UPDATE: It's been 4 years since I made this video and a lot has changed, so I've made an updated video that you can watch here: ua-cam.com/video/aDfabvIxkVw/v-deo.htmlsi=WjSEeQBXdieji8fT
This is basically the design and art industries today... *Random company: We need a motorcycle driver for this job. Let's put an announcement online "We require an employee that owns and knows how to drive a 2020 Yamaha WR250F" *Job applicant: Hello, I never had a Yamaha before, but I own and drive Honda, Husqvarna, KTM, and Kawasaki motorcycles.I've been doing it my entire life. *Random company: Uh-oh sorry, driving a Yamaha is the specific requirement since we think it is the best and only motorcycle worth driving and the only vehicle to get the job done, next please.
I have seen online job ads that require degree that no college in the world offers. And, have been turned down for that job even though I have 8 years of experience in that trade skill.
NightHawk? You made a motorcycle analogy and your avatar name is nighthawk. That's funny, even though the analogy is more wishful thinking than realistic. In this case, if a job required Illustrator skills, it's not like a Inkscape expert could do the work. Inkscape is not nearly as capable as Illustrator.
It's about file compatibility , I think. You would need same set of softwares if you're working with others. But for a freelancer like me, I can use whatever software as long as I deliver good result. Clients didn't interested which software I'm using. But sometime, clients give me specific file format that can only be open and work smoothly in the industry standard software. So ahh... Some companies want you to use specific software because of their workflow.
Enter Portable Document Format....PDF...?? I used when using CorelDraw which has better node and page manipulation..hated using Ai . Export top end PDF. Da.dah...
@Tigran Khachaturian Didn't knew about quant, I'll look it up. But hey, I'm using ddg since 2012 I didn't got that many problems, was it a recent thing?
@Tigran Khachaturian Recently switched to DuckDuckGo, I sometimes need to either be very specific in wording a search in DDG or just open a Google tab to get what I was searching for using what I initial searched in DDG.
I was planning to switch to Inkscape but one thing hold me back.. I mostly work with multipage files (Minimum 4 pages). Inkscape doesn't allow me to use multiple artboard and thus I can not generate a multipage PDF Direct from Inkscape. How do you manage this type of scenario?
I am a software developer and I used to use illustrator, I discovered Inkscape from your videos like 5 years ago. I’m so glad I don’t have to install illustrator anymore.
I've been using Inkscape for a decade, I always felt it was such un underrated software, especially compared to illustrator. On few occasions, I worked along some illustrator's user and while I was doing the very same things in a fraction of the time, I felt like they were suggesting that it wasn't as good as doing it with illustrator. I know this because they didn't stop recreating what I'd already finished, like the final version had to be an ai file or something. Felt like dealing with some proud cult
I had the same experience with Blender working as a corporate artist alongside autodesk/Maxon users; I was producing way better results than my 3D peers every day and getting things done quickly and seamlessly while my peers struggle to maintain several proprietary licenses and struggled to maintain practical knowledge and use of all software. At the same time they would CONSTANTLY remind me how I needed to adapt more 'industry standard' approaches; even when I'd deliver the final product in PSD, AE, FBX and in Unity. But because I was actually doing better than them; and I had interchange down to a science; none of them could stop me from using Blender. It was a lot of thankless work but the higher ups saw me like a nitro'd up Ferrari that always gets the job done and obviously THEY could care less what I used if I brought the money in. Nothing makes me more prouder than sticking it it to hollywood while innovating far beyond the very low capacity of the 'Industry Standard'.
Thank you for your contribution to design, Nick. I was the person you described in the beginning. I wanted to try out vector art, but couldn't justify spending the money on Adobe Illustrator. I downloaded Inkscape and learned a lot about vector design. I learned a lot from your videos and bought your logo design ebook. I got clients and even started a little sticker shop, using the skills I learned. Now, I work as a full-time designer, where I use the Adobe software, but I'll never forgot the low barrier to entry that helped me get where I am today.
I can't say enough how grateful I am for you and this channel. Transitioning to Inkscape has been so painless and it has been helping me level up my designs so much.
I must raise my hat for you dear Nick for this video. Your comparison is as proffessional as your tutorials. It is unbiased and to the point. What I liked most about this video is that such free apps like Inkscape and Gimp help us test the water and discover our potentials. Thank you
Hey so I've been using Inkscape for over a year now and thank you for the videos because honestly without them I would have been lost. I've used Inkscape to help with designing the logos for my brand and it's awesome
Thank you for this. I gotta say you nailed it for me. I was a designer, going back to the 80's. Everything went to Adobe because it became the standard in Pre-Press. I moved on to another industry but I still like to tinker. Adobe products are expensive to tinker with. I found inkscape some time ago. Inkscape was frustrating because it was different. You inspired me to look at inkscape differently. 25 years using Illustrator, I never gave inkscape a chance. Thank you. And thank you to UA-cam for suggesting your channel.
Ignoring Inkscape is useless for Pre-Press because it doesn't do basic cmyk. ...and the Internet is full of badly drawn .svgs which I suspect have come from Inkscape users. Other than that "it's brilliant".
This really helps me qualm some concerns I had about not being an adequate designer because I don't have adobe. Absolutely cannot afford illustrator at the moment. I do freelancing and run an etsy store where I sell Iron-on decals so I do not need it right now. I thought that maybe Inkscape was like a app compared to Illustrator but now I see it is definitely enough to get the job done. I am just so happy I found Inkscape this channel, which is my favorite and an absolute God send.
I've run my graphics business for over 30 years, I always used Adobe alternatives more so as I moved into large signs and high end image editing, I dropped supporting MAC clients completely many years ago, like 20 years ago and my last native Adobe support was CS5. I only take print ready PDF files. I put 2 kids through college, I have 2 grand children, have a home and managed to reach retirement comfortably. Be confident and work smart!
@@davidmilisock5200 Wow! Good to know ,thank you for sharing and for the encouragement! Definitely makes me feel more confident in following this path.
Inkscape is one of those Open Source miracles where you get almost the same or more functionality as the pricy industry standard. No middle mouse button in Illustrator was the final death note for it imo, I now use Affinity Designer for its performance and ease of use and Inkscape whenever I miss features in Designer. Same with a program like Blender where there literally is no reason to use Maya or 3ds max outside of "It's industry-standard".
@@hyperhektor7733 Maya and 3ds max are losing their "industry-standard" status. Many small and medium size studios are jumping ship to Blender. It is the new "industry-standard" now.
Thanks for the comparison... I've used just about every vector program you can imagine; I have to use Illustrator for work, but I use Inkscape at home. I'm so thankful that Inkscape continues to be improved upon.
Continuing a bit from your previous video where I talked about Inkscape and careers in graphic design. Actually the only things I ever felt were "bad" with Inkscape, were the options to edit and work with text. Comparing that to Illustrator is a big difference, what is easy there, can be very hard in Inkscape. For example putting text on a path, or to a specific shape is way too complicated, and it still usually looks "okay" at best. The other problem with Inkscape were the sometimes strange and crazy bugs. You know the program could crash even during some of the basic things that should be done without trouble. Sometimes it even crashed when you were using CTRL+Z "too many" times, usually 2-3. Then there were the strange troubles with commands like Difference and Division, almost everytime while using these, the resulting shape was not the one it should have been, but a completely different sized one. I remember watching your Celtic Knot tutorial back in the day, and I couldn't finish doing it myself because all the shapes done with Difference were horribly strangely shaped. Even today I don't know what causes that problem. And like you said in this video, trying to get help for these bugs and stuff, can be very difficult. Anyway, nicely done video, thx for that!
I have used Photoshop since CS3, and never once touched illustrator. Idk how I've gotten away with it for so long as a free graphic designer, but today was the day that I needed to bite the bullet. This video helped a ton. Thank you.
And, in the middle of this battle, we have the Affinity Designer, which is faster, better to use and understand and have a low price considering the Illustrator subscription. But, as you told, with any app you can get great results if you’re committed to learning. Thank you for the video and, for sure, I’ll give Inkscape a try. 🎉
Sooooo... I recently switched from Gimp / Inkscape to Adobe and man am I happy to see you have an Illustrator channel. When comparing Logos by Nick to other UA-camr tutorials it's not even close. Hell, the music alone does it for already... godsend!
Thanks to you Nick, I've started graphic design 1 year ago on inkscape and I'm just starting to work on Illustrator and I agree with all the points you've made in this video. I think that if you want to be great you'll have to master both tho !
Thanks, Nick! This is an absolutely excellent overview. I started college in 2000, and InDesign wasn't even a thing then. I've had zero experience with it! Was all Quark. I last tried Photoshop around CS2 era, coming from 4.4 was a world of difference. I left college in 2004, and I've probably learned more in the last 3 months about GIMP and Inkscape than I ever did about Photoshop/Quark. I've been here with your videos quite a while,I absolutely love them. I looked something up, and found the donut video, it was between this and Troytube's Hello Kitty that got me back. I do kinda miss the college Mac computers with Macromedia Studio on them! Glad you've kept going for so long, it really is appreciated!
Indesign came out in 1999. 23 years ago. One year BEFORE you started college and five years before you "graduated"! This is the trouble with too many "designers" today. Know nothing about how things work, what does what, and definitely no idea about what is acceptably professional work or how to achieve it.
I am super agree with the gradient problem. I have used Inkscape for quite some time now and recently I decided to try Adobe Illustrator. AI's gradient tool is so annoying to use, it's complicated for first-time user. Meanwhile in Inkscape, I don't need any tutorials and with just a bit of messing around I could just figure it out by myself lol.
Nick you're the best :) Thanks for this comparison. This was really useful for a person who's trying to learn Illustrator (although I know how to use Inkscape quite well thanks to you).
Im newely getting into SVGs to do 3D with and Nick, I have to say, you have become my instructor! thank you so much for all the helpful videos as they truly are timeless!
Great comparison! 🙏🏽 I've been trying to learn Inkscape for a couple of years, I am grateful to it's creators, but I am constantly reminded of the greatness of Adobe's interface design with Illustrator, which I've used professionally since (1987) version 1.0. I've been really patient with Inkscape, I understand it's built with love, and has few magic features, but there is so much I miss on just basic manipulation of vectors and objects. I also see visual bugs whenever dragging objects. The key commands in Illustrator are like driving a stick shift Porsche. With Inkscape I get frustrated, maybe I'm missing some secret key coomands but I've looked, I keep using common key commands used in other apps but no luck. Things like pressing SHIFT to constrain an object's proportions; pressing down OPTION to scale an object from it's center axis; selecting a path in a group without having to ungroup or unmask. I'll keep trying, and would love to find a way to contribute to Inkscape's refinement.
I had never used Illustrator and was actually shocked by how different the user interface is compared to Photoshop, which I've used for over 15 years. I absolutely hated working with it. Seemed like every simple task required 5-20 clicks too many. That's not to say my experience with Inkscape has been much better. I guess it's just really difficult to make a vector art app where everything is efficient and intuitive.
Really? I've used the Affinity suite for a while now and never been happier. Could you give an example of what it lacks in? I just do it as a hobby, though, not a pro, so i'm asking out of pure curiosity
@@lg921 immediately come to my mind: 1. (mesh based) gradient fill 2. *flexible* guidelines for perspective drawing 3. not a feature issue, but for some drawings affinity rasterizes too much things which are well supported in PDF and for sure there many more points, if one really starts to work with Affinity Designer But there is the hope that they will make it competitive against Adobe, so I am still looking forward.
Affinity has one major advantage over Inkscape that saves a lot of time for some designs. It has an appearance menu that allows for multi-stroke outlines, similar to Illustrator. But, that really is a limitation of SVG. On the flip-side, Affinity Designer's boolean operations seem more unstable than Inkscape to me. I have tried it and was hoping for an "Illustrator Killer" experience, but it just was not working as expected, every time. I'll keep updating my install of Designer and hoping they work out that kink. Serif only charges once, per station install with free lifetime updates. Or at least they did when I bought Designer. But, I cannot recommend it over Inkscape at this time because of the stability issues I have experienced.
Could be worth a discussion on the best affinity features. Right now though I feel like Affinity is really clunky to work with compared to software like Illustrator and Inkscape. Selections, Paths, Booleans etc. just take so many more clicks, don't go through smoothly etc. Maybe its my workflow, but I think Affinity is something thatll need more time to beocome as exciting to follow as Inkscape.
Thanks for this video! Was looking for Adobe alternatives - growing to hate their business model and monopoly of the space. I'm a freelance artist who does a lot of design and laser cutting, good to hear it'll be just as compatible.
Illustrator's strange tools for basic functionality stem from its beginnings as a postscript drawing software. In the early versions you drew in lines and previewed colour and also the tools mirrored the way postscript subroutines worked.
I am in the same boat, I do not use windows. I am not opposed to using a mac, however, I am not sure I am comfortable relying on apple especially since they lock you down to their ecosystem and support for everything. I learned Illustrator in college but I now much prefer Inkscape.
@@greycircularity College for me was over 20 years ago but yea I still think that is early. My high school computer class was used for learning how to type, and play minesweeper. Oh, and we had just upgraded to windows 95 at that time so you no longer had to open windows from dos.
@@Hyuuga_Neji You can get 1.0 from the website, or *sudo snap install inkscape* will install 1.0 if you use Snap. It probably won't be in the the repos for a while
Amazing video! Very informative and unbiased. I downloaded inkscape after watching one of your videos. I had never heard of it before and I love it. I'm still learning the ropes hopefully will be able to master it one day
I must say that I really appreciate this comparison, as it contains the most important and real differences between the two software, and furthermore, real and right advice that put you in the right bath if you are confused about which one is better for you... thank you very much
When you start making logo it seems simple and not that good but the way you finish it make totally different level 🔥🔥 amazing your every logo is amazing
How have I never known about this channel? In school, I used the adobe suite, but since then I sort of moved to gimp. Gimp just feels more intuitive for me, the shortcuts and mouse controls feel natural (like every other program). I didn't have a big use for vector graphics and even though I knew I should be proficient in one of the programs I sort of let it slide. Then at one point I figured I might get into it, but I really couldn't find any good Inkscape tutorials, so I sort of forgot about it for another year or so. As time went on I started realizing that some things would just be easier with vector graphics... so I decided to search around looking for more Inkscape tutorials. All I can say is Wow! If I would have known about your channel a few years ago I would have jumped into it at that time. Well, I guess it's better late than never, but I wanted to say thanks for taking the time and creating some nicely detailed videos on Inkscape. I only went over 2 videos, but they have a nice balance of detail. Making them short, but not too short, while still covering all the important parts while being easy to following along. I will 100% be back for more!
Autodesk won to be industry standard by give away free copies for students everywhere. Nowadays freeware opensource and functional sofrwares are more accesable and most of us starting out with them. From 10 to 20 years now maybe more people who are experienced krita, inkscape, blender users will be in the creative fields than people who are only use photoshop, ai and maya.
@Nick thanks for this amazing video. I started with inkscape and moved on to illustrator. I am not a hardore graphic designer. but I need to draw vectors as I animate them. From that persepective, I find illustrator has a superior algorithm to generate an optimized markup for me to work on compared to Inkscape. The most amazing thing for me about inkscape is the ability to convert any shape to a path. e,g, rect, circle whatever. Illustrator does not have that. By the way, I love your channel and picked up lots of ideas from here. Thanks !!!
Nick is the MAN! Just one thing: Slow down for me in your tutorials juuuuuust a little bit. But, yeah, the Inkscape tutorial realm is CLEARLY yours alone. Thanks a heap.
Wow. Very nice comparison. I have a tiny tiny tiny fraction of your knowledge, but am biased to Inkscape and OSS unreasonably. Really nice to hear an unbiased review.
Thanks for the video. Just downloaded inkscape after watching this. Was looking to potentially get illustrator because I need a program for favicons and logos (just started in UX) but can't justify paying for this on top of all the other subscriptions I have, when I would only use occasionally. Very happy that a program like this exists.
You have a great following for good reason. TY for helping beginners dip into this. Its been because of your tutorials I have been able to make some really nice custom signs on my CNC router.
I'm not a power user. Just someone who has used coreldraw for over 20 years for various small business projects like diagrams, manuals, faceplates, etc. Finally had to upgrade computers and the latest win 10 won't run X3....and $300 or subscription for corel didn't seem like a deal. So I tried inkscape and instantly loved it. For my uses it's great. So now I'm investing a little time in really learning it.
You could write a script to save the additional file formats in Inkscape. It's not integrated, but it's cool watching your computer do everything for you :^)
Thank you Nick for sharing your experience! Your videos on Inkscape helped me so much on learning how to fully use the capabilities of the software. I'm having a hard time learning how to use Illustrator, but now that I found that you have a channel about it, I feel that my life is gonna get a lot easier! Instant subscribe!
Many years ago I started with Gimp because I had no money and didn’t use it for my profession. I used it for years. When I finally transitioned to Photoshop it was super easy to pick it up. If I didn’t start with Gimp I probably would have because frustrated with a monthly payment of a program that I had no idea how to use and would have just canceled my subscription and never learned it at all. I started using Inkscape and once I learn it completely I’m going to get the complete Adobe suite (only because I will use other Adobe products), but don’t want to make the transition until I know everything I can about Inkscape. I think it’s a great software and I’m thankful it’s around for me and others to use freely.
Inkscape has the possibility to export a (Xe/Lua/La)TeX file. It play well with TeX fonts, embedded math, cross references (to citations, equations, tables, other figures, sections, pages, etc.)
thank you for opening my eyes to this software! I'm just a kid who wants to get into graphic design, but every option I could find is paid, even stuff like affinity designer which is relatively cheap.
The specs at 3:00 are absolute nuts! I know it can run even on lower end hardware but I never realized Illustrator has higher recommended settings than most games I play
Inkscape reminds me of Freehand MX with it's ease of use. I prefer to use Inkscape to Illustrator most of the time, and I have used multiple programs as a Graphic Designer from 2003 to 2012. I think the largest learning curve I was ever presented in Graphics was illustrator 3 at one paper and Quark 3.1 at another. When I finally stumbled upon Inkscape, I wished it was available to me when I was struggling to implement gradients into Quark (graphics and page layout was done in Quark). Sidenote: The only time I ever played with the "Industry Standard" (Adobe CS 1 to CS 3) was at the University Newspaper and University Classes for Graphic Design.
As an airbrush artist Inkscape does all I need with ease. I mostly cut vinyl stencils on my plotter. I'm also an amiture luthier, and use it to design guitars and basses.
Thank you so much for this great comparison. I worked a lot with illustrator, but now that I'm a freelancer, it is simply to expensive at the moment. liked and subscribed.... again, thank you :)
5:30 I rather like to scroll out then move the cursor, where i wan't to navigate and just scroll in. This is good, because the object what I wan't to see can be bigger or smaller and this technic garantee everything in place. And it's a good overview at what I'm doing when the image is far out.
Illustrator vector tool lets you hold down keys to change what it does, i can not remember it atm but think its SHIFT to manipulate curves, CRTL to add/remove points and ALT to select and edit multiple points. The tool changes when mousing over lines/points and outside of them, holding keys when the mouse is in diffrent places allso changes the use of the tool. Kinda confusing at first but when i used i on a daily basis i got the hang of it :D last thing - Awesome video !
thank you for your video , it's excellent and useful . I've used both. I started on Inkscape too. It's pretty good. Haven't used it in a few years so I don't know if they've added any features since then. The main things I really like in Illustrator are the ability to create custom brushes and the handy pathfinder panel to easily break apart shapes.I use my XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro display drawing tablet with Illustrator when I'm drawing "fine art" like painting. If I'm doing logo designs or page layouts, I often don't bother and just use my mouse. Illustrator is by far the industry choice for vector graphics and a solid choice to be knowledgeable in. I'd definitely suggest giving Illustrator a spin if you have the opportunity, but if Inkscape is working for you then it's still a useful tool.
There have been a couple of releases of inkscape since this was made. for one thinng inkscape 1.2 can now do the batch export like illustrator. see nicks new video on the 1.2 release
These days I'm a professional freelance logo designer on Upwork *thanks to Nick's tutorials and courses) and Inkscape is the cornerstone of my workflow, although I had to pair it with Affinity Designer, as it has no color management and can't export multiple files to multiple formats at once. I first sculpt my logo in Inkscape and then I transfer it to Designer for CMYK colonization and final export. Inkscape + Affinity Designer can definitely replace Illustrator as a fully professional design solution.
UPDATE: It's been 4 years since I made this video and a lot has changed, so I've made an updated video that you can watch here: ua-cam.com/video/aDfabvIxkVw/v-deo.htmlsi=WjSEeQBXdieji8fT
You got your shape making tool, I know because I just saw it in one of your videos! 🥰
As you said, Inkscape is solely supported by its own community. Thank you for helping us all!
"You can still be a freelancer as an inkscape user"
That's what I needed to hear, thank you :)
This is basically the design and art industries today...
*Random company:
We need a motorcycle driver for this job. Let's put an announcement online
"We require an employee that owns and knows how to drive a 2020 Yamaha WR250F"
*Job applicant:
Hello, I never had a Yamaha before, but I own and drive Honda, Husqvarna, KTM, and Kawasaki motorcycles.I've been doing it my entire life.
*Random company:
Uh-oh sorry, driving a Yamaha is the specific requirement since we think it is the best and only motorcycle worth driving and the only vehicle to get the job done, next please.
Ha,ha,right.
I have seen online job ads that require degree that no college in the world offers. And, have been turned down for that job even though I have 8 years of experience in that trade skill.
NightHawk? You made a motorcycle analogy and your avatar name is nighthawk. That's funny, even though the analogy is more wishful thinking than realistic. In this case, if a job required Illustrator skills, it's not like a Inkscape expert could do the work. Inkscape is not nearly as capable as Illustrator.
It's about file compatibility , I think.
You would need same set of softwares if you're working with others.
But for a freelancer like me, I can use whatever software as long as I deliver good result.
Clients didn't interested which software I'm using.
But sometime, clients give me specific file format that can only be open and work smoothly in the industry standard software.
So ahh... Some companies want you to use specific software because of their workflow.
Enter Portable Document Format....PDF...?? I used when using CorelDraw which has better node and page manipulation..hated using Ai . Export top end PDF. Da.dah...
The day I downloaded and opened Inkscape was the last day I was using Adobe Illustartor. It happened 8 years ago.
I had the same story but for search engines, I did it in 2012 to force myself to duckgo
@Tigran Khachaturian Didn't knew about quant, I'll look it up. But hey, I'm using ddg since 2012 I didn't got that many problems, was it a recent thing?
@Tigran Khachaturian Recently switched to DuckDuckGo, I sometimes need to either be very specific in wording a search in DDG or just open a Google tab to get what I was searching for using what I initial searched in DDG.
@@ZNotFound yeah duckduckgo need some improvements
I was planning to switch to Inkscape but one thing hold me back.. I mostly work with multipage files (Minimum 4 pages). Inkscape doesn't allow me to use multiple artboard and thus I can not generate a multipage PDF Direct from Inkscape. How do you manage this type of scenario?
I am a software developer and I used to use illustrator, I discovered Inkscape from your videos like 5 years ago. I’m so glad I don’t have to install illustrator anymore.
I've been using Inkscape for a decade, I always felt it was such un underrated software, especially compared to illustrator. On few occasions, I worked along some illustrator's user and while I was doing the very same things in a fraction of the time, I felt like they were suggesting that it wasn't as good as doing it with illustrator. I know this because they didn't stop recreating what I'd already finished, like the final version had to be an ai file or something. Felt like dealing with some proud cult
I can totally relate to that.
I had the same experience with Blender working as a corporate artist alongside autodesk/Maxon users; I was producing way better results than my 3D peers every day and getting things done quickly and seamlessly while my peers struggle to maintain several proprietary licenses and struggled to maintain practical knowledge and use of all software. At the same time they would CONSTANTLY remind me how I needed to adapt more 'industry standard' approaches; even when I'd deliver the final product in PSD, AE, FBX and in Unity.
But because I was actually doing better than them; and I had interchange down to a science; none of them could stop me from using Blender.
It was a lot of thankless work but the higher ups saw me like a nitro'd up Ferrari that always gets the job done and obviously THEY could care less what I used if I brought the money in.
Nothing makes me more prouder than sticking it it to hollywood while innovating far beyond the very low capacity of the 'Industry Standard'.
Thank you for your contribution to design, Nick. I was the person you described in the beginning. I wanted to try out vector art, but couldn't justify spending the money on Adobe Illustrator. I downloaded Inkscape and learned a lot about vector design. I learned a lot from your videos and bought your logo design ebook. I got clients and even started a little sticker shop, using the skills I learned. Now, I work as a full-time designer, where I use the Adobe software, but I'll never forgot the low barrier to entry that helped me get where I am today.
People like you are real contributors in the world. God bless you for these amazing videos. Please keep sharing!
I can't say enough how grateful I am for you and this channel. Transitioning to Inkscape has been so painless and it has been helping me level up my designs so much.
I must raise my hat for you dear Nick for this video. Your comparison is as proffessional as your tutorials. It is unbiased and to the point.
What I liked most about this video is that such free apps like Inkscape and Gimp help us test the water and discover our potentials.
Thank you
Hey so I've been using Inkscape for over a year now and thank you for the videos because honestly without them I would have been lost. I've used Inkscape to help with designing the logos for my brand and it's awesome
“You are a paying customer after all”
Laughs in piratebay
didn't know that was still a thing
@@A_Box What thing?
We are customers @piratebay no need to buy a licence
Man i can pirate but religious issues i cant so need to learn inkscape.
@KILO CRAZY can you type down some?
Thank you for this. I gotta say you nailed it for me. I was a designer, going back to the 80's. Everything went to Adobe because it became the standard in Pre-Press. I moved on to another industry but I still like to tinker. Adobe products are expensive to tinker with. I found inkscape some time ago. Inkscape was frustrating because it was different. You inspired me to look at inkscape differently. 25 years using Illustrator, I never gave inkscape a chance. Thank you. And thank you to UA-cam for suggesting your channel.
Ignoring Inkscape is useless for Pre-Press because it doesn't do basic cmyk.
...and the Internet is full of badly drawn .svgs which I suspect have come from Inkscape users.
Other than that "it's brilliant".
Well, i just learned that there is a free alternative for ilustrator, thanks, i really wanned to try vector design !
I don't always hit that like button but when I do its for " Logos by Nick"
This really helps me qualm some concerns I had about not being an adequate designer because I don't have adobe. Absolutely cannot afford illustrator at the moment. I do freelancing and run an etsy store where I sell Iron-on decals so I do not need it right now. I thought that maybe Inkscape was like a app compared to Illustrator but now I see it is definitely enough to get the job done. I am just so happy I found Inkscape this channel, which is my favorite and an absolute God send.
I've run my graphics business for over 30 years, I always used Adobe alternatives more so as I moved into large signs and high end image editing, I dropped supporting MAC clients completely many years ago, like 20 years ago and my last native Adobe support was CS5. I only take print ready PDF files.
I put 2 kids through college, I have 2 grand children, have a home and managed to reach retirement comfortably. Be confident and work smart!
@@davidmilisock5200 Wow! Good to know ,thank you for sharing and for the encouragement! Definitely makes me feel more confident in following this path.
@@AA-lq5pu Being successful is about you, how you define it, how much you want it and some luck.😀
Inkscape is one of those Open Source miracles where you get almost the same or more functionality as the pricy industry standard. No middle mouse button in Illustrator was the final death note for it imo, I now use Affinity Designer for its performance and ease of use and Inkscape whenever I miss features in Designer. Same with a program like Blender where there literally is no reason to use Maya or 3ds max outside of "It's industry-standard".
Blender too
@@hyperhektor7733 Maya and 3ds max are losing their "industry-standard" status. Many small and medium size studios are jumping ship to Blender. It is the new "industry-standard" now.
Blender, Houdini, Zbrush, Nuke and Substance Designer stack is almost unbeatable. No need for Maya or Max.
@@softwarelivre2389 max is literally just a renderer now lol
Thanks for the comparison... I've used just about every vector program you can imagine; I have to use Illustrator for work, but I use Inkscape at home. I'm so thankful that Inkscape continues to be improved upon.
Do you find it hard to get work based on Inkscape? I mean professionally.
Continuing a bit from your previous video where I talked about Inkscape and careers in graphic design. Actually the only things I ever felt were "bad" with Inkscape, were the options to edit and work with text. Comparing that to Illustrator is a big difference, what is easy there, can be very hard in Inkscape. For example putting text on a path, or to a specific shape is way too complicated, and it still usually looks "okay" at best.
The other problem with Inkscape were the sometimes strange and crazy bugs. You know the program could crash even during some of the basic things that should be done without trouble. Sometimes it even crashed when you were using CTRL+Z "too many" times, usually 2-3. Then there were the strange troubles with commands like Difference and Division, almost everytime while using these, the resulting shape was not the one it should have been, but a completely different sized one. I remember watching your Celtic Knot tutorial back in the day, and I couldn't finish doing it myself because all the shapes done with Difference were horribly strangely shaped. Even today I don't know what causes that problem. And like you said in this video, trying to get help for these bugs and stuff, can be very difficult. Anyway, nicely done video, thx for that!
Agreed. Working with text is another thing I like about Illustrator.
Yeah, the text editor is a horrible bug fest. It slightly improved in 1.0, but still, it sucks. :/
Man... I see you working with vectors in this video and now I want to learn how to do everything you showed in this video! Your work is AMAZING!!
I have used Photoshop since CS3, and never once touched illustrator. Idk how I've gotten away with it for so long as a free graphic designer, but today was the day that I needed to bite the bullet. This video helped a ton. Thank you.
And, in the middle of this battle, we have the Affinity Designer, which is faster, better to use and understand and have a low price considering the Illustrator subscription. But, as you told, with any app you can get great results if you’re committed to learning. Thank you for the video and, for sure, I’ll give Inkscape a try. 🎉
Sooooo... I recently switched from Gimp / Inkscape to Adobe and man am I happy to see you have an Illustrator channel.
When comparing Logos by Nick to other UA-camr tutorials it's not even close. Hell, the music alone does it for already... godsend!
Thanks to you Nick, I've started graphic design 1 year ago on inkscape and I'm just starting to work on Illustrator and I agree with all the points you've made in this video. I think that if you want to be great you'll have to master both tho !
Thanks, Nick! This is an absolutely excellent overview. I started college in 2000, and InDesign wasn't even a thing then. I've had zero experience with it! Was all Quark. I last tried Photoshop around CS2 era, coming from 4.4 was a world of difference. I left college in 2004, and I've probably learned more in the last 3 months about GIMP and Inkscape than I ever did about Photoshop/Quark. I've been here with your videos quite a while,I absolutely love them. I looked something up, and found the donut video, it was between this and Troytube's Hello Kitty that got me back. I do kinda miss the college Mac computers with Macromedia Studio on them! Glad you've kept going for so long, it really is appreciated!
Indesign came out in 1999. 23 years ago. One year BEFORE you started college and five years before you "graduated"!
This is the trouble with too many "designers" today. Know nothing about how things work, what does what, and definitely no idea about what is acceptably professional work or how to achieve it.
"The question is not that which software is better, but the question is which software is better for you" - Nick
You think that this was deep and inspirational or what? 😂😂
Okay Karen
Exactly!
@@sumira8669 lol he thought it was deep Af
I am super agree with the gradient problem. I have used Inkscape for quite some time now and recently I decided to try Adobe Illustrator. AI's gradient tool is so annoying to use, it's complicated for first-time user. Meanwhile in Inkscape, I don't need any tutorials and with just a bit of messing around I could just figure it out by myself lol.
Very good, no nonsense and objective comparison. Thanks for putting it together.
True
Nick you're the best :) Thanks for this comparison.
This was really useful for a person who's trying to learn Illustrator (although I know how to use Inkscape quite well thanks to you).
Im newely getting into SVGs to do 3D with and Nick, I have to say, you have become my instructor! thank you so much for all the helpful videos as they truly are timeless!
I used Inkscape for creating all the diagrammes for my final year engineering project, and for that I am forever grateful.
Great comparison! 🙏🏽 I've been trying to learn Inkscape for a couple of years, I am grateful to it's creators, but I am constantly reminded of the greatness of Adobe's interface design with Illustrator, which I've used professionally since (1987) version 1.0. I've been really patient with Inkscape, I understand it's built with love, and has few magic features, but there is so much I miss on just basic manipulation of vectors and objects. I also see visual bugs whenever dragging objects. The key commands in Illustrator are like driving a stick shift Porsche. With Inkscape I get frustrated, maybe I'm missing some secret key coomands but I've looked, I keep using common key commands used in other apps but no luck. Things like pressing SHIFT to constrain an object's proportions; pressing down OPTION to scale an object from it's center axis; selecting a path in a group without having to ungroup or unmask. I'll keep trying, and would love to find a way to contribute to Inkscape's refinement.
I wish my education in school ran like this video. Awesome !
I had never used Illustrator and was actually shocked by how different the user interface is compared to Photoshop, which I've used for over 15 years. I absolutely hated working with it. Seemed like every simple task required 5-20 clicks too many. That's not to say my experience with Inkscape has been much better. I guess it's just really difficult to make a vector art app where everything is efficient and intuitive.
How about comparison with Affinity Designer?
Affinity Designer lacks many features yet. Maybe it will catch the feature list of inkscape at version 2.0.
Really? I've used the Affinity suite for a while now and never been happier. Could you give an example of what it lacks in? I just do it as a hobby, though, not a pro, so i'm asking out of pure curiosity
@@lg921
immediately come to my mind:
1. (mesh based) gradient fill
2. *flexible* guidelines for perspective drawing
3. not a feature issue, but for some drawings affinity rasterizes too much things which are well supported in PDF
and for sure there many more points, if one really starts to work with Affinity Designer
But there is the hope that they will make it competitive against Adobe, so I am still looking forward.
Affinity has one major advantage over Inkscape that saves a lot of time for some designs. It has an appearance menu that allows for multi-stroke outlines, similar to Illustrator. But, that really is a limitation of SVG. On the flip-side, Affinity Designer's boolean operations seem more unstable than Inkscape to me. I have tried it and was hoping for an "Illustrator Killer" experience, but it just was not working as expected, every time. I'll keep updating my install of Designer and hoping they work out that kink. Serif only charges once, per station install with free lifetime updates. Or at least they did when I bought Designer. But, I cannot recommend it over Inkscape at this time because of the stability issues I have experienced.
Could be worth a discussion on the best affinity features. Right now though I feel like Affinity is really clunky to work with compared to software like Illustrator and Inkscape. Selections, Paths, Booleans etc. just take so many more clicks, don't go through smoothly etc.
Maybe its my workflow, but I think Affinity is something thatll need more time to beocome as exciting to follow as Inkscape.
My uni is starting to move away from adobe for many reasons. Thank you for this great comparison!
I wonder if it has to do with the pricing and licensing. Either way, that's good news for all of us. Glad you liked the video.
Thanks for this video! Was looking for Adobe alternatives - growing to hate their business model and monopoly of the space. I'm a freelance artist who does a lot of design and laser cutting, good to hear it'll be just as compatible.
Illustrator's strange tools for basic functionality stem from its beginnings as a postscript drawing software. In the early versions you drew in lines and previewed colour and also the tools mirrored the way postscript subroutines worked.
Having not used Windows since 2004, there's only one choice for me.
Inkscape 😍
I am in the same boat, I do not use windows. I am not opposed to using a mac, however, I am not sure I am comfortable relying on apple especially since they lock you down to their ecosystem and support for everything. I learned Illustrator in college but I now much prefer Inkscape.
@@glyakk college? 9th and 10th grade ICT(Computer class) shove it down our throats
@@greycircularity College for me was over 20 years ago but yea I still think that is early. My high school computer class was used for learning how to type, and play minesweeper. Oh, and we had just upgraded to windows 95 at that time so you no longer had to open windows from dos.
neji@neji-laptop:~$ inkscape --version
Inkscape 0.92.5 (2060ec1f9f, 2020-04-08)
Waiting to upgrade to Inkscape 1.0 ..... greeting from Cuba
@@Hyuuga_Neji You can get 1.0 from the website, or *sudo snap install inkscape* will install 1.0 if you use Snap. It probably won't be in the the repos for a while
Amazing video! Very informative and unbiased. I downloaded inkscape after watching one of your videos. I had never heard of it before and I love it. I'm still learning the ropes hopefully will be able to master it one day
I must say that I really appreciate this comparison, as it contains the most important and real differences between the two software, and furthermore, real and right advice that put you in the right bath if you are confused about which one is better for you... thank you very much
When you start making logo it seems simple and not that good but the way you finish it make totally different level 🔥🔥 amazing your every logo is amazing
How have I never known about this channel?
In school, I used the adobe suite, but since then I sort of moved to gimp.
Gimp just feels more intuitive for me, the shortcuts and mouse controls feel natural (like every other program).
I didn't have a big use for vector graphics and even though I knew I should be proficient in one of the programs I sort of let it slide.
Then at one point I figured I might get into it, but I really couldn't find any good Inkscape tutorials, so I sort of forgot about it for another year or so.
As time went on I started realizing that some things would just be easier with vector graphics... so I decided to search around looking for more Inkscape tutorials.
All I can say is Wow! If I would have known about your channel a few years ago I would have jumped into it at that time.
Well, I guess it's better late than never, but I wanted to say thanks for taking the time and creating some nicely detailed videos on Inkscape.
I only went over 2 videos, but they have a nice balance of detail. Making them short, but not too short, while still covering all the important parts while being easy to following along.
I will 100% be back for more!
This video will really help, since I recently got access to Illustrator and been using Inkscape for a fair bit.
Thanks for the last thing you said. U raised my confidence. This is one of my favorite UA-cam channels.
I'm wondering who will hold the industry standards when the majority will be freelancers and will opt for open source philosophy all the time ;)
Autodesk won to be industry standard by give away free copies for students everywhere. Nowadays freeware opensource and functional sofrwares are more accesable and most of us starting out with them. From 10 to 20 years now maybe more people who are experienced krita, inkscape, blender users will be in the creative fields than people who are only use photoshop, ai and maya.
A channel focused on graphic design and open source design software? This is awesome and I'm glad i found the channel!
okay, now I wanna be a part of this amazing community!
Man, I love you, I loved the comparison ... very fair and to the point.
KEEP POSTING CONTENT LIKE THIS !!
As a freelancer, I'm migrating to inkscape from now on...
Very good! Excellent explanation! Thanks
Thank you so much. This tutorial / eye opener is the far best in the domain.
1:25 - 2:01 HOLY SHIIIIIIT DUDE THAT WAS AWESOME ! BRO I REALLY NEED TO CHECK THIS CHANNEL OUT MORE OFTEN.
*_"THIS IS THE MAN!"_* Thanks dude!
@Nick thanks for this amazing video. I started with inkscape and moved on to illustrator. I am not a hardore graphic designer. but I need to draw vectors as I animate them. From that persepective, I find illustrator has a superior algorithm to generate an optimized markup for me to work on compared to Inkscape. The most amazing thing for me about inkscape is the ability to convert any shape to a path. e,g, rect, circle whatever. Illustrator does not have that. By the way, I love your channel and picked up lots of ideas from here. Thanks !!!
Nick is the MAN! Just one thing: Slow down for me in your tutorials juuuuuust a little bit. But, yeah, the Inkscape tutorial realm is CLEARLY yours alone. Thanks a heap.
The most feature i need in future inkscape is warp tool.
And hope it support CMYK... or is it did?
@@asrulamboelo1334 There is CMYK in Inkscape.
@@Sabrina-qc1yn i mean, support CMYK profile like AI do.
@@asrulamboelo1334 oh, sorry I didn't get that
@@asrulamboelo1334 no did not... but have plan for that in future... for now inkscape development is more focused on Boolean Operation
Nick I'm a huge fan of you! I love your work! I want to buy your lectures.
Wow. Very nice comparison. I have a tiny tiny tiny fraction of your knowledge, but am biased to Inkscape and OSS unreasonably. Really nice to hear an unbiased review.
You are just great as you are supporting free and open source software.
Thanks for the video.
Just downloaded inkscape after watching this.
Was looking to potentially get illustrator because I need a program for favicons and logos (just started in UX) but can't justify paying for this on top of all the other subscriptions I have, when I would only use occasionally.
Very happy that a program like this exists.
You have a great following for good reason. TY for helping beginners dip into this. Its been because of your tutorials I have been able to make some really nice custom signs on my CNC router.
I'm not a power user. Just someone who has used coreldraw for over 20 years for various small business projects like diagrams, manuals, faceplates, etc. Finally had to upgrade computers and the latest win 10 won't run X3....and $300 or subscription for corel didn't seem like a deal. So I tried inkscape and instantly loved it. For my uses it's great. So now I'm investing a little time in really learning it.
'Envelope Distort'...Oh be still my beating heart! I never knew that existed and want to try it. That ALONE made this video worth watching.
You could write a script to save the additional file formats in Inkscape. It's not integrated, but it's cool watching your computer do everything for you :^)
Thank you Nick for sharing your experience! Your videos on Inkscape helped me so much on learning how to fully use the capabilities of the software. I'm having a hard time learning how to use Illustrator, but now that I found that you have a channel about it, I feel that my life is gonna get a lot easier! Instant subscribe!
I like videos like this because it shows people that more money doesn't equal better. Consider all the factors
Thank you, the best and most comprehensive comparison I’ve seen.
Many years ago I started with Gimp because I had no money and didn’t use it for my profession. I used it for years. When I finally transitioned to Photoshop it was super easy to pick it up. If I didn’t start with Gimp I probably would have because frustrated with a monthly payment of a program that I had no idea how to use and would have just canceled my subscription and never learned it at all. I started using Inkscape and once I learn it completely I’m going to get the complete Adobe suite (only because I will use other Adobe products), but don’t want to make the transition until I know everything I can about Inkscape. I think it’s a great software and I’m thankful it’s around for me and others to use freely.
Inkscape has the possibility to export a (Xe/Lua/La)TeX file. It play well with TeX fonts, embedded math, cross references (to citations, equations, tables, other figures, sections, pages, etc.)
You're doing the lord's work there, Nick. Well done!
I'm SO glad you vented re: Illustrator's overly-complicated Gradient Tool!!! Inkscape's is SO much easier and intuitive.
Hello, Nick from the past! With its own version of shape creator, inkscape has caught up quite a bit!
thank you for opening my eyes to this software! I'm just a kid who wants to get into graphic design, but every option I could find is paid, even stuff like affinity designer which is relatively cheap.
You truly are amazing with this. For someone new like me your tutorials are fantastic
Thank you for your complete and comprehensive training. Very good!
The specs at 3:00 are absolute nuts! I know it can run even on lower end hardware but I never realized Illustrator has higher recommended settings than most games I play
Inkscape reminds me of Freehand MX with it's ease of use. I prefer to use Inkscape to Illustrator most of the time, and I have used multiple programs as a Graphic Designer from 2003 to 2012. I think the largest learning curve I was ever presented in Graphics was illustrator 3 at one paper and Quark 3.1 at another. When I finally stumbled upon Inkscape, I wished it was available to me when I was struggling to implement gradients into Quark (graphics and page layout was done in Quark). Sidenote: The only time I ever played with the "Industry Standard" (Adobe CS 1 to CS 3) was at the University Newspaper and University Classes for Graphic Design.
I miss our Google+ group. You were such an important part of it. You're still awesome. Keep it up, bro.
You sir, have just gained a new subscriber! Thanks for all the content!
Inkscape 1.0 is released now!!
As an airbrush artist Inkscape does all I need with ease. I mostly cut vinyl stencils on my plotter. I'm also an amiture luthier, and use it to design guitars and basses.
Thank you so much for this great comparison. I worked a lot with illustrator, but now that I'm a freelancer, it is simply to expensive at the moment. liked and subscribed.... again, thank you :)
Thanks for this video. Cleared a lot of things between the two softwares.
Shape builder is the only thing that keeping me from switching to oter vector software.
But man... Aint that align anchor points feature looks so sexy
10:47 all I wanted to hear. Great video.
I'm glad to say that there is a shape builder tool in inskape 1.3 beta
What an angel! You save my broken head!
Thank you very much , now I will understand the functionality
5:30
I rather like to scroll out then move the cursor, where i wan't to navigate and just scroll in. This is good, because the object what I wan't to see can be bigger or smaller and this technic garantee everything in place. And it's a good overview at what I'm doing when the image is far out.
Illustrator vector tool lets you hold down keys to change what it does, i can not remember it atm but think its SHIFT to manipulate curves, CRTL to add/remove points and ALT to select and edit multiple points. The tool changes when mousing over lines/points and outside of them, holding keys when the mouse is in diffrent places allso changes the use of the tool. Kinda confusing at first but when i used i on a daily basis i got the hang of it :D last thing - Awesome video !
thank you for your video , it's excellent and useful . I've used both. I started on Inkscape too. It's pretty good. Haven't used it in a few years so I don't know if they've added any features since then. The main things I really like in Illustrator are the ability to create custom brushes and the handy pathfinder panel to easily break apart shapes.I use my XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro display drawing tablet with Illustrator when I'm drawing "fine art" like painting. If I'm doing logo designs or page layouts, I often don't bother and just use my mouse.
Illustrator is by far the industry choice for vector graphics and a solid choice to be knowledgeable in.
I'd definitely suggest giving Illustrator a spin if you have the opportunity, but if Inkscape is working for you then it's still a useful tool.
Now this is how u make a truely comprehendible multi software tutorial video tht's even fun to watch! SUB's are in..
An actual comparison that makes sense! Thanks Nick
There have been a couple of releases of inkscape since this was made. for one thinng inkscape 1.2 can now do the batch export like illustrator. see nicks new video on the 1.2 release
Thank you, Nick! your overview was really helpful to me!!
This channel is so underrated, this guy is a genious ❤️🔥
Take a week just learning the basics and you will be good, I been using soft soft since it was Fruity Loops back in 03, and still learn
I am you 10 years before, right now😁
These days I'm a professional freelance logo designer on Upwork *thanks to Nick's tutorials and courses) and Inkscape is the cornerstone of my workflow, although I had to pair it with Affinity Designer, as it has no color management and can't export multiple files to multiple formats at once.
I first sculpt my logo in Inkscape and then I transfer it to Designer for CMYK colonization and final export.
Inkscape + Affinity Designer can definitely replace Illustrator as a fully professional design solution.