In 34 years, I've never seen anything like it. There was no way to close the app, not even to force quit. Today, while doing a simple task with fonts, the screen went grey. I turned off my auto updates a month ago after spending many hours over two days, with an Adobe tech, trying to get my CC apps back on track.
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Once again, today I spent 6 hours trying and failing to install adobe cloud updates.
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It can fix a lot of problems in things like messed up PDF files instantly, saving potentially hours of tedious work. Astute Grahpics' Vector First Aid plug-in can be a tremendous help. Un-checking "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" when using Illustrator to save a PDF can introduce all sorts of issues. I've run into trouble opening client supplied PDFs in Adobe Illustrator as well. Things often go very wonky in unexpected ways. I warn people who only use CorelDRAW to keep Adobe Reader handy to proof those client supplied PDFs and compare what they see in Adobe Reader to the imported results in CorelDRAW. Some live effects are application dependent they won't port to other graphics applications at all. The latest version of CorelDRAW is improved at handling Illustrator-style gradients (it even supports transparency now), but it's still not 100% accurate.
![free alternatives to adobe illustrator free alternatives to adobe illustrator](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/o0Bvr070N-k/maxresdefault.jpg)
Objects with gradient fills can run into big problems hopping from one brand of drawing app to another. Line strokes and effects applied to those strokes begin to complicate the situation. That can usually jump from one application to another without anything getting modified. It's usually no big deal if a piece of vector art has nothing but bare objects with flat fills, no live effects and all type converted to outlines. When it comes to handling elements like brand artwork, "perfect" is the standard. It sort of works, but it sure isn't perfect. It's akin to using Google's automated functions to translate a web page written in German (or French, Spanish, etc) into English. Different drawing programs often don't play nicely with art imported from rival applications. That gets back to why I have to use Adobe Illustrator (and CorelDRAW too). It helps to at least be using the same, industry standard applications. They get compounded when you need to send art to other service bureaus to do something you can't do in-house, like print a 48' wide X 14' tall billboard face. The issues of color management and CMYK are critical. The type families available through there are worth a fortune. It's the equivalent of a Creative Suite Master Collection with a number of bonus goodies that didn't come in a Master Collection box, such as the Adobe Fonts service.
![free alternatives to adobe illustrator free alternatives to adobe illustrator](https://smallbiztrends.com/ezoimgfmt/media.smallbiztrends.com/2016/07/gravit-featured-850x476.png)
You're getting a lot more than just one or two applications. But that monthly fee actually buys quite a lot. Not many like paying $50+ per month for a Creative Cloud subscription. I also use CorelDRAW, but that program (and others) don't open client-supplied PDFs and AI files in 100% reliable manner. My shop has to handle a lot of corporate logos and other customer supplied materials. It's like going back to the 1990's.Įven if I could live without some of the latest bells and whistles found in Illustrator (and its 3rd party plug-ins) I still need Illustrator to reliably open and edit customer supplied PDFs and AI files. Open source alternatives like Inkscape are better than nothing, but they lack many features and just feel clunky. CorelDRAW is still fairly popular, but it only runs on Windows. Freehand was the closest alternative it was the only other drawing app that could paste AICB vector paths into Photoshop. That especially goes for integration with other applications, such as Photoshop.
![free alternatives to adobe illustrator free alternatives to adobe illustrator](https://images.template.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/27212520/Rustic-Wedding-Invitation-Template.jpg)
But none of them totally replace all the functions found in Adobe Illustrator. YMMV.Īs for alternatives, there's a number of vector-based drawing programs out there.
![free alternatives to adobe illustrator free alternatives to adobe illustrator](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/31520-52910-designer-xl.jpg)
So far I haven't seen any serious issues. I personally waited for Adobe's first maintenance release for Illustrator as well as updated plug-ins from Astute Graphics before migrating my CC apps to the 2019 versions. What did Adobe do specifically to "completely ruin" Illustrator?