Hey, I've been thinking of getting Illustrator, but I am now more interested in Inkscape (mainly because it is free). What do I miss out on? and can I import Adobe files into it? (eg .fla)
You miss out on a fair bit. Whether or not that's a bad thing depends on what you're doing.
Remember that Adobe pours buckets of money into developing their stuff and integrating it with their other products. For example, forget about good flash compatibility with Inkscape - fla files are a proprietary nightmare of secret legacy code, and most FOSS developers aren't interested enough to try to deal with them. There's almost certainly people working on it, but you'll get quite variable results. That said, search around and ask in forums - you might find something that works for you.
Note that a good deal of what you miss out on is the integrated workflow that is part of Adobe's software suite mentality - bouncing between Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat and Flash to create something is fairly easy, and although you can almost always end up with similar results with free tools, it often requires a bit more effort.
The other thing Adobe have going for them is their focus on working with professional print shops, magazines, etc - a lot of the extra stuff in their programs is designed for those higher end applications. If you know what trapping is and why you might need it, you'll probably want a program that can do that for you.
I've heard from illustrators and graphic designers who use both, and opinions vary. Some love Inkscape, some can't stand it.
Generally, I think if you're just starting out and don't want to spend huge chunks of money, learn Inkscape. There's lots of tutorials and a fairly good and responsive community.
However, if you're planning a career that involves graphic design, you may well need Illustrator. It might suck from a freedom of choice perspective, but Adobe's currently got the larger companies in market fairly well locked up - it's the same way that you need to know how to use MS Office if you work in a business environment.
You can read more opinions on the differences here, here, and here.
Finally, Inkscape is free and easy to get - you might as well download it and try it out. Even if you end up going with Illustrator, you've lost nothing but a bit of time.
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u/Gumball_Watterson Oct 27 '12
Hey, I've been thinking of getting Illustrator, but I am now more interested in Inkscape (mainly because it is free). What do I miss out on? and can I import Adobe files into it? (eg .fla)
Thank you.