Pros & Cons
-
- Unparalleled typography tools and features
- Advanced features for vector brush making
- Superb tracing capabilities
- Robust AI integrations with a singular text-to-vector tool
- Works seamlessly within the Creative Cloud ecosystem
-
- No perpetual license option
- Web version not available for Safari
Adobe Illustrator CC Specs
| Data-Driven Charts | |
| Edits Vector Graphics | |
| Pricing Model | Subscription |
| Pro-Level Typography | |
| Touch Interface Support |
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful graphic design app for drawing and painting, fine typography, illustration, and many other professional artistic disciplines. It's unbeatable for editing vector graphics, and its brush, text, and tracing tools continue to impress. Moreover, Illustrator remains on the cutting edge of creative software, consistently developing and deploying compelling new features. Illustrator's proficiency and smooth integrations with other Creative Cloud apps fully justify its high subscription costs, making it our Editors' Choice winner for vector editing and illustration.
What Is Illustrator?
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editing program. For the uninitiated, Boolean curves, lines, and points define vector graphics. Unlike raster images, you can enlarge vector images infinitely without a loss of resolution. If you plan to design a huge billboard or any other large graphic for which scalability is a requisite for success, for example, you need vector graphics. Vector files also tend to be much smaller than their raster counterparts. In the image below, the object on the left is a vector graphic, and the object on the right is a raster.
Price: Expensive for a Single App, But Worth It for Professionals
Adobe Illustrator is available only by subscription. It costs $263.88 per year up front, $22.99 per month with an annual commitment, or $34.49 on a month-to-month basis. Adobe doesn't offer a perpetual license for Illustrator.
CorelDraw's Graphics Suite, one of Illustrator's closest competitors, is available for a one-time cost of $549 or for a subscription rate of $269 per year (approximately $22.42 per month).
A subscription to Illustrator gets you all of the following:
- 25 generative AI credits per month
- 100GB of cloud storage
- Adobe Express and Firefly
- Adobe Fonts (30,000+ fonts for web and desktop)
- Adobe Portfolio, a simple no-code website builder for showing off your work
- Behance, a creative online network for showcasing and discovering creative work
- Creative Cloud Libraries, a central repository for storing core design assets for your brand or personal projects
- Illustrator for the web and iPad
- Immediate access to the latest features and updates
Platforms and System Requirements: Nothing Unexpected From Adobe
Illustrator is available on devices running iPadOS 14, macOS Sonoma, Windows 10, or newer. No matter which platform you use, you need a reliable internet connection to download the program initially and keep your online services up to date. A complete list of the system requirements for Adobe Illustrator is available on Adobe's site, but you need 8GB of RAM (Adobe recommends 16GB) and 2GB of hard drive space. Illustrator runs via emulation on Windows Arm platforms but natively on Apple silicon.
Keep in mind that the web version of Illustrator officially supports only Chrome and Edge. And if you use the iPad version of Illustrator, you almost certainly want to have an Apple Pencil to take full advantage of its capabilities. Anything you do on the iPad app conveniently syncs to the desktop version.
Interface and Ease of Use: It Takes Time to Master and Perfect the Layout
Illustrator's interface should be reasonably familiar if you've worked with InDesign or Photoshop. You can customize the interface with dark-to-light gray color schemes and set your palettes and menus to snap to any configuration you prefer. Once you get your defaults, menus, and preferences in perfect order, you can save that workspace and reset to its exact configuration whenever you like.
I appreciate that the software lets you assign custom key commands, which further optimizes your workflow for any kind of project. In fact, Illustrator ships with workspace options tailored to disciplines such as layout, printing and proofing, and typography. An Essentials space also highlights additions and enhancements to the app.
In Illustrator, you work on canvases called Artboards, which are movable and support variable sizes and orientations. You can cut them down to size with the Page Crop tool, define the width and height values yourself, or size them independently using Illustrator's myriad presets. It's also possible to arrange, duplicate, export, and position Artboards individually or as a group.
Appearance and Properties Panels
The unassuming Appearance panel is the backbone and muscle of your workspace. It's arguably the most underappreciated of Illustrator's default panels, but I consider it my information control tower.
With the Appearance panel, you have full command over every aspect of an object's or group's attributes, including basic fills, blending mode, opacity, and stroke color and size. The panel really impresses when you perform complex operations, such as adjusting Illustrator Effects (glows, feathers, and drop shadows), creating multiple strokes, and reordering or toggling effects layers.
You can summon the Properties panel via the Essentials workspace or when you choose Properties from the Window menu. Its contextual menu updates automatically to show tools relevant to what you select.
Just look at how much information the Appearance panel shows in the screenshot below:
Contextual Task Bar
The Contextual Task Bar is a floating panel that provides the most relevant next actions for the selected object. It helps you keep focus on the object in question. The bar's position can get in the way sometimes, but you can reposition or disable it in the program settings. Additionally, the tool works only with certain object types, such as Paths, Image Tracing, Recolor Artwork, and Text.
Core Tools: So Much to Explore and Learn
Adobe stocks the tools panel with everything you could possibly imagine in a professional drawing application, along with some unique goodies. Moreover, you can download some extraordinary, high-quality, and regularly updated plug-in packages. Check out Astute Graphics' jaw-dropping lineup for an idea.
Illustrator's bountiful variety of tools (and their parametric customization opportunities) helps inspire exploration and caffeinate your imagination. I recommend beginners do just that—spend time discovering the tools and their submenus before embarking on a project that's due tomorrow. The sheer number of specialty tools can absolutely be daunting. Even I, as a decades-long user, regularly discover little goodies to add to my repertoire and update the way I do things. I follow many Instagram posters who offer exciting quickie tips and hacks, and both beginners and seasoned pros can benefit from doing the same. Below are just some of the many tools to master:
Selection Tools
Illustrator’s selection tools each target specific types of groups, paths, points, and objects. You can get fine-tune control preferences in the Settings section. The ability to customize the size of anchor points and handles is a dream come true for hard-working eyeballs.
Precision Drawing Tools
Illustrator is tailor-made for precision drawing. Amenities such as perspective grids scaffold the foundation of perspective drawing and create dimensional lettering effects, while axonometric angle constraints save time and minimize frustration. Layers help organize and isolate components of your illustration for easy access when making edits or for variable overlays. Finally, although it takes a bit of practice to master, the Pen tool is your go-to for creating beautiful vector paths and Bezier curves, defining anchor points, and manipulating handles. The program's vector drawing tools are sure to satisfy. Among them is the invaluable Pixel Perfect tool, which helps create crisp web-optimized graphics with pixels that align to a grid.
Paint Tools
Everyone should enjoy Illustrator’s vector paint tools. The Live Paint tool, for example, lets you color-fill shapes by simply clicking them. Meanwhile, the Brush tool lets you create custom brushes (Art, Bristle, Calligraphic Pattern, or Scatter), and the ability to create unexpected shapes by replacing polygon and ellipse strokes with a custom brush is awesome. (See the image below.)
Related to the paint tools is the magical Symbol Sprayer tool with its seven variants. If you assign a star you designed to the Symbol Sprayer, for example, the tool sprays stars. Screener, Scruncher, Shifter, Sizer, Spinner, Stain, and Styler tools give you more control.
Similar Products
Our Current Picks for The Best Graphic Design Software for 2025
Illustrator offers an unlimited number of vector brush options—many come stock with the app, and loads are available on the web (for free or purchase). But you can have the most fun creating custom ones. Below represents some digression fun I had while figuring out how to make an editable guilloche (a decorative technique involving intricate, precise, and repetitive geometric patterns) effect:
Type Wrangling
As a typographer, I find a lot to love about working with type in Illustrator, especially the OpenType glyph chooser drop-down that appears when you select a letter (or glyph) with alternate versions. You can assign alternates to entire text blocks rather than one character at a time. All you have to do is highlight a character and select from the resultant drop-down menu. For example, if you highlight the numeral 5 (depending on the typeface), you can choose case sensitive, denominator, numerator, old style, small caps, subscript, superscript, tabular, and others. This feature is especially useful if you are designing with calligraphic typefaces that have many alternates.
Illustrator also borrows from InDesign's professional character and paragraph formatting options. The addition of a Glyphs window, the Touch Type tool, and support for Asian (horizontal and vertical), Indic, Arabic, and Hebrew languages makes working with type a stellar experience. Thankfully, the once-anemic spellchecker is much more helpful. That said, I wish Adobe would make it easier to access, as it is in InDesign; currently, it takes two steps.
Related is the Retype tool, which converts Latin static (uneditable), raster text within raster images, and outlined text into live (editable) text. This feature can also identify said fonts and returns any matching or similar ones on your computer—in addition to the same from Adobe Fonts. Yes, this can come in handy for designers who must edit text from another person’s outlined files, but the typefaces Retype suggests are often not exact matches due to its limited scope.
My final note on type relates to variable type, which resembles a smart build-out of Adobe's Multiple Master technology of yore. What's great about variable fonts is that you can precisely control slant, weight (thin to black), and width (condensed or extended) with sliders. It's like getting 30 fonts in one typeface. Just note that the slant is an oblique, not a true italic.
Text-to-Vector Art
Adobe's Firefly is remarkable for being the first to introduce a text-to-vector image generator, and I appreciate that it distinguishes itself from many other generative AI tools by prioritizing users and accountability. Firefly benefits from a unique combination of ethical content sourcing, extensive customization options, deep Creative Cloud integration, and a user-friendly interface.
Although Firefly began largely training on images from Adobe Stock, where you find both superb content and plenty of junky illustrations, it seems to work much better now (my prompts are likely better, too). And with the recent addition of partner models, you can get even more refined results for extra credits.
Illustrator’s Text-to-Vector feature can generate icons, scenes, seamless repeating patterns, subject art, and much more. I use it most often for generative fills. In the top half of the image below, you can see how this feature works and some of its available options. The graphic in the bottom half is a job-related one I developed using generative fill on outlined type. I always make manual refinements to generative art to make it look more handcrafted.
Reshape and Transform
Illustrator's reshaping and transformation tools feel quite satisfying as you manipulate your work in every way imaginable. That includes bloating, morphing, puckering, shape blending, shearing, tweaking, twisting, and warping. With five slicing and cutting tools, you get ultrafine control over lines and shapes. The Pathfinder tab, for example, performs Boolean operations such as divide, exclude, intersect, merge, and unite. Try experimenting with these different functions.
Graphing Tools
Considering the importance of data visualization and information graphics, Illustrator only whets the appetite with nine graphing tools that allow you to get down to business. You can transform your data (.CSV) with adequate graphs, including bar and pie charts, as well as scatter and radar charts. It’s been a while since Adobe introduced anything new in the graphing toolbox. I wish it would give us some unconventional graphs, such as bubble charts, network diagrams, or radial tree maps, which are better at displaying complex data and are more visually appealing. In the meantime, look to other tools, such as the robust (and free) RAWGraphs.
Custom Scripts
If you really want to explore the Illustrator geekdom, you might play with custom scripts within the app. You can use the humdrum ones installed with the program, or, better yet, code some yourself (in AppleScript, ExtendScript, JavaScript, or Microsoft Visual Basic). If you aren't up to coding, you can scout around online and find plenty of intriguing automation and function-adding scripts. I’m not a coder, but it’s easy because all you have to do is drop a code file into your Scripts folder. Have a look at illustratorscripts.com for free and paid options.
New and (Still) Notable Features: Illustrator Is Always Pushing the Boundaries
Illustrator packs too many features to cover here, but the ones I list below are among the ones I recommend you try first. Whether you are using the software for professional work, fun, or just experimentation, all these capabilities stand out.
Automation With Graphic Styles
Graphic Styles in Illustrator are akin to Photoshop's Styles. They're one-click mechanisms that automate the application of attributes to an object or type in a single step. In Illustrator, these attributes can range from a simple drop shadow to a seven-layer stroke with feathering, an inner flow, and offsets. Note that in Illustrator, glows and shadows are stepped gradations of solid colors that simulate a blur.
A great way to understand building and using Graphic Styles is to select an object with a Graphic Style applied to it and examine the Appearance panel. There, you will see each attribute layer that combines to generate the Graphic Style's effect.
Auto Trace
If you need to convert raster images to vectors, Illustrator can help. I created the image below (one concept for a vinyl album project) with Midjourney 7.0 and then tinkered with it in Fresco. The client then wanted to derive a symbol from the art, which was easy with black-and-white tracing. If they want a billboard, I’m in good shape because the traced version (center) scales up without degradation.
Generative Expand
Say goodbye to the sinking feeling in your stomach that comes when a client says, “Now, I want a printable, full-bleed poster of that fabulous web graphic you delivered last week.” Well, you don’t need bleeds on web graphics, and what used to be a painstaking effort of extending complex art .0125 inches on each side is now easy to accomplish with Generative Expand text prompt in Illustrator.
Mockup
With the Mockup tool, you can create realistic mock-ups for apparel, environmental, label, and packaging designs. Effectively, it lets you place your artwork on raster images of real-life objects.
Puppet Warp
The Puppet Warp tool helps you make minor adjustments (or major distortions) without having to select and move many points separately. It allows for more holistic editing of complex shapes by creating a triangulated mesh envelope around your selection. Then, you can lock certain zones while manipulating adjacent ones.
Turntable
Just out of beta, the Turntable feature lets you convert 2D vectors into rotatable (and still editable) 3D-like models without leaving Illustrator’s 2D workspace. While the output is not production-ready as of this writing, it’s certainly helpful for creating concept previews and mock-ups. Using this tool costs 20 AI credits, but you get 74 variations.
Adobe notes that this feature works best with standalone objects with recognizable forms, such as illustrated characters. It doesn’t work well with abstract objects, such as geometric shapes or live text, because it can’t reliably generate meaningful rotated views.
Collaboration: Use Firefly Boards to Brainstorm and Organize With Others
Firefly Boards serve as a hub for visual thinking—a central repository for generative AI, mock-ups, mood boards, reference images, and sketches. You can keep them all to yourself or collaborate with teams or clients. It's possible to export assets directly from Illustrator to Firefly Boards, where you can then prompt AI to generate images. You can even mix styles with real reference material. You won't find any page limits as you drag and group the elements of ideation.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Adobe)
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is the preeminent vector graphics editing software, thanks to its splendid collection of brush and text tools, ability to apply vector graphics to 2D raster objects, AI-based text-to-vector feature, and many other class-leading capabilities.