TOP 10 Windows Apps for Illustration

Inkscape Portable

Inkscape Portable is an open source extensible vector graphics editor packaged as a portable application, so you can do your graphics work on the go. It offers a rich set of features and is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagramming and flowcharting. It uses vector graphics to allow for sharp printouts and renderings at unlimited resolution and is not bound to a fixed number of pixels like raster graphics. Inkscape uses the standardized SVG file format as its main format, which is supported by many other applications including web browsers. It can import and export various file formats, including SVG, AI, EPS, PDF, PS and PNG. It has a comprehensive feature set, a simple interface, multi-lingual support and is designed to be extensible; users can customize Inkscape's functionality with add-ons.

Inkscape is a popular open-source vector graphics editor that has earned high praise for its powerful features. Inkscape Portable takes these powerful features on the go, letting users store the program on a USB drive or other portable device for access anywhere.

Like its installable cousin, Inkscape Portable is not for beginners, unless you're a beginner who's ready to put some effort into learning about vector graphics. An array of toolbars line three sides of the interface, and they can be overwhelming if you don't already have some idea of what you're looking at. Experienced artists, however, will be pleased to find an array of useful features, such as a pen tool for creating Bezier curves; rectangle, ellipse, and polygon tools; and a 3D rectangle creator. Inkscape Portable also includes a full complement of filters and effects, such as shadow, blur, and glow effects, textures, and Alpha channel editing. Clipping and masking features let users conceal portions of their artwork for sophisticated layered effects. An online Help file provides detailed information about each of the program's features, and Inkscape Portable also comes with a set of tutorials to help new users get a feel for how it works. Overall, we think that Inkscape Portable will please fans of Inkscape who want to keep the program handy, and it's also worth a look for other graphic artists--or aspiring graphic artists--who could use a suite of powerful and portable vector editing tools.

Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is the fastest, smoothest, most precise vector graphic design software available. Whether you're working on branding, concept art, print projects, icons, UI, UX, or web mock-ups, Affinity Designer will revolutionize how you work, on macOS and Windows. Features: Pan and zoom at 60fps. Live previews of transforms in the correct z-order. Real-time gradients, effects, blend modes and adjustments. Always fast, whatever the complexity or size of your artwork. 64-bit multi-core optimization and hardware acceleration.

Adobe Illustrator

Create distinctive vector artwork for any project. Used by design professionals worldwide, Adobe Illustrator software provides precision and power with sophisticated drawing tools, expressive natural brushes, and a host of time-savers.

Meet the most powerful and connected Illustrator ever. The new Touch Type tool gives you even more control over type: Move, scale, and rotate individual characters knowing you can change the font or copy at any time. And with Illustrator CC, you can share work directly from within the application, sync colors from Adobe Kuler, and sync fonts from Adobe Typekit. Your entire creative world, together in one place. Only in Creative Cloud.

Work with type in more powerful ways. Place multiple files at once with full control, and create with a brush made from a photo. Design more easily for the web knowing you can quickly copy and paste automatically generated CSS code.

Enjoy a new level of creativity with type. Individual characters now act like distinct objects. Move, scale, and rotate text characters, knowing you can change the font or edit at any time. And use your favorite mouse, stylus, or multitouch device.

With Illustrator CC -- part of Creative Cloud -- your creative process becomes seamless, intuitive, and more connected. Get it as a single-app subscription or with a Creative Cloud complete membership, which also includes every other Adobe creative tool.

Macromedia FreeHand MX

Tool of choice for designers creating and producing illustrations and layouts for print and the Web. FreeHand's uses range from commercial line art illustrations and newspaper infographics to mixed media pieces that combine line art with bitmapped images and typography, as well as graphic elements, interfaces, and animations for the Internet.

Serif DrawPlus Starter Edition

Use DrawPlus Starter Edition to create attractive vector artwork for the home, school and office. Ideal for creating graphics, logos and stunning mixed-media designs, DrawPlus is a versatile program, great for all your artistic requirements.
DrawPlus Starter Edition's powerful tools give you the freedom to be creative. Draw and edit curves with precision, customize shapes and text, paint with pressure sensitive brushes and experiment with layer effects including professional blend modes. Since DrawPlus is a vector drawing program your designs are easily scalable and can be exported for both print and web.

-Powerful drawing tools. Get creative with powerful tools. Easily draw and edit curves, customize shapes to create designs fast plus experiment with one-click effects.

-Paint naturally. Paint with natural media brushes like pencil and chalk. Plus add decoration to your designs with spray brushes.

-Pressure sensitive. If you own a graphics tablet, calibrate your strokes in DrawPlus Starter Edition's Pressure Studio for a more natural experience when drawing and painting.

-Blend modes. Combine colors and textures in exciting new ways and create unique, professional artwork and effects.

-On-screen help. DrawPlus' 'How To' guides provide instant on-screen assistance whenever you need it, plus there's a wealth of video and online tutorials for guidance and inspiration.

Inkscape

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, and direct XML editing. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. Inkscape's main goal is to create a powerful and convenient drawing tool fully compliant with XML, SVG, and CSS standards. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development process, and by making sure Inkcape is easy to learn, to use, and to extend.

Xara Designer Pro X

Xara Designer Pro X is the ideal graphics program for making your designs a reality. With advanced tools for graphic design, web design, illustration, image editing and desktop publishing, you can create designs that are guaranteed to impress. Discover versatile templates for all types of design and the Online Content Catalog with over 1 million stock photos, graphics, illustrations and SmartShapes.

The designs you create can then be applied universally - in websites, presentations, social media posts and much more. The current version features impressive new text functions for giving passages of text, titles and text shape compositions an artistic look. The new Magic Color Match feature transfers the color of a photo to an entire template with a single click , enabling you to create even more varied effects. Enhanced productivity is another highlight in the new Xara Designer Pro X, all thanks to CSV import, PDF Editor 3.0 and the Update Service, which gives you access to a 1 full year of new features and updates.

Xara Xtreme Pro offers various design possibilities in one compact program. While novices should be wary of its complexity, Web designers, animators and illustrators will find something to like.

The program's interface is a complex spread of tiny, unfamiliar icons. Fortunately, there are several tutorial texts and even a few videos to better familiarize users with its many features. The overwhelming impression we got from its tools was that Xara Xtreme is not for beginners. While it takes great pains to teach users about its various elements, there's no hand-holding. It takes a lot of effort and thought to produce professional-looking designs. That said, Xara Xtreme offers just about every tool imaginable for creating a Web page from scratch and posting it online. The animation options are a little less inviting since its commands aren't as extensive, but it still offers several tools and framing options. The drawing option feels like Microsoft Paint; anyone could use it. The program comes with a bevy of special features, though our favorite was its Web design templates, which make the complicated process of creating attractive Web sites a little smoother for inexperienced designers. Overall, Xara Xtreme is a great choice for those who need a comprehensive design package. Those who need things spelled out for them should find a program more suited to beginners.

Xara Xtreme has a 30-day trial. It installs desktop icons without permission. This program is a liberating tool for design pros, and we recommend it.

CorelDraw Graphics Suite

Break down creative barriers with CorelDRAW�® Graphics Suite 2020. Find all the professional vector illustration, layout, photo editing and typography tools you need to create and complete important design projects, from virtually any device.

ArtRage 5

Ever wanted to try oil painting but not had the equipment and been worried about the mess? Or perhaps you're an artist with a computer but no desire to learn complex new tools in a digital environment or a digital artist wanting a touch of real media? By providing a set of painting and drawing tools that simulate familiar, real world tools ArtRage lets you try out a wide range of different artistic styles in a single, easy to use application.

ArtRage provides traditional and digital painting tools that come with a wide range of settings and presets allowing you to create many more unique variants. The Oil Paint tool lets you smear and blend paint on the canvas, tracking the volume of paint and how wet it is so that strokes interact realistically with existing media. The Watercolor tool creates delicate blends and wet merged strokes as you paint. The Paint Tube and Palette Knife let you work with bold, thick pigment and heavy texture, and a variety of other painting and sketching tools complete the artistic toolkit. It's like working on a real canvas, there's no need to understand digital processes to get a realistic result.

Along with the natural painting tools ArtRage provides a range of utilities that make it easier to create artwork, including Rulers and Stencils, Tracing and Reference Images, Paint Symmetry, and many other systems that add a touch of digital convenience to the creative process without getting in the way.

ArtRage 4 gives you intuitive and comprehensive control over your drawing tools, allowing your creativity to take the lead.

CorelDraw Technical Suite 2018

Benefit from the versatile authoring tools in CorelDraw Technical Suite 2018 that allow you to create detailed assembly instructions, complex user manuals, multi-faceted documentation.

Achieve unsurpassed productivity with new, high-caliber features to accelerate efficiency, and get full support for technical standards to publish, share or print with this expansive technical illustration and drafting software.