I agree with all of this, though I think it's a little unfair to the achievements of Inkscape, which is in its own way an utterly remarkable project and could one day be the only vector graphics package that we have that really runs on our own machines without limitations. (Not to mention that it is apparently keeping a handful of ancient, reliable vinyl cutters supported long after the death of their bespoke software.)
I (a non-designer web engineer who has absorbed some skills in thirty years of hanging around a world class designer) really like Designer and would never buy Illustrator, but I really admire Inkscape.
Just as a side-note because I enjoy recommending a weird app every now and then, have you ever played with NeverCenter's CameraBag?
It looks, on the surface, like a cheap toy app. But appearances are deceptive. The filter chain tool is wildly impressive, and some of the colour curve tools are unique, getting you almost towards LUT creator tools in terms of their power.
It's not something you'll use every day but it's very interesting for visualisation, and it makes some things so easy for newbies it's worth knowing how it works just so you have a tool to recommend.
(people get annoyed when I share my full views on the way GIMP is an oft-recommended open source "alternative" app, so I won't)
I (a non-designer web engineer who has absorbed some skills in thirty years of hanging around a world class designer) really like Designer and would never buy Illustrator, but I really admire Inkscape.
Just as a side-note because I enjoy recommending a weird app every now and then, have you ever played with NeverCenter's CameraBag?
It looks, on the surface, like a cheap toy app. But appearances are deceptive. The filter chain tool is wildly impressive, and some of the colour curve tools are unique, getting you almost towards LUT creator tools in terms of their power.
It's not something you'll use every day but it's very interesting for visualisation, and it makes some things so easy for newbies it's worth knowing how it works just so you have a tool to recommend.
(people get annoyed when I share my full views on the way GIMP is an oft-recommended open source "alternative" app, so I won't)