Adobe Illustrator for iPad – My Thoughts

Adobe Illustrator for iPad – My Thoughts

I was so excited that Adobe Illustrator for iPad finally launched. And, I wanted to get you a video review to show you my thoughts on the new app by Adobe for the iPad. But I wanted to also make sure I had made time to really dive into it first.

As you know, I’m an Adobe girl through and through. I talk about that in my videos often. I even have a section on Adobe tutorials for the desktop on the blog. I always vector artwork I’m going to produce into final projects. So again, when the app came finally launched for iPad I was pretty happy.

That being said, there are some things that aren’t quite there yet. But I have no doubt that Adobe will be wowing us in the future with more features to come. They can’t let other apps blow them out of the water. It’s Adobe!

Watch Me Use Adobe Illustrator for iPad and My Thoughts

FAQs About Adobe Illustrator for iPad

This app is not free. If you want, you can sign up for a 7 day trial. But I use Adobe apps for my business, so I already have an Adobe Cloud account. I use InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Premiere, After Effects and XD. So for me the price for a monthly subscription is so much worth it. I can remember in the 90s when I had to buy the software for each item outright at well over $500 a piece, even with upgrades! There are student discounts on the website if you are looking to save money.

Sign up for a free trial to see if you like it. The beauty is that if you do use it, you can use it for the desktop too. There are student rates right now at $20 a month. That’s really great for teachers and students. If you homeschool, consider this as well.

My Thoughts About Adobe Illustrator for iPad

• I will use it to draw my illustrations. I prefer to use the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator to vector my illustrations that I sketch out in Procreate on my iPad. And, this saves me from having to sit at my computer to do this. If I am done for the day, but feel like knocking this out while I watch some tv in the evening, I can.
• It doesn’t feature the Live Paint feature you see me use on my desktop app. This is a deal breaker for me right now. So I will continue to do this on my desktop.
• I also can’t create patterns the way I am used to doing them. I have never liked the automatic pattern features in Illustrator. I prefer to vector my patterns and have more control with the method I use. I was taught this way by surface pattern designers in the industry and it makes me feel like I can make easier updates and control the layout better.
• There are a few things that feel strange.
  • I prefer to use the scissors tool to cut away a path. But they use the scissors as a copy/paste feature. As you can see in the video the process feels different. I’m sure I can get used to it, but doesn’t feel like the desktop app and I’d love to see it mimic that more.
  • There are a few things like the way the extra icon menu comes up when an object is selected below it, that I can’t seem to move around if I am zoomed in close.
  • The Shape Builder is in a strange spot compared to the desktop app – but I am sure I can get used to it.
  • I wish I could change the point size of my stroke before I draw it, but alas you can’t.
  • I don’t care for how the font names appear with the giant Lorem Ipsum. It would make more sense to me to show how the font looks but use the font name instead.
  • It doesn’t have the smooth tool, bummer. I love this feature when I do use the Image Trace on my hand lettering. So I’ll be doing that all over on my desktop.
  • I didn’t notice an Image Trace feature in the iPad app – for those that rely heavily on that, sorry.
• If you have a keyboard you can still use the keyboard shortcuts. There are also some shortcuts that they implemented for those without a keyboard that I show you. Something new to get used to, but it makes a few tasks much easier.

I really do believe Adobe will come out with more features and continue to make it a go-to app. They just have to! So I will be using it to at least get my illustrations drawn when I don’t feel like sitting at my computer. But I’ll continue to use the desktop app for everything else until I see more features released.

As I’ve said MANY times, I don’t like Affinity. It feels so cumbersome. Maybe I need to take a class on it. But someone that has used Adobe Illustrator, the Affinity app didn’t feel intuitive. Vectornator felt more like Illustrator to me and was easier to pick up.

Will you use Adobe Illustrator for iPad?

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