17 Best Illustration Tools In 2023 (Free & Paid)

Today we’re going to take you through our complete guide to the very best illustration tools and software applications (both free and paid) available in 2023.

An artist can only ever be as good as their drawing tools, and as an illustrator, you’ll know this better than anyone 💁🏻‍♀️

If you don’t have illustration software that can help you reach your full potential, you won’t be able to unleash yourself creatively.

That being said, there’s never been a better time to be an illustrator, and there are countless tools and applications out there that allow you to create wonderful, beautiful, and stunning visual creations that may not have even been possible in the past—all easier and more reliably than ever before 🙌🏽

Let’s dive straight into it 👏🏼

Important disclosure: we’re proud affiliates of some tools mentioned in this guide. If you click an affiliate link and subsequently make a purchase, we will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you (you pay nothing extra). For more information, read our affiliate disclosure.

Platforms: MacOS, Windows, iPadOS.

Best For: Experienced illustrators who want to take their creativity to the next level. But also beginner illustrators who are up for a challenge and want to expand their horizons.

Pricing: The pricing starts at $20.99/month (or $52.99/month for all Adobe’s apps).

Look, we both know this application was going to be on here somewhere, so we may as well get it over and done with first.

Look, we both know this application was going to be on here somewhere, so we may as well get it over and done with first. The Adobe Photoshop suite is the most powerful photo editing and illustration tool there is, and it’s used by beginners and professionals worldwide. The best of the best use this software.

Note that Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics software. Raster graphics (also called bitmap), such as digital images and photographs, are created using a grid of tiny dots called pixels.

When resizing the raster images without changing the resolution, the images start looking more blurry and pixelated. While both raster and vector graphics tools are excellent for creating illustrations, there are some pros and cons to each.

When it comes to Photoshop, these include minor basic features like not being able to enlarge or shrink an image in the same way you would with a vector-based illustration application. But once you’ve got your head around the learning curve, this software will allow you to create some mind-blowing digital illustrations.

Adobe Photoshop can be a bit expensive, but discounts are available if you’re a student or business, for example.

It’s easy to get stuck into using Photoshop and then use it for everything you do creatively, which is fine. It will get the job done and offer you so much more, but there are some restrictions.

Being part of the

Being part of the Adobe Creative Cloud , Photoshop is also amazingly extensible and integrates perfectly well with the other apps in the suite. Experienced illustrators might find themselves seamlessly switching between Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, or InDesign in their creative flow.

Another advantage to using the Creative Cloud is that all the files are synchronized across multiple devices automatically. Started working on an illustration at work and want to continue at home? No problem — you don’t even need to do anything extra.

Platforms: MacOS, Windows.

Best For: Professional illustrators who want to create vector illustrations. Aspiring illustrators who are serious about learning this craft and want to use the best-in-class software.

Pricing: The pricing starts at $20.99/month (or $52.99/month for all Adobe’s apps).

While

While Photoshop does a fantastic job, if you know what you’re doing, there’s no denying that the dedicated vector graphics part of the Adobe Creative Cloud just knocks the ball out of the park when it comes to creating illustrations. I mean, look at this.

Do you know any other illustration software that will allow you to create content like this? There’s not really much we can say here. Adobe Illustrator does it all. Although it might not be entirely beginner-friendly, if you start with AI and get stuck into learning how to use it, it’s a skill you’re going to benefit from for life.

You should know that Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics software. Vectors are made of paths (dots and lines) algorithmically, making them scalable. You can resize or shrink your vector illustration as you like – the quality will remain unchanged.

Illustrator is best paired with a raster software like Photoshop or Procreate. You might then switch between the online tools, depending on what illustration effects you’re trying to create.

One good thing about Adobe’s apps is that the design community has created plenty of learning resources (free and paid) for beginner-level illustrators and graphic designers. You can choose between YouTube videos, online courses, and even whole books dedicated to various illustration styles and subjects.

Platforms: MacOS, iPadOS, iOS.

Best For: Illustrators and graphic designers who use Apple products (Mac, iPhone, iPad). Also perfect for amateurs who want to design visuals on their Apple smartphones or tablets.

Pricing: Free.

Another great illustration product on this list is Vectornator. As the name suggests, this is a vector-based illustration software that is incredibly beautiful and stylish. Vectornator started as an iOS app, and later expanded into iPadOS and MacOS.

Over the recent years, the developers also added several advanced features, making the software fit for professionals and amateurs alike.

It might even rival Adobe Illustrator among those designers who want to quickly switch between Mac and iPad in their illustration process.

With Vectornator, you can design illustrations of any kind, create typography, lettering details, make banners and brochures, and even UI designs for web and mobile apps.

Its unique feature”Autotrace,” allows you to transform raster images into vectors within seconds. All the other advanced tools you might expect and need are included here, such as the pen tool, node tool, pathing options, node types, and many more.

Regarding the illustration aspect, Vectornator is used by companies such as Disney, Apple, Wacom, and Instana.

And you know what the best part is? Vectornator is completely free, which might be another significant advantage over Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop for many people.

Platforms: MacOS, Windows.

Best For: Professionals looking for an alternative to Adobe’s products (for multiple reasons, including price, customer support, or geographic availability).

Pricing: Starting at $399 per year.

If you’ve been an illustrator for some time, then you’ll have heard of CorelDRAW back in the day, but it seems to have fallen by the wayside in terms of popularity under the shadow of such applications as Illustrator and Photoshop.

However, CorelDRAW is still alive and kicking and offers a unique and powerful experience you won’t find anywhere else.

There are many suites available for both Mac and Windows applications, so I’ll cover the basics first, but note this is a professional suite that will cost around $500 or more. This means if you’re looking for a serious investment, this is it.

Perhaps one of the most significant features of the newest version of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is the connective features.

If you’re designing something for a client, you can easily share your projects live with a client in real-time, and edit in real-time, without having to go through the process of downloading and sending anything. Instead, everything is managed within the application.

There’s also state-of-the-art textography editing, game-changing trace results from bitmap to vector graphics which are just out of this world, a ton of AI-powered image solutions, and features that take the most modern technology and put it into your hands. It all runs with some of the best performance ratings you’ll have ever seen.

A long story short, CorelDRAW has pushed the boat out for what you can expect from an illustration application, and you won’t be disappointed.

Platforms: iPad OS, iOS.

Best For: Avid iPad users who want to supercharge their design process. Digital painters and illustrators who love drawing with a stylus. Procreate might also be perfect for those illustrators who want to save some money and replace Photoshop for editing raster graphics.

Pricing: $9.99 (one-time payment).

Procreate is a hidden (but not very well hidden) gem in the illustration market. The software is available on iPad and works seamlessly with the Apple pencil, and, like the motto of the application states, this application really does offer art without limits.

What makes ProCreate so great is the fact that some of the longest steps that occur in most traditional forms of illustration have been shrunk and taken out.

This means that you can spend less time faffing around with tedious processes, and more time working on the projects you love or need to get done.

There’s no subscription needed, just a one-off payment of $9.99, which makes it one of the most affordable premium options on our list. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or an experienced illustrator; this app will have something for you.

A really beautiful feature of this design tool is that it allows you to record your drawing process directly through the app. So, if you’re planning to do a YouTube time-lapse of you creating your piece, this can all be handled right inside the app, without the need for anything else.

📚 Check out this list of Procreate alternatives on MarketSplash.

Platforms: iPad OS, Windows, MacOS.

Best For: Professional designers and illustrators who want to replace pricey Adobe Illustrator. Industry’s early adopters who just love trying out new online tools.

Pricing: $49.99 (one-time payment).

We love Affinity Designer. It’s a vector graphics editor that works in a very similar way to Adobe Illustrator. Affinity Designer is an application that is created for illustrators who want to design on both desktop and tablet devices.

It’s a really good learning tool, especially if you’re planning to move up into

It’s a really good learning tool, especially if you’re planning to move up into Adobe Illustrator at a later date, and the support with the iPad Pro and wireless pencil is a really nice touch, which means you can easily create fantastic, high-quality content, while you’re on the move.

You can see here that most of the tools look the same as Illustrator so that you won’t be missing out on anything. There’s even a library of shapes and objects ready to use straight out of the box, but the collection isn’t as extensive as other applications on this list.

Image Source: Inkscape

Platforms: Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Best For: Experienced Designers, illustrators, and web designers.

Pricing: Free and open-source.

Created in 2003, this vector graphics editor has come a long way. Its international community is always growing, especially since this illustration tool can be used in over 90 languages.

Since it is an open-source tool, Inkscape counts on its community to get involved and improve this already fantastic tool on a daily basis.

If you also know how to code, you can easily obtain Inkscape’s source code and change it depending on your specific needs. The platform also welcomes developers who want to contribute to improving Inkscape’s official source code.

Inkscape offers a simple setup and interface. However, we should mention that even though this illustration tool may seem easy to use, it is mostly recommended for professionals and those who already have some experience as a designer or illustrator.

📚 If that is not the case for you, you can check these eight Inkscape Alternatives.

Image Source: ArtRage

Platforms: Windows, MacOS, iPadOS.

Best For: Beginner graphic designers and illustrators.

Pricing: $79 (one-time payment).

We really like ArtRage. This is an interface that’s easily accessible yet compact; you can quickly maximize the amount of space you have to draw, sketch, and paint with, which means the maximum amount of space for you to get creative.

We really recommend using this application on portable devices since it just works so well (imagine the above screenshot being used on your iPad or tablet).

It offers all the brush tools, pencils, and color blending tools you’ll need to get the job done.

Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux, ChromeOS.

Best For: Amateurs who need to create simple illustrations and vector graphics on an ongoing basis. Illustrators who’re using Linux or Chromebook devices.

Pricing: Free plan available. Premium plan: $49.99 per year.

Another vector-based illustration application now, Gravit Designer, looks good, performs well, and really produces some quality results.

This application is designed for all kinds of projects, including websites, UI designs, social media content, marketing content, icons, logo, and lots more. So whatever you want to design, you can achieve it with Gravit Designer.

There are plenty of tools to get stuck into here, including brush tools, text and precision tools, specialist layout and vector tools, structure editing, and much more.

In addition, there are free and premium (professional) versions available. It is easy to try the software out for yourself and then invest in it if you want to take your beautiful designs to the next level.

Platforms: Web, Mac, Windows, Linux.

Best For: Marketers, business professionals who need to design something very simple or make minor edits to an existing vector (SVG/AI/EPS) file.

Pricing: Free.

Vectr is another amateur-friendly vector graphics design software. It’s mostly used by marketers, entrepreneurs, and business professionals who need to create some simple illustrations or designs.

Since Vectr is a web-based app, it’s also perfect for making some changes to the existing files on the go.

Imagine that, for example, you want to change just a couple of words in an infographic. That takes 3-5 minutes with Vectr. Open their website, import your AI/EPS/SVG file, make the tweaks, and export the final output. Best part? Vectr is completely free.

Image Source: Ira Design

Platforms: Web.

Best For: Amateurs or professionals who want to customize illustrations quickly.

Pricing: Free and open-source.

We love Ira Design because it’s free and open-sourced. This means you get to enjoy all the great features and extra options this software has to offer.

Still, you can also finetune it to do what you want it to do, whether you’re making fun pictures, email content, social media images, or anything else you can imagine!

The software is created by a company known as Creative Tim, and the illustrations you’re capable of making here are wonderful. A personal favorite for me is the gradient control and the hand-drawn capabilities.

There are five main color gradients to mix and a ton of pre-made characters, backgrounds, and objects that you can start using right off the bat.

The software is also Retina ready, so you know you’re enjoying a true high-quality feel, and the layout is intuitive. Even if you haven’t used software like this before, you’ll easily be able to find your way around.

Image Source: Autodesk Sketchbook

Platforms: Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android.

Best For: Professionals illustrators who are searching for free yet powerful software. Marketers and business professionals need to edit graphics every once in a while.

Pricing: Free.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Autodesk software series has changed the creative landscape, whether you’re referring to their ground-breaking 3D modeling and animation suite or this, the illustration-based Sketchbook release.

Seeing what you can create with Sketchbook makes me feel excited to be an illustrator and to have the opportunity to use such a magnificent drawing tool to create content and media that really does define me as an artist. The styles are breathtaking. Anyway, enough about me.

Firstly, it’s free. For life. Both on macOS and Windows. That’s right. You don’t have to spend a cent.

The drawing software also allows for an outstanding level of focus since, when you’re sketching your idea, the UI fades back to allow you a crystal-clear drawing space. This means no accidentally clicking or tapping anything, just hardcore focusing while you’re drawing.

Autodesk Sketchbook is also one of the most accurate engines, allowing you to work with 100mpx canvas while maintaining realistic controls.

With multiple export file extensions supported to all major applications and a beginner-friendly interface, I’m left asking, ‘what more do you want?”

Image Source: Grabient

Platforms: Web.

Best For: Designers who want to experiment with colors and gradients.

Pricing: Free.

Grabient (created by Unfold) is a straightforward yet powerful tool that every illustrator should be using every day of their life.

It exists to complete a specific objective — to help you pick and experiment with generating web gradients that are perfect for whatever you want to do.

You just need to scroll around the website (there’s nothing to download, which means it works on any computer operating system, phone, or tablet) and find a gradient tone you like the look of.

You can then do whatever you like with the gradient, whether you’re rotating the direction, changing the colors, changing the gradient style or intensity, adding more colors, or how much of each color is present.

The tool is so simple to use and get the hang of, and there’s really nothing you need to learn or do. Just click on the link, find what you want to use, and then get on with it!

Platforms: Windows.

Best For: Creatives who’re looking for full-on illustration software built for designing cartoons and anime.

If you’re the kind of illustrator who’s working on projects that are mainly cartoon and anime-based, you won’t need to look further than this.

Paint Tool Sai is a straightforward application, and it’s incredibly beginner-friendly. If you’re just starting out, this is an application you’ll want to look at.

However, there are a ton of advanced features that even expert illustrators will be happy with, including a very tasty blending tool that makes colors blend in a simple yet powerful way. You rarely find this on such a basic-looking application.

The only downside is that the application isn’t available on macOS, only Windows, and it’s not for free. Nevertheless, you can download it for free and run the 31-day free trial to see whether it’s for you.

Image Source: Stubborn Generator

Platforms: Web.

Best For: Designers or marketers who are looking quickly and easily create digital characters to use on websites, presentations, etc.

Pricing: Free.

One of the most common forms of illustration you may be working with, especially if you’re a professional illustrator, is the people-kind of illustrations used in content and media. Just like the ones in the image below.

Using the software, you can create any characters you want and customize them, so they’re perfect for whatever kind of task or project you’re working on.

There’s a wealth of elements to get stuck into and a wide variety of personas to explore.

You can even overlay characters and objects, and you can create all manner of scenes. It doesn’t matter if you’re working on an application, a website, or presentation content. These are illustrations that will help you send your message.

And, of course, everything is vector-based for the highest quality experience.

Wacom is a brand that specializes in creating fantastic quality products for creatives and illustrators that will help take the pain out of trying to find equipment that works and instead empowers you to shine to your full potential.

Most notably, any illustrator can benefit from the wide variety of styluses available here, especially if you’re working on a phone or tablet (iPad) and you’re looking for an accurate, more responsive approach.

This means you can turn any touchscreen surface into a canvas to express yourself with.

There are also other creative products, such as slates that you can put under your drawing paper to get a better surface when you’re drawing, screen printing features, digital displays specifically for drawing and illustrating, accompanying pen and touchscreen kits, and more.

All are designed to help you get the most out of creative endeavors.

Image Source: Krita

Platforms: MacOS, Windows, Linux.

Best For: Creative illustrators who aren’t afraid of pushing the boundaries. Lovers of affordable and open-source software.

Pricing: Free. The developers live off donations and community support.

While Krita isn’t going to be for everyone, it’s definitely one of the best applications for a specific niche, mainly the affordable market and those wanting to create fantasy-styled illustrations and graphics.

We love that the software is free, and it’s an added bonus that it’s 100% open-source, so you can edit and adjust the program to do pretty much whatever you want it do.

Overall, the graphic design tool is excellent at developing concept art, standard illustrations, customizable illustrations, comics, and any kind of texture painting you want to do.

The software is available on all Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, and it’s regularly updated, so you don’t need to worry about it being an outdated option. Furthermore, it looks as though this software is going to be supported for many years to come.

The community that uses this application is also incredibly welcoming, so if you want to expand your horizons and network, this is a great application to get involved with!

Final Thoughts 💁🏼‍♀️

As you can see, there’s a long list of options for professional tools and applications out there when it comes to the world of illustration, and it doesn’t matter what kind of creative, illustrator, or artist you are. There’s an application out there that will help you the best you can be.

We highly recommend taking advantage of all the free software and free trials out since nearly every application has one, then you can try them all out, get a feel for them, and then decide which ones are best for you.

Happy drawing! 🎨

This article was written by Kristin Herman. Kristin is a marketing writer at Studydemic. She spends most of her time helping businesses connect with their customers in the most creative way possible and learning what there is out there to help produce content. In her free time, Kristin illustrates and writes comic books and stories with her kids!

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