Best Tech Pack Software in 2026: Illustrator vs Adstronaut, Step by Step

Harman Chawla · 2026-07-28 · 7 min read

When a founder finds out they need a tech pack, the next thing they find out is how one is usually made: a technical designer drawing flats in Adobe Illustrator and typing measurements into a spreadsheet, for most of a day per style. That is the standard, and it is what every "how to make a tech pack" tutorial teaches. Adstronaut produces the same document from your product photos in minutes, editable in the browser, with no Illustrator to learn. Here is one navy utility overshirt built both ways.

The same overshirt in two workflows: an Illustrator artboard with the flat being traced over the photo, beside the real Adstronaut editor showing the finished flats with points of measure and materials

Left, the Illustrator workflow, drawn as an illustration for this article. Right, the actual Adstronaut editor for the overshirt from the tech-pack walkthrough. Click any image to open it full size.

Open the finished overshirt PDF · Try it on your own garment

In this guide

The standard workflow: Illustrator and a spreadsheet

A technical designer building the overshirt's pack by hand works through six stages. The frames below illustrate them; they are drawn for this article, not screenshots of a real session, and the time ranges are planning figures reported by technical designers for a first version of a mid-complexity style.

1. Draw the flats. Place the product photo on a locked layer and trace the front with the Pen tool: collar, placket, zip, pockets, seams, topstitching as dashed strokes. Then the back. A fluent designer with a library of blocks does this in an hour or two; anyone else measures it in afternoons. This stage is where Illustrator's learning curve lives: the Pen tool, stroke conventions, symmetry, line weights.

Illustrated Illustrator window: the overshirt photo at low opacity on a locked layer with the vector flat half traced, the right sleeve still an open path with anchor points showing

2. Add the points of measure. Draw a dimension line for every measurement with the Line Segment tool, add arrowheads in the Stroke panel, type the label, align it, repeat thirty times for front and back. Every label has to say where the measurement starts and ends.

Illustrated Illustrator window: finished front and back flats of the overshirt with measurement callouts being drawn by hand and one label mid-edit

3. Build the size chart in Excel. Type the sample-size values, write the grade rule per row, fill across the sizes, add tolerances. Then either paste the table into Illustrator as text and rebuild it with rectangles and the Align panel, or keep it in the spreadsheet and hope the two never disagree.

4. Materials and the BOM. Photograph or source swatches, place them, write composition, weight, placement and quantity per unit for every line. Labels, thread and packaging are the lines most often forgotten.

5. Construction. Write the sewing callouts, the construction table and the order of operations, cross-checking that the notes describe the same finishes as the drawing.

6. Lay out and export. One artboard per page, headers with the style number, revision and date on each, export to PDF. After every change, re-export and re-send.

Illustrated Illustrator window zoomed out to six artboards, flats, POM, size chart, BOM, construction and colorways, with an Excel spreadsheet of measurements behind it

The same pack in Adstronaut

The screens below are real captures of the overshirt's saved pack in the Adstronaut AI tech pack generator, the same one shown page by page in the walkthrough.

1. Upload the photos. A front view, plus the back and any close-ups.

Adstronaut's new-tech-pack screen with the required front-view and optional additional-views upload controls

2. Generate. Three to five minutes later the pack opens as an editable document: front and back flats with 30 points of measure placed on them, a graded size chart with tolerances, 12 materials with swatches, the numbered materials callout, the BOM, sewing callouts, colorways with Pantone references, detail views, the construction guide and sewing instructions.

The actual Adstronaut editor: annotated front and back flats of the overshirt beside its twelve material swatches

3. Correct in place. Click any value to change it. Change the medium chest and the whole row regrades; open the grade scheme to change the rule. Rename a point of measure, replace a swatch, edit a construction note, drag a callout in Manual mode.

The overshirt's size chart in Adstronaut with the medium chest selected and the grade scheme open: 2 cm per size, ±1 cm tolerance

4. Export. PDF for the factory on every paid plan, with the SVG of the flats; editable Excel for the sizes and BOM on Pro and above. Every page carries the style number, revision and date.

Three pages of the exported overshirt PDF fanned: sample measurements, bill of materials, sewing details

Hours, skills and cost, side by side

Planning figures for a first version of one mid-complexity style. Illustrator times are for someone who already knows the tool; a beginner is slower by a multiple, not a margin.

Illustrator + spreadsheet Adstronaut
Flats, front and back 2 to 4 hours Generated, about 3 to 5 minutes for the whole pack
Points of measure on the flat 1 to 2 hours Generated; drag to move, rename in place
Graded size chart with tolerances 1 to 2 hours in Excel, then rebuilt in the layout Generated; edit a value and the grade follows
Materials, swatches, BOM 1 to 2 hours Generated with swatches; edit or replace in place
Construction and sewing notes 1 to 2 hours Generated; edit in place
Layout and export About 1 hour, repeated after every change One click; PDF, Excel, SVG
First version, total Roughly a working day, 6 to 12 hours 3 to 5 minutes, plus 10 to 30 minutes of review
Skill required Fluent Illustrator and flat-sketch conventions; months to learn Read the pack and know your product
Software Illustrator from $22.99 a month on an annual plan, plus a spreadsheet From $29 a month for 5 packs; $69 for 15; $149 for 40
Revisions Edit, re-align, re-export Edit the value, export again

The review time is real and it is the same in both workflows: someone who knows the product confirms the fabric, the zipper and the fit intent. What disappears is the day of drawing and typing before that review can start. Signup includes a watermarked preview of your own garment, so you can see the result before choosing a plan.

Generate the overshirt-grade pack for your style →

When Illustrator is still the right tool

Keep Illustrator when editable vector source art is a requirement: a factory that asks for native .ai files, print artwork and placements, or a brand with a house drawing style and a library of blocks. Adstronaut exports the flats as SVG, which opens in Illustrator, so the two combine: generate the pack, then refine the artwork where vector control matters.

Pattern work is a different job again. Neither Illustrator nor Adstronaut makes the pattern; the tech pack tells the pattern maker and the factory what to make.

A free template, or a freelance technical designer

If your drawings and measurements already exist, a free tech-pack template or the spec-sheet workbook organises them at no cost. You supply and check every value.

A freelance technical designer is the right call when the missing work is judgment: fit, pattern interpretation, grading decisions, or a sample that went wrong. A straightforward outsourced pack runs a few hundred dollars; complex styles, fittings and revision rounds cost more, so ask for a scoped quote. Many designers now use Adstronaut for the first version and spend their hours on the judgment, which is the part you are paying them for.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best tech-pack software for a beginner?

If you are starting from a product photo or a sketch, Adstronaut: it produces the drawings, the graded measurements, the materials and the construction notes together, and you edit them in the browser. If you already have finished vector flats and a spreadsheet of specifications, a template can organise them.

Can AI tech-pack software replace Illustrator?

For producing the tech pack, yes: the flats, callouts, tables and notes come out of the generator and are edited in place. Keep Illustrator for vector source art when a factory or a print process needs it; the SVG export bridges the two. For the rest of the design stack, sketching, patterns and 3D, see clothing design software by job.

How long does a tech pack take in Illustrator?

For a first version of a mid-complexity style, technical designers report roughly a working day, six to twelve hours, once they are fluent. Learning Illustrator well enough to draw clean flats takes months. The same overshirt generated in Adstronaut in minutes and took a short review.

Which option is cheapest?

A free template costs nothing if you can do all the work yourself. Illustrator is $22.99 a month plus your time. Adstronaut's plans work out at a few dollars per pack when the credits are used. The useful comparison is the total: software, hours and what the factory receives.

Can I try Adstronaut without paying?

Signup includes 25 credits for a watermarked preview of your own garment. Full sections and clean exports are on the paid plans; see plans.

What should I send to the manufacturer afterwards?

The current revision, the quantity breakdown, the sample or quote request and your open questions. The factory handoff guide shows the whole package for this overshirt.

Sources

Adobe Illustrator's public US individual price, $22.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, and Adstronaut plans checked 21 September 2026. The Illustrator frames are illustrations of the workflow made for this article. The Adstronaut screens are captures of a saved pack in the current product. Time ranges are planning estimates, not a timed benchmark.