Adobe is a multinational company that is known for its line of design-oriented products. Take, for instance, the Big Three (Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator), which are the preferred programs in the design industry.

But, Adobe is also known for its tight-fisted approach to how customers obtain their products. Creative Cloud, for instance, offers an entire library of Adobe products -- on a subscription-based system, of course. If you were to buy one of their recent products, Adobe still would bind you to a blood-and-life contract of subscription. Try to buy the latest Illustrator, for instance, you would have the choice to either: pay $20.99/month for an annual plan, pay $239.88/year for the annual prepaid plan, or pay $31.49/month for the monthly plan, according to Adobe's Creative Cloud Pricing page. You cannot buy it outright, or at least not without going through shifty avenues.

The conundrum that graphic designers (who are price-sensitive) find themselves in is the struggle between quality and price. In the corporate world, many firms that have a graphic design position typically require the knowledge of Adobe products. On one hand, it is important to have the tools necessary to create industry-level designs. But on the other hand, is it really worth going broke the sake of quality? Adobe has top-of-the-line products, which is why many firms prefer it. Adobe products have the capability to handle high-quality design, and there are some features that cannot easily be replicated. InDesign, for instance, has the power to create EPUB files and book/magazine covers. This feature cannot easily be found in other programs.

If there were no such alternatives to Adobe, then I wouldn't get upset. But there are cheaper, free alternatives to Adobe products that are not recognized by the design industry as much as they should be. Let's turn our attention to Sketchbook by Autodesk*, a free alternative to Illustrator. Sketchbook has a similar capacity to Illustrator in terms of performance. True, it does not have a pen tool or much of a text editor, but the app is available on both desktop and mobile. Sketchbook is Autodesk's greatest answer to Adobe's Illustrator. Inkscape, another free alternative to Illustrator, in that it has similar capacity to Illustrator.

To end, I want to say that Adobe, while very useful, is a waste of money if you have cheaper, free alternatives. Feel free to disagree, perhaps I haven't persuaded you fully to jump off the Adobe train. But I want to at least give you food for thought.

*Update: Sketchbook is no longer owned by Autodesk and is its own company.