Item: Adobe Illustrator CC
Rating: 10
Author: Danny Wood

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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.

Return on Investment

Illustrator has had a very positive impact on our return on investment. Since we use it on a daily basis and use other Adobe products it made sense to utilize.
Our goal as the training department is to create engaging and interactive online training. Using eye-catching icons and other graphics is crucial to our purpose. Illustrator has helped immensely.
Illustrator would be worth the money if you purchased it alone but it is more worth it when you subscribe to the Adobe CC suite and use other Adobe programs in conjunction with Illustrator.

Alternatives Considered

I know that SVG-Edit and GIMP can edit and create vector graphics, but I haven't used them much for that. I've used GIMP before but not for vectors. And I've never used SVG-Edit. So personally, I haven't used or evaluated any alternatives to Illustrator. However, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that Illustrator would be a better product than either of those.

Other Software Used

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Google Drive

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Convenient	Slow to learn Lots to learn

Easy Tasks

Changing colors is easy
Scaling graphics is easy

Adobe Illustrator is the obvious choice when dealing with vectors!

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Illustrator CC