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kylera

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2010
1,195
27
Seoul
Just as the title says, what is a cheaper, less powerful alternative for Illustrator? Something good enough for a hobbyist. Or does such a thing exist?
 
Inkscape is a great little app for vector work. Unfortunately, its shelf life for Mac users is limited, due to its reliance on X11 - I haven't tried it in Mountain Lion but I doubt it will work.
 
Illustator is so standard I would prefer to find a cheap old version (like CS3) than using anything else... But InkScape is quite good too.
 
I like iDraw. The only problems I have that keep me from using it regularly are the inability to import/export AI files.
 
Illustrator is a vector graphics editor.
Photoshop and Pixelmator are raster graphics editors.

Therefore neither Photoshop nor Pixelmator are alternatives to Illustrator.

The best low-cost alternative is Inkscape. It's a very accomplished app and is also open-source and thus free. The only downside is it uses x11 so does not look pretty.

Here's a poll asking about alternatives to Illustrator other than Inkscape.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1322843/
 
Inkscape is a great little app for vector work. Unfortunately, its shelf life for Mac users is limited, due to its reliance on X11 - I haven't tried it in Mountain Lion but I doubt it will work.

Whilst X11 won't be pre-installed in Mountail Lion, xQuartz (the open-source project that X11 is based on) will continue. So Inkscape and other x11-based apps will continue to run fine. The user will just need to install xQuartz rather than have it baked into the operating system.
 
I like iDraw. :D Like Mac in School said... Only problem is file extension. Pixelmator works ok with Photoshop files but iDraw doesn't support .AI files.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idraw/id404705039?mt=12


And your title is misleading... sound like Bitmap + Bitmap = Vector. lol

First, thanks for the app link.

About the title, it's quite accurate, since I'm using an analogy -- showing two pairs of things that have a common relationship; in this case, the two apps on each side of the equal sign do the same basic stuff, but one is pricier while the other is cheaper.
 
I like iDraw. :D Like Mac in School said... Only problem is file extension. Pixelmator works ok with Photoshop files but iDraw doesn't support .AI files.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idraw/id404705039?mt=12


And your title is misleading... sound like Bitmap + Bitmap = Vector. lol

The title reads "Photoshop is to Pixelmator as Illustrator is to ???". Exactly what the OP is trying to determine. I guess using an analogy is too high brow for this forum...!
 
First, thanks for the app link.

About the title, it's quite accurate, since I'm using an analogy -- showing two pairs of things that have a common relationship; in this case, the two apps on each side of the equal sign do the same basic stuff, but one is pricier while the other is cheaper.

Your welcome. I understood the title very clearly, some people didn't. :D
 
The title reads "Photoshop is to Pixelmator as Illustrator is to ???". Exactly what the OP is trying to determine. I guess using an analogy is too high brow for this forum...!

Its not the analogy (when put into words) that's unclear, it's the punctuation in the title that's unclear to some. In what language does a colon mean "equivalent relationship to" (or something similar)? I'm not trying to be facetious. I'm genuinly interested to learn.
 
Its not the analogy (when put into words) that's unclear, it's the punctuation in the title that's unclear to some. In what language does a colon mean "equivalent relationship to" (or something similar)? I'm not trying to be facetious. I'm genuinly interested to learn.

It's used in formal notation. On the SAT's, it's quite common. I don't know if it would be a mathmatical or logical notation, or some other field, but it's something I knew from high school study.

jW
 
Its not the analogy (when put into words) that's unclear, it's the punctuation in the title that's unclear to some. In what language does a colon mean "equivalent relationship to" (or something similar)? I'm not trying to be facetious. I'm genuinly interested to learn.


Here is some background:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy

As "analogy" is literally translated to mean "proportion"; using the ":" is similar to using it in situations like odds (45:1 chance of winning), cooking (2:1 water to rice), and photography/videography (16:9 aspect ratio).
 
Perhaps "Photoshop : Pixelmator :: Illustrator : ?"

(My experience my be atypical, but I've generally seen the double colon used where the OP's topic has an equals sign.)

*cough*

Beyond that, I'm afraid I have no educated suggestions to offer the original author, but I have been looking at "Sketch".

http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/
 
Its not the analogy (when put into words) that's unclear, it's the punctuation in the title that's unclear to some. In what language does a colon mean "equivalent relationship to" (or something similar)? I'm not trying to be facetious. I'm genuinly interested to learn.

Seriously? They don't teach this anymore?

I learned that in grade school.

(Note: I am NOT insulting the intelligence of anyone who didn't learn this notation -- it is more of a criticism of the educational system if they're no longer teaching this stuff. I always assumed this was pretty basic.)
 
Seriously? They don't teach this anymore?

I learned that in grade school.

(Note: I am NOT insulting the intelligence of anyone who didn't learn this notation -- it is more of a criticism of the educational system if they're no longer teaching this stuff. I always assumed this was pretty basic.)

You assume the whole world follows a US or Canadian school curricullum. You might just be wrong about that.
 
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