Adobe Illustrator Reviews

This is a tough one: I feel the system is incredibly powerful and incorporates beautifully with the CC suite.

The system can on occasion seem a bit slow to 'recognize' a new font that's been added through the external font management system, so it sometimes takes a few (or even a restart of the program) for it to 'see' a missing font that's been reactivated, but this may be local to my machine and network.

The pop-out menu for the pen/anchor point tool used to be more robust, including the ability to add and delete points as well as adjust vector paths all from one condensed little menu, I do wish that arrangement would return.

It feels as if Adobe products are all created individually, and as if all of the developers work in different parts of the world. Even though there are great advantages to using these applications in tandem. They don't share keyboard shortcuts, and there are other things that work one way in one program, but work differently in Illustrator.

Illustrator is complex and has an incredibly steep learning curve. I've been using it for the last 6 years or so, and I feel I've only scratched the surface. Adobe does an OK job of providing tutorials, but you have to look for them online, and even then, you might find better tutorials on YouTube.

It might be my computer, but it takes a while to load each time I'm opening up the application.

Sometimes certain tools along the side bar don't work, which can be a pain when you have to figure out how to get them to work again in your current work space.

Complicated and dense - Illustrator has so many ways of doing the same thing, it's easy to get lost. Much like Photoshop, you can use it for years and never even notice tons of tools that might make your life easier if you could only tell how they worked.

Hotkeys are sometimes weird (compared to Photoshop).

Pen tool separates the newbs from the pros. If you can't use the pen tool and you want to work with Illustrator every day you will have difficulty. I'm only halfway decent after taking a Masters class and I could definitely improve.

Not suitable for beginners.

Requires training to know how to use it.

No improvement needed.

The drawing tool is not as intuitive as the much older and no longer available tool in Freehand.

Make it easier or more intuitive to add points to a shape.

Make it easier or more intuitive to edit a shape by moving a point or changing it from curve to straight.

Mobile - Adobe lacks a full mobile version of Illustrator, which would be very handy when working on an iPad when you're out of the office. Affinity Designer does this well.

Half pixels - Illustrator can annoyingly play with half pixels, which when designing for web or email, can be extremely frustrating for developers.

Improved handling of complex files - Illustrator tends to get bogged down as soon as you insert complex drawings or large amounts of artboards.

The most recent interface redesign is annoying. I can't find things where I expect to find them, especially critical tools like Align.

The way selections get made is harder than it needs to be.

Also, the way text boxes have to be created is kind of weird. It's like Illustrator took text boxes from Quark, but it was just fine without them.

Sometimes not very intuitive

I wish there was more help as far as new features and tools

Sometimes bugs are found in new updates. It is cloud-based software, rather than a yearly update of buying new software, they have the ability to push out code and updates at any time.

No other weaknesses.

There is nothing that I currently dislike about using the software.

Learning curve can be steep

Faster implementation of updates to match new operating systems

It a massive program that can sometimes slow down other programs on my computer.

More tutorials, there could never be enough.

Tutorials within the program that guide you through your design live.

It is demanding for the RAM of the computer - We had to upgrade the RAM to 16G otherwise it's way too slow and the laptop may crash.

For beginners it's a little hard to use with so many buttons and interfaces.

Not for beginners

Requires a lot of training to master the software

Tools a little bit hard to find on the interface

Bugs on actualization

Some features of the nodes tool are a little bit hard to use

The free distort/transform feature is still difficult to use.

The color libraries function is difficult to navigate.

Some of the tools that ares supposed to be "just like Photoshop" are not just like Photoshop.

Ease of use or get started with it for a new user could use some extra improvement.

It can be intimidating for a new user to begin using the software if they have not had any experience with it prior.

I hate when I hit a button and unknowingly change my workspace setup, or disable a setting, and then need to take hours of searching on forums to figure out why my program isn't doing the things I want it to. I'd love an undo button for times like this!

Gradients aren't the best in Illustrator. They almost always look a little off.

I don't like using Illustrator for large body text. It's not made for that.

Granted Adobe's other design software products pick up any slack that Illustrator presents, I think they could integrate some native features that Photoshop and InDesign have to make this software more fully-functional.

The snap-to features could be enhanced to better position and align different graphic aspects.

An actual manual, like the old days.

Simplified functionality.

Easier way to spec and use colors.

As part of Adobe's Creative Suite, there is the cost to consider. There are open and free alternatives if you are willing to make trade-offs.

There is quite a learning curve for new users.

All of the Creative Suite have similar but slightly different interfaces. It can be a bit jarring at times looking for a tool when you are used to it in a different spot.

Backward compatibility of file formats.

Save directly to creative cloud.

Simplify panels.