Adobe Illustrator

The nice thing about Adobe Illustrator is you can do anything you want, as far as manipulating graphics and creating any digital artwork or illustration imaginable. It's so versatile in what you can do, that it also can seem very complex to the novice.

But if you stick with it and use it consistently or take some tutorials, once you learn the ins and outs of Adobe Illustrator, you begin to realize what it's capable of. I have used Inkscape and affinity designer and though I use affinity designer (due to the simplicity and quickness at some tasks), I always turn to Adobe Illustrator when I need to do more complex tasks.

I am old school, and typically like drawing by hand. The great thing about digital design is you can still get a tablet and draw by hand if you like. This is obvious to many people but some may not be aware or haven't made the jump over to trying a drawing tablet yet. If you haven't tried one and you love drawing with traditional media, you are going to love working with a tablet in Illustrator.

The biggest con I can think of is the learning curve. When first starting to use Adobe Illustrator is it can seem very complex. So when you're new, is a pretty big learning curve. With that said, I still am learning after 5+ years.

For this reason, I recommend taking some tutorials or classes to understand what illustrator is capable of and for learning what every tool does. Taking tutorials also gives you an insight into how to creatively use tools for different purposes.

I know when I first learned Illustrator. I had a good idea of what most tools did. But I just wasn't aware of the different use cases on how to creatively construct my artwork, actually using the tools. It was something that slowed me down, compared to just grabbing a pencil and paper and sketching out my vision.

But once you learn to use the different tools together, you start to get a flow going and you get quicker with time.

Writing about Illustrator is very passionate. One of the most important Pros of the program is its solid foundation, built over decades. Yes! Decades.

Therefore, the main resources of the illustration industry are here. Shapes, Fills, lines, vectors, compositions. Ease of basic understanding of features.

Learning curve, of the basic resources is fast. Numerous editing possibilities (the limit is your creation)
high degree of SVG compatibility.

These are, for me, the best reasons to use AI since 2011.

Against the grain, AI presents a high consumption of computer resources. RAM, VRAM, Processor, these are abundantly consumed by the program. The more you have, the more it will consume.

With the exception of the SVG format, any non-native format will have serious compatibility problems, causing constant breaks.

The learning curve for advanced items is complex and requires more effort than other programs in the same category.

However, in my opinion, the X of the question is: Is Adobe Illustrator the program of the future for vectors? or was he stuck in time and his Status Quo?