Nowadays, there are so many graphic design software on the market. Some of them are really expensive and so much harder to use than others. If you’re a beginner who has no idea where to start learning graphic design, a cheap and user-friendly graphic design software is a must! So, to help everyone out there, we’ve compiled an in-depth guide with some qualified recommendations for the best free graphic design software for Mac + PC.
Here, you will be introduced to the best free mac design softwares.
Canva
Canva is a simple drag-and-drop application for graphic design that has also added infographic templates that you can use to use the same tool you use to create social media designs to craft your next infographic.
Canva is highly versatile, in that you can use it for any kind of designs, including marketing and social media. However, they don’t stop there. One example of enhanced options is business cards, education lesson plans, and even t-shirts. Pay Canva some money, and they’ll even print the t-shirt for you and pop it in the mail. In this sense, they’re a lot like Vistaprint. Canva also has collaboration tools in paid versions. Buy the professional version, and you can even schedule social media posts.
From an infographic maker perspective, the ability to include the other graphics that you are already making into your infographics is a plus.
Pricing: Free version. Then, professional-level plans starting at $12.95 monthly. There are also discounts for nonprofits and schools.
DesignCap
If you need a simple flyer or poster, then check out DesignCap.
They have thousands of templates for this kind of document, and many others. You can even do an infographic or report on DesignCap. More recently, they have added some social media-related offerings. Instagram is the only one where you can do a post, but for YouTube and Facebook you can add some design elements. While this app does have infographic maker functionality, the app overall is an easy way to make print assets to match online advertising, or vice versa.
Pricing: very limited free plan. Paid options cost $8.99 per month for lower usage, and $12.99 for the plus version. There’s also an annual pay discount.
Easel.ly
Easel.ly is a way to “easily” make infographics.
In fact, their whole premise is that this is the easiest way to make an infographic. Just use their templates to make something eye catching. You can add images from their library, or upload some of your files. However, you don’t necessarily have to DIY. Instead, there is an Easelly design service that can make custom templates for a fee. From there, you can add information to the template several times over. The business version allows for real-time collaboration and group use. Best of all, it’s affordable.
Pricing: there is a free version, but also easelly professional. This is paid for monthly on a sliding scale. Students pay just $2.00, individuals $4.00 and businesses $5.00.
GIMP
The first in this series is GIMP, which is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for tasks such as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring.
Adobe Photoshop has been the king of this photo retouching and manipulation field for the last two decades and with its costly subscription-based payment system. So if you’re looking for a free alternative then you can use GIMP. One more reason to replace Adobe with GIMP is that it’s not a free trial or a freemium model, it’s just free and you can download it for free at any time from gimp.org. Adobe has notoriously switched over to a subscription model and charges a minimum price of 9.99 per month whereas GIMP is open-source software and you can use it without any barrier
GIMP has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, or an image format converter. So, if you are a beginner motion graphics designer you must check out this software.
SKETCHBOOK MOTION GRAPHICS SOFTWARE
Do you love to draw your own characters and animate them or just want to create concept art or nice storyboards for the animation? But you don’t want to use Adobe illustrator or Coreldraw due to their expensive payment model then the sketchbook from Autodesk is the answer.
It is a motion graphics software free to use and the best thing is it is from Autodesk the creator of Autocad. From doodle to concept art, Sketchbook is used by product designers, architects, automobile, and industrial designers to iterate quickly and communicate their ideas.
You can export your work as jpg, png, VMP, Kiff, and of course PSD. Layered PSDs are fully preserved including layer names, groups, and blending modes. The best thing is this software available to download on almost all the medium from your phone to the desktop and absolutely free.
BLENDER
Do you love 3d software to create models, animate the characters or elements for your motion graphics? But scared of the huge subscription charges to buy 3D software? The most expensive subscription is for 3d software in the market. It’s almost impossible to bear such an amount of money for newbies or students. They need something cheap but the best or maybe totally free.
Here comes Blender. In our opinion Blender is the only full 3d creation suite open-source application available online. It supports the entirety of the 3d pipeline. Such as modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing. Further, it supports the 2d animation pipeline, an all-in-one solution for VFX artists and motion graphics designers.
Blender is free software. You are free to use it for any purpose including commercial or for education. Blender is cross-platform and runs equally well on Linux windows and macintosh computers. Its interface uses OpenGL to provide a consistent experience. They have a huge community of animators who are ready to help one another.
Download this software now and start working without thinking about crack software or spending money or buying a license.
DAZ 3D
So you have downloaded blender but don’t know where to get amazing models or pre-made environments. You can try das 3d and download the bridge for Blender. A bridge is a cross-platform port that converts 3d assets. In this case, amazing DAZ content and brings it to another software complete with rigging, textures, and other studio modifications. Get DAZ studio for free, the premiere 3d creation and rendering software.
DAZ studio unlocks your imagination so you can build your own universe. Powerful for professionals easy enough for beginners and available for free. The DAZ Studio software comes with a starter package and a free 3d model so you can start creating. Though the software is free and you will get lots of free-to-use models as well. But for advanced models and other stuff, you need to buy from the online marketplace. But for first-timers, it is worth trying. So let’s get into the universe of editing and compositing.
DAVINCI RESOLVE
When it comes to getting free-to-use best motion graphics software Davinci Resolve comes to mind. Davinci Resolve 16 features a revolutionary new cut page specifically designed for editors that need to work quickly and on tight deadlines.
The new Davinci neural engine uses machine learning to enable powerful new features such as facial recognition speed warp and much more. Adjustment clips let you apply effects and grades to clips on the timeline below. Quick export can be used to upload projects to youtube and Vimeo from anywhere in the application. Also, new GPU accelerated scopes provide more technical monitoring options than before. In addition to that fusion is dramatically faster and fairlight adds immersive 3d audio.
Davinci Resolve 16 is a massive release with hundreds of features customers have asked for. It is free to use for all. However, if you need more advanced features then you can upgrade to DaVinci Resolve Studio.
NATRON MOTION GRAPHICS SOFTWARE
A newbie in this market, Natron is a powerful digital compositor that can handle all of your 2d, 2.5d, or motion graphics needs. Its robust audio file formats and open fx architecture is what makes Natron one of the most flexible open-source compositors for the visual effects community.
Natron’s interface and functionality are the same across all platforms such as macOS, Windows, and Linux. Natron has powerful keying roto or roto paint 2d tracking tools that are stable for all current film production projects that require visual effects.
It has some strong keying or mat generation tools. They have been developed from the main ofx software developers and a plethora of tools from the open-source plug-in developing community.
AUDACITY
Sound is an important part of motion graphics so you need audio editing software to create, modify and add audio effects on it. Audacity is a free easy to use multi-track audio editor and recorder for windows, mac os, Linux, and other operating systems.
You can use audacity to record live audio. Audacity can record computer playback on any windows vista or later machine. It lets you edit wave, iflack, mp2, mp3 sound files. Further, you can cut, copy, splice, or mix sounds together with numerous effects including changing the speed or pitch of a recording. You can also write your own plugin and more. All you need to do is go to the website and download the software from the link provided there.
Conclusion
Depending on your specific needs and goals, any of these free graphic design programs will certainly be worth trying out. If you’re looking for a way to get started quickly and easily, Graphic is definitely worth a look. And if you’re just getting into graphic design, Designify will help you get started with the basics without any steep learning curve. On the other hand, if you’re an existing graphic designer who wants to make edits and customize designs even more easily, having access to powerful tools like GIMP can really come in handy. Whatever your needs are, there are solid options for you out there on the market today—and all of them are completely free to try out.