Over the years, I’ve used a variety of vector graphics software. From Inkscape to Adobe Illustrator and even dedicated design apps such as Sketch, Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo.
In this article, I’m going to share with you some of my favorite free vector graphics software. If you want to create logos or icons, the main thing you are going to need is an application that supports exporting your work as SVG (vector) files
Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is a full-featured vector graphic design app that works across a ton of different platforms. A web app, you can also opt to download Gravit Designer for macOS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.
The app includes many of the more granular features you expect from a pricier tool like Photoshop, including layer-based editing, opacity control, and image effects. Plus, you can also pull shapes, icons, emojis, and more from the app’s libraries.
For many designers, the free version of Gravit Designer is more than capable. However, features like version history, higher resolution PDFs, and more advanced export options require the paid version.
Vectr
Vectr is billed as a bona fide free alternative to Illustrator, with a web version and desktop apps for Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.
On top of all the basic vector features you expect, Vectr also makes it easy to collaborate on designs, with features for live collab and syncing with a simple URL share.
While the limitations of Vectr fall mainly on the more advanced side, the app is completely free—meaning there aren’t any features or templates hidden behind a paywall.
Vecteezy
Source: Vecteezy
Vecteezy offers free vector art, stock photos, and videos, which means you can combine their library of creative resources with the editor to get graphic design work done really quickly. And you can also create designs from scratch—all within your browser (for Chrome, Chromium, and Opera).
The UI is simple and intuitive—much like beginner-focused such as like Canva. While Vecteezy Editor includes more advanced features than Canva, free users do miss out on features like booleans, knife tools, and blending modes.
YouiDraw is the open-source vector graphics software that provides a variety of customizable textured brushes to the users. This free vector drawing tool offers modern tools like a pencil for the plain line or sketchy and different color options.
With different color and border size, users can shape new text. This tool is easy to use, very convenient and simple online drawing tool. Its logo design includes lots of features like quick styles, freehand logo tools, graphic templates, and vector logo effects.
The typical users of this software are Startups, agencies, enterprises, and SMEs. It works on HTML5 canvas with Google Drive. Anywhere or anytime, you can access your work. You will find this tool a powerful vector graphic design solution on the web. In various environments, you can express your style and creativity. The software can be integrated with almost all web applications.
(Source: YouiDraw)
Highlights:
- Drawing- It serves as a powerful vector graphic design solution on the web. You can express your style and creativity with this feature.
- Logo Creator- It creates high-quality vector graphics, icons, website elements, HTML5 logos, and buttons.
- Painter- You can work with dozens of customizable brushes, paper textures that seem to be real.
- Template & Style – The different styles and templates graphics will help in improving work efficiency. You will enjoy gradient, simple, and artistic styles.
- Tools- To point edit mode, straight line and curve arc, you can use a pen, pencil, brush, and switch elements.
- Text and shapes- With text button, you can create a shape into canvas, rectangle, ellipse, convex, concave, gear, round-corner rectangle.
- Transform- You can change the size, scale, and position, rotate, skew for the desired shape or text.
- Shape combine- It holds five different combine mode: Union, Intersect, Exclude, divide, and subtract.
Synfig Studio is powerful 2D animation open-source vector graphics software. It works with high dynamic range imaging. You will find that it holds the ability to design the animation in the front-end and at a later time render it with the backend.
With less resources and people, it supports a multitude of layers of different types. You can apply real-time effects to layers or a group of layers. This free vector graphics tool allows experienced animators to create high-quality animations.
You can apply gradients, geometric, fractal, distortions, filters, fractal, and transformation to your animations as it supports a multitude of layers. You can enjoy fast and efficient animation with this app.
(Source: Synfig Studio)
Highlights:
- Vector Tweening- It provides powerful tools to have full control of your vector artwork. Automatically, it calculates in-between frames.
- Layers and filters- It offers 50+ layers to create artwork and animation. You can choose from various layer types like geometric, filters, gradients, distortions, transformations, and fractals.
- Bones – With bitmap images, you can create pattern images. The bone system allows you to control your vector artwork.
- Advanced Controls- You can create sophisticated character puppets and other types of dynamic structures. Directly or through mathematical expressions, you can link parameters of various layers.
- Cross Platforms- It is a cross-platform that works on Windows, OS X, Mac, and Linux.
- Sound support- You can sync sounds music and narration to your videos with this feature.
If you are looking for powerful and free vector graphics software, then Inkscape is an ideal choice for you. For Linux, Windows, and macOS, this app works as a professional vector graphics editor.
The interface of this software is transparent, stable, and consistent. The users get various tooltips along with useful information from this versatile and flexible software. Design professionals and hobbyists create a wide variety of graphics like icons, logos, illustrations, maps, diagrams, and web graphics from this open-source vector drawing tool.
With the add-ons feature, the users can customize the functionality of this tool. The graphic designers will find it a hugely adaptable and excellent tool.
This tool produces highly professional vector graphics documents. You will find a fast and easy interface.
(Source:Inkscape)
Highlights:
- Import/Export- It can import and export various file formats that include SVG, AI, PDF, PS, PNG, and EPS.
- Object Creation- It provides various tools for drawing and shapes. You will get embedded bitmaps, text tool, and clones.
- Object manipulation- It works on transformations, Z-order operations that include raising and lowering, grouping objects, layers, and alignment and distribution commands.
- Fill and stroke – You will get color selector, color picker tool, copy/paste style, pattern fills, path makers, dashed strokes, and the gradient editor.
- File formats – It follows SVG format file generation and editing. For export and conversions, it commands line options.
- Create and edits- You can create and edit graphics, logos, diagrams, cartoons, and illustrations that you can scale to a larger or smaller size.
- Vector images – You can convert slogans and easy designs into vector images. You will find the method easy and fast.
Gravit Designer (free)
Gravit Designer is one of the best free vector graphics editors that provides necessary tool sets to the designers. It is a versatile tool that helps in creating solutions. This app is intuitive and holds powerful vector toolset. You will find advanced and intuitive dashboard, customizable interface, advanced editing tools, and drag-and-drop functionality.
This app works on all platforms. You can open the full power of your creativity with this fast and flexible tool. With a vast array of precision vector tools, you can discover a new world of creativity.
You can edit images for posting, print or larger design project. With this tool, you will enjoy everything that includes image and photo editing from color and lighting adjustments, filters and blending.
(Source: Gravit Designer)
Highlights:
- Smart shapes- For fast and flexible geometric shape creation, it provides smart shape primitives with magic control points.
- Powerful aligning – It provides align to edges and center points of the selection. It aligns to page limits.
- Dashboard- The advanced and supportive dashboard allows its users to set the width and height of the documents.
- Intuitive interface- The customizable, clean, intuitive interface allows users to navigate and explore Gravit designer seamlessly.
- Web and App UI- For web and mobile user, you can create mockups and wireframes to share styles, master pages, symbols, overrides.
- Brand visuals and imagery- This professional vector editing tool provides so many options to create icons, branding, logos, illustrations, and stand-out objects.
- Social Media- You can design stunning images for social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
- Built-in templates and libraries- In no time you can create flyers, banners, business cards, and other collateral.
- Advanced typography- You can gain control over typography like font styles, line, character, paragraph spacing.
- Import/export options- With versatile import and export options, you can import and edit PDF, EPS, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch file formats; and export multi-page PDF documents.
- Reusable design elements and styles – It embraces a fast and efficient design process. Throughout the entire design process, you can quickly select and change the font family.
- Transform and organize objects- With sub-pixel precision, you can scale, rotate, skew, and move design elements. You can organize your designs into pages and groups.
Skencil is the flexible and powerful free interactive vector drawing application. Shapes like rectangles, ellipses, and curves are used for skencil drawing that can be filled and stroked. It has unlimited undo history.
This open-source vector graphics editor is implemented in a very high-level and interpreted language known as Python. Formerly, this app was known as Sketch and holds the quality of bending a text along a path. You will find this tool intensive, user-friendly, and of higher level.
(Source:Skencil)
Highlights:
- Drawing Primitives- It includes rectangles, external images, EPS images, text, ellipses, and Bézier Curves.
- Export filters- This app writes the drawing to various file formats. For its format, adobe illustrator, PDF and SVG files; this online vector graphics editor holds filters.
- Import filters- It allows this tool to read different file formats. It has import filters for Adobe Illustrator files, Corel CMX, scalable vector graphics, and its file format.
- Blend groups- It automatically updates interpolations of arbitrary objects.
- External images- JPEG and PNG are the external images’ properties for raster image that Python Imaging Library can read.
- Text along a path- It bends text along a way with EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files.
LibreOffice-Draw is the open-source vector graphics software that allows you to produce anything from a quick sketch to an elaborate plan. This tool acts as a means to communicate with graphics and diagrams. For creating technical drawings and general posters, you can use this tool with a maximum page size of 300cm by 300cm.
This free application is included in the LibreOffice suite that is developed by the Document Foundation. You can create simple and complex drawings and can export the same in the standard image formats. In your pictures, you can insert tables, charts, formulas, and other types of items. With this software, you can have a wide variety of graphical images. As per your preference, style, and formatting box you can arrange tools and in just one click you can put all your graphics styles.
(Source:LibreOffice-Draw)
Highlights:
- Vector Graphics- By using lines and curves, it creates vector graphics that are defined by mathematical vectors.
- 3D Objects- In LibreOffice Draw, this tool can create simple 3D objects such as cubes, spheres, and cylinders. It modifies the light source of the objects.
- Connect Objects- To show the relationship between objects; you can connect objects with distinct lines known as “connectors.”
- Grid and Snap Lines- In your drawing, you can align objects with the help of visual cues. You can snap an object to a snap line and grid line.
- Graphic File Formats- It can export many graphic file formats like BMP, GIF, PNG, and JPG.
- Gallery – It includes images, sounds, animations, and other types of items that can be inserted and used in your drawings.
- Displaying Dimensions- To calculate and display linear dimensions, you can use dimensions lines.
- Geometric elements- It stores and displays an image as an assembly of simple elements that include lines, polygons, and circles.
- Smart Connectors- You can effortlessly build flowcharts, organization charts, and network diagrams with intelligent connectors. It allows the conversion of images to a range of image and document formats with the help of a powerful engine.
Conclusion
Vector graphic software is not a comprehensive list as there are numerous tools like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and XaraLX, but these are the ten best ones we’ve picked. Each of these tool offers different capabilities to design vector graphics, some concentrate more on creating logos and others have more advanced features to work with curves and paths. However all of them are free and surely any graphic designer will try them.