Free Illustrator Alternative

If you don’t have Adobe Illustrator, and you’ve tried opening a .AI file, you know what a hassle this can be. Certainly, you can open it up in Photoshop, but it will convert your resizeable vector file (lines and fills) to a rasterized image (pixels and dots). Since most churches don’t have a person on staff who knows how to use a vector program like Illustrator, they don’t have anything capable installed on their computers. Also, Illustrator costs hundreds of dollars and is not worth the cost to be used a few times a year in most cases.

And now, after reading this paragraph, your life will get immensely easier. Enter Inkscape. This is an awesome free open source program that you can download without paying a dime. It import Illustrator, EPS, SVG, PDF files and allows you to work with paths, shapes, curves, lines, text, etc. It also exports in all of these formats as well. If you have a logo you need to convert to an editable format, they have a fantastic trace option that will convert your image to a vector shape. Inkscape is a great tool to add to your arsenal for vector editing on a tight budget. Inkscape is available on PC and Mac!

Here are a few screenshots from Inkscape;

Go to Inkscape