4 free al­ter­na­tives to Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor

In the design world, Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor (also known simply as “Il­lus­tra­tor” or “AI” for short) is firmly es­tab­lished as the industry standard for vector graphics software. However, the program, which is available for Windows and macOS, is rel­a­tive­ly expensive and only available with monthly or annual sub­scrip­tions. However, there are also some free vector graphics programs that offer a similar range of functions to Il­lus­tra­tor. We present the best Il­lus­tra­tor al­ter­na­tives, all of which you can download for free.

A direct com­par­i­son of vector graphics software

Inkscape

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Inkscape is a rel­a­tive­ly popular open source Il­lus­tra­tor al­ter­na­tive. This free, vector-based graphic program for Windows, macOS, and Linux boasts a range of functions that as almost as large as the Adobe program – all that’s missing is one palette of digital paint­brush­es. Aside from that, Inkscape offers all the essential and popular tools for digital il­lus­tra­tion. The program also has other special features; for example, it can support the use of a graphics tablet or export graphics as HTML5 canvas elements - an al­ter­na­tive to SVG for website graphics.

With regard to the design options, the market leader Il­lus­tra­tor only just beats the program, Inkscape – con­sid­er­ing the vector graphics software is free, this is an extremely im­pres­sive feat. It’s even possible to download ex­ten­sions for the open-source ap­pli­ca­tion (although, again, there are not quite as many as there are for Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor). As well as the missing paint­brush­es, Inkscape falls short in com­par­i­son to the market leader in another area, which is that Inkscape cannot print graphics in the CMYK color model. This color model is of huge sig­nif­i­cance in printing tech­nol­o­gy, as it is the standard for four-color printing. Inkscape, however, does present various workarounds that can be used to export graphics in the CMYK color model. However, the setup is more cum­ber­some than with other vector graphics programs, and it can produce bad results if used in­cor­rect­ly. Inkscape is therefore best suited to creating print templates.

Inkscape supports all common file formats (SVG, PNG, PDF etc.) – this also includes formats of other vector graphics software such as Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor (AI) and CorelDRAW (CDR). This means files created with other graphics programs can also be processed with Inkscape, and also that Inkscape designs can be completed with other programs, such as Il­lus­tra­tor.

When it comes to the program’s operation and usability, the jury’s still out. While some users consider Inkscape to be one of the most user-friendly graphics programs on the market, other users often criticize its op­er­abil­i­ty in com­par­i­son to other popular vector-based graphic programs, claiming it’s too com­pli­cat­ed to implement, or that the way the tools are used is simply much too different from other programs. The main reason for these com­plaints is that users are used to other programs, such as Il­lus­tra­tor, Sketch, or CorelDRAW, meaning that they need to re­ori­en­tate them­selves com­plete­ly when using Inkscape. It’s for precisely this reason that Inkscape has included an article on their Wiki site, which explains the use of the program to users who pre­vi­ous­ly worked mainly with Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor.

Overall, Inkscape can be con­sid­ered pro­fes­sion­al and extensive free vector graphics software. Users who have already worked with vector-based images (or, at the very least, are familiar with the basics of image pro­cess­ing) should be able to fa­mil­iar­ize them­selves rel­a­tive­ly quickly with this software – even though the nav­i­ga­tion and commands are im­ple­ment­ed dif­fer­ent­ly than with most other graphics programs. On the other hand, beginners in this field can be quickly over­whelmed with the large variety of functions and sequences of the in­di­vid­ual design processes.

SVG-Edit

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Launched in 2009, the open-source software SVG-Edit is another Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor al­ter­na­tive that is available free of charge and belongs to the pi­o­neer­ing vector graphic web ap­pli­ca­tions. The ap­pli­ca­tion can be used in every modern browser – for this, users simply need to navigate to the SVG-Edit website on the GitHub platform and click the specified link under the path labeled “releases”. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, however, users can also download the source code and embed the ap­pli­ca­tion on a website. There are also various browser add-ons available from SVG-Edit.

Although SVG-Edit is a web-based ap­pli­ca­tion, the program offers an un­man­age­able range of functions, although there are no templates and the selection of symbols and icons is con­sid­er­ably smaller. It is, however, possible to integrate external graphics with SVG-Edit. One clear advantage that this program has over Gravit is that users don’t have to sign up to use the web ap­pli­ca­tion; users can simply access it via their browser and download their graphics on their computer. The fact that SVG-Edit is an open-source ap­pli­ca­tion is a selling point for many users. This enables users to install the software on their computer and start it on the localhost.

The tool’s user interface is certainly not the most modern, although it does offer all the essential functions. One major drawback, however, is that SVG-Edit provides no explicit ex­pla­na­tion for its range of functions. Because of this, the web app is more relevant for users with a certain level of ex­pe­ri­ence in the operation of vector editing. Because of the lack of ready-made templates, freely available images, etc., SVG-Edit is rec­om­mend­ed for users who want to implement their own designs in­de­pen­dent­ly and without pre-made templates.

Vectr

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Vectr is another free Il­lus­tra­tor al­ter­na­tive. The web-based design program is reduced to the essential functions of vector graphics software. The ap­pli­ca­tion can be accessed on all common browsers. To be able to save the designs created with Vectr in its cloud, you need to register or log in to Facebook, X (Twitter) or Google (the free version only gives you 30 MB of online storage space). However, you can also download your designs in SVG format without reg­is­ter­ing.

However, Vectr’s basic design options are quite limited. While Vectr has several print, web and social media templates, the program only provides you with a handful of icons that you can insert into your designs. For this reason, the online tool is par­tic­u­lar­ly suitable for those new to graphic design - there are even many tutorials and in­struc­tions for using the tool (in the form of articles on the service’s website).

Fur­ther­more, the program also allows several users to col­lab­o­rate on a single design. At the moment, users can only view graphics being designed if the designer sends other users a link to their Vectr session. With this link, the designer’s interface is mirrored and broadcast via a browser. However, a real team function will soon be available, meaning that several people will be able to make changes to the same design.

Boxy SVG

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First, we present another al­ter­na­tive to Adobe Il­lus­tra­tor. While the most popular vector graphics programs try to offer their users as many functions as possible, Boxy SVG limits itself to the essential tasks of an SVG editor. This is ad­van­ta­geous for several reasons. Firstly, it massively sim­pli­fies the user interface, which is a big plus for new users. Secondly, the com­plex­i­ty of the resulting designs and SVG files is reduced enor­mous­ly. Web de­vel­op­ers in par­tic­u­lar who want to ensure short loading times benefit from this. The tool can also be offered as a web app thanks to its reduced com­plex­i­ty. Boxy SVG is also available as a desktop app - however, this version is only free of charge on Linux.

Of course, the reduced range of functions also has a major dis­ad­van­tage. The software is fun­da­men­tal­ly less flexible than full desktop apps such as Il­lus­tra­tor or Inkscape. The tool can therefore only be rec­om­mend­ed for pro­fes­sion­al users who want to produce very simple designs and efficient files for the sake of ef­fi­cien­cy.