Comparison of vector graphics editors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

A number of vector graphics editors for various platforms exist. When choosing one for work, important factors include its availability for the user's platform, its feature set, the maturity and convenience of the UI, as well as the focus of the program. Some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. Also very important is an application's support of various vector and bitmap image formats for import and export.

[edit] Some Packages in Detail

Adobe Illustrator is a so-called industry-standard editor. The AI file format is still the most common vector format for exchange. Illustrator is an expensive package. It has a long history, and its feature set allows creation of complex vector artwork. It has a steeper learning curve than some competing products.

ConceptDraw offers a set of vector drawing tools that can rival a professional illustration program. It is aimed at flowcharting, diagramming and illustrating. It can be used to easily create data flow, UML and Entity Relationship diagrams, among others. Versions for Windows and Mac OS X are available.

CorelDRAW has much in common with Adobe Illustrator and is regarded by many professionals as another industry-standard editor, largely used in the graphic design, sign making and fashion design industries. CorelDRAW and Illustrator are capable of limited interoperation by reading each other's file formats. Major differences between the two include CorelDRAW's extensive array of more than 50 import and export filters, on-screen and dialog box editing and the ability to create multi-page documents. It can also generate TrueType and Type1 fonts, although refined typographic control is better suited to a more specific application. Some other features of CorelDRAW include the creation and execution of VBA macros, viewing of colour separations in print preview mode and integrated professional imposing options.

Corel Designer (originally Micrografx Designer) is one of the earliest vector-based graphics editors for Microsoft Windows platform. While flexible enough for most vector graphics design applications, Designer has always been pre-dominantly a product for the creation of engineering drawings and is shipped with extensive libraries for the needs of engineers.

Dia is a diagramming and vector graphics editor available for Windows, GNU/Linux and other UNIX-like Operating Systems. Dia is easy to use, with a modular design and several shape packages for different needs: flowcharting, network diagrams, circuit diagrams, etc. Its design was inspired by Microsoft Visio, although it uses a Single Document Interface similar to other GNOME software (such as The GIMP).

Inkscape is a Free and open source vector editor whose primary native format is SVG. Inkscape is especially popular on the GNU/Linux operating system, though it is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and other UNIX-like systems. Currently Inkscape can officially import SVG and SVGZ, and export SVG, SVGZ, PostScript, EPS, EPSi, LaTeX and POVRay. Some formats have additional support through Inkscape extensions, including PDF, EPS, Adobe Illustrator, Dia and Sketch.

Litha-Paint a web-based vector graphics editor available for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. Currently it is in the alpha phase of development, can export SVG and use JPG and PNG images as a background. Users of Litha-Paint can save and share an unlimited number of documents via the Litha-Paint server, as well as uploading their images.

Macromedia Flash (now owned by Adobe) has facile vector editing tools which are popular with designers and illustrators. The most important of these tools are vector lines and fills with bitmap-like selectable areas, simple modification of curves and beziers (via the "direct selection" tool). Flash uses Actionscript for OOP scripting, and has some limited XML functionality. Flash can export to Illustrator .ai format but does not currently allow exporting to SVG format.

Macromedia FreeHand was an Illustrator competitor used widely by professional graphic designers before Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia. Since Macromedia's purchase it has been transferred to the classic print group with no future version update announcements as of yet.

Microsoft Visio is a diagramming, flow chart, floor plan and vector graphics editor available only for Windows. It is commonly used among small and medium sized businesses, as it comes bundled free with some versions of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Expression is an upcoming commercial vector and bitmap graphics editor based on Creature House Expression, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2003. It is part of the Microsoft Expression suite. Unlike the original Expression product, Expression Design will be only available for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista.

The Omni Group's OmniGraffle is a vector graphics editor available only for Macintosh. Some users claim that it is easier to use than the more expensive Illustrator, CorelDRAW, and FreeHand. It is principally used for creating flow charts and other diagrams. OmniGraffle imports and exports several popular formats, including Microsoft Visio, SVG and PDF.

OpenOffice.org Draw is part of the open source Office suite OpenOffice.org, serving as its drawing component and a vector graphics editor. It supports many import and export file formats, but there are currently functionality issues with some of these formats. Notably, the PNG and GIF bitmapped outputs are not antialiased, which gives a more jagged or pixelated look to the shapes (though opening the SVG in Inkscape and saving as PNG provides a workaround). The grid is fixed in size, and editing is less flexible than Inkscape in many ways.

Xara Xtreme is a vector graphics editor for Windows. Xara Xtreme LX, the open source version of Xara Xtreme runs under GNU/Linux and Mac OS X operating systems. Xara Xtreme is notable for its high usability and very fast rendering. Xara Xtreme (and earlier product Artworks) was the first vector graphics software product to provide fully antialiased display, advanced gradient fill and transparency tools. The newest version Xara Xtreme Pro is able to create multi-page documents, exports different PDF versions (PDF-X for the printing industry included) and supports Flash Animations.

Sketsa is a cross-platform vector graphics editor based on SVG that runs on Java 1.5 or higher.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of vector graphics editors. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is neither all-inclusive nor necessarily up-to-date.

[edit] General information

This table gives basic general information about the different vector graphics editors:

[edit] Operating system support

This table lists the operating systems that different editors can run on without emulation:

"Unix" includes the similar Linux, BSD and unix-like operating systems.

[edit] Basic features

[edit] Vector file formats: Import

1. via an extension, only version 7.0 or older.
2. via an extension
3. imports only up to V8.0 AI files, newer AI file versions needs to save as "AI (V8.0)" files
4. only within Xara Xtreme Pro
5. only within Xara Xtreme for Linux

[edit] Vector file formats: Export

1. via an extension.
2. support for many features is limited.
3. only within Xara Xtreme for Linux

[edit] See also

• Graphics
• Vector graphics editor
• List of vector graphics editors
• Comparison of raster graphics editors

[edit] External links

• Slashdot discussion about a VGE list - loads more data for comparison.
• Math Games: Vector vs Raster (maa.org) - Incorporates Slashdot suggestions (above) for 65 vector graphics editors.
• Comparisons between Inkscape and various similar applications