Adobe Illustrator is hugely popular software tool for making vector graphics, but it's undeniably expensive. Thankfully, there are alternatives available for designers on a budget, and some of the best are available free.
Unlike raster graphics, vector graphics use mathematical expressions to draw the lines, shapes and colours. This means they’re infinitely scalable, so you can blow them up to the size of a billboard with no unsightly pixellation.
Vector graphics are the best choice for a number of design and illustration tasks, such as creating icons, logos, diagrams, charts, posters and website graphics. In the latter case, the current standard is Scalable Vector Graphics format (SVG).
Vecteezy is another free in-browser Illustrator alternative (the developer earns a crust selling premium illustrations, and its customers include the BBC, Amazon, McDonald's and Dell). Discover — or rediscover — Adobe Illustrator, the top vector drawing software. It comes with stunning features, such as multiple work plans (up to 100), gradient transparency, separation preview, simplification of clipping masks, the ability to act directly on the object to apply a. An Online Logo Maker for creating high quality vector graphics, headings, html5 logos, icons, web site elements and buttons by hundreds of templates and styles. Use the result with various other graphic and text editor and web design programs. Download the full version of Adobe Illustrator for free. Create logos, icons, sketches, typography, and complex illustrations for print, web, interactive, video, and mobile. Start your free trial today.
Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard tool for vector graphics, but it's undeniably expensive
Programs like CorelDRAW, Sketch or Affinity Designer are popular alternatives, but if your needs are relatively simple, then you can save even more money by trying out alternatives to Illustrator that are totally free – and there are some brilliant options to choose from.
Example vector files designed by Freepik
1. Inkscape
A feature-packed editor that's a true substitute for Illustrator
Comprehensive toolkit
Frequent updates
Open source vector graphics package Inkscape is staggeringly powerful, and is the best free alternative to Adobe Illustrator for pro and semi-pro illustrators, graphic designers and web designers.
As well as the standard drawing and shape tools, Inkscape boasts a special spirals tool, a tool to create patterns and arrangements of clones, advanced object manipulation options, multiple filters (including bevels, textures, overlays and more), and some nifty fill settings. In short, there’s very little Illustrator can do that Inkscape can’t.
Because it's open source, it’s not only free to use but if you have the technical know-how you can even edit it and incorporate it into other software. And new features are being added all the time; the latest version brings mesh gradients, improved SVG2 and CSS3 support and new path effects to the party.
So what’s the catch? Some users have complained that it performs slowly, although that does seem to depend on what device and operating system you’re using. The best thing to do is just download it and give it a quick try; there's nothing to lose.
2. BoxySVG
A browser-based vector editor that's as powerful as a desktop app
Convenient browser extension
Boxy SVG is a free tool for creating scalable vector graphic files that runs as an extension in Google Chrome. It comes with a good range of basic tools, including pens, bezier curves, text, basic shapes, stroke and fill, layers, ability to add type, groups, transforms and paths.
The main selling point for Boxy SVG is the utter simplicity of its UI. It makes a virtue of paring down the experience of creating vector graphics to a fairly minimal set of options. These essentially restrict you to the kind of things that the SVG format is good at. As a result, it’s fast, easier to pick up than Illustrator, and the files it creates are clean and efficient.
As well as importing and exporting files in SVG and SVGZ format, you can also use Boxy SVG to import and export JPEGs and PNGs. Wonderfully convenient.
3. Vecteezy
A sharp looking in-browser Illustrator alternative for stylish designs
Good choice of vector elements
Requires a free account to save work
Vecteezy is another free in-browser Illustrator alternative (the developer earns a crust selling premium illustrations, and its customers include the BBC, Amazon, McDonald's and Dell).
You can import and edit SVG files, or create your own designs from scratch. There's a selection of shapes and ready-made clipart to choose from, and a huge array of typefaces for text-based designs.
Vecteezy also includes a pen tool for drawing freehand shapes and editing existing paths, plus a simple color-picker. It's all refreshingly simple to use, and even brand new users will grasp the fundamentals within a few minutes.
There are just a couple of points to be aware of: you'll need to create an account or log in using Facebook in order to save your work, and if you open a particularly large file, Vecteezy warns you that doing so might cause your browser to freeze. This is a risk with any similar web app though, and we appreciate Vecteezy being so up-front about it.
4. Vectr
A slimline vector editor available for your browser or desktop
Easy to master
Vectr is a free cross-platform program that you can use used to create and edit vector graphics, either on your desktop (versions are available for Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS), or in any modern browser.
Vectr is intuitive to use, with a shallow learning curve. “Design software shouldn’t bring people a sense of struggle, yet that’s exactly how the troublesome design software we grew up on made us feel,” says its developer, who has created this pared-back vector editor with accessibility in mind.
While it lacks many of the advanced features of Illustrator, then, it’s got all the tools you need for basic vector editing - shapes, text, multiple layers and like - and what it does, it does very well. You can save all work you create in Vectr online, or export it in PNG, JPG, or SVG file formats.
Vectr is a great choice for beginners, or just anyone needing to create a simple graphic with the minimum of fuss.
5. SVG-Edit
A straightforward Illustrator alternative for web developers
No server-side processing
Illustrator Online
If your prime reason for wanting a vector graphics editor is to create SVG files for websites, then SVG-Edit may be all you need. You can use this free vector software within your web browser to create SVG images and edit existing ones.
SVG-Edit works in any modern browser, and offers a basic set of vector editing features including hand-drawing tools, shape tools, text tools and path tools. The tool is open source, which means that new features are being added all the time by contributing developers.
It’s built on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript with no server-side functionality, so if you wish you can download and modify the code to make your own version.
- Check out our guide to the best free photo editors
Want to learn how to use Illustrator but don’t want to subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud? Or need to access its features on the go while using someone else’s computer? With Gravit you get a lot of the key features offered in expensive standards like Illustrator or Fireworks.
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Best of all, Gravit is completely free. You just have to sign up for an account to use it. Gravit includes basic vector tools: a pen tool, line tool, and a Bezigon tool, as well as shapes including a rectangle, ellipse, triangle, polygon, and star.
Beyond creating shapes, Gravit also has tools similar to Illustrator’s pathfinder and alignment tools, as well as layers, and you can add text and images to your design.
When creating a new document, you can choose the size (including handy presets like Facebook and Twitter covers, standard print sizes, and more) or you can select from some pre-existing templates. These templates, together with Gravit’s showcase, give a great idea of how much you can get out of this web app.
Once you’re done creating your image, you can export it to your computer as JPG, PNG, or SVG. You can also save it online in your Gravit account with the layers in tact and come back to it at a later time.
For an introduction to Gravit’s features, check out the video below:
Have you tried out Gravit? How do you think it compares to Adobe Illustrator? Let us know in the comments.
Explore more about: Adobe Illustrator, Image Editor.
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- Hi There & thanks for this article very helpful! I was in a rush to find a good alternative to Illustrator as I needed to draw few logos and I have to say that, after few trials on Vectr and Youidraw, some tears of joy nearly came up when I read this article and once I tried Gravit!
This is an excellent free alternative to Illustrator using the same commands so easy to very quickly handy, used online without any bug, very friendly environment and I can't believe this is bloody free - so it's not even a 30 days trial!
Of course, depending on which version you use of Illustrator, Gravit will provide the essentials - but professional essentials for free are hard to find - so for me this is amazing!
Thanks for sharing this article Nancy, and thanks Gravit for your great work on this! Cheers, Ced - People are getting frustrated since adobe started to rent out their product, but there are no possible replacement yet. I don't mind paying for a great product with a reasonable price.
- Give Inkscape a try. Many research and reviews say it is an alternative to Illustrator (these research and reviews are done by professionals who switched from Illustrator to Inkscape.) I also find it great.
- I have not tried it yet but will soon thanks for the tip though Ill be back with a review!Chalres
- This article is incredibly misleading and shows an incredible lack of knowledge. If you want to learn to use Illustrator for free, how about using the free version of Illustrator that Adobe gives out? You can download any of the Adobe CS2 products for free. They have been free for years. You will not learn how to use Illustrator by using a free alternative, that notion is preposterous and incredibly misleading. That's like saying learn to use Photoshop or Illustrator with Corel Draw. Doesn't work.
- They don't exactly give that out. The serials were released by mistake and by the point Adobe found out it was already all over the web.
- Granted it asks, but it's more than obvious selling the point of 'Free'. Though some of the key features this is offering, very similar to Adobe's, it is selling an alternative without having to subscribe. Nothing misleading about this article. Key Point in this article is 'Free Alternative'. Not Adobe Illustrator guide.
- To say that Gravit is an 'alternative' to Illustrator, is like saying that a skateboard is an alternative to a car.If you used AI for any length of time, you probably know that it has features and toolsets that were developed for nearly over three decades (first release being in 1988)! You can't simply say that a browser based app that can draw a few boxes and ellipses is an 'alternative' to such a robust program.You might say that Gravit is an alternative to Method Draw (http://editor.method.ac) or Janvas (http://www.janvas.com/site/home_en.php) - which are both browser based vector tools, but they are not even the same league as Adobe Illustrator just because they have a Pen Tool.
- For anyone asking, Gravit supports EPS and SVG import along with standard image formats. We are working on adding PDF export to our already existing SVG, PNG and JPG export.
- Can Gravit open all files created with Illustrator and vice versa?
- The problem with Gravit vs. Illustrator is the same as GIMP vs. Photoshop. The free products may suffice for the casual user but the pros need Adobe products.
- Inkscape is great, and I use it all the time, but as a technology instructor for an elementary school that is equipped with Chromebooks, this is a very welcome app. Inkscape cannot be used on Chromebooks due to the fact that it needs to be installed on a local hard drive. Previously, Vector Paint was the only option I could find. Will be trying this one out today!
- I just tried inkscape and it SUCKS! Click on a tool in the toolbox and nothing happens. I got stuck in the node tool and no matter how many times I clicked on the select arrow tool, nothing happened, I was still in the node tool. only reason I got into node tool was I used F2--clicking on it did NOTHING. After a few hours of going thru the tutorials only to have option boxes ignore being clicked on to change everything from stroke width to whatever, I gave up and uninstalled it. what an enormous piece of crap and I used Illustrator for years before it became a rent instead of buy cash cow. 50 a month to RENT it?!?!? puh-leez. still trying to find a decent replacement and inkscape is not it.
- If you are on a Mac, you could give Affinity Designer a try.
40 €, no rent, many features and professionally developed.- Or PC now :-)
- Affinity is also on PC now :-)
- I already use Inkscape, but this does sound like a great entry level way into illustrator. I will give it a shot to try it. Thanks Nancy
- For those interested, also check out Inkscape. Very capable piece of cross platform software.