I have gotten a few messages from readers who want to know what software they should get if they are just starting out in surface pattern design and I wanted to post about it to help other new pattern designers who might have the same question. Typically, the standard software used by most surface pattern designers is either Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. For the sake of this post, I will mainly focus on those two apps, but I also want to address cheaper alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop as well as address Adobe Creative Cloud and why you might want to get that as opposed to buying Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop separately.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is the standard software for surface pattern design. This is mainly because Illustrator works in vectors which means that you can scale a pattern up or down without losing any quality. This is particularly important in pattern design because when you are making a pattern to license you wouldn’t necessarily know what the pattern is going to be used for. Someone might license your pattern for wallpaper while another person might use your pattern for packaging. Creating a vector pattern will allow you to make size adjustments to your pattern to accommodate larger projects like wallpaper without losing any quality in your pattern. Right now, Adobe Illustrator is $239.88 dollars a year so it is quite expensive compared to other vector software.

Cheaper Alternative to Adobe Illustrator 

For a cheaper alternative to Adobe Illustrator, I would highly suggest Affinity Designer. Affinity Designer also works in Vectors and the best part about the app is that it costs $44.99 dollars total. Affinity designer always has sales going too so right now it is only $24.99. Having played around with both the Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer apps for the iPad, I have to say that while the Adobe Illustrator app is easier to draw in, the Affinity Designer app has way better features for creating patterns. 

Adobe Photoshop

Unlike Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop creates raster images that are made up of pixels. This essentially means that unlike vector patterns, if you make a raster pattern in Photoshop, you wouldn’t be able to scale your patterns up or down without losing some quality. If you made a pattern and you realized that you wanted to make the elements in your pattern bigger, that is typically where you would lose the most quality. Raster images can, however, scale down to an extent without losing much quality so often you will see people who work in Photoshop make their designs really big so they can have the option of scaling them down if necessary. The main reason you would want to get Adobe Photoshop over Adobe Illustrator is if you were a traditional artist and you wanted include your watercolor, oil pastel,  acrylic art, etc. in a pattern. There is a way to do this in Adobe Illustrator where you would digitize your artwork and turn it into a vector graphic, however, your pattern will look a lot stiffer in Adobe Illustrator as opposed to if you made your pattern in Photoshop. Also, the great thing about Adobe Photoshop is that it is a lot easier to add texture to your patterns as you have access to all of Kyle T. Websters brushes which are phenomenal. You can add some great texture in Adobe Illustrator, however, adding texture in Adobe Photoshop is almost instinctive for any new pattern designers while with Adobe Illustrator you really have to practice for a while before you start getting good at adding texture. Photoshop also costs $239.88 a year so it can be quite pricey when you are first starting out. 

Cheaper Alternative to Adobe Photoshop

For a cheaper alternative to Adobe Photoshop, I highly suggest Procreate. Procreate is an app on the iPad. It is a one time purchase of $9.99 in the app store so it is the cheapest option for those starting out in surface pattern design. Much like Photoshop, Procreate makes raster images, however, it isn’t as comprehensive as Photoshop as it doesn’t have as many features as Photoshop. This is not necessarily a negative for pattern designers because all of the features that you would need to make a dynamic pattern are included in Procreate. Also, I find it a lot easier to draw in Procreate over Photoshop, but that is just a personal preference. 

If you want to go with a more expensive option like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, I suggest that you pick one software because when you start out in pattern design you won’t really need both software. The only reason I would suggest to get both software is if you can get Adobe Creative Cloud on a student or teacher discount, Adobe Creative Cloud allows you to get all of the Adobe software for $599.88 dollars a year. This is a lot for someone who is starting out and 5 years into my surface pattern design journey, I wouldn’t even pay that much for software. I do have Adobe Creative Cloud, however, and that is because I am in college and I get the black Friday discount every year which is roughly around the same price as if I were to only buy Adobe Illustrator. I bought Adobe Creative Cloud for around $200 dollars without tax last year so it is a huge savings. One of the benefits of getting Adobe Creative Cloud is you get access to over 1,300 fonts through Adobe Fonts. These fonts can be used in both personal and commercial projects and they come with the license to the fonts so you don’t have to spend extra money on licenses for each font. This is a huge benefit for me because it can get pretty expensive when you want to add type to your pattern design. If you plan on buying either Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop you can always try both software before you buy them. Each software have a 7 day free trial so this would be a good way to try out both software to see which one you like better before you spend all of that money. 

So that is a very general explanation of what software you should be getting as a surface pattern designer. If you have any more questions leave a comment down below or message me on instagram @kelciemakespatterns.