Illustrator is very good at what it does. Can it do even more?
Updated May 06, 2021

Illustrator is very good at what it does. Can it do even more?

Courtney Birnbaum | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Illustrator CC

Adobe Illustrator CC is used almost daily in the publishing department of my company to access color information from our catalogue of EPS files, although it is also used frequently across the company. [Adobe Illustrator CC] is a reliable vector editor, useful to prepare client files for printing/press preflight, as well as create our own images to be used in digital and printed publications.
  • Create resizable images (vector images)
  • Export files into image files at multiple sizes
  • Color management: remove spot colors before printing; gather CMYK or RGB values to ensure consistent color use across all projects — this is something that Adobe CC Libraries also assists with greatly.
  • Create files for web use
  • Access to colors or selecting an area of an image can take a few more clicks than expected.
  • The trace tools have come a long way since older versions of Illustrator but still do not reliably transform every image into usable vectors, i.e., you cannot easily transform a photo into line art by merely using a trace tool.
  • I would like to see more free-hand vector pen tools
  • File layers
  • Swatches
  • Layer masks
  • Exporting multiple sizes of the same image, batch processing
  • Simplifies our workflow
  • Allows us to seamlessly update files: edits made in Illustrator will show up in InDesign when the linked file is saved
  • Is not suitable for all of our image creation needs
Affinity Designer is a very reasonably priced "dupe" (substitute) for [Adobe Illustrator CC], as it is a one-time price of $99 rather than a repeated cost. Affinity offers photo editing and publishing software that compete with other Adobe products as well, so it is something I value for personal use. However, my company relies on Adobe Illustrator [CC] because we are already invested in the Creative Cloud: the font library of TypeKit alone is vital to the organization to ensure all of publishing has the access to the same font rather than a slightly different version of the font from a different source. [Adobe Illustrator CC] also gives employees solid resources to grow their abilities with the software, thanks to Adobe-sponsored and non-sponsored video and web tutorials.

Do you think Adobe Illustrator CC delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Illustrator CC's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Illustrator CC live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe Illustrator CC go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe Illustrator CC again?

Yes

Adobe Illustrator [CC] is great for creating graphics. It is not as well suited for multi-page text-and-image documents (InDesign is your best bet there) or photo editing (you want Photoshop). Sometimes [Adobe Illustrator CC] makes your graphic art so simple, as it has many helpful tools, and Adobe even offers tutorials on their website as a reliable resource for learning how to use their extensive tools better. However, artists looking to draw in vectors may prefer a software with more brush options and other artist-focused tools (Clip Studio Paint comes to mind here as being very artist friendly, but I am uncertain about its vector properties). In summary, Illustrator does logos and graphics incredibly well, and can be used as substitute for text layout software in a pinch.