Procreate Vs. Illustrator: Which Software is Better for Logo Design
Between Procreate and Illustrator, let's compare and find out which software is better for logo design!
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Have you ever thought about what digital apps are best for creating a logo design? Many people compare Procreate and Illustrator because those two apps are widely popular among artists and logo designers. Some people prefer to use Procreate, and others like to use Illustrator.
Which one of those two apps will support you in creating a logo the best? To answer this question, we will compare those two digital drawing apps. The following information about Procreate vs. Illustrator will help you know the most suitable app.
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What is Procreate?
Procreate is a digital drawing app and software for iPad and iOS devices. As one of the most famous design apps used by people today, Procreate is a fantastic tool for people to create drawing objects with a natural feel using digital creativity. It comes with a variety of good features for design.
You can discover hundreds of choices of brushes that provide you with natural-liked strokes, textures, sketches, and other fascinating artworks. Even you can create handmade brushes to meet your design needs. This application offers high mobility and a simple interface to use.
Procreate is a raster-based design program, so it might not be the best app for a logo design. However, it supports iPad use with its adaptable Apple Pencil. It can be an alternative option if you want to transform your creativity into good logos over digital canvas by working with your hands.
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What is Adobe Illustrator?
Adobe Illustrator is a professional graphic app to create vector-based designs on the computer that include the most miniature hand drawing work. This app enables you to transform creative ideas into reality in free-form objects like various shapes, effects, colors, and typefaces.
Millions of skillful professionals and aspiring artists worldwide have used Illustrator to create their masterpieces, such as logos, illustrations, billboards, shapes, icons, and product packaging. This app is a powerful design tool but user-friendly to use. Hence, it revolutionizes how people make creative things.
Adobe Illustrator features various vector curves and forms to form and adjust the works based on the needs of each logo design maker. This app is installable on drawing tablets to provide users with experience in making digital illustrations with a natural feel.
Numerous industries use Illustrator, from print media and advertising to fashion and web design. It is also widely famous among people who like creating vector art. It is versatile because you can manage the panels, menus, and tools based on preference when creating a logo design.
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The Differences Between Procreate and Illustrator
First and foremost, Procreate creates a more real-life drawing and painting look compared to Adobe Illustrator. Procreate offers raster images through hand-drawing works. Hence, in this app, you can only use an Apple Pencil, stylus, or finger to make digital art or paint on the canvas.
In contrast, Illustrator allows designers to dominantly make digital artworks and images beyond shapes and lines. It involves a mouse instead of hand work when you create a logo design using a Macbook or PC. Otherwise, you can download this app into the iPad and create vector images with Apple Pencil.
Procreate produces solid raster images the best that contain plenty of pixels. Its solidity allows you to enlarge the images infinitely. However, if you enlarge raster images out of the original canvas size, they turn out to be blurry and pixelated. Thus, it is although possible but not the best option for a logo design.
Adobe Illustrator produces vector images the best. It supports an infinitive enlargement because they consist of lines. Therefore, people usually use vector images and files for printing and other large display purposes.
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Quick Comparison Between Procreate and Illustrator
It is better to make a quick comparison to know more about the differences between those two design applications. Below are several factors to take a look at those two digital design apps to make you know them better.
1. Main features
Both applications come with numerous good characteristics and features for good design software although they produce different types of images. Procreate is suitable for making digital art. Meanwhile, Illustrator works the best when it comes to various arts related to vector graphics.
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2. Price
When talking about the price, Procreate wins in terms of affordability because this app only costs around $9.99. You only need to pay this once when you get it in the Apple Store. Oppositely, Illustrator is available through an unlimited subscription.
You need to spend money around $20.99 every month if you go with the annual contract. You also can choose another option when using this Adobe designing app. You can buy it alone and spend around $31.49 each month for a subscription if you choose a monthly option.
3. Ease of use
Although both designing apps come with complete instructional material to create a logo design, Procreate is more user-friendly than Illustrator. This raster-based app has a simple interface, so it is very easy to learn. Even people who previously never use it can work with this program right away and explore its features.
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4. Interface
You can work more efficiently with Procreate because it is what the app has specifically designed for iPad. This application has a simple interface that allows its users to keep the focus on doing their artwork with fewer distractions. It also comes with multi-touch gestures to provide easy control for the users.
Meanwhile, Adobe’s design app comes with an interface consisting of various windows, menus, and tools that people often call panels. Users can display its interface in the Workspace to get quick access to the necessary features of their work. Generally speaking, Procreate has a more user-friendly interface.
5. Illustration
This iPad-designed app is a fascinating illustration program, so the quality of its illustration is excellent. It provides a comfortable and natural painting canvas for users who want to make any] illustration with a touch of digital creativity. It features a variety of brushes and instruments to support sketching and painting.
The Adobe design app also can create illustrations, yet the look will be vector-based because it is how the application has been made for. Hence, you just need to choose what kind of illustration to make, a raster-based or vector-based.
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6. Graphic design and logo
Adobe Illustrator is much better to create a logo design than Procreate. It is because this Adobe program is vector-based, so it allows you to scale the logo into various sizes without reducing its quality. It is a truly perfect option if you want to do brand campaigns.
Meanwhile, the iPad design app is also eligible for making logos, but you must keep the design simple because it only supports scaling size within the canvas. If you scale the design beyond the canvas, the result will look blurry and pixelated.
7. Animation
You cannot use Illustrator directly to produce animations. However, you can combine it with other Adobe products like Photoshop to make digital animations. It enables you to arrange layers based on the groups that can be beneficial to organize the assets. Each item in the project comes with its layer.
You can group those layers. There is also a feature called Animation Assists to help users make animation frame by frame with Procreate. It also has an onion skinning to look at the previous frames while you work with the following clip. It offers a freehand drawing option following the stylus and Apple Pencil.
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8. Gestures and features
Other factors that can affect how good those two applications are in creating a logo design are gestures and features. Although one is a vector-based application and another is a raster-based application, they come in various tools and functions.
They may have similar features for designing but also come with specific features another does not have. We will take a look at several features from both applications and how they work.
8.1. Brushes
Procreate is an amazing option if you want to make digital paintings or illustrations. It offers a variety of brushes, tools, and other features to produce excellent quality artwork. You can discover around 190 brushes in this application. Illustrator provides various brushes too.
Those brush features help you to stylize the previous paths. Otherwise, you can use them to create new works while brushing them at the same time. Illustrator also allows its users to connect or insert external resources.
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8.2. Drawing tasks
There are a bit differences when it comes to how both drawing programs handle the tasks. iPad with the raster-based program will convert the entire layers into pixels object when you choose the vector object option. You have to make the layers manually so you can paint, combine, and work with the layers.
Working with this iPad drawing app requires you to use a stylus, Apple pencil, or finger. Meanwhile, this Adobe drawing app features a pen tool and a curve tool for users to create shapes and curves. There is also Bezier control handles to help users fine-tune the line.
If you find that the subject is slightly crooked, you can switch the snap into grid option. It will realign the object automatically. Contrastingly, you have to draw and maintain the line to remain straight to create straight lines in Procreate.
8.3. Drawing templatesProcreate comes with drawing templates so you can adjust thickness, opacity, grid size, and assisted drawing options. This application allows you to include text easily and share the artwork with the community as it features ProcreateFolio.
8.4. Supporting library
Illustrator also has several supports for drawing works because it offers guides to help users align everything properly. It also links to Adobe Typekit, a very beneficial library consisting of more than 1000 typefaces that becomes a part of Adobe subscription to enjoy.
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9. PC and Mac support
Procreate is a specifically-designed app for iPad, so it is only available on iPad and other Mac devices like iPhones and Procreate Pocket because you must download it from Apple Store. Meanwhile, Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphic program that is more applicable to various devices.
You can use it on iPads, smartphones, and computers. The application is available for any device running Windows or iOS. Therefore, it is more versatile to create a logo design because it provides installation support for more devices.
10. Recent
Both drawing programs will withstand the test of time because they come with numerous features. They also improve the programs to continue to stick with the evolving software environment and meet the needs of the newest design demands.
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11. Organization and file management
How the apps organize the art projects and design files becomes one of the primary considerations before people choose the right application for making a logo design. The iPad illustration app offers and applies the extension “.procreate’ to save the design files.
These refer to special Procreate-only files that are only accessible through this application. In contrast, working with Adobe Illustrator workspace allow you to save digital art and designs into folders. There are multiple options to view the saved files. It presents the files based on the names or times made.
Adobe also applies Creative Cloud technology to support cloud file saving. It is a good option for you who transforms creative thoughts into real digital designs daily. This cloud storage will prevent you from running out of storage space in your devices. It provides a seamless experience to use the app from any device.
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How to Export Digital Files from Both Applications?
You can share a logo design created in both programs using various types of file extensions. You have to remember that Procreate is not a vector program. Instead, it is a raster program. Hence, you cannot export the logo designs in vector format or SVG. You also cannot use the .ai extension when saving the file.
To export the designs from this application, you must you other extensions, which are .jpeg or PNG. Then, you need to open the design using Adobe Illustrator. You can upgrade the quality and look of the logos created by this application by combining it with the Illustrator app.
You should create a new layer and trace above the raster-based designs you have imported from the previous app and vectorize them.
Thus, the logos will come out in high quality and do not turn out to be blurry anytime you enlarge the size. This can be an alternative because logos from Procreate use pixels, not vectors.
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Should You Get Both Applications?
Which one you should get depends on your option and drawing needs. However, trying both programs can be worthwhile to determine which works the best with specific design needs. It can be a great option to work with Illustrator if you want to get more control over the drawing works.
Illustrator is also ideal for making a logo design for branding or making specific campaigns for business. It works well if you use the app for content creation, graphic design, and layout. The results will not reduce their quality, no matter how much you scale them.
However, if you just start in the design world and try to find an easy and fun program to use for improving beginner skills, Procreate can be the right answer. It provides various features to support digital artworks, such as drawing, painting and sketching.
It also enables you to create logos if you keep the designs remain simple. This application is initiative and easy to use for beginners because it comes with a simple interface. It is good for beginners who are still unfamiliar with mouse-clicking works because you can make a logo design using a finger or Apple Pencil.
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Which One is Better?
Procreate makes raster images the best, which means it is unable to scale the artwork infinitely. You can scale the artwork for a more detailed look as long as it remains on the canvas. Once you scale them beyond the canvas, they will reduce in quality and look.
What makes this app better than its counterpart is it gives a real artwork-making experience because you can include hand activities in the making process. Besides, using this application enables you to get more control over the drawing process with a stylus or Apple Pencil.
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Illustrator works best in producing vector artwork that enables you to scale the design into a preferred size or dimension. That is why this application creates a better logo design. You can access this application from various devices like iPads, smartphones, and, most likely, desktops.
Procreate and Adobe Illustrator support logo design making, yet they provide different qualities and purposes. Procreate is a good option if you want to create simple logos that do not include too many details. This app produces designs containing pixels or tiny dots that change when enlarged.
Illustrator handles logos very well because it produces vector images. The results of the designs look clear and present vivid colors. The design look will not change or reduce in quality no matter how much you enlarge it. So, depending on the quality, you can choose the best app to support your work.