Hello, I want to move away from Adobe programs due how expensive they become and I don’t know where to go; can you help me find some other graphic design programs that isn’t Adobe?
Don’t. If you want to work as a professional, sadly you need to be using Adobe.
I am no fan of monopolies, but unfortunately it is the best thing out there and, moreover, the industry works with it.
The best alternative out there at the moment (for print, illustration and photo editing) is Affinity, but it’s still not there. For what you get, Adobe isn’t actually all that expensive for pro software. If you aren’t making £50 a month, then perhaps a career change is needed, rather than a software change. Unless, of course, you are a student, in which case, I sympathise, but I still go back to my first paragraph.
1 Like
There’s plenty of other systems out there - but in reality Adobe is £60ish a month, and that’s about how much I spend on petrol for my car a week.
Is it expensive for all the apps? I don’t find it is, it’s a splash in the ocean of my monthly outgoings, I need to earn at least £5000 a month to cover all my bills, is £60 really going to be a hinderance, to have the industry standard software?
There was a discussion about this recently, don’t really know how to search the forum for it, maybe another seasoned forum member might be able to link it up.
A competitor to Adobe would be Serif with their Affinity line up, Designer, Photo, Publisher, to replace, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign.
Free software
Inkscape = Illustrator
Gimp = Photoshop
Scribus = InDesign
There’s other software too
Corel = Illustrator
Xara = have a suite similar to Adobe/Serif
Whatever you do - don’t go near Canva, it’s not good for print production,
Here’s I, rambling on - and I never even asked what software you use - so we can recommend the best solution for you moving away.
I’d seriously reconsider it though.
Affinity’s software will get you most of the way there, but it’s short on bells and whistles. I’ve been using their software over the past few months on several projects and see lots of promise considering how new their products are.
Their prices are much lower than Adobe’s and there’s no monthly subscription fee. Despite this, I’m not ready to give up my subscription to Adobe CC — maybe someday, but not just yet.
Further to @sprout - if you’re not using Industry Standard software, if there’s any fixes required to your artwork and you supply native files, there could be hefty fees for using software that nobody else in the industry is using, as they likely don’t have that software, and would require a lot of work to fix any potential issues.
You may think that’s not really going to happen, but sometimes clients need native files for themselves, and if they then needed to go to another designer - perhaps in another country for a language change or something like that - perhaps a regulatory thing - then supplying another person with your native files that they cannot use would not be a good look for the client, and certainly not for you.
I’m not trying to convince you one way or the other. I’m just trying to make you aware of the ramifications it may bring.
More free alternatives to adobe…
Adobe ($80+/mo) Illustrator = Inkscape
Adobe Photoshop = GIMP, Krita, Medibang
Adobe InDesign = Scribus
Adobe AfterEffects or Maya = Blender, Hitfilm Express
Adobe Premiere = DaVinci resolve (Freemium)
Adobe Lightroom = DarkTable
You can also search on google with the same question for more free programs…
1 Like
Yup. Part of being in business means being in business.
One job a month should pay for your subscription.
If you aren’t covering your overhead, you need to rethink your business model.
1 Like