For instance, Amazon WorkLink is a mobile app that enables a fully interactive representation of corporate data on an employee's mobile device. Vector graphics are useful in application and web development because web apps and the graphics they contain must work with various screen sizes and device types. World Wide Web Consortium worked on Vector Markup Language, which evolved into the Scalable Vector Graphics open source language that contains vector and raster elements. Vector graphics were originally used in computer displays in the 1960s and 1970s. It was the scalability feature of vector graphics that resulted in its return, after falling out of favor to raster graphics in the 1980s. A logo created with vector graphics can be scaled up or down without loss of quality or creating a large file. For example, company and brand logos are displayed at different sizes they show up in the corner of a mobile application or on a roadside billboard. Vector formats are good for projects that require scalable graphics, including scalable type and text. If you’re a beginner looking to create, say, a social media graphic with minimum time and effort, this is a sound option.Graphic artists, illustrators and designers use vector graphics for a variety of reasons, including the following: It can't replace the feature-rich capabilities of Illustrator, Affinity Designer or CorelDRAW, but that means it has a very low learning curve (there are very good tutorials featured within the app itself). Overall, Vectr is super-simple, which can be seen as a positive or a negative. Each image has a bespoke URL you can share with others, and you can export your finished work as an SVG, PNG or JPEG file. As it’s based in the web browser, anyone with an internet connection can use it, and that makes it quite straightforward for multiple people to collaborate on a design, too. Vectr (opens in new tab) is a completely free, browser-based illustration tool that offers a quick and easy way to get started with vector editing thanks to its intuitive interface.
Gravit Designer operates on a freemium model, so while the free version is quite capable, you need to pay for a Pro subscription (£75 a year at full price, currently with 20 per cent off at time of writing) to get unlimited cloud storage and features such as PDF export above 150dpi, CMYK colour space, version history and the ability to work offline. gvdesign format, and you can export it as SVG, PDV, PNG or JPEG files. You save your work onto your computer in the. The tool supports a number of vector and raster file formats, including AI and Sketch files.
Gravit Designer is available either online in your browser or on your desktop as a downloadable app for Mac OS, Windows, Linux or Chrome OS. It has a lot of similar features to Illustrator, including a freehand drawing tool that smooths the paths as you draw, the ability to create custom shapes and the equivalent of the Pen tool. Gravit Designer (opens in new tab) is a tool that allows you to work on a diverse range of design tasks, including illustration, UI and screen design, printed artwork and logo design.
If you’ve never used it, you might want to take advantage of the free trial and just see how it feels in practice. CorelDRAW is available for a one-off fee, but the upfront cost is fairly steep, so you’d have to use it for a number of years to make it cheaper than an Adobe Illustrator subscription. Alternatively, you can subscribe to CorelDRAW for £16.67 monthly, billed annually, which is only slightly cheaper than an Adobe Illustrator subscription.Įssentially, the main reason to choose CorelDRAW over Illustrator would be if you prefer the interface and workflow. The two tools can’t easily be separated on price, either.
Because the interfaces and approaches are quite different, fans of each tool will argue, with equal vehemence, that theirs is the easiest to use, but there’s no real objective way of settling this.Īn objective fact is that Illustrator is the standard software for the design and illustration industry, but that said, you can easily import and export AI and PDF files to CorelDRAW. Both are packed with features and both have their passionate advocates. There’s no easy way to say whether CorelDRAW or Illustrator is the 'better' tool. For most of this time, it was Windows-only, but there's now a Mac version (opens in new tab) as well.
First launched in 1989, CorelDRAW is a vector drawing program with a big following among artists and illustrators.