What alternative does Adobe have to XD.

[Majorie35071751l8gh]

I want to use XD in my classroom, but it won't be of any use if it's no longer there next year.

[rayek.elfin]

Well... @creative explorer Let's take a pragmatic view on things 😉

• Dreamweaver (once king in the lands of code editing) is discontinued and no longer actively developed and struggles onward in a zombie state, endlessy roaming the wide lands they once ruled, and despised and ridiculed by the one who stabbed him in the back with an accursed dagger: Visual Studio Code.
• Animate (once Queen of the realms of animation) --as far as Adobe's silence can tell us-- is no longer actively developed and, in the likeness of Ophelia, drowned in the rivers of 2d animation she once commanded. Still barely alive, those who still serve her and her younger selves keep her memory alive. To no avail: ToonBoom, the Conquerer, rules supreme in 2D animation land now, yet allows those who wish to keep Animate's memory alive to serve her in her death.
• Adobe XD (once a promising upstart prince in prototyping lands) is discontinued and lies in a shallow grave, with some followers feeding him tears - hoping for a ressurection that will never arrive. Hope is a sweet worded yet deceitful friend indeed.
• Muse (a beautiful princess once pacifying the courts of visual web page development) is discontinued and left the world bereft of dreams and filling it with sorrow in her stead.
• Fireworks (once ruling over the vale of web graphics): dead and long forgotten, its dried corpse hidden in the Caves of Perpetual Licenses, with aging apostles clinging on, and chanting to their demi-goddess in sorrowful and melancholic voices. "If only...." "if only..."
• Air... Gone with the winds...
• And lest we forget those other rulers of old that went before: Authorware, Director, Freehand, GoLive, ImageReady, Dimensions, and others. Their visages engraved on the pillars supporting the Adobe Halls of Termination, filled with the apoplectic whispers of betrayed acolytes.

But! I hear you plead: What of those still ruling the courts of Adobe?

• Photoshop, cold ruler over image editing,  lost the battles to maintain dominance in the Southern lands of Digital Painting and in the North had to withdraw from webgraphics and web mockups.
• Photoshop's rule is besieged from all sides by a number of rebellious upstart lordlings who are quickly maturing. In the midst of this war of attrition, Photoshop hopes to appeace the masses with magical AI spells, yet their fair looking countenance is betrayed again and again by their aging and decrepit soul. Age catches us all in the end.
• Illustrator in the wild isles kingdom of Vector maintains a strong hold on dominance. Yet here too a small crowd of younger rebels vie for attention and leech users away. Princess VectorStyler is very close to feature parity, while prince Designer sports fine looks...
• InDesign's supremacy over the Mountain Kingdoms of Desktop Publishing remains in place. Those few contenders for the throne are still too young to threaten it.  The old emperor's (Quark) acted as a tyrant and made too many enemies. Too old to matter and despised by the populous, he is holding on to old memories of greatness, yet lives a solitary live with a few who continue to serve him: banned to the Isle of Mist. But Lo: the latest youngling's affinity may be closing the gap to InDesign...
• Premiere always had to share ruling the Kingdom of Video Editing with all its brothers and sisters: Avid for the editorial regions and DaVinci Resolve in colour and finishing lands. The provinces of marketing, web media, advertising - those Premiere still commands. The lure of DaVinci's no-taxes rule attracts many new followers though...
• After Effects remains the only Night Queen of Layered Motion Graphics and her FX domains range far and wide. An uncertain and fragile truce holds between her and the Dark Lord of Noodles, the undisputed ruler over the dark swamps of Nodal Visual Effects . Quite a few youngling attempted to breach this truce, yet none have survived the ruthless smiting of any potential rival by either. It is rumored that the Night Queen and Dark Lord of Noodles are lovers in secret and it is foretold that their heir shall replace them both...
• The Adobe court is alive with younger siblings and cousins: Adobe Express, Dimension, Rush, Fresco, Firefly, to name but a few. None of those hold their own lands yet, because too many compete with them. And those outside of the courts are fairer and more powerful. Their future is uncertain and for most death is what awaits them outside the court.

'Tis a sad and sorrowful yet all the more intriguing story: but for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, the hegemony of Adobe's software agents is a shallow existence, and time will lift the final telling's veils.

[ellices63621269]

I think the key take-away is that knowing the prinicples of design is much more important than knowing any specific software. The principles of design can be used and abused on any software, and all software will change or expire at some point.

Me, personally, I still use Dreamweaver. It seems useful enough for my purposes of making WordPress themes. I don't need anything more advanced.

I also still use XD, but I did make a small design for a new software feature in Pen Pot recently, just to make just I could try something new. I still plan on doing my main big projects on XD. I nearly tried doing a small design on Figma, but man, I already have too many subscriptions. I really can't take on another. I have even been canceling some. I'd be most happy if Adobe could quit investing in Artificial Intelligence and just knock down their pricing by $5.

[fenixo]

After a customer has requested the source file, I delivered XD and he could not buy it. So I had to convert the website from XD to FIGMA for free.... I have been working with Figma for two weeks and I think it's fantastic! 
by adobe addicted (but frustrated)

[fenixo]

Lavoro nel web design dal 2001 quando Fireworks era di Macromedia, poi Adobe ha comprato Macromedia.... in seguito Adobe mi ha costretto a passare a XD... e ora ho tutti i miei lavori (24 anni di lavoro) in .FW e .XD...
Mi chiedo per quanto tempo ancora sarà attivo XD, almeno il tempo di convertire alcuni file basilari in FIGMA.
Userò FIGMA e probabilmente cancellerò dalla mia vita ADOBE! Troverò un'alternativa a Photoshop e anche a Illustrator.

[daniel_2780]

Not sure Adobe believes a slow death is the only way to stop a lead.  Macromedia buyouts by Adobe, Wordperfect buyouts from once giant Novell and then from graphic king Corel. Macromedia Flash was a hot hit but required some arcane stuff at times. HTML5 was a replacement for it's content and it took a while to come of age. Video seems to be the one tool that hasn't seen the same shakeout in the industry.  Perhaps it's because video has been a bit more of a elite tool that no one has been able to do the same commodization in the market place. Look at MS Powerpoint success. It just a presentation editor.  So many fancy features that no one leaenr to use. I think the term "Death" by Powerpoint does ring a bell.  It's not "Death" by presentation is it. Lots of Commodity apps have been mainstreamed, just remains to be seen who is able to do it for the video world.

[daniel_2780]

MMM.. Meant to say "way to stop a blead."

[fenixo]

My core busienss is web deisgn so first there was adobe fireworks (adobe bought fireworks and all app of macromedia included dreamweaver) and killed all.... right now I am using XD because it was simpler to switch from adobe fireworks to adobe xd, and keep consistency with the same brand. Sometimes I use photoshop and illustrator. But at this point if I am going to use FIGMA I will leave Adobe forever!!!! (24 years of work and all my source file in .fw and .xd)

[creative explorer]

@fenixo Figma can do the light duty tasks of Adobe Illustrator. And you can convert your XD files to Figma either using plugins or exporting the SVG codes for it. There are a few YouTube for that

[fenixo]

I tried exporting to SVG, when I import into FIGMA the multi-line texts turn into separate text lines. Effects like shadows or blurs are not detected in Figma. 

[fenixo]

I've been using FIGMA for a few weeks now and apart from the first few days to get used to it, it's absolutely superior to XD.

I've been working as a web designer for 24 years, I started with ADOBE FIREWORKS, then I switched to ADOBE XD..... so I have all my past work, a good 24 years of work in .FW format which is no longer usable and obviously the most recent in .XD format.

I wonder how long XD will still be active? Just to get myself going and convert at least the most basic things I've done over time into FIGMA.