Open Source Adobe Illustrator Alternatives
The best open source alternative to Adobe Illustrator is Inkscape. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Adobe Illustrator and 13 is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Adobe Illustrator are MyPaint (Free, Open Source), Karbon (Free, Open Source), LazPaint (Free, Open Source) and Apache OpenOffice Draw (Free, Open Source).
- Unlike Illustrator, Inkscape is completely free and open source, and it uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as its native format. This lightweight app is usually recommended if you don't have a powerful computer, as it also has many of the useful features from illustrator, including layers, grouping objects, drawing, shape, calligraphy, pencil tools, path simplification with variable threshold, bitmaps, and boolean operations. Plus, you can open or import a wide range of file formats including SVG, PDF, EPS, CDR, or even AI (Adobe Illustrator).
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Windows S
- BSD
- Snapcraft
- FLATHUB
- PortableApps.com
- X11
- MacPorts
- XQuartz
Inkscape vs Adobe Illustrator opinions
paulocoghi It's feature complete, professional and as capable (or even more capable) than IllustratorIt's fast and has super tools which you can do your tasks speedily and without any complexShnitzelKiller Inkscape has very bad performance (especially on mac), due to jank in the rendering code, and being optimized for CPU rather than GPU rendering, probably due to being a very old piece of software. It doesn't seem like this will be fixed anytime soon, based on the discussions taking place which are years old at this point.Primarily it is free and open-source and has support for Linux, which proprietary software typically don't support (especially Adobe software) and it stores its format as svg, which is good if you want to use it on-the-go for certain situationsdanielcastelli More akin to Corel Draw than lllustrator, but a great alternative anywayorangespock Inkscape feels way too oldworking with gradients is much much easier than illustrator. keyboard control is much easy and fast than of illustrator - The biggest difference with Illustrator is that MyPaint works with bitmaps instead of vector graphics. It's open source software designed mainly to illustrate and draw with a digitizer tablet. It has a simple interface, where almost all the basic drawing functions are assigned to keyboard shortcuts, which improves workflow speed. In addition, you can hide the entire graphical interface and focus all attention on the drawing without being distracted by unnecessary or complex buttons or palettes. It's a good option if you are interested in digital illustration without too many overwhelming features.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- PortableApps.com
MyPaint vs Adobe Illustrator opinions
Dmitrii_Kunicin the application is suitable for use by children, simplerichcarrera It works with bitmap, Illustrator with vector graphics. it has more similarities with photoshop than with Illustrator.Illustrator is a vector graphics tool, MyPaint is a raster graphics tool. - Karbon, component of Calligra Suite , is the scalable vector drawing application in KDE. It allows artists to create complex drawings without losing image quality when zooming in on, or resizing the drawing.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Linux
- BSD
- KDE Plasma Workspaces
- Raster & vector graphic editor with many tools and filters, written in Lazarus (Free Pascal). Portable, 32bit (under 3mb) & 64bit (3.55mb) versions, ORA format & 16384x16384 image support. In app 3D import & rendering.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- PortableApps.com
- Draw, part of the Apache OpenOffice suite, is a graphics editor that gives you the tools to communicate with visuals and diagrams. With a maximum page size of 300cm by 300cm, Draw is powerful tool for posters, graphs, charts, and more.
Apache OpenOffice Draw vs Adobe Illustrator opinions
More of a flowchart designer than a vector illustrator - sK1 is an open source cross-platform vector graphics editor like CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, or Freehand. The major feature of sK1 is a professional precise printing and prepress ready PDF output.
- SVG-edit is a fast, web-based, JavaScript-driven SVG drawing editor that works in any modern browser.
- KolourPaint is a simple painting program to quickly create raster images. It is useful as a touch-up tool and for simple image editing tasks.
- Xfig is an interactive drawing tool which runs under X Window System Version 11 Release 4 (X11R4) or later, on most UNIX-compatible platforms, and e.g. under Darwin on the MacIntosh and any X server under Microsoft Windows.
- Ballpoint is an experimental new vector graphics editor. It's available as a free to use web application.
Discontinued
The GitHub repository is unmaintained, and the last update was in 2015.