Adobe Illustrator CC vs. Microsoft Visio

Adobe Illustrator is used to help make drawings look good but not make them. It is easy to add color or texture but it is hard to actually make the drawings in it. I would recommend using other software to make the lines for plans and sections and using Adobe Illustrator to make it look good.

If I wanted to produce best-in-class deliverables, particularly for an external-facing document where presentation quality matters, I would use Visio. For an organization that wants to standardize and ensure consistent deliverables across teams, I consider Visio a strong option. However, if I need a quick illustration of a process flow or architecture, I would use another tool to avoid spending more time than necessary.

Incentivized

• Vector graphics for scaling to large sizes
• Filling an object with a texture
• Easily adjusting and expanding an artboard to fit the size of the content (especially for infographics)
• Compatibility with other Adobe CC programs, but also exporting for PPT graphics

Incentivized

• Visio comes with icons that can help differentiate processes within a map. These can be used to be a legend and helps create a visually appealing flow.
• Visio is user-friendly and allows the user to easily navigate through the different creative options that can be used.
• Because this is a Microsoft product, Visio works well with other Microsoft products for easy translation.

Incentivized

• Illustrator Files can get large/cumbersome when you begin to incorporate high resolution photography, especially if you 'place' the photo instead of linking to it's source file
• Typography can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you working on different machines that may not always have the font you need installed or sending the file to a commercial printer
• OLDER versions of Illustrator can be a bit temperamental about being backward compatible though this issue has been greatly reduced with Adobe's move the Cloud Based subscription model
• Not great for large print layouts (books, magazine etc) you're better off to move the project to Adobe InDesign in that case.

Incentivized

• For me personally I cannot highlight anything specific that has any bearing on how I use the product. Everything is very straightforward and clearly signposted including template desgins and categories. The layout is easy to navigate and as it's part of the MS Office ecosystem means there is less to learn as I'm used to a lot of the cross product functionality.

Incentivized

While Adobe Illustrator CC is one of the only true design software out there, it really stands heads above the other products. It's clean UI and menu structure is easy to navigate.

Incentivized

We use Microsoft Visio to keep our diagrams updated and to that end we will need the subscription to keep using the software. Otherwise we will be left with PDF versions of the diagrams.

Incentivized

There's a bit of a learning curve to this software vs other similar tools that can take some time to learn and get familiar with but the amount of functionality that Adobe Illustrator CC offers is quite large compared to simpler tools.

Incentivized

You need to really understand what you are trying to communicate and deliver with this software package. It allows you to get as simple or as complex (depending on your intended audience) and with the capability of integrating with other Microsoft products like Word, you can deliver a very polished document on a project that would very easily address all aspects from beginning to end.

Incentivized

I normally already know how to do whatever I'm trying out, but the documentation (as well as a simple Google search) makes any question quick to resolve. The Adobe boards themselves are a fantastic resource, especially for resolving questions between new programs and iterative releases.

Incentivized

Overall, I feel that Microsoft's support is weak. They are now such a behemoth that their model of putting documentation online for their users to sift through is totally outgrown. Given the amount of money you pay for these licenses, Microsoft should provide easy one-on-one support for their products via email or chat. The idea of paying their rates for support incidents is ridiculous. If you have an enormous amount of time on your hands, use their support websites and you will eventually find a solution most of the time.

Incentivized

It was very easy to purchase and download.

Incentivized

I have been using all of these tools for years. Illustrator is usually my go to tool. Once you learn Illustrator, it makes using all of the other programs easier to learn and it integrates with them beautifully. For the most part, each tool has it's own strengths - InDesign for layout, Photoshop for pixels, etc., but for me, working with vectors is my prime need.

SmartDraw was a program that I used at a prior company before we migrated to Visio. It was not nearly as intuitive to use, and even though it is advertised to be able to offer easy import and export to Visio, when I would export it to a Visio file format and share it with a colleauge, they would always tell me that something would look off with the diagram I sent them. We eventually migrated to Visio at my prior company and thankfully my current company used Visio from day 1.

Incentivized

• Improved engagement in employee programs that are now represented in documents created using Illustrator.
• Improved customer outcomes/interest as a result of materials created using Illustrator.
• Better ROI on the programs we have developed or introduced due to the higher engagement and involvement.

Incentivized

• It has allowed us to speed up the creation of flowcharts and organizational charts significantly.
• Microsoft Visio has enabled us to be more effective with our customers by using diagrams to describe our businesses.
• It allows us to organize work with our students more easily.