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The original was posted on /r/opensource by /u/Big_Gouf on 2026-04-16 18:18:16+00:00.
Going into retirement and scaling down my illustration business to handle small casework from a couple clients for extra spending money. Currently Adobe CC is costing me $150/mo and I’d love to dump that $1800/yr expenditure just to use Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat CC.
What cheap or free alternatives are there that would give me 90% the capabilities of these 3 packages? So far Photopea and Vectorpea or Inkscape have worked out for my needs.
The main concern is PDF generation. Some stuff I need to draw in CAD and export as a vector PDF, which acrobat allows you to do with the virtual printer (use to be called Distiller, but just acrobat now). Also combining multiple PDFs into one package, pretty easy to do with right-click menu items with acrobat. But we’re going for cheap, if not free here!
Edit/Update: Affinity is nice, putting it through its paces. PDF fix for my needs: PDF24 (it is in dire need of a UX/UI designer’s hand, but works great once you start learning all the hoops and kinks to get it working) If things keep going well, I’ll probably drop Adobe CC next month.