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Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator

Overview

What is Adobe Illustrator?

Adobe Illustrator CC is a vector-based graphic design software.

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Recent Reviews

Adobe Illustrator CC Review

9 out of 10
April 01, 2023
When creating icons for use in a website under development, we were able to save a considerable amount of man-hours because we were able …
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Illustrator for Architects

9 out of 10
March 23, 2022
I use this software on a daily basis as an architect and it is a very useful tool that helps us a lot of design buildings and makes plans …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Yearly - Billed Monthly

$20.99

On Premise
per month

Monthly

$31.49

On Premise
per month

Yearly - Billed Upfront

$239.88

On Premise
per year

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

PACMAN ARCADE SPEEDART | ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CC | GRAPHIC DESIGN CHARACTER ILLUSTRATION TUTORIAL DEMO

YouTube

How To Enable Pressure Sensitivity In Adobe Illustrator CC

YouTube

Adobe Illustrator CC 2020 Curvature and Pen Tools Demo

YouTube

Adobe Illustrator CC - Color Models/Wheel Demo

YouTube

HOW TO DISTORT VECTORS | ADOBE CC ILLUSTRATOR | 2017 | QUICK TUTORIAL EASY TEXTURE EDGES DEMO

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Adobe Illustrator?

Adobe Illustrator CC is a vector-based graphic design software.

Adobe Illustrator Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(1436)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(76-100 of 102)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Danny Wood | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use Illustrator to create and edit stock vectors to use in our online training courses as well as print media. It is being used by the training department as well as the marketing department, and that's it. The business problem it addresses is the need for graphic creation and editing to provide visually pleasing assets to be used in our online training as well as ads and print media. I mainly use it to edit existing vectors I download from stock image sites. But other members of my department do more graphic creation within Illustrator.
  • Illustrator shines when you are creating icons. I use it all the time for this to use in online training modules.
  • Illustrator is the best tool to create or edit vector/scalable graphics.
  • Even though Adobe has InDesign, Illustrator is also a great tool to develop print media.
  • Even though I use Photoshop, I feel like Illustrator is a little more complicated and less user friendly.
  • I find myself frequenting Google and YouTube to answer questions I have about doing what I would consider simple tasks.
I'd definitely recommend Illustrator to anyone who works with vectors or digital media. It is the industry standard for vector graphic editing and creation. It's perfect for editing stock vectors. Change colors and sizes easily. If you have graphic design experience, it is great for creating your own graphics and icons. It is also great for developing print media, such as cards or handouts or anything along those lines. There a lot of free resources and tutorials online. I'd recommend watching some tutorials before trying to do anything in the software.
May 30, 2018

Illustrator Review

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[It's being used] For vector digital designs.
  • Seamless integration with other Adobe software
  • Support of several file formats
  • Pixel perfect designs
  • Works on both Mac and PC
  • It's not as simple as other programs to import or export files
Illustrator is great for creating precise vector graphics that stay sharp when scaled to various sizes.
Sam Jacob Dev | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe CC is being used currently by the e-commerce team for creating vector graphics for e-commerce. This is a powerful vector editing platform that has been used by many others in the industry. Specific to our needs, Illustrator CC helps in bringing out the artwork in greater detail for it to implement. The recent installment of CC is faster and powerful and there is a greater jump in the performance of it. When you are into the whole Creative suite you can cross-reference different files from photoshop and edit in detail inside Illustrator and there is great sync between programs.
  • A powerful program and has a vast set of features that are more suitable for vector editing
  • Improved performance and it loads fast compared to the previous generation of CC
  • Ability to Crosslink between Adobe Creative Suite programs.
  • Great to have support to import other format files
  • Great to have more simplified controls and keyboard shortcuts
  • Has potential for usage of UI elements and interaction
If you are an illustrator then this is the go-to tool to convert your artistic portrait into meaningful digital illustrations. It can be used more for print media as well as for digital media. The quality of print from illustrator is greater than one that you would create in Photoshop.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a UI/UX designer and visual designer, I basically use Adobe Illustrator CC every day. It is definitely one of my most used software to create digital and print graphics. The best thing about illustrator is the ability of integration with other design applications. For most of the designers, Illustrator is one of the fundamental tools to learn about vector based graphics.
  • Create everything in vector
  • Ability to integrate with other design tools
  • Easy to export files in multiple formats
  • A high learning curve for beginners
  • Lack of ability to collaborate with another designer on the same file
  • Gradient function needs to be improved
Basically, I think every designer with some design skills needs to learn Illustrator since there is no other application that can do what Illustrator does. You will absolutely need it when you do all aspects of visual designs.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe Illustrator CC is used by my organization to design, illustrate, and edit graphics, logos, and other company assets. It's currently used by the Marketing Department which is comprised of only 4 people, one with working knowledge of the program. Adobe Illustrator CC allows internal access to a lot of documents that were created by external designers or contributors. It allows the company more range to edit and manipulate the templates and other company assets used throughout the company.
  • I think that this program is the most advanced of all the creative suite and allows the exportation of templates!
  • The Adobe Illustrator CC team has done a great job incorporating other program features so that all the programs offer similarities which allows for a smooth transition when working with multiple programs at once.
  • This program allows the user to create new objects using the pathfinder window. This feature really allows designers to go above and beyond when creating illustrations and illusions.
  • I strongly believe all Adobe Creative programs should automatically check spelling and grammar but also have an option to turn it off.
  • We're a part of a digitally literate world, the program should have a responsive design.
  • Allow a visual customization option for the program interface.
This program should be used to create illustrations and should not be used to manipulate photos or create print documents.
Samuel Crawford | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We create very high-end vector logos mostly for solo lawyers and small law firms. We create these logos for both digital and print (RGB and CMYK). We have many users that use and are proficient with Adobe Illustrator. We have created a standard within our company as far as how the product is to be used on how design files are to be layered and structured. Adobe Illustrator give us the power to create infinitely scalable, lossless graphics with maximum flexibility. We love this software.
  • Relatively easy to learn
  • There is nothing that you cannot do
  • The pen tool is an INCREDIBLE feature that helps even novices create very engaging artwork
  • When using Illustrator in tandem with Photoshop, there are controls that differ. This is not a big deal but it would be nice if the interactions were more comparable.
  • It would be nice if the layer systems worked more like Photoshop, as the Grouping of elements gets a bit annoying (quadriple-clicking to isolate something gets tedious).
  • The default settings seem "wrong" to me... This may be subjective but why would you ever want Document Raster Effect Settings Resolution to be 72? Just make it 300 out of the gate...
Adobe Illustrator is fantastic for creating high-quality vector artwork for creating logos and visuals for digital and printed medium. It can be scaled indefinitely as it is created from equations as opposed to pixels (e.g. pixel-independent). It is not suited for raster work, such as photo-editing: use Photoshop for anything raster. Luckily, when working with Smart Objects, they work well together.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe Illustrator CC in our Marketing department. We use it to create infographics, icons, and original illustrations. Our business uses a lot of concepts that are hard to find stock graphics of online, so Illustrator gives us the flexibility and advanced tools required to create our own assets.
  • Ability to easily create vector graphics from scratch
  • Tons of customization
  • Ability to import and export from other Adobe products like Photoshop and InDesign
  • High learning curve
  • Occasional bugs during saving
  • Can be demanding on computer system resources
Great for creating original vector illustrations for Marketing or art. Not so good for creating illustrations that are meant to mimic 'real world' mediums like acrylic and pencil.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe Illustrator to create custom logos and graphics that are used in interior and exterior signage. The program also allows us to edit the shape and dynamics of text to create wording/type for large applications (ie exterior channel letters and formed/routed letters). When scaled up this creation maintain their clarity & are preferred over rasterized graphics for our customers.
  • GRADIENTS
  • TEXT EFFECTS
  • ILLUSTRATION
  • FONT MANIPULATION
  • LARGER ART BOARDS
  • BETTER SCALING CAPABILITIES
We primarily use Adobe Illustrator to set and manipulate text. Fonts are a huge part of our workflow and being able to create large vector graphics is extremely important. We tend to move the lettering over to Photoshop when advanced effects are needed or if the project is highly photo/graphic based.
Josh Starrett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As the media and communications director, I use Adobe Illustrator CC for all of our graphical needs. Everything from logos to branding to design of printed material to promotional banners and screens. I am the only one at our organization that uses the software. I love that I can make one graphic that can be used for so many applications. Since it is a vector based software, that means I can save a graphic to be small is resolution to be used on screens or web but also high resolution to be used for printed materials.
  • I love to Illustrator when it comes to branding our specific events. It allows me to set up multiple Artboards so I can create different versions of the same branded graphics but export and use them differently for different applications. This is crucial when it comes to working with a team and different ways of communicating to different groups. In one place I might need a graphic set up in landscape to work on a web page and another I might need a portrait that will also work with a white background instead of black. Illustrator allows you to easily organize and make those changes needed.
  • Being a Vector based design program. This gives me the ability to make whatever graphic I create either as small as the size of a dime or as large as a billboard. Doing this only takes minor adjustments. This has helped me when Branding needs to span over everything from web to print to mobile.
  • I love the plug in abilities that Illustrator has. There are options for everything from a plug in to help me keep track of my freelance work hours to being able to search color themes and sync my account directly up to Illustrator.
  • It is hard to find something to not like about the software so I will say this, there is a pretty big learning curve when first starting the software. It can be quit intimidating for someone who has never used a design software although adobe is good at offering tutorials on how to get going.
  • There are times when the software will not let me do things that I want to do and an error will pop up. For example, when it comes to the path finder tool and compound paths. I with the error message was more helpful or offered help on how to remedy the situation of why it won't let me do what I want to do. Instead of just trial and error.
Illustrator is an industry standard when it comes to graphics and vector designs. This software is well suited for everything from social media graphics, to logos, to T-shirts, to branding, and beyond. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by myself. It makes logos, wireframes and web design easier and quicker to accomplish. The process for making designs on Illustrator is streamlined. Beginners can pick up the program in a matter of a few days. I like that creating designs doesn't take very long at all.
  • Automatic tracing of line art you scanned in expedites the workflow
  • Layers keep everything organized
  • It's easy to understand how the program works and quick to pick up
  • No critiques
Perfect for:
-Logo design
-wireframes
-mobile game menu design
-website design
-posters

You can scale your designs as large or as small as you want, and it doesn't lose quality because it is vector-based.

Not great for
-photo manipulation
-actual "painterly" designs

For these, I recommend Photoshop.
Dany Hernandez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Illustrator is used on a regular basis as part of our marketing and design strategy. We use it for print media, online content and company branding. It really is the foundation of most of our designs. Being the industry standard helps in facilitating our vendors with appropriate file formats. As we always say, "It's always better in vector."
  • First and foremost it's vector... What else can you say?
  • Adobe has worked really hard to implement a number of new features that continue to be helpful to the designer. Making simple tasks such as creating squares and triangles a breeze.
  • As with most Adobe products, the fact you can easily share files with other Adobe software is a tremendous help with your workflow.
  • Well, Illustrator is not really user-friendly if you're just getting into it. It takes a while for you to wrap your head around how illustrator actually works.
  • Working with gradients is always a bit of a pain in the rear.
Any artwork that needs to be scalable needs to be done with Illustrator. We create huge banners on a regular basis and the thought of creating these things without Illustrator would keep us awake at night. However, make sure you are well organized with your layers or things might get a bit confusing.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by many employees. Infact, it is very essential for my workplace because most of our work requires illustration, editing, making posters, making digital art etc, so this is our go to software! All other employees have the same job, so it is pretty much used by all of them!
  • Illustration! Best for illustration. Use the pen tool and make your life easier!
  • Making posters!
  • Making logos without them being pixelated.
  • Artboards, I feel are useless. I would rather open a new tab.
  • It needs an update (aesthetically)
  • Sometimes, it gets a bit confusing to use. I also feel it takes up a lot of memory, which slows down the working process.
I personally enjoy Photoshop more, however my colleagues think Illustrator is easier. The pen tool is wonders though, because it makes life easier and helps to create a perfect piece of illustration which helps me do digital art and create artwork easily.
February 08, 2018

The Best Vector Graphics

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have been using Adobe Illustrator for many years, I use it mainly to make advertising graphics, most of the works I've done have been aimed at printing via plotters. Other works have the purpose of being published through websites with images to be published through different CSS managed directly by the customer.
  • it is the best vector graphics program
  • dockable windows
  • multiple worksheets and multiple manageable layers
  • compatibility issues between files of previous versions
  • the cost of the complete suite if you want other Adobe programs is quite high if you are a single user.
Adobe Illustrator CC is well suited if
  1. you are a graphic designer and you want to get closer to the world of vector graphics
  2. you want to make graphics not dedicated to photo editing but purely graphics aimed at the business
  3. you want to design company logos
  4. you are doing the layout of newspapers or texts or anything else, it is definitely one of best software (if not the best ever).
Emily Preston | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Certain individuals in our marketing department use Adobe Illustrator. It is in my opinion the best solution for creating vector images and images for the web.
  • Vector images.
  • Text manipulation.
  • Clipping Paths.
  • It would be nice if it included features of other Creative Cloud programs like vertical text alignment.
  • It keeps a lot of data on the clipboard. A way to clear it without closing would be nice.
  • When you center a line of text it realigns the box oddly.
Anywhere you need vector graphics it is a requirement. If you're laying out brochures, books, etc, this probably isn't the best program.
Christopher Power | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe Illustrator is one of the most important tools our students use and that our print team uses. It is being used across the entire school and is installed on over 200 computers throughout the school. The main purpose of having access to the program is that it makes teaching students graphic design software much easier. We established a program specifically to teach students graphic design and business development. Using Adobe Illustrator they can create their entire marketing scheme and company branding. The problem it addresses is the relevance of industry knowledge we give to students. This software prepares them for industry careers.
  • Adobe Illustrator CC allows for colors to be accessed across the Adobe Suite if you are logged into your account. This makes it much easier for all designers and students to access their files and their color schemes easily. This creates a great workflow and saves time.
  • Adobe Illustrator CC has an amazing user interface. The interface is easily reset and customizable. Being able to navigate the program faster with your own custom layout for the toolbars really makes designing more fun and efficient.
  • Something that is done very well is the live trace tool. The live trace tool is a great asset to turn images or screenshots into vector designs. When you need to trace something, this is the fastest way to do it. The options it gives you to do so really allows you to create the best vector design without much work.
  • Adobe Illustrator doesn't come with enough default fonts. Having more fonts would really improve the experience instead of needing to download free fonts on my own and install them for more unique designs.
  • Adobe Illustrator has a perspective tool which is accessible in the toolbar and when it is clicked and turned on it is extremely annoying. To close this once it pops up is very difficult to click the very small "x" in the corner. This does not happen often but if you're a new user and this happens you can spend hours trying to find out how to remove it.
  • One function that I would like to see is avoiding isolation mode. When you double click into groups of objects or items, it will turn your screen into isolation mode and if you don't realize it, you could be designing and adding things to a group that you wanted to be separate.
Adobe Illustrator CC is well suited for all design classes and introduction to business classes. The hardest thing about running a design class or a business class is that students want to create something creative, however, they often do not know how. This software is well suited for creative type classes that really want to engage students. When students access this software it makes them feel more empowered, their ideas and thoughts come to life. Their businesses become much more real and it, in turn, changes education. Education is all about creating a HOOK. That hook is often new and relevant software.
Brittney Collier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe Illustrator is used by 3 members of the marketing team - myself, the digital designer, and the content writer. We use it to create graphics for our online assets and documents created for the sales team like case studies, product fact sheets, brochures, checklists, etc. This helps us to communicate the benefits of our solutions/products and generate leads from our website while also moving prospects along in the sales process. Our assets look so beautifully designed and clean when we create them using Adobe Illustrator - it's also great for creating logos.
  • I love the fact that Adobe Illustrator allows users to determine the size of the "artboard" on Adobe Illustrator. When using other applications like Microsoft Word, you're limited to only creating things that are the size of a sheet of paper. On Adobe Illustrator, you create the dimensions of your workspace which broadens the capabilities.
  • One of my favorite features of Adobe Illustrator is the transparent export. This is especially useful when I'm creating a graphic that will be used in a separate document (like a logo or chart). I never have to worry about having a white block around graphics and I can easily place them onto any document since they're transparent.
  • Adobe Illustrator is also great for compressing large files. Whenever I create a large document that will be used online, I can export it for the web, which reduces the amount of time it takes for the website to load.
  • I think that the platform is a bit difficult to use for beginners overall. There are so may features and it's nearly impossible to grasp all of them even after using Illustrator daily for a year. I wish they gave daily tips or something when you're designing on wi-fi so that users have more opportunities to learn.
  • One of things that I have the hardest time doing on Illustrator is cropping photos. The program requires that you take a shape and use it as a "clipping mask" rather than having a simple cropping feature.
  • When adjusting the size of a text box, the words inside the box get stretched/warped in whatever direction you pull the corners/sides toward. I wish the box just increased or decreased font size when the box size changed. I don't think anyone has a preference for warped text.
Adobe Illustrator is perfect for designing graphic that don't shape like a standard sheet of paper - logos, charts, infographics, etc. It's perfect for designing smaller items that will be added to larger documents. However, I would not use Illustrator for designing the actual documents like fact sheets and brochures - that's what Adobe InDesign is for.
Lexi Jensen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe Illustrator CC to design and create new logos for a client, animations for a video or design, and so much more. This tool is used with our video and graphic design team, and occasionally with our account coordinator. This tool helps us address the problem of creating new branding for clients in our pitch.
  • The pen tool in Adobe Illustrator is truly amazing. You can use this tool to create vector images or manipulate vector images to get the custom design you are looking for.
  • In Illustrator you can have multiple "artboards" in one file so you don't have to switch between files to compare different versions of a logo or design.
  • It is difficult to save a .jpg in Illustrator if you are only wanting to save a portion of what is on your artboard rather than the whole thing. You can save as a .png and make the background transparent to help resolve that.
  • Adobe Illustrator has limited photo editing capabilities so you will want to use Photoshop as well if you need to do photo edits.
  • This program has a high learning curve when you first use it. It is not a tool beginners can jump in and use.
Adobe Illustrator CC is great for creating logos, tracing images, creating a flyer, creating vector graphics, manipulating vectors, combining shapes, creating patterns and more.

Adobe Illustrator CC is less ideal to use if you need to crop a photo, edit coloring or hues on a photo, designing a book or large poster.
Jon Ackerman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe Illustrator CC is at the core of all of our designs. We often go between different Adobe products but we continually return to Adobe Illustrator as our go-to vector and design program. It's easy to use, well laid out and allows us to maximize our creativity. Adobe has really improved on previous versions of Illustrator and has made the integration seamless to all of the other Adobe creative offerings. All of the creatives on our team use Illustrator for their work. Video, design, print layouts and even our online content, all utilize Illustrator at some level. For the longest time, Illustrator's main focus was just on vector art. Adobe has done some amazing things to improve the uses of Illustrator into other design related area. We have been using Illustrator for print layouts, designs that include photos, website improvement mockups and social media focused content.

It really has become our go-to program that enables maximum creativity, all inside one design program. I find myself using Photoshop less and less and Illustrator and Lightroom more and more!
  • Quick and reliable interface with consistency throughout all Adobe Creative Cloud products.
  • Ability to create shortcuts in both keyboard shortcuts and menu shortcuts.
  • Lightning fast and responsive interface. You can also adjust display preferences for slower machines.
  • The tie in to other Adobe offerings (cloud storage, kuler color swatches, fonts and stock footage) is amazing. It speeds up all of our work!
  • Price and yearly contract. You no longer own the software and get to decide when to purchase the next version. The only option is to pay per year.
  • There isn't a great way to administrate fonts and ensure that Adobe will play nicely with them. This isn't particular to Illustrator, but to all Adobe CC programs.
  • If going between Illustrator and After Effects, there is a very specific way to order your layers in order to have them editable in AE. This is super annoying because they force you to do this in an order that most designers are not used to working.
If you are looking to work quickly and efficiently, or are in need of a tool that allows maximum creativity, then Adobe Illustrator CC is for you. Adobe is now in the phase of development on this product that allows them to continue to get better and better. We are using Illustrator for everything from print layouts in our annual review to our series branding and even a lot of our social media content. It allows a ton of flexibility between other Adobe offerings, which is a huge bonus!
Benjamin Brogdon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am writing this review to express my personal opinions which do not represent the opinions of my current or former employers.

I use Adobe Illustrator to create or edit vector graphics. In developing training materials, I use it most often to create and/or edit icons. These icons make instructor notes and facilitator guides easier to follow. They also provide visual cues to the learner. The business problem Illustrator solves is a lack of clarity or other sub-optimal learning and training solutions. No one wants to sit in front of a computer screen and read huge blocks of text. Using icon and other graphic elements provides a visual stimulus which increases learner retention.
  • Adobe Illustrator is the gold standard when it comes to creating and editing vector graphics. It is a comprehensive tool.
  • Illustrator also does a great job converting raster images to vector images. In my free time, I've imported artwork into Illustrator and then edited the image by converting it to more abstract concepts, such as tracing graphic element, re-coloring, re-sizing, etc.
  • While there are more lightweight tools, Illustrator does a great job of cropping and re-sizing photos.
  • If you are enmeshed into the larger Adobe platform of products, it integrates with applications such as Acrobat, PhotoShop, and InDesign seamlessly.
  • The biggest drawback is cost. It simply isn't worth the price.
  • I would guess that I've probably used 5% of Illustrator's functions. It is that comprehensive. In fact, it is probably too big. It is a resource hog--you have to have a powerful computer to run it. The newest versions recommend that you use gaming-quality GPUs for the best user experience.
  • While PhotoShop is primarily a tool for raster images and Illustrator is a tool for vector graphics, practically speaking, a person can get by with one or the other. It isn't as if Illustrator can't open rasters and vice versa. But the UI for the two are radically different. Take text editing, for example. The two tools take a completely different approach with adding text, and it is difficult to switch between tools, even though they are part of the same suite of products.
If you are part of a large organization Illustrator is a great investment. There is wide support on the web, and it has a wide variety of tools to manipulate images. It is well suited for anyone designing content for the web.

If you are a sole proprietor, non-profit, or small business, despite Illustrator's depth of abilities, it isn't worth it when open source tools like Inkspace has very similar functionality for those willing to overcome a learning curve.
Chris Lenhart | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Thinking about how many years I've been using Adobe Illustrator makes me start to feel old. This software has been one of the most consistent tools in my toolbox for nearly a decade and a half, from my earlier days of laying out posters for local coffee shops to my current occupation as a UX designer creating Hi-Fidelity comps for prototypes.

Its massive range of uses is both a strength and a drawback. It does a lot of things very well, which means that if you are well versed as a user, it is an easy go to to start any project. However, the learning curve for new users can be pretty huge, and it never stops - there is so much you can do with this software that you'll forget things before you can learn it all. The myriad stacked tools and menus can be intimidating and confusing for new users and even power users will often admit they have no idea what a certain tool or menu option does, or that they rarely use certain things.






  • Laying out screens - grab a UI kit of your choice and go to town. Everything is built for you, you just need to decide where it goes. Easy to copy artboards and make changes for prototype screens
  • Vector Illustration - Particularly for video game UI, Illustrator is great at creating illustrative interface objects and manipulating type for titles, all of which can scale without losing quality.
  • Logo Execution - quickly create and iterate on concepts at any size.
  • Single page print layouts - Layout a letterhead, business card, and envelope in the same document.
  • Customizable work space - save common setups for common tasks and switch easily between them.
  • Too many options - this thing is cluttered. Every available space is filled with menus that collapse into one another or cover your work area.
  • Steep learning curve - this software can be really difficult for new uses.
  • Expensive - there are several alternatives on the market that don't require the same costly CC subscription.
Illustrator is great for an agency that might need to do both print and web design work across many devices, or a mobile game company where illustrative UIs and prototyping are desirable. Most artists and designers learn Illustrator at some early point in their career as the industry standard, so it's fairly easy to find designers who will know it.

If you are a product manager looking for an easy way to lay out screens for a mobile app prototype, look elsewhere, like sketch or balsamiq. It will take you too long to get up and running if you aren't already an expert user.
Shannon Lopez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've been using it at a non-profit to do creative design for certain products. They've got logos in Photoshop and we decided to make a couple of different kind of mugs and needed to edit the logos, size, arc, and arch them. We didn't have written specs for the dimensions, just a physical piece, and the tools in AI allowed me to recreate it more easily than anything else I found.
  • The transforming capabilities are great. We were putting a logo (and it's a detailed logo!) on a curved surface and AI made this so easy.
  • I haven't done design work before, and I have found the functionality to be very intuitive to find in AI.
  • As I am new to this, I make mistakes. Lots of them. I love that, when I'm about to make a permanent mistake (can't be undone, or about to save into a less usable format), AI warns me.
  • I had a tough time adjusting to how to change colors and it still takes me some time. I've probably spent too much time in PowerPoint, so it's more of a transition thing than functionality.
  • I feel like, when I need to figure something out, I have to go to the web to research. I always find it on the web, but would love it if it were more easily accessible within AI.
  • Text boxes. I'm sure there is a way to start a text box with a preferred font and size vs the default, but I still haven't found it.
For those who have some creative background, I would absolutely recommend AI. For those without it, my only hesitation on recommending would be the time it takes to learn it if you have to get something done quickly. The ability to bring in images, combine things, transform them, change colors are all fantastic. Someone who is more creative than I am would be able to do so much more like creating things from scratch. I'm just not there yet.
Kristin Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe Illustrator to design everything from signage to web ads, email marketing, and various other graphics. It is mostly used by the 3 graphic designers employed by the company, but some others also use it on occasion. It helps us create scalable graphics that are suitable for print or web, which is really helpful for us as we often use the same design scheme on all platforms. It makes it so we don't have to waste time and energy redesigning things for different uses.
  • Scalable (vector) graphics enable us to use the same design for print and web without worrying about quality loss.
  • Great for logo design, as logos are used in every format and need to be flexible with how they can be displayed.
  • Adobe Illustrator is my go-to program for creating signage, especially large format signage.
  • It is pretty easy to use, especially with keyboard shortcuts.
  • I really enjoy using Abobe Illustrator with the Adobe Creative Cloud functionality. It allows my team to easily send documents to each other so multiple people can edit and look at the document for the best final product.
  • Some keyboard shortcuts are different keys in different Adobe programs for the same function. It would be great if it prompted the same thing in Illustrator as in InDesign and Photoshop.
  • The align and distribute functions sometimes work a little wonky and not as they're supposed to, but you can usually correct it by eye.
  • I wish that Creative Cloud allowed multiple people to work on the same document at the same time, a la Google Docs. It would be helpful for team projects or cases where there are multiple art boards.
  • My team frequently works in InDesign as well. They are similar programs, but things (especially text) frequently don't copy correctly from one program to another. It would be great if there was cross-program functionality and things maintained their bounding boxes and styles.
  • I would love the use of Paragraph and/or Character Styles in Illustrator.
Adobe Illustrator CC is well suited to graphics that need to be used in both web and print, as well as graphics that are frequently displayed at varying sizes. This includes company logos and signage. It is less appropriate for booklet/pamphlet design. For this I would recommend using InDesign instead. Illustrator could make some of the graphics to use in a book but I wouldn't recommend designing the book itself in this program.
October 18, 2017

Illustrator CC

Nelson David Sanchez Villasmil | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Illustrator has been an important piece for getting our final product presented to our clients. We use it to trace photos and custom renderings to get a different visual style, which is easily delivered and controlled with Illustrator advanced tracing tools and it is mainly used by the graphic and visualization department. It mainly solves the problem of getting complex traced paths to fill them with color to use on image compositions.
  • Tracing and controlling traced images either black and white, gray scale or colored.
  • You can have a easy to do or a basic render and when you trace that image you get various visual styles
  • To create path to give details to image compositions.
  • Some more features for the perspective tool
  • Maybe some connection with 3D software
It is best suited for scenarios like tracing images either automatically or manually, for getting graphic elements to work with typography, and using the path tools to create basic shapes and in combination with the other tools. With the features, you can get very appealing graphics which can be used on other software. The scenario in which Illustrator is not the best is for composing images.
Nicole Steen, M.A. | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Illustrator to create social media graphics, flyers, and logo design. There is a very big learning curve but once you get the hang of it, it's smooth sailing. It can do anything your heart dreams! I use it most for re-coloring images and removing the white background of images so I can use the image on any color background. It is most valuable when you purchase a CC bundle for about $32/month and you get access to EVERY SINGLE ADOBE PROGRAM there is. It's an amazing deal.
  • Editing photos - you can do anything you can think of to photos and images
  • Logo design - the options for font and font effects is great
  • Flyer design - it comes with pre-made templates you can borrow from and edit or you can start from scratch and create your own design
  • Start up time - I'm not sure it's my computer or what but it takes a solid 5 minutes from when you click to Open Ai to when you can actually use it
You should probably have some design skills already before starting out with Illustrator. It is quite advanced and the options can be overwhelming. But if you have design experience, especially in other Adobe programs, this will be a great asset to your programs. Edit photos, design marketing materials, your complete business branding, export as any file you need. It's great.
Chris Gardner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Illustrator CC is utilized within the Marketing department to create/design/edit collateral. It is used to build business cards, flyers, handouts, web ads, slide decks, etc.
  • Create logos or other vector artwork
  • Design layouts for flyers, brochures, business cards, etc.
  • Provide quick and easy mockups for review/approval
  • The learning curve for Illustrator is high
  • The cost is prohibitive for beginners
Illustrator is the industry standard for a reason. It is incredibly powerful, and offers a full suite of tools and features. The only drawbacks are the steep learning curve, and the cost. For a professional, the cost is easily justified, but for a beginner, it can be prohibitive. If possible, a student license can be used, which is a good way to get into the software to learn.
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