Top Free Adobe Illustrator Alternatives

When it comes to vector illustrations, Adobe Illustrator has long been the industry standard for vector graphic design. Adobe Illustrator is a popular and powerful vector graphics designing tool developed by Adobe Inc. Adobe Illustrator is widely used by professional graphic designers, illustrators, and artists for creating logos, icons, illustrations, and vector graphics that need to be easily scaled. Adobe Illustrator is a great tool indeed but it has a certain set of disadvantages and the biggest downside of Adobe Illustrator is its high subscription fee which is a barrier for many users, this is particularly the case with beginners in the field of design or those on a tight budget. In this article, we will discuss the top free-to-use alternatives that offer similar functionalities like Adobe Illustrator at zero costs.

Inkscape is a powerful open source vector graphics editor that offers a wide range of features for creating and manipulating vector illustrations. Inkscape also supports various file formats like SVG, PDF, EPS, and AI. This is the way in which Inkscape ensures that it is compatible with the industry standard file types.

The biggest advantage of Inkscape is that it has a robust set of drawing tools, such as the Bezier pen, calligraphic pen, and other shape tools. Inkscape also offers advanced features like boolean operations, cloning and path operations. Overall, Inkscape is a great choice for complex vector artwork creation.

Key features

• Powerful drawing tools like Bezier pen, calligraphic pen and shape tools.
• Supports various file formats including SVG, PDF, EPS, and AI.
• Comes with a set of features suitable for complex vector artwork creation,
• Completely open source and free to use.

Vectr is a free, web based vector graphics editor that offers a simple and user friendly interface suitable for beginners and casual users. The unique selling proposition of Vectr is its intuitive tools and real time collaboration capabilities, Vectr is an excellent choice for designers who need a lightweight and accessible solution for basic vector graphics tasks.

Vectr is not as feature rich as professional vector editors, its simplicity and accessibility make it an excellent choice for basic vector graphics tasks, prototyping and learning the fundamentals of vector design. It is useful for beginners in vector designing and professional who want a basic vector design generated quickly.

Key features

• It is completely free to use
• Vectr is a web based application therefore, no installation is required to use it.
• It is User friendly and is highly suitable for beginners.
• It also has Real time collaboration and sharing capabilities like Adobe Illustrator.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a powerful open source image editing program that is considered as a free alternative for Adobe Illustrator in many ways. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) offers a comprehensive set of tools for vector image editing, image retouching, image composition and image authoring.

GIMP supports layers, curves and a wide range of filters and effects for designers. Other than this the best feature of GIMP is that it is open sourced and hence driven by the community. One of GIMP’s strengths is its cross platform compatibility because of which designers can seamlessly work across Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.

Key Features

1. The best feature of GIMP is that it is completely free and open sourced.
2. It comes with a comprehensive set of tools like layers, curves, and filters.
3. Cross platform compatibility across all major OS (Windows, macOS, and Linux)
4. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) has powerful features suitable for advanced image manipulation tasks.

Pixlr is a free and web based image editing platform that stands as a direct alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Pixlr comes with two main versions – Pixlr X and Pixlr E. Pixlr X is a streamlined web app that can be used for basic vector image editing tasks like cropping, resizing, and adjusting exposure and color. Pixlr E, on the other hand is a more advanced web based editor that provides features like layers, filters, and advanced selection tools.

Pixlr has a web based nature that makes it accessible from any device with an internet connection. Therefore we have no need for downloading the software in multiple devices. Pixlr as a user friendly UI and simple tools which make it an ideal choice for beginners or those seeking a quick and easy way for image editing.

Key Features

• It is a web based tool therefore no software installation is required
• Pixlr X for simple tasks like cropping, resizing, exposure/color adjustments
• Pixlr E with layers, filters, advanced selection tools
• Pixlr is completely free to use

LibreOffice Draw is a vector graphics editor that comes as part of the free and open source LibreOffice suite. Libre Office Draw stands as an free and open source alternative to Adobe Illustrator because it offers tools for creating and editing vector illustrations. LibreOffice Draw offers a wife range of drawing tools for example – shapes, freehand drawing, connectors, curves and text tools.

Libre Office Draw is a great tool for Vector Editing where users can manipulate vector shapes, adjust nodes, apply transformations, and perform boolean operations like union, intersection, and subtraction in an easy to understand manner.

Key Features

1. It is available and compatible for all major OS for example – Windows, macOS, and Linux.
2. It has a very well managed integration with the LibreOffice suite.
3. Libre Office Draw offers drawing tools for shapes, curves and text.
4. It also allows for vector editing with node manipulation and boolean operations

Adobe Illustrator is widely used by professional graphic designers, illustrators, and artists for creating logos, icons, illustrations and vector graphics that needs to be easily scaled. Adobe Illustrator is a great tool indeed but it has a certain set of disadvantages, for example, it’s high subscription fee is a barrier for many users, this is particularly the case with beginners in the field of design or those on a tight budget. While Adobe Illustrator is still the industry standard for vector based graphic designing, the free and open source alternatives discussed in this article are also a great choice and you can surely considered using them in your work flow.

Is Inkscape really free and open source?

Yes, Inkscape is completely free and open-source software. You can download and use it without any cost or subscription fees.

Can Vectr handle complex vector graphics and illustrations?

Vectr is considered as a tool to be used for basic vector graphics tasks, it may have limitations when working with highly complex illustrations or designs compared to Adobe Illustrator.

Is GIMP difficult to learn for beginners?

GIMP has a steeper learning curve compared to some simpler alternatives. Therefore, it is relatively difficult to learn for beginners. But it also offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and a supportive community to help beginners get started.

Is Pixlr suitable for professional use?

While Pixlr can be useful for basic editing tasks, it offers some but not all advanced features and tools required for professional level work hence it is not the most suitable software for professional use.

What files can LibreOffice Draw work with?

LibreOffice is compatible with a wide range of file formats such as .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx an a lot more. LibreOffice also supports the Open Document Format (ODF).