So after having downloaded the freeware vector program Inkscape a few months ago and tinkering around with it here and there, I finally used to it for an entire piece and was very pleased with it. For one thing, because it's a vector program, the lines are actually smooth as opposed to Photoshop where the lines are messy no matter what I do. Secondly, it's easy to work with for the way I do art anyhow. I lack any kind of tablet or even scanner for that matter and so when I do lines for a piece I'm working on, they are pencil on paper and then photographed with a digital camera. I find Inkscape to be a good program to add digital color to such a primitive way of getting it in a digital format.

My only complaint about the program is that it is very difficult to get the image into other programs to use. SVG files are all well and good but I also like to have my art in good old-fashioned JPG format. It took me forever to figure out to export a PNG file to Photoshop and then use that to convert it to a JPG.

Bottom line, I highly recommend Inkscape to anyone looking for a vector program and doesn't want to pay for Illustrator.