- Adobe Graphic Design Software
- Free Graphic Making Software For Beginners
- Free Graphic Making Software Apps
- Free Graphic Design Software Downloads
- Best Graphic Software
- Fatpaint is the worlds most advanced online graphic design software and photo editor, and the best online, free graphic editor for working with page layout and creating 3D text and logos. It has more graphic tools and resources incorporated into it than any other online graphics program, while still being super lightweight.
- Everyone can create professional designs with Canva. It's easy to use and free.
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Vectr is a free graphics software used to create vector graphics easily and intuitively. It's a simple yet powerful web and desktop cross-platform tool to bring your designs into reality. Make data beautiful—and easy to digest. With Canva’s free infographics maker, there’s no need to struggle with complicated design software. Simply choose an infographic template, add your information and there you have it: A stunning custom infographic.
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Professional graphic design software can be way, way too expensive. Here are 10 awesome alternative online graphic design options for every designer and budget.
Sick of sticking to just one graphic design software program? Why don’t you give some new online graphic design software a try instead?
We’ve compiled a sampling of 10 beautiful, accessible, and user-friendly options to empower you to find a design software that works perfectly for you—and will help you create some real stunners to include in your online design portfolio.
1. Design Wizard
If variety is the spice of life, Design Wizard is the tastiest graphic design software option on the menu—and one of the most accessible. With its deft attention to visual detail, Design Wizard offers thousands of aesthetically pleasing templates for both social media and print, as well as over a million high-quality images (including icons, vectors, and transparent images).
The expertly curated visual library is updated daily, and is chock-full of endless video, illustration, and graphics options. Everything is licensed and completely ready for commercial use
And with a range of packages from Apprentice (free!) to Expert ($16.95 monthly), every budget is welcome.
Design Wizard at a glance:
- Best graphic design software for beginners
- 1,000,000+ premium images
- 15,000+ templates
- Template options for both print and social media
- Affordable and scalable pricing
- Custom template resizing and other free personalization capabilities
- Integrations with Hubspot, Marketo, and Buffer
2. BeFunky
Anyone can create captivating, professional-grade visual content with this free graphic design software. BeFunky’s main offering comprises three creative tools that are simple enough for beginners but powerful enough to tackle a variety projects: Photo Editor, Collage Maker, and Designer.
BeFunky’s “fun and functional” design software proves that you don’t need a background in design to produce stunning results. With the option to work from beautiful pre-designed templates or build your own from scratch, there’s a ton of creative flexibility.
BeFunky at a glance:
- Free graphic design software
- Quick, easy, and enjoyable to use
- 1,000,000+ free stock images easily accessible (thanks to a partnership with Pixababy
- Make banners, infographics, flyers, posters, brochures, and more
- Design on the go with the mobile device app
- Upgrade to premium BeFunky Plus account any time
3. Canva
What if creating a beautiful visual canvas was as easy as drag-and-drop? Canva makes it possible by prioritizing simplicity, variety, and affordability.
When you visit their website, you will be asked to indicate what you’re using Canva’s design software for—education, small business, large company, non-profit, and so on. Canva wants to provide an excellent experience for designers of all kinds.
Billed primarily as a photo editor, Canva is a veritable Swiss army knife: it also works as a color palette generator, font selection tool, photo collage assembler, and infographic maker. It also features hundreds of free design elements for every project. Canva even provides online educational resources.
Canva at a glance:
- Impressive functionality for free graphic design software
- 100+ free design elements and fonts
- Diverse range of print, digital, and social media templates
- Templates are easily customizable and resizable
- Most tools are mobile-friendly and available as iOs and Android apps
- Upgradable to Premium based on needs and business growth
4. Pixlr
A powerful and intuitive (and did we mention free?) alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr also made our list of the best free online photo editors. With over 500 million users, we’re not the only fans.
But Pixlr also holds its own as a solid free graphic design software option, especially for beginners who don’t want to invest too much time and money or learn a complicated application straight out of the gate.
You can get started creating and editing beautiful images with Pixlr’s robust toolset in literally minutes, directly in your internet browser or via iPhone or Adroid apps—without any convoluted installation process.
Though Pixlr is especially incredible for editing photos on-the-go and provides a free vector editor and an array of free fonts, graphics, and stock images, many advanced features require a Pixlr Pro account. Luckily, it’s a small price to pay, as far as online graphic design software goes, at just $5 a month.
Pixlr at a glance:
- Excellent free alternative to Adobe Photoshop
- Easy to use for beginners with no installation required
- A variety of free fonts, graphics, and stock images
- Design on the go with iPhone and Android apps
- Supports five popular file formats (.png, .jpeg, .jpg, .bmp, and .tiff)
- Uses its own file format (.pxd) for easier editing
5. Crello
With an astounding image archive of over 65 million files, 12,000 templates, and hundreds of fonts, Crello is a frontrunner for most professional graphic design software option on the list. With expertly created templates that can be customized in a simple and streamlined way, Crello makes designing enjoyable.
This design software can help you create an extensive array of aesthetically stunning designs for print materials, digital ads, and social media posts. You can even create animated graphics. Visual assets are organized into themed collections to help inspire you.
If there’s enough wiggle room in your budget, we suggest checking out Crello Pro; it’s only $8.30 a month. Featuring unlimited commercial use without Crello watermarks or branding and access to advanced animation functionality, it’s well worth it.
Crello at a glance:
- Professional graphic design software quality that’s still easy to use for beginners
- An extensive and unparalleled library of free images, fonts, templates, and animations
- Features a gallery of design formats and themed collections to stimulate creativity and inspiration
- Help resources, tutorials, and how-to guides
- A high-value Pro option at an affordable price
6. Snappa
The best graphic design software for beginners is one that makes designing feel like a snap. Enter Snappa, the graphics software that will allow you to design like a pro.
Snappa breaks down the design process into easy, actionable steps. You can find the perfect image dimensions (whether it be for a blog, ad, email, or social media platform) in a one click, choose from thousands of crowd-pleasing templates in the blink of an eye, and take advantage of over 500,000 beautiful, high-quality stock photos in seconds.
You can also connect your Buffer account to Snappa to pre-schedule your posts, add a variety of text and effects to images, resize graphics for cross-platform posting, and make use of many other desirable free features.
Snappa at a glance:
- Quick and easy to use
- 500,000+ high-quality stock photos
- Free option includes access to templates, graphics, and five downloads per month
- Integrates with Buffer for post scheduling and more (for Premium accounts)
- Highly scalable with Starter (free), Pro ($10 per month), and Team ($20 per month) options
7. Infogram
A popular online graphic design toolkit, Infogram transforms charts, graphs, maps, graphics, dashboards, social media visuals, and more into little works of art. Infogram’s design appeal spans several industries including the non-profit sector, online publishing, education, and government, helping all kinds of business develop their own brand themes. Select from over 20 professionally designed themes or go rogue with your own color palette, logo, and fonts.
Infogram’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows you to plug in your data and transform it into something aesthetically beautiful and impactful—quickly. Along with personalized design options, there are also various pricing options for every creative, entrepreneur, business, and enterprise.
Infogram at a glance:
- Used by over 30,000+ companies worldwide
- 1 million images and icons
- Data integration
- Easy data integration: import from a spreadsheet or cloud service
- Five different pricing options make it very scalable
8. Tinkercad
Take your 2D ideas and bring them to life with Tinkercad, an effortlessly simple online graphic design toolkit for creating innovative 3D designs and coding. Catering to designers and creatives of all levels, Tinkercad is absolutely free. You can get started immediately—nothing to download, no lengthy installation process.
With an irresistible gallery of designs conceived by a community of creators to spark your inspiration, you’ll be itching to start learning 3D design. Tinkercad’s motto? “No experience preferred.” Get started with Tinkercad’s learning resources and you’ll never look back.
Tinkercad at a glance:
- 100% free
- Innovative collection of graphic design software tools for 3D design
- Educational resources are an ideal introduction to Autodesk, the leading 3D design and engineering software
- A community creators gallery fuels inspiration
9. Gravit Designer
![Making Making](https://d2vr64fd62ajh5.cloudfront.net/img/home/new/1.en.jpg)
You might already be familiar with this free graphic design software under its previous name, Gravit. Billed as a “cross-platform design tool for the 21st century,” Gravit Designer delivers the goods.
Whether you use it online or download it as an app, Gravit Design is an incredible resource for vector design and comes with a seriously robust toolkit. Icon designs, logo presentations, illustration work, animation, text integration? You’re covered.
Designed for simplicity and ease of use, the platform is still granular enough for a wide variety of projects. A serious perk for busy designers is the Gravit Cloud service that will let you design-on-the-go from any device, anywhere with internet access. Talk about a productivity boost!
Gravit Designer at a glance:
- 100% free
- Choice of using online or via downloadable app
- Cross-platform functionality
- Robust toolkit for vector design
- Can export files as PDF, SVG, or bitmap
- Gravit Cloud services facilitates on-the-go design work
10. Vectr
Vectr is a free graphic design software for creating beautiful vector graphics that is both elegant and easy to use. Simple and streamlined, designers at any level can jump right into their work without any pesky learning curve.
Another great cross-platform option, Vectr will synch your projects in real-time so you can begin designing at home on your desktop web browser and continue later on your iPad. It’s a completely seamless experience. What’s more, you can grant collaborators access to your document so that they can watch you create and edit as it happens.
Whether you’re working on website design mockups, brand logos, presentations, brochures, posters, and more, your designs will look crisp and clear—no matter the size. The sky’s the limit!
Vectr at a glance:
- 100% free
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Seamless cross-platform capabilities
- Share and edit documents with collaborators in real time
- High quality designs at any size or scale
- Free user guide and tutorials
More budget-friendly online resources for creatives:
11 Extremely Helpful (And Free!) Online Graphic Design Courses
The Best Online Illustration Classes for Artists
Best Free Online Courses and Tutorials for Photographers
11 Extremely Helpful (And Free!) Online Graphic Design Courses
The Best Online Illustration Classes for Artists
Best Free Online Courses and Tutorials for Photographers
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Whether you are an amateur graphic designer or an experienced digital artist, using the right tools can multiply your talent exponentially. A well-built graphic design software provides intuitive controls and flexibility that can be easily understood by a beginner but also has vastly superior tools for an experienced user.
The best way to know which software would suit you best is to get hands-on with the tool and experiment with them. Each of the software is characterized by its features, ease of use, performance, cost, and availability. Many paid graphic design software provide a free trial for users to give them a better understanding of the product.
We have researched and put together a list of the best graphic design software in the field today. These tools are tried and tested and can help you create spectacular custom designs that will leave your clients spellbound. Graphic design can be used to take your portfolio website to the next level. Do check out our list of the top 25 Online Graphic Design Courses that will help you improve graphic design skills. And while you are honing your graphic design skills, don't forget to create your graphic design portfolio website to showcase your work. Your design portfolio represents a window for the world to view your work and judge your talent, skills, and experience. So, if you haven’t built a website to showcase your design portfolio, start today with Pixpa. Here are some great examples of graphic design portfolios created on Pixpa for your inspiration.
Get ready to express yourself in stunning new ways and create awesome digital art with ease and efficiency!
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is arguably the most popular software for graphic design and is used by millions of artists around the world. Whether you are looking to create banners, posters, websites, or logos, this best graphic design software can do it all for you. From small edits to sophisticated designs, Adobe Photoshop has tools for every level. If you are someone who works with illustrative designs, you can even draw or paint anything you like.
Along with image editing, you can create naturalistic artwork and composition in this software. You can define the size of your canvas, isolate elements from backgrounds, create custom brushes, work in 3D, do much more.
Platform: Windows and Mac
Sketch
Sketch is a Mac-only graphic design program that focuses mainly on digital design. These digital designs are used to create websites, apps, and interfaces. Unlike Photoshop, Sketch isn’t built for photo editing or print work. With Sketch, you can create a prototype by collaborating with other designers on the platform itself. The program has a smart layout feature in which the component will automatically resize based on the content. There are hundreds of plugins in the software which will let you do vector editing and other design work with precision down to the pixel. Digital icons are another thing that can be created through this software. Sketch, on the downside, is not great for print design or illustrations.
Platform: Mac
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a design software that is centered around vector design. You can create artwork, icons, posters, etc. and the designs created in Adobe Illustrator can be used in business cards or billboards and from smartphones to 8k screens. You can use this software to draw, mix, and refine designs to create something spectacular. Adobe has made a mobile version called Adobe Illustrator Draw, which is one of the best graphic design apps out there.
To draw, you can use the shaper tool and create vector shapes. Geometric shapes can be added to other outlines and can be moved, reshaped, and scaled. Even the fonts in the software can be manipulated according to your needs by adjusting their weight, slant, or width. For beginners, Adobe provides professionally designed templates to save time. The user interface of the program is helpful, but there is a steep learning curve to get good at illustrator.
Platform: Windows and Mac
Affinity Designer
The Affinity Designer is a cheaper alternative to illustrator, which is especially suitable for someone who is in the early stage of design career. The software is known to work smoothly, which can improve your workflow and make you express your creativity more freely. You can move and zoom your artwork at 60fps; see the gradients, effects, and adjustments changing live along with the transforms and curve edits.
Affinity Designer lets you work on both vector and raster workspaces, and you can switch between them easily. This software can work on any device, and you can create unlimited artboards within it. Affinity designer provides a graphic design app for the iPad with the same features offered on the desktop versions. Advanced color controls are provided where you can work in RGB or LAB color spaces with up to 32-bits per channel. You can find a wide range of toolset in the program which can be used to achieve a high level of accuracy and productivity. The grids and guides are fully customizable, where you can change the spacing, sub-divisions, gutters, angles, etc. Another powerful feature of Affinity designer is that you get floating-point accuracy by zooming your artwork, even by more than a million per cent.
Adobe Graphic Design Software
Platform: Windows, iPad, and Mac Best free editing software.
Adobe InDesign
Another software by Adobe that can be used to create designs is the Adobe InDesign. This graphic design software is used primarily in the publishing industry because you can design magazines, info sheets, books, posters, interactive PDFs, brochures, etc. with it. With the ‘adjust layout’ option that InDesign provides, you can change the text of your document, and the graphic will adjust accordingly.
The properties panel has been redesigned to give you more intuitive control over the tools. The Sensei technology integrated into InDesign makes the automatic arrangement and resizing of images. Beginners can quickly learn this graphic design software because it has a low learning curve. To work with other members of your team in creating a design, you can use Adobe InCopy. The Creative Cloud Libraries can help you share text, colors, and graphics with other members.
Platform: Windows and Mac
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2019
CorelDRAW was earlier built only for Windows OS; it is now available for Mac as well. With this graphic design program, you can create professional vector illustrations. There are powerful design tools to help you work faster and smarter. You will find numerous customization options, whether you are working on logos, web design, or print projects. CorelDRAW now uses AI technology to provide you with LiveSketch, which converts sketching into precise vector curves. The suite contains tools for graphic design as well as layout. It has Photo-Paint and Corel Font Manager for photo editing and font management.
The software has web graphic tools and presets to develop creative web content; you can publish directly into your Wordpress site through it. The file compatibility is also overwhelming; the program supports over 100 file formats.
Platform: Windows and Mac
Xara Designer Pro X
Xara Designer is built for both bitmaps and vectors. The program can handle desktop publishing, graphic design, illustration, photo editing, all in one place. The graphic design software provides you with hundreds of template layouts, design elements, and over a million archive photos to get you started quickly. While drawing any shape, lines, or curves using vectors, you would not face any loss in quality when you scale it up. You can create custom design elements and use them in any of your designs. Tools like gradients, outlines, and transparency in the software will give your artwork a special touch.
Platform: Windows
GIMP
GIMP is a free graphic design software that works on many platforms like Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. GIMP is an open-source program that allows you to change its source code and distribute the program. There are many customization programs and 3rd party plugins that can be used in GIMP to improve your productivity and create better designs. GIMP can also be used to retouch images, wherein you can even make creative composites. Interface components and mockups can also be designed, along with print designs such as icons and logos.
Platform: Windows, Linux, Mac
Gravit Designer
This is another free graphic design software that can be used to create vector-based designs. You can create logos, edit photos, and create animations and illustrations in this program. Gravit does not have an offline version in the free plan. The software is fully customizable according to the user’s needs. The pro version of Gravit is paid and has more advanced features like advanced export options, offline version, more color space, etc.
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS
Visme
Visme is an online design tool that goes above and beyond basic design capabilities, without requiring you to learn any complex software. It has an easy drag-and-drop editor, which lets both businesses and individuals create stunning and interactive visual content. There are hundreds of templates to choose from across 40+ categories, from presentation and infographics to press releases, reports and social media images. With a free Visme account, you can use some of these templates, but you get full access to millions of stock photos, videos, icons, animated graphics, fonts and graphs to customize these templates as much as you want. If you want to access premium templates and features like the brand kit, you need to upgrade to a paid account. There are multiple download formats available in Visme, from image to offline web. You can also publish your projects online and share them with a live URL. The unique thing about Visme is you can bring your content to life with advanced animation and interactivity features. For example, you can create a custom animated character, or add links, hover effects and pop-ups to your designs.
Platform: Web Browser
Vectr
Free Graphic Making Software For Beginners
Free graphics software, Vectr can be used to create vector graphics. These vectors created won’t lose their quality when scaled. Vectr doesn’t use pixels to create the design; it uses mathematical equations. This free graphic design software is available both online and for desktop. Vectr provides you with an easy to use platform which you can use to create any 2D graphics. It can be business cards, logos, posters, brochures, etc.
Vectr provides you with detailed guides on how to use the program, which you can use to learn and create anything with your imagination.
Platform: Windows, Web Browser, Linux, Mac, and Chrome OS
Colorcinch
Colorcinch is a fan favorite! It’s a simple-to-use free online photo editor that is rich in features. You can quickly and easily edit photos using the array of editing tools to adjust exposure, contrast, color, etc, or crop and rotate images, but Colorcinch goes much further than basic image editing. It can be used for creating all kinds of graphic design projects too. You can use their specialty effects such as the cartoonizer to turn any photo into a cartoon with a huge variety of cartoon styles, and they have the most extensive libraries available on the internet for filters, effects, overlays, masks, graphics, and icons.
All of this is wrapped up in one of the most polished and efficient UI’s of any online photo editor. Getting started on Colorcinch couldn’t be simpler - there’s no need to register with the site, and you can simply upload your image and start editing. When it comes to exporting your finished image, there’s a choice of export options to suit you.
Platform: Web Browser
Canva
If you have no previous experience in designing and you are looking for something very easy, then Canva is for you. This free online graphic design software allows you to create designs easily and quickly. There are a ton of templates, fonts images, many of which are free to use. Canva works on the drag and drop concept, where you only need to select the elements and drag it to your work area and customize it. This program does not provide you with advanced features like Photoshop. It, however, solves a beginner’s design need who doesn’t want to get into the process of learning and purchasing premium software. Canva is available as a graphic design app that can be used in Apple and Android devices. The basic features in Canva are free; you will, however, be charged if you want to use more features in it.
Platform: Web Browser, Android, iOS
PixTeller
PixTeller is an easy to use editor tool that can be used to create graphic images (downloadable in PNG, JPG, PDF format) and animations (downloadable in MP4, GIF format). Anyone can use it to make images, animated gifs & videos for personal or business use, with no technical or design knowledge. Creating graphics is a time demanding process, but with this design tool, anyone can make personalized visuals from scratch or by customizing any pre-made templates in minutes.
Platform: Web Browser
Design Wizard
Design Wizard is an online graphic design software, the pricing of which starts at free and increases along with the features. This graphic design software provides users with more than a million curated images, 15000+ templates. Another interesting feature of Design Wizard is its integration with Hubspot, Marketo, and Buffer.
Platform: Web Browser
Infinite Design
This graphic design app is built only for Android devices, which can be used to create vector graphics. The app can be used to create complex and eye-catching designs without much effort. As the name suggests, this app provides an infinite canvas where you can zoom, pan, or rotate. There are four types of symmetry that you can experiment with, and there are unlimited layers that you can work on. This app provides advanced features also like translate, scale, flip, distort, etc. The image you are creating on the graphic design app can be turned into a fully editable vector path. The advanced features in this app are accessible by purchasing it only.
Platform: Android
Inkscape
Inkscape, like many other platforms, provides multi-purpose use. It can be used by designers, illustrators, or web designers. The software has flexible drawing tools, which make it easy for beginners to understand the software and create art without difficulty. As the text is an integral part of graphic design, Inkscape has a powerful text tool at your disposal. This software is open source and can be used with any platform. A designer has to spend some time to understand how to use this software. This software is best used to create images that are vector-based and needs to be required in SVG format. Inkscape provides a lot of filters and a helpful community for the designer to grow.
Platform: Windows, Linux, and Mac
Adobe Comp
Adobe Comp is a graphic design app designed to be used along with other Adobe software like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Designs can be created with the use of text and shapes. Adobe provides free fonts from Typekit library, which are the same as desktop. With Comp, you can convert your rough designs into crisp graphics and finish the designs on your desktop with other Adobe software.
Platform: iOS and Android
Free Graphic Making Software Apps
Graphic design software in the early days was hard to use. Technology has come a long way, and software is now intuitive and helps a user express creativity more freely. Selecting the right platform would depend on your work and what you want to achieve with the software.
Businesses are always on the lookout for good graphic designers to boost their business. Therefore, as a graphic designer, you need to present your work in a stunning way through a website. Your design portfolio is the prism through which your work will be evaluated by new clients and potential employers. A great design portfolio can propel you towards success, open up new opportunities and get you just the kind of work you want. However, failing at putting your best foot forward with your design portfolio can lead to rejects and spell doom.
Given that it can make or break your career, creating your design portfolio in itself becomes the most important design exercise of your career. With online design portfolio websites becoming the default medium of presenting your work to the world, its important to make sure that you understand the dos and don'ts of a successful design portfolio website. We had earlier put together a comprehensive guide on 20 pro tips that every designer needs to follow to create a successful online design portfolio website.
Free Graphic Design Software Downloads
However, just following any guide is not enough. You also need to think out of the box, find your own expression and figure out how to present your work in the best way possible. That's where a bit of inspiration comes in handy. At Pixpa, we have witnessed (and helped) thousands of designers around the world create their design portfolio websites. We have curated a list of our favorite design portfolio websites for you to explore and learn from.
Disclaimer: The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the final product. All images are copyright to their respective owners.
Best Graphic Software
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