Adobe Illustrator is a powerful product for creating all kinds of illustrations based on vector graphics. It allows the creation of logos, sketches, typographies, and complex drawings that can be used in printed publications as well as in digital media and interactive formats. The program contains tools that are essential for the work of any graphic designer, so it has become a standard in its sector and today I will show you how to get Adobe Illustrator for free.
How to get Adobe Illustrator safety
Adobe Illustrator is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud, and you must have a subscription to use the program. The Adobe subscription is paid monthly or annually, and with this payment, you get the latest version of the program, fully updated. Any update that comes out does not require an additional payment.
There are different plans to enjoy Adobe Creative Cloud programs in different ways:
Option 1. Single application
This is the option for those who only want to pay for Adobe Illustrator and not use any other of the available programs. It includes 100GB of cloud storage, and access to Adobe Fonts, Adobe Portfolio, and Adobe Spark.
There are three different payment methods:
- Annual plan, with a monthly payment of $20.99/mo.
- Annual plan (prepaid) of $239.88/yr.
- Monthly plan for $31.49/mo.
Option 2. All Apps Plan
This plan includes the more than 20 applications available in Adobe’s Creative Cloud, plus some extras. You can use Illustrator, Photoshop, or any of the other available programs.
The price of this plan is
- Annual plan, with a monthly payment of $52.99/mo.
- Annual plan (prepaid) for $599.88 /yr.
- Monthly plan for $79.49/mo.
Option 3. Discount for students
Adobe does not offer special or all-user discounts on its plans or programs, but teachers and students of any level can access the “Students and teachers” discount that the company has available.
If you are a student or a teacher and have a way to prove it to Adobe, you can take advantage of the more than 60% discount it has for you. The discount is only valid for the All Apps Plan.
You can choose between the following forms of payment:
- Annual plan, with a monthly payment of $19.99/mo.
- Annual plan (prepaid) of $239.88/yr.
This way you can get any program from Adobe’s suite, but if you want some other way to get adobe illustrator for free, I’ll show it to you.
How to get Adobe Illustrator Free Trial
Adobe offers an option for people who want to use one of its programs before having to pay for the subscription: a free trial.
If you want to use Adobe Illustrator for free, the first thing you need to do is download Adobe Creative Cloud free trial. In that way, you can use any of the Creative Cloud programs, totally free, for 7 days. In order to download the free trial, you must first access the website of Adobe or the program you want to install, in this case, Illustrator. Go to the Illustrator’s website and look at the top of the window for a button called “Free trial”. Click here to proceed.
Once you press the button, you will get a new window with a couple of options:
- Illustrator: This is the first option available, this plan includes Adobe Illustrator completely free, plus step-by-step tutorials, 100GB of cloud storage, your own portfolio website, and access to the Premium fonts.
- Creative Cloud All Apps: This plan includes all the applications available in the Creative Cloud, plus the extras.
At the bottom of each plan, the description is the “Start free trial” button, which you should click in order to follow the steps that allow you to download the program.
Start your Free Adobe Illustrator Trial
Once you press the button, you will see a new page to continue with the process. Here you need to fill in all your details and login with your Adobe ID. The only way to download the free trial is to have an Adobe ID account, but don’t worry if you don’t have any, on that same page you can create one for free. After you enter your data correctly you can press the “Start free trial” button, located at the bottom of the screen. Before you press the button, check that all your data is typed correctly.
The download of your trial version of Adobe Illustrator will start after pressing the button, and once downloaded, you can proceed with the installation. Remember that you can enjoy Adobe Illustrator for free, but only for 7 days, which starts running as soon as you install it, so make sure you have time available to use the program to the maximum during those 7 days. This is the safest way to use Adobe Illustrator for free.
No to piracy
There are many risks when downloading pirated applications, particularly if it’s as popular as Adobe Illustrator. Never trust sites that claim to provide pirated versions of Illustrator; most of the time, they are no more than traps for users. Some of the dangers of installing these untrustworthy programs are:
- Malware/viruses: Many times by looking for the easy solution, users download a pirate program and end up infecting their computer with viruses and malicious programs. These viruses usually hide in the downloads of the programs and often times the website does not download the right program, wasting your time and putting your computer and important documents at risk.
- Zero updates: Pirated programs do not have a way to update themselves, so you must use an outdated or even discontinued version of the applications, without being able to take advantage of their full potential.
- No help from Adobe: Adobe has a 24/7 customer support system, which you can call or contact if you need any help or support with any of the Adobe Creative Cloud products. However, this system only works with a valid serial or Adobe ID that is subscribed to their plans, so a pirate version of Illustrator will not have this service.
- Malfunctioning: Pirate programs don’t always are complete or with all their features. By having to hack the installation or program files, features are disabled in the process. In addition, you will not be able to access the extras offered by Adobe on its website for everyone who subscribes to a plan.
- It’s illegal: Depending on the location, piracy is illegal and you may be sued for it.
Illustrator alternatives
If you are not satisfied with the 7 free days, or if you’ve tried Illustrator and didn’t like it, here are some alternatives you might like:
Inkscape
Inkscape is a relatively well-known alternative to Illustrator. This vector program for Windows, macOS, and Linux has a wide range of features similar to its Adobe competitor, as Inkscape provides all the basic and generalized design options for digital illustration. In addition, it has more specialized features, for example, supporting digitizing tablets, or facilitating the export of graphics such as the canvas element of HTML5, the alternative to SVG for web images.
Additional extensions for this application (although not as many as for Adobe Illustrator) can also be downloaded at no cost. However, in addition to the absence of some brushes, a major disadvantage in relation to Illustrator is that Inkscape itself does not generate graphics in a CMYK color model. This color model is of great importance to the printing industry, setting the standard for regular four-color printing.
However, Inkscape offers different solutions that allow the export of graphics in the CMYK model. On the other hand, the configuration may result in more complex than in other vector programs and, if misused, can generate negative results. In other words, the possibilities of Inkscape as a professional solution for large prints are limited.
Inkscape supports the most popular file formats (SVG, PNG, PDF, and many more), as well as vector program formats such as Adobe Illustrator (AI) and CorelDRAW (CDR). Thanks to this feature, this open-source application executes files of all kinds, including those created with Illustrator.
Gravit
There are also several online editing programs that allow the creation of vector graphics. Gravit is one of them and in order to use it you only need a computer with an Internet connection. This online application can be operated completely from the browser and for this purpose only requires registration on the Gravit website.
Once you are logged in to Gravit you will be assigned a personal online storage space similar to Dropbox, Google Drive, or other cloud storage services. This way you can save your illustrations, as well as load existing graphics and add them to your designs. In addition to its intuitive handling, Gravit provides a teamwork feature that allows different users to collaborate on one or more illustrations, facilitating joint projects. With this web application, it is even possible to generate images in the CMYK color model.
This application also offers different templates for YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, which are very useful when creating banners and messages for social networks. Gravit also offers templates for different print formats and for presentations, web pages, ebooks, smartphones, and tablet screens.
If you would like to learn more about Adobe Illustrator check out our articles:
What is the best way to learn Illustrator?
