Replicating the same tool in Photoshop but for vectors, this lets you place pins on objects and pull them around to warp them. At Adobe Max in October, the company brought out another new version of Illustrator, 22.0, with the headline feature being a new Puppet Warp tool. The 2017 version of Illustrator CC also came with a new Colour Themes Panel, which lets you create, save and retrieve colour themes across the different Adobe apps.Īnd that’s not all. Cropped images discard the excess parts of the image, thus reducing the file size and improving performance of files. Now, when an image is placed into a document, you’ll see a crop option that will enable you to adjust simple crop handles. And the big news is that you no longer need to switch to Photoshop to crop your images a new Image Crop tool lets you do it directly in Illustrator. Still the industry standard for creating illustration digitally, Adobe’s vector editor got a big update this April in celebration of its 30th anniversary. Adobe Illustrator CC 22.0 (opens in new tab)Īccess your colour themes directly within Illustrator CC via the new Color Themes panel Check out the best Wacom tablet deals for Christmas 2017 here. This year’s new releases by Wacom include the Cintiq Pro 13 and 16-inch tablets and the Wac om Mobile Studio, both of which pushed functionality and features forward significantly. “I can’t say it’s as good as pen and paper but it’s the closest I've come and I will often use it as an alternative to drawing and scanning.” “With Photoshop CC’s lovely range of brushes and its options to adjust the speed of the stroke, it works a dream,” she concludes. “It’s A4 size, light and on a long lead so it can be moved about like a real page to optimise curves, etc, or even brought onto my lap and taken away from the desk. “It’s like a Wacom with a pen, only it has a screen so rather than drawing onto the pad and looking up at the screen I can draw onto the screen,” she explains. “I was recommended it by an illustrator on a creative Facebook group I’m in, when I asked about the best hardware to draw straight on to. “The Cintiq 13HD is my latest acquisition and it’s brilliant,” enthuses Jane Faraar (opens in new tab), a freelance illustrator and designer based in Cheltenham. But while there’s a lot of great brands out there, what we’re hearing from illustrators time and time again is their love for Wacoms. In 2017, we’ve seen more and more of the best graphics tablets aimed at digital illustrators, and the tech is improving all the time. Wacom continues to be the number one tablet choice for digital illustrators

Best drawing software 2018