Adobe Illustrator Reviews

As a full stack web developer, the tools that illustrator offer for creating Scalable Vector Graphics is unparalleled. With the importance of creating media that 'travels' well between both mobile and desktop environments, you'll be hard pressed to an offering that fits all circumstances with the ease that Illustrator offers. The joy of exporting your SVGs so simply to fit wherever you need them has been honed (or perhaps even owned) by years of Adobe's feature rich development and progressive enhancement. From Macromedia Shockwave with Flash forwarding to HTML 5 adoption, Adobe Illustrator has been at the forefront of web media design.

As with any design tool, there's always a learning curve. Though, that be said, with the sheer amount of online tutorials and videos, its truly quite hard to find fault with Adobe Illustrator... Once you've got the basics, the sky truly is the limit.... From moving from GIMP (a great free choice), to Illustrator, I'd definitely recommend the jump across the the Adobe camp.

One of my favorite things about Adobe Illustrator is that it offers a wide range of tools for drawing and editing vector graphics. In particular, the tools for drawing and editing vector paths are very precise, allowing for the creation of complex shapes and patterns.

One of the things I liked least about Adobe Illustrator is that sometimes the program can run slowly or have issues with smoothness, especially with large and complex projects. This can be frustrating and lengthen the time needed to complete work.

So, I've been an AI user for now almost 10 years. I've used it at it's worst, at it's best and at it's "ok" moments. It's powerful and the type of work that you can create is really just limitless. There has been a significant effort in onboarding users whenever it gets a design overhaul or new features are added. I've found that a lot of these updates do tend to boost my ability to perform or create work at a faster speed, and same goes when making edits. I'm a heavy pathfinder user and the ability to just tweak my workplace to my needs, adding different windows and condensing them into one section has been a huge time saver. So in terms of granting you the ability to really modify the space to your liking, it's great.

I think one of the aspects about illustrator that has over time made it a more difficult tool to rely on has been the constant updates. Yes, those updates are sometimes great and very much needed, but there is no onboarding and the existing tour points hold so much information, it's hard to keep up with it.

I think generally speaking, I want to also be able to use the same shortcuts I have been using over time with the software, so when certain aspects of it change - sometimes it does affect my ability to perform at the same speed. I think more efforts need to be done to really create a focused on boarding for users when you introduce new features.

It is a popular vector graphics editing software that is widely used by designers and illustrators to create logos, illustrations, and other types of graphics.

It is a Big-size software, which takes up much space in the system and software get stuck in between works.

I like the fact that Adobe Illustrator uses formulas to store logo designs that you originally create with the software or trace. The output does not lose shape or quality when you zoom in or when you print on very large format. I like that.

Not knowing if its my small computer but when working on the software for a very long time, days, without closing the program but hybernating, it tends to begin freezing...like i said "Days"...people who shutdown their computers i do not expect them to experience this.

Being an artist, I had always resonated with creating, no matter the medium. I was introduced to illustrator in 2005 and recently began using it after a long hiatus. I was surprised that the main components have not changed, but have become easier to use. I enjoy how clean you can make designs and I will continue enjoying it for years to come.

The transition from paying for one individual program to paying for a subscription has become a little much. As with any art, good materials are costly and Adobe continues to raise prices with very little in terms of innovation. What isn't broken doesn't need fixing, I guess, but considering people may use solely Illustrator or Photoshop, you shouldn't have to pay for programs that you won't use.

The thing that I like most about this software are the tools itself, it has a limitless ability in creating outstanding designs. The only limit is yourself. This application will guarantee quality work especially when you know how to use it. The software is very user friendly, it is not that complicated, it is easy to learn to use the tools and features.

All features of this software is great, all you need it to practice and learn how to use it. Nothing is wrong with the software.

Coordination, organization, ease of use, and a large number of tools to facilitate work and creativity

Not suitable for professional photo editing

I love how easy it is to edit out mistakes, and really meticulously create a piece of art that it would not be able to otherwise. Suddenly the image that's in my head now exists! It constantly amazes me the new features I consistently find.

I wish I could purchase it for a one off fee instead of a subscription.

I appreciate the software's intuitive interface, powerful tools, and seamless integration with other Adobe products. The content library is also a fantastic resource for designers.

While Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic tool, the software can be challenging to learn for beginners. The subscription-based pricing model can also be a bit expensive for some users.

Adobe Illustrator makes vector graphics and designing for scalable/print an ease. Specifically, this product has helped me to take the limited size graphics we have licensed from curriculum use and using the Image Trace feature ensure I am able to resource our areas with the best looking print-ready files that they need.

When working with text and logos for our ministry areas and special events, to be able to create where I can scale across multiple print mediums: from large sized banners, to t-shirts to video, allowing to create one file that can export to the correct format is beneficial and ease of use versus creating a mammoth file in a non-vector application.

Illustrator is so vast in its functionality it took me a bit to get the handle on things - I am grateful for their support articles when there are areas and functions I am still learning. There is a slightly high learning-curve when you want to move beyond the basics.

I love all of the features, functionality and utility. It is fantastic and essential for any design professional, laser engraver or digital web design. Learning the features and shortcuts is well worth the effort.

There is a learning curve and things are not always intuitive. There are so many functions, toolbars and ways to use Illustrator which makes it frustrating for many people.

There are a lot of features in this amazing piece of software. However, I don't have to use all of them. I just use basic features like editing a free to use vector file from the internet. Sometimes, I design covers and banners for my online businesses. Illustrator handles these very well. I liked Adobe's consistent design language in all of its software including Illustrator. One I learned illustrator and now all other Adobe software seems easy to me. Because I got familiar with their user interface. I like the power of its vector design feature. It helps me to design a graphic that doesn't rely on pixels and can be scaled to any size. This is the coolest feature of Adobe Illustrator. Custom fonts and different types of brushes are also great for creating modern and complex designs.

I don't hate anything about this software. However, the software is a bit heavy. I don't need all the features of Illustrator. This is why I need a lightweight PC version of it with the basic features. If the developer makes something like this it will be amazing. Another thing is the crashing problem. Sometimes it crashes on my old low powered laptop and this is frustrating.

From my experience Illustrators path workflow and functionality is superior to other vector software out there. If I was going to stray from Illustrator as my go to vector software the competition would need to beat Illustrator in that feature space. Illustrator allows you to have advance control and accuracy with paths, grids, guides, snap to guide, etc. Also, exporting quality SVGs is very important and the competition doesn't measure up in that space from what I have seen.

Some updates on how Illustrator handles smart guides and snap-to-pixel has some flaws. It seamed like I had better accuracy in previous versions of Illustrator. No one likes to have their paths splitting pixels or to have to fix that on a regular basis. Some times I don't have an issues while other times new path shapes start on 0.5 pixels when creating them.

Adobe Illustrator was the standard for years, before there was competition in this market. Then, even after Corel Draw came along, which was a better (5-star) product, Adobe managed to remain the standard, by continuing to be at least a very good product (4-star). It seems that being the standard means you don't have to be the best, but you must be very good and Illustrator was just that - very good.

Several features in Adobe Illustrator were poorly implemented. Though there were more than a few such issues, one that comes to mind is the ease of placing an image within another object, when using Corel Draw, as compared to the convoluted steps to do the same thing in AI.

But Adobe Illustrator lost me as a user, when Adobe went to a subscription base. It's not an issue of money. I have been willing to pay large sums of money, for the full suite of Adobe graphic/photo design tools, including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and the now discontinued Flash (ActiveScript). My concern is that I can't afford to be told that I can't use my software now, because my fully paid-up subscription can't be confirmed on the server. That's exactly what could happen, if a hacker penetrated Adobe's license server and deleted or changed all the license files. Any number of other scenarios could have similar results. That's why I OWN my software.

Sure, a hacker could get into my system and cause damage. But I work behind two firewalls and I'm a very minor target for hackers. Adobe, by contrast, is so large that they're a prime target for hackers. They will be targeted by 10,000 hackers, before I'm attacked once. I'll take my chances with OWNED software on my system, rather than leave that security to a stranger, at a high-value target.

Besides, I can now to everything with Affinity Designer that I used to do with AI. It also costs less and I OWN it. Bye AI.

Basically, once you get the hang of Illustrator and its many many features, you can create anything you want. We use it for logos, transit ads, charts, you name it. One of the best newer features is the "Library" panel. This works with most all of Adobe products, and what it does is let you load up your fonts, logos, photos, type, etc. for each client you're working on and it's all right there for easy access all the time.

Granted, that's not enough to justify the high monthly cost to "subscribe" to illustrator, but it's one more thing they have added over the years that makes you understand why the price is higher than not.

One thing you can say for sure with Illustrator is you're going to get stuck at some point, too. The good news is there are built in tutorials you can refer to for guidance. Or just jump on YouTube where someone has probably figured it out.

Exporting to any file type you need is a breeze, and setting up multiple art boards in a file couldn't be easier. Once you're set, get to work and see what you can build.

If you're on a budget, this is not your friend. The Adobe Creative Cloud does offer a lot, but you pay for all of that, too. I can't say I dislike the learning curve because I've been working with Illustrator for years. That said, if you're new, prepare to have your patience tried and your frustration to rise. That's ok, this gets easier, I promise.

Adobe Illustrator is an industry staple for graphic design and rightly so. The vector capabilities, typographic options, and artboard flexibility make Illustrator tough to rival. Integrating well with other staples such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign and Adobe After Effects mean that the full Adobe Creative Suite are vital to my every day work as a graphic, web & motion designer.

Specific strengths of Adobe Illustrator are the clever 'anchor point' mechanics that make all shapes wonderfully flexible and the simplicity & flexibility of the UI. Options familiar from the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite such as blend modes, layers, distortion tools etc are all available making it quick to adopt for users of other Creative Suite tools.

It's hard to find fault with Illustrator at all as a tool. I have been using it for well over a decade through various different versions and iterations and for several different purposes. each version improves on the functionality without upsetting the classic benefits of the system. A recent update included the incredibly useful 'Asset Export' tool which has helped streamline my web development process hugely.

The two drawbacks that spring to mind with Illustrator are the cost and the size. As a powerful solution, Illustrator is naturally a large program. As a result, load times, even on higher end computers can be slow. Larger documents with multiple effects and raster graphics exacerbate this further but it's par of the course for the functionality required.

Cost wise, I can't comment on Illustrator alone as it is usually retailed as part of the larger 'Creative Suite' or "Creative Cloud' packages. for the full suite (which is justifiably vast), the cost is on the higher side for subscription-based software. Illustrator can be purchased alone for but I can think of few users who would use Illustrator as a stand-alone product.

All that said, Illustrator is an essential design tool and justifies both it's size and cost comfortably.

Adobe Illustrator has been an evolving tool for so long that its checkered history is sometimes hard to remember. I was a die-hard Freehand user when Adobe acquired Macromedia, and I missed artboards to the point that I refused to use Illustrator. When they were added to the product in the CS3 or CS4 release, I reevaluated the tool, and I've used it almost daily since then. While nearly all of the Creative Suite/Creative Cloud applications have a steep learning curve, there is a multitude of videos and blogs and groups that can help you accomplish what you're trying to do in Illustrator. Because files are vectors, they're not nearly as large as Photoshop, making them ideal for use with high-res systems. Import of EPS, SVG, and other vectors is fantastic. Export to them and PDF is also great. Export for Screens is a great addition, making icon generation for iOS and Android excellent. The recent integration with Adobe XD gets me closer to a fantastic workflow in static wireframing to interactive prototyping than possible using other tools.

The sheer complexity of Illustrator is only exceeded by Photoshop or Premier in the Creative Cloud suite. There are so many different ways of accomplishing nearly the same thing that the results can be meaningfully different at scale or when other effects are applied. Adobe Illustrator files can be imported into Sketch, but Illustrator cannot import Sketch files, which is problematic as I do not use a Mac and often receive Sketch assets, requiring me to find someone with a Mac to download a Sketch trial to convert to EPS or PDF so I can use the assets in Sketch. Adobe was late to getting its UI to support high-density displays on Windows, so older version were nearly impossible to use as the menu and toolbars were so tiny that they were almost illegible. While Adobe has made great strides in solving this, it still doesn't feel like the tool is ready for touch displays, rather ironic for a product named "Illustrator." Feature integration with the Microsoft Surface line of tools is nice, but not easily explained by the product. When I want to know what things it can do with my Surface Book, for example, I always have to hit up YouTube to find someone to explain it to me.

Adobe Illustrator is simply impressive software, since I started using it I have gone into great depth with my designs. On the one hand, it has a powerful graphic engine defined as vector drawing, which is none other than the mathematical constitution of image design, making the task of designing more precise and visually attractive than the well-known "bitmap".

Among the most outstanding benefits I can mention are the following:

The software is not so heavy, taking up little space on the hard disk. But even though it seems to be more incomplete because of this, on the contrary, it is the software that offers more tools for design.

This is a great advantage as we can see images with a lot of design content on any computer, with acceptable features in your system.

Some of the formats are susceptible to the addition of animations, this has allowed me to make designs much more interesting and attractive for the client who requests it.

Vector drawing is an excellent methodology because it simply improves the quality of the design, lines, colors, shapes, layers and other characteristics of the design being undertaken.

One of the limitations or cons that I can place on this software is that it is not easy to use. When I discovered it, it took me a while to learn how to use most of its tools. So I recommend doing courses and training while using the software, because what makes this software interesting is to use it to its maximum capacity.

As a designer you have loads of alternatives to Illustrator for creating 2D designs. But I can say for sure, that Illustrator is the easiest and best tool to use, it is very easy to get started and learn.

Dealing with .pdf records and different sorts of picture documents is really great. I see this accommodating when I'm chipping away at various distinctive document types, so similarity isn't typically an issue for me with Illustrator.

Illustrator offers very great similarity among itself and other Adobe programs, so I've discovered that to be an extraordinary thing when working inside the Adobe Suite.

It feels like Adobe items are made totally separately. Despite the fact that there are incredible preferences to utilizing these applications couple. They don't share console alternate ways, and there are different things that work one route in one program, yet work diversely in Illustrator.

Illustrator is mind boggling and has a staggeringly steep expectation to absorb information. I've been utilizing it throughout the previous 8 years or thereabouts, and I feel I've just started to expose what's underneath. Adobe does an OK occupation of giving instructional exercises, yet you need to search for them on the web, and still, at the end of the day, you may discover better instructional exercises on YouTube.

Illustrator is simple a magical software. Rich in features and functionalities, it provides infinite opportunities for designers to create any sort of design. The interface is intuitive, the toolset is impressive, and the number of tutorials you can refer to whenever you are stuck with your design makes it a top-choice for every designer. I have used it for vector designing and web design. I find it much easier to create webpage designs on Illustrator than other software because of the limitless customization options it proivides. Also, the choices for format conversion, and the unlimited library of free resources including icons, templates and other ai files that can be downloaded in a jiffy and added to your project, makes it very simple to create a design on the go.

The learning curve is steep. As a self-taught designer who was only familiar with Photoshop, learning Illustrator was a pain because both of them are nothing alike. Of course, the tutorials help, but one cannot hope to create a design simply based on tutorials because all the tools and functionalities take a bit of time to get used to. Pricing would be another concern, especially for freelancers and part-time designers, since many of us don't want the whole Creative Suite and are just looking for a software to whip up a quick design, which many other alternatives provide for free.

It's very easy to use, and you can create anything from scratch, you need just some designing or drawing knowledge, and you are good to go.
It comes with a lot of useful design tools, filters, and effects...etc.
I can create anything using Adobe Illustrator and the sky is the limit.
I can also, use it to create topography designs for many things (shirts, wall art, business cards, text)...etc.
I like adobe stock and the library of graphics, images, videos, and templates.
Also, the drawing app is great, and It allows me to draw on top of any picture using different elements and colors.
Fast rendering especially for the biggest resolution of 300 DPI.
I like the shortcuts and this gives us a fantastic option to save time doing our creative work on Adobe Illustrator.
It allows me to use my files saved in Dropbox without downloading them because I can browse them from Illustrator.
I can open many PDF files and use them as a vector and I can convert any picture/image to a vector with simple steps.
The best thing about Illustrator is you can use Photoshop files and InDesign files without any problem and you can edit them too with it.
Also, Creative Cloud is an amazing deal and you can get access to a lot of cool stuff.
Adobe website has a lot of free resources about how to use Adobe Illustrator and about everything related to design and creativity.

I would love to see the crop tool in Illustrator like in Photoshop.
They can add some Photoshop tools to Illustrator for example "remove background" tool.
But, after all, they are doing a great job and always I get a new version I really feel the change they made to the program.

I give 8 out of 10 ratings to Adobe Illustrator as my favorite vector-based design program. At Fullstop, we provide professional graphic design services and work on complex illustrations, infographics, flyers, different types of packaging, brochures, and icons. We've been able to do all these things with the help of Adobe Illustrator mostly. It allows to create, draw, and combine different shapes in a simple way. You can add text to your design and by using the masking technique, you can hide or show different parts of an illustration. There are plenty of other drawing tools that help you to completely transform your artwork. Gradients, colors, and strokes provide you with great help to make the best visuals. You work on layers and do plenty of cools things with your artwork. Adobe Illustration lets you export SVGs and your assets for other web and print designs. To be honest, there are so many tips and tricks that you can only discover by using the software, so if you are a design professional with an aim to excel in graphic design, you have to have Adobe Illustrator.

You need to have some knowledge of the design tools and technique before using Adobe Illustrator. It can be difficult for beginners as there are so many tools. You need to be patient while learning how to use it professionally. You can't work with Illustrator unless you have a big screen. Likewise, it requires a lot of storage space and it is costly too.

Adobe Illustrator software has loads of options for creation and it is boundless. It gives me the output which I dreamed about and it satisfies me all expectations too. Adobe Illustrator consists of many tools such as After Effects, Photoshop, Audition, Illustrator, and Adobe Premiere which give me marvelous functions. These tools can be easily learned if we touch with our basic understandings about their usage. I should tell that this software consists of a first-rate vector tool that can be used to create vector graphics and this software can be used to make high-quality graphics using these amazing graphics tools. This software is convenient with its price and adobe creative cloud package comes with it. This software is capable of creating graphs, charts, animations, and cartoons too. The continual software updates with immediate fixes and new features that help to improve this software are commendable. I love the integration of this software with other Adobe products such as InDesign and Photoshop as it helps me to get files and access them. I am so happy with using this software.

This software takes a lot of time when loading on my computer. I think that this software is hard to use by a beginner as it requires good training to use this software. Sometimes it is difficult to find tools on the interface. The hiding if tools over other tools are annoying and it is difficult to find out them and I am confused to open these tools in these times. Immense use of CPU and RAM. Those are the downsides I observed in this software and these issues should be concerned.

The ability to create and control outline shapes. The fact that it has been in existence since the 80s and probably isn't going anywhere makes it worth learning. The things that do change or get added are mostly beneficial and logical additions. Tools like Pathfinder really work well. Masking works well once you get the gist of it. The pen tool is especially great if you know how bezier curves behave. I think they have added a lot of functionality over the years that I'm not even aware of since I never need it to do more.

There are a few nits and lice that have always bothered me but I honestly can't say that they don't have workarounds that I just haven't learned about. I wish there were a fast way to create an often used color palette. I end up making little squares on the page with the colors I want and using the dropper to grab them. The artboard is a little cumbersome until you get the hang of it. I often need to fit artwork to bounds (good for creating svg files that don't have weird empty origins). When you look for the Preset page size the dropdown starts with the setting you currently are on - it's not obvious that Fit To Artwork Bounds is above the dropdown list and you have to scroll up! Finding a tool palette can also be hard when you have a lot of them open. You can see that they are open in the windows list but if you select the item it will turn off the item. What would be nice is to somehow flash or bring to front an item so you can locate it. These are minor things but I have noticed them over the years.