet connection at all times, so forget working on planes or other places where you're not online.
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Top
Pro
WordPress plugin
Embedded editor in WordPress is perfect for editing / creating: annotated images, watermarks, banners, image-collages, infographics, logotypes.
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Top
Pro
Grid and snapping
The grid and snap lines in your workspace serve as a visual aid and guideline for the composition and alignment of your designs.
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Top
Pro
Supports importing various image formats
You may import your previous designs or downloaded graphics and edit them in Vectr as you like.
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Top
Pro
Supports collaboration
You can send the unique URL to your Vectr project to friends and colleagues for collaboration.
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Pro
Low learning curve
Vectr has a very low learning curve and would be perfect for beginners. However, it’s absolutely easy to use no matter what your background is. Professional designers will also find a great number of useful tools which may change their designs completely.
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Pro
Designing offline
Vectr's desktop app works offline for up to 100 edits, and then once you get online it automatically synchronizes all of the projects with your online account. So you can work whenever you want without fearing for your projects.
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Pro
Free
The app is going to remain free forever.
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Pro
Cross-platform
You may download Vectr for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Web
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Experiences
Free
14
5
Google Drawings
All
6
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Con
Married to Google
Using Google Draw necessarily means committing information to their servers.
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Top
Pro
Support for collaboration
Because it's integrated with Google Drive, Draw docs can easily be shared and worked on by multiple people.
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Top
Pro
Easy to use
It lacks all of the complex features of the larger editors, but makes all of the tools it does have easy to access and understand.
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Top
Pro
Free to use
Like the rest of the Google Drive suite, Draw is available to anyone with a Google account.
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Top
Pro
Cloud storage
Google Draw saves to Google Drive so you can access it from anywhere at any time.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web
Hide
Free
11
5
LaTeX
All
10
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Lets you focus on the content
LaTeX handles the design so you can focus on the content
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Con
Steep learning curve
LaTeX is not what you'd consider easy to use, and while there's plenty of documentation out there, much of it is rather opaque unless you're a seasoned TeXnician.
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Pro
High-quality typesetting by default
There's a reason that scholarly journals often require the use of LaTeX for articles printed in their pages, and it's because the quality of the output is that good. Universities often require, or at least encourage, the use of LaTeX for graduate theses and dissertations for this same reason.
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Con
Single-threaded design
LaTeX is single-threaded by design, since it must necessarily work sequentially to produce each page as it is laid out by the typesetting engine. This makes it dependent on the power of just one individual core in your multi-core computer setup and so migrating to a machine with more cores won't necessarily make your LaTeX documents build faster.
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Pro
Free open source software
Licensed under the LaTeX Project Public License
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Top
Con
Not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor
LaTeX uses the paradigm what-you-see-is-what-you-mean instead.
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Pro
Editor-independent
You can edit LaTeX sources in any text editor.
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Pro
Cross-platform
Works on every major OS and gives exactly the same quality output everywhere you go. LaTeX on macOS, Windows, Linux, BSD, and even Mac OS 9 has exactly the same output for a given set of sources.
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Pro
Effortless math input
The whole reason that TeX -- and, by extension, LaTeX -- exists is to give people an easy way (well, for some value of "easy") to produce high-quality documents with properly laid out mathematical expressions and text in them. As long as you know the language (or have a reference sheet handy), you can include mathematical expressions in your document with little to no extra effort needed on your part.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux
Database management:
No
Project management:
No
Word processing:
Yes
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23
10
MediBang Paint Pro
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Multi-platform support
Windows, macOS, iOS and Android.
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Con
Displays a dialog with some ads at the start
When starting up the app, there is a dialog that pops up containing advertisements, this can simply be closed, but will happen every time when opening the app. Sadly there is no way to remove these ads currently.
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Pro
Has a lot of options for editing photos
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Pro
Free
It's a powerful, fully featured app and it's free.
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13
6
Sketch
All
17
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Designed specifically for web and mobile UI design & workflows
Sketch is essentially a version of Photoshop built from the ground up to suit the workflow of web designers.
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Con
No Windows support
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Pro
Active community with a lot of resources
Sketch is hugely popular among designers so there are a lot of well maintained community resources for everything from iPhone frames to iOS/Android UI elements & icons.
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Con
No Linux version
Sketch is currently only available on Mac, which can make it hard to collaborate if you have teammates using Linux.
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Pro
Clean UI
Reactive panels keep the UI for Sketch clean from the sort of clutter the panel system in Photoshop suffers from. The panels in Sketch change based on the object in question, saving you from having to have a multiple separate panels.
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Con
License based payment model
Sketch has recently decided to cease development of major version (2.0, 3.0, 4.0) with free updates in between, and has switched to a license based subscription model. A yearly license costs $99 and includes the latest version of the Sketch software, plus a year of free updates. After this license expires, you can renew for another year of updates - or continue to use the current software without updates.
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Pro
Symbols and shared styles
Sketch lets you re-use the same design in multiple places, with changes synced throughout the various places it is used. You can also create text styles to sync typography changes.
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Con
Buggy releases and lack of quality assurance
The fast rate of change means new releases often break files and cause havoc. Duplicate symbols are really bad in the latest releases so you have to keep updating.
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Pro
"Artboards" are great for working on multiple views simultaneously
Artboards let you easily work on multiple views side by side. Great for having a separate artboard on each page for the various responsive sizes.
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Con
Very feeble raster tools
You have to go elsewhere if you want something more complex than basic vector masking of raster images.
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Pro
Vector based yet pixel aware
You can rescale assets without quality loss, easily export x2 assets for retina designs and design high quality icons & artwork. Being pixel aware lets you set a grid and snap objects to it as well as round to the nearest pixel edge to clean up your layers.
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Con
Limited compatibility with Photoshop and Illustrator
Although it is possible to export certain Adobe file types in Sketch, compatibility is mostly hit and miss. For example, some elements seem a little offset in Adobe products.
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Pro
Makes it easy to export assets
Sketch has a built in exporter that supports PDF, JPG and PNG.
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Pro
Built-in grid system
You can set the square grid to whatever dimensions you like as well as set thicker lines every x blocks. You can also configure the color of the lines to make them as obvious or subtle as you wish and toggle the grid with a keyboard shortcut (crtl+g).
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Pro
"Mirror" makes it really easy to test designs on multiple devices
Mirror lets you connect your iPhone to sketch and see how your current artboard looks on mobile. It's really useful as you can live check changes which lets you rapidly iterate mobile design.
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Pro
Easily align layers with smart guides
Holding down alt will show the smart guides that show the distances between any layer you hover over to nearby layers or the edges of the artboard. Very useful for checking your spacing or aligning layers.
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Specs
Platforms:
Mac
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Experiences
Paid
124
48
Microsoft Publisher
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
3
Top
Pro
Has excellent layout and typography tools
Publisher links to Microsoft Office's online template portfolio, which is regularly updated. It covers around 700 different options and crisp, clean designs that can easily jump-start your projects.
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Con
Incompatible with Adobe products
It can't open or import popular file types such as PDFs or Photoshop PSDs.
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Pro
Great layout tool
Its custom guidelines help you align elements on the page, and master pages give you control over elements like page numbers or framing blocks of color. Publisher even has full support for CMYK-optimized printing, the printing format used by ink printers to produce clear, high quality printing.
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Con
Windows only
Mac and Linux still treated as fringe.
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Pro
Compatible with other Office software
It works well with the rest of the Office suite. It natively imports Microsoft Word .doc and .docx files with ease. Or if you need Excel in your next newsletter, you can import a file without hassle.
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Con
Lacks graphic design tools
Does not allow you to craft logos or touch up photographs.
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Pro
Commonly available
Publisher comes with Microsoft Office. It is a lightweight alternative to professional layout software such as Adobe InDesign.
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Experiences
Paid
4
2
Scratch
All
11
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
5
Top
Pro
Visual
Code is represented as visual building blocks that makes it easy to understand how a program is put together.
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Con
For kids
For kids.
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Pro
Great starting point for kids
Scratch was developed specifically for kids ages 8 and up as an exciting way to introduce them to technology. It's designed to be easy to learn, but still provides good depth in computational thinking.
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Con
Won't get you a job
Scratch is not a language used in the workplace. Instead it teaches computational thinking, helping to create a foundation to aid in learning other languages.
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Pro
Easy to learn
Scratch is designed to teach computational thinking rather than focus on specific syntax. It was designed specifically to be easy to learn for anyone over the age of 8.
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Con
Does not teach you programming
Learning Scratch might help you if you have high difficulty with logical thinking. However, starting with a proper programming language, especially an easy one, will give you the benefits of starting with something like Scratch and everything else.
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Pro
Highly structured
The language is highly structured. Therefore, it gives you the essentials of how to think like a programmer and teaches you good programming practices from early on, so you could write clean, working and readable code in the future.
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Con
Strange OOP
Scratch has a very strange implementation of OOP that is sprite based, and will become very confusing when you move to other languages.
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Pro
No need to be able to type
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Con
Weird
It's straight up weird.
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Pro
Can be used to create games
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Experiences
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101
47
Adobe Illustrator CC
All
18
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Con
Subscription model
Illustrator CC requires a $19.99/mo (minimum) subscription to use. Adobe no longer sells previous versions of Illustrator.
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Pro
Amazing integration with all other Adobe Software (PS, Ae, Id...)
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Con
Heavy use of CPU/RAM
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Pro
It's the industry standard
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Con
Steep learning curve
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Pro
Advanced tools
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Con
Very slow
Even in very good computers Illustrator is very slow.
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Pro
Has all the vector tools you could dream of
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Con
You never truly own this software
As soon as you stop paying you to lose access to the software. This should be illegal.
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Pro
Flexible, non-intrusive interface
Small palette menus and the ability to save multiple menu layouts keep the UI out of the way.
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Con
Install useless and intrusive software
When you install any Adobe product it also installs lots of useless and intrusive software and services. It adds two services and up to three auto-starting software that runs when you start your operating system and keep running constantly. One is for auto-updating, others for "checking" if you are not a pirate and some others that seems to be just to collect information.
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Pro
There are many tutorials on the internet
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Con
Imprecise coordinates
Oftentimes your 140 is 139.9997 and as a vector program it doesn't rely much on precision.
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Pro
Frequent updates
The CC subscription model means that major releases are no longer necessary, so existing users gain immediate access to new features.
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Con
No proper selection mode
In a vector-art program, the critical selection mode is the one in which objects must be fully enclosed by the selection marquee to be selected. In the simple example shown here, selecting all the circles should merely require you to draw a selection rectangle around them. But in Illustrator, there's no way to avoid selecting other objects as well, even though they're not totally enclosed by the selection box. Year after year, Adobe fails to fix this bizarre oversight, making Illustrator a tedious pain to use.
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Pro
Easy to learn
It's easy to learn how to work with this software.
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Con
Buggy
Software can be very buggy at times.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows; Mac
License:
Proprietary
Initial Release:
1987
Exports:
.ai; .eps; .ait; .pdf; .fxg; .svgz; .svg; .png; .bmp; .dwg; .dxf; .emf; .swf; .jpg; .pct; .psd; .tif; .tga; .txt; .wmf; .html; .gif
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$19.99+/mo
60
37
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