• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Illustrator 2020

CraftixDesign

CraftixDesign

New Member
Morning,

is it possible to buy the old Version of Illustrator (2020 was the last one with perpetual right?). I started a smal company and do not want to spent money in a monthly fee for now...

BR,
Sascha
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
CS6 is actually the last version that still had a perpetual license and that was released originally in 2012. I don't know if the activation servers still work and if they do, if it's globally or regional, so that is something to keep in mind as well. Your best bet is either Inkscape or Affinity Designer if wanting a lower cost (no cost) option.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: 3 users
B

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
There are no legit, legal versions of Adobe Illustrator for sale in perpetual license form. Anyone claiming to offer legal, perpetual license versions of Illustrator (or any other Adobe CC apps) is simply full of crap. They're either selling pirated software or just looking to scam people out of money and not offer anything in return. Buyer definitely beware.

It's still possible to buy perpetual license versions of CorelDRAW, but they're buy once versions that cannot get reduced upgrade pricing. However, considering just how much Corel (aka Alludo) is charging per year for just 2 full apps (Draw and Photo-Paint) the buy once version might be a better deal. Just buy another one a few years or more later. I like CorelDRAW for certain design tasks, but it falls short in some other areas. I really don't like how it will rasterize certain kinds of objects if they have complex clipping and/or gradient fills with varying levels of transparency. I'll often bring Corel-generated artwork into Illustrator to do final color work before generating the PDF for print output to avoid those limitations.

The "Affinity App" (formerly separate Designer, Photo and Publisher apps) is another alternative. It's free. But that free price is geared as a loss leader to convince users to get a Canva Pro subscription. Affinity Designer has its own quirks, both inside the app as well as its ability (or lack thereof) to import artwork. It doesn't understand CorelDRAW CDR files at all. Designer will only open the PDF portion of Adobe Illustrator files. Not everyone saves their Illustrator .AI files with PDF compatibility enabled. Importing PDF data rather than Illustrator data has its own pitfalls. Limitations in alternative graphics apps can lead to valuable lost time.

Yeah, no one wants to be on the hook for subscribing to software from Adobe or anyone else. In our own use case it's easier having Adobe Illustrator and not having to put up with headaches trying to output our own artwork or trying to bring Adobe-centric artwork from corporate clients into a non-native software environment.
 
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Bobby H said:
Not everyone saves their Illustrator .AI files with PDF compatibility enabled. Importing PDF data rather than Illustrator data has its own pitfalls. Limitations in alternative graphics apps can lead to valuable lost time.
Click to expand...

I think they changed it as the default to not the default with PDF compatibility. That alone would make it more likely that users won't have it saved as most people are too lazy to change the defaults unless there is a pressing reason for them to do so (or they have some type of settings.ini file that the just copy from install to install).

To the OP: The biggest question is what type of 3rd party files are you getting? If you are getting a lot of proprietary files (from one or both of the major vendors), there is zero expectation (well there should be, some think otherwise) that any competitor product will import with 1:1 parity the other product (the only way for that to happen is one buys out the other). There used to be an advantage with PDF compatibility as that is an ISO standard, and has been for awhile, that there were pdf programs, even OSS ones, that can prevent a hiccup in the workflow.
 
B

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
Current versions of Adobe Illustrator do default to saving .AI files with PDF compatibility turned on. Likewise the default setting for saving PDF files in Illustrator includes preserving Illustrator editing capability (which actually appends Illustrator data to the PDF file). It's possible to save significant amounts of file size space when turning off either of those settings.

The trick is if a user turns off either one of those settings during a file saving operation they'll need to check those settings again the next time if they want those default settings restored. Creating custom file saving presets can get around that, but that also takes effort that some users may not want to expend.
 
Last edited:
WildWestDesigns

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Bobby H said:
Current versions of Adobe Illustrator do default to saving .AI files with PDF compatibility turned on. Likewise the default setting for saving PDF files in Illustrator includes preserving Illustrator editing capability (which actually appends Illustrator data to the PDF file). It's possible to save significant amounts of file size space when turning off either of those settings.

The trick is if a user turns off either one of those settings during a file saving operation they'll need to check those settings again the next time if they want those default settings restored. Creating custom file saving presets can get around that, but that also takes effort that some users may not want to expend.
Click to expand...
I thought that they had changed that behavior to not default on. Statistically speaking, people stick with defaults. I would say it would be the super majority, at which point odds are good about being able to use the PDF aspect of it with 3rd party programs.

There is a reason for the saying "power of defaults". Most don't really change unless there is a very compelling reason to do so. Changing "save with pdf compatibility" is not one of those. It's not like telemetry. We are in the age of web based Electron apps (there is a place for it, but some apps don't need to be Electron/webview apps, even Adobe software has CEF in it (an alternative to Electron for app usage as well, I think Adobe mainly uses it for plugin development, and being able to have UIs for 3rd party plugins)), so even with the run on hardware due to "AI", file space still isn't like it was with computers in the 90s.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top