Are you a student? Have you ever wanted to make your own awesome graphics but didn’t know how to create them? Are you trying to find some of the best free graphic design software or search for great graphic design apps for your smartphone? I know you want to design the best for your client, but the money for the design software is not enough. You turn your passion into a job, and it’s tough to have all that you need. That’s why I am here.
Graphic design is in demand today more than ever before. If you are a designer, you can work as a freelance, or you can even open a graphic design shop of your own. But you might want to consider taking up an offer first. A lot of U.S colleges are offering free graphic design software for students who choose to study full time under their supervision.
Adobe Spark:
Since the majority of Adobe products are only available on PC or Mac, students aren’t able to fully experience the power of their tools on Chromebooks. However, Adobe has released some great web-based tools, particularly Adobe Spark. Adobe Spark is a free online and mobile graphic design app. With this app, it’s easy for students to create images, videos and web pages with little previous design experience.
Pixlr:
“With an impressive 2 million+ combinations of Free effects, filters and overlays to get creative, PIXLR turns every mobile device into a complete mobile photo editing tool that works best for simple tweaks right up to the more creative edits. Now you can edit your photos from wherever you are.”
Canva:
Best for: Social media graphics
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iOS
Canva launched in 2013 and has since become a very popular online design and publishing tool. In fact, this is the software that Team Clark uses to create a lot of the graphics we post on social media!
Canva offers a free version that includes everything you’ll need to start designing. With it, you’ll get access to more than 250,000 free templates and more than 100 design types including social media posts, presentations, letters and more. You’ll also be able to use hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics, collaborate on projects with members of your team and save your work with 5GB of free Cloud storage.
You can create a free account to begin using Canva online directly in your web browser. You can also download the desktop app for your Mac or Windows device. Canva also offers highly-rated apps on The App Store and Google Play for your iOS or Android device.
Vectr:
Best for: Collaborative projects
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Web Browser
Vectr is a free graphics software that lets you create vector graphics using a simple platform. Vectr is available as a downloadable program, or you can use the software online in your web browser.
The website includes a variety of helpful tutorials ranging from how to get started to creating beautiful professional presentations. You can also use the software to create business cards, typographic logos, social media headers, memes, resumes and more. In addition to the tutorials, you can also check out Vectr’s user guide for a more comprehensive description of how to use the software.
Perhaps one of the best features that Vectr provides is real-time URL sharing. You can send anyone a Vectr document for real-time collaboration online. You can create and edit designs live from both the web app or the desktop version. This makes it a great tool for collaborating with others on projects.
Photopea:
- Platform: Browser
- Rating: 4.6/5.0 Stars
Photopea is a web-based raster graphics editor used for image editing, making illustrations, web design or converting between different image formats. Photopea is advertising-supported software. It is compatible with multiple web browsers, including Opera, Edge, Chrome, and Firefox.
Inkscape:
Best for: Professional quality vector graphics
Platforms: Linux, Windows, macOS
According to Inkscape’s website, the software was created for designers of all kinds including those in marketing and branding, engineering/CAD, web graphics, cartooning and for individual uses. You can get started by downloading the software to your Linux, Windows or macOS device.
When I first downloaded Inkscape, the interface reminded me of Microsoft Paint. This made it really intuitive to use, and all of the features are available for free. According to the website, those features include object creation, object manipulation, fill and stroke features, operations on paths, text support, rendering and a variety of file formats.
There are tons of resources available on Inkscape’s website under the “Learn” tab including an FAQ section, tutorials, books/manuals and a guide to how to use Inkscape for animation. Users also have access to Inkscape’s community which includes user support and discussions in the form of chat, forums and more.
SVG-Edit:
Best for: Basic online editing
Platforms: Any web browser
SVG-Edit is a web-based drawing editor that works in any modern web browser. The code to the program is completely open-source, which means you can download and edit the program’s code itself, embed it into your own website and more. Of course, even if you aren’t interested in coding, you can just visit this website to use the basic editor online for free.
As you can tell from the program’s title, the editor specializes in creating and editing scalable vector graphics (SVG) images. This is one of the most popular graphics formats. Still, you can export your finished images as PNG, JPEG, BPM, WEBP or PDF files as well.
SVG-Edit looks a lot like Microsoft Paint, and it’s great for similar simple tasks. You’ll find basic tools that allow you to create and edit images including a digital pencil, shape tools, text tools, a color picker and more. You can use the tools to create a basic graphic from scratch, or if you need to make simple edits to a graphic or image, SVG-Edit may be the best basic online editor. Of course, if you have a more complicated project, this editor may not be enough.
GIMP:
Best for: Free Photoshop alternative
Platforms: GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows
If you’re looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, GIMP is a graphic design software worth checking out. While you can’t use the software online, it can be downloaded to Linux, OS X or Windows computers.
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It’s a free software that was designed for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring, according to the website. The interface is really similar to Adobe’s Photoshop, so if you’re already familiar with the tools and shortcuts, using GIMP will be easy.
You can get started by checking out the tutorials online which include beginner basics, photo editing tips, painting guides and more. If you’re ready to try out the software yourself.
Conclusion:
Need some tutorials on good free graphic design software? Or are you just looking for the best graphic design apps to help you learn about graphic design? If so, I’ve got you covered. These days there are a lot of graphic design programs available online. Learning to use them can be a ridiculously difficult task – especially if you’re just starting out in your career and wanting to get up to speed on building great looking graphics for print or for the web.