Silhouette Studio IS a full-fledged design program.
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iāll have to take your word for it, since iāve never used it, but iād be surprised if it had all the same features as Illustrator.
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It doesnāt have all the same features as Illustrator, but full-fledged doesnāt mean all the features any person could ever need. Full-fledged means you can accomplish what you need to do. Illustrator has far more features than most of us will ever need. That makes it much more challenging to use, in addition to being cost-prohibitive for most casual users. I could pay $250+ a year for bells and whistles Iāll never use, or I could do a one-time fee of $99 for software that has everything I need.
Again, I point out that we are in the Glowforge forum. Itās hardly the most robust laser and the app canāt even begin to compare to something like Lightburn. But we all use it and make amazing things.
In Silhouette Studio, you can draw lines and shapes, edit nodes, add text (w/kern, etc.), align/arrange/transform, use layers, and more. It also has built-in image editing tools, the ability to create your own fonts, and other cool features like built-in nesting and incredibly easy offset and tracing. You can even make puzzles and pop-up cards if thatās your thing.
Just because itās aimed at crafters, people make assumptions about what it can do. Use it or donāt, but itās a bit frustrating that people who have never used it keep countering my recommendation. Different tools work best for different people, and offering a range of options, both in terms of complexity and price, can be helpful. I personally prefer Affinity Designer because it matches my brain, but Iāll often use SS because I know I can do what I want to do in an easier/faster way.
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iām not countering the recommendation, necessarily. and iām not recommending illustrator for people if they donāt already use it because of the cost. but i would probably recommend inkscape ahead of it because it can do more. maybe you donāt need it, but since inkscape is free, youāre not paying for extra features. and it costs even less than silhouette business edition. i canāt remember which it was (silhouette or cricut) that you needed the business edition to export SVGs. if it wasnāt silhouette, then thatās not valid here.
so, again, not dissing silhouette. and especially not if you already use it and know it. then thereās no reason to download/buy anything different until it doesnāt do something you want/need. but if youāre starting from scratch? no, thatās not my recommendation. if you have to learn anyway, might as well do inkscape and have the extra capabilities if/when you need/want them.
and recommending one over the other isnāt a bad thing, as long as you can make a coherent argument about why. the person making the decision can weigh everyoneās comments.
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i usually re-subscribe to adobe yearly with a new email address during black Friday sale to get a significant discount. I also cannot survive now without the Astute graphics plugins, which is also a yearly subscription. Itās so expensive, but I use these tools every day, so itās worth it to me to use the top tier. Otherwise, Iād just learn Inkscape and would probably recommend new designers start there.
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I completely agree with this. My complaint is that there has yet to be a coherent argument against SS, other than a perceived sense that it isnāt good enough by people who have yet to use it.
Inkscapeās UI was so frustrating that it took me longer than it should have to just understand how vector art behaves. Thatās actually why I tend to recommend SS to people who are struggling to transition specifically. As it happens, it also has features that Inkscape doesnāt have. In the end, though, I happily paid for the Affinity Suite (twice) because even though I can now use Inkscape, I still hate the UI. I also like having the photo/design software play nicely with each other.
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this is why iām happy in the adobe ecosystem, even tho it aināt cheap. but thatās what iāve been using for decades, so i know iām not the normal GF user.
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I did not realized inkscape had a new version out.
thanks so much for the heads up!
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I just saw this and it reminded me of this conversation. A new home for Pixelmator - Pixelmator Blog
Sometimes thereās a risk that the app you like will get eaten.
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yes, one of the benefits of working with the 900lb gorilla (adobe). theyāre far more likely to be the acquirer than the acquired.
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Just make sure you are not standing where they are stepping.
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iām lucky enough to be in a position to see the footfalls coming. i have access to a lot of prerelease info and NDA presentations, so i often have a clue when changes are coming.
also, FWIW, they donāt treat their customers as ####y as quark did. iāve never been happier to see a gorilla knocked off the empire state building as i was to see quark get dethroned. worst company to deal with ever. adobe staff will listen and advocate for you, if you get involved at the right level.
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I wasnāt. I was two days late in paying the 5th renewal fee on Autocad and was supposed to srart over. I had written a BLM using blocks to keep track of things like doors and windows and switch from 2d to 3d before they had similar, and then they bought out someone who had better yet, and every job wanted several years of experience with that software with no possibility to get any. Having to walk with a cane was a quicker rejection, as the employer insurance prices would leap.
A few years later I did luck out to get someone at SSDI that worked to get me the best result that got it three years back dated that kept me from drowning.
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For me, I am happy to hang on to a version that simply does everything I need. I donāt need the latest, greatest feature to be released. Fortunately, I can have a newer and older version installed simultaneously, and that did matter during some of the version revisions.
I keep a Windows XP virtual machine image because I have a couple of apps (a) only on Windows and (b) that āexpiredā years ago. But they work, on my MacBook, just fine, in an outdated version of VMWare.
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What do you use from these plug-ins out of curiosity?
It seems like an impressive suite.
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i still have a really bad taste in my mouth from astute going subscription right after i paid for the single purchase cost. and then those never got updated and never worked in any future version of illustrator. so i had access for less than a year, which made them essentially horrifically overpriced for like 9 months of use. and they made no real concession to me, so i ditched them.
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The ones I use the most are Orient, dynamic measure, and vector first aid. I also use mirror me and pathscribe. But honestly, Iād like to just buy orient and vector first aid if that were an option, and not have to subscribe to the entire suite.
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wow vector first aid looks amazing, I havenŹ»t seen this beforeā¦ I have zoomed in and done microscopic editsā¦
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I also bought some wonderful Astute software back in the day and didnāt enjoy the switch to subscription.
If I was a pro, sure, buy all the tools, subscribe to everything. But hobbies ebb and rise for me, and I refuse to pay subscription fees for things that I wonāt use for weeks at a time, or longer. I build a nice toolbox so it is there when I need it, but I donāt need every tool every day.
Weāll get a few good years out of the Affinity suite v2 at least. I am sure they will go subscription eventually. Hopefully by then I will like Inkscape better. 
Pixelmator users, I hope your app lives on in full.
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