Are you designing your own graphics and want to learn about the top free graphic design software? Or maybe you are searching for information about best graphic design apps for beginners. I made this page to help anyone who wants to design their own graphics using free tools.
Many people who want to learn graphic design for beginners or simply buy a new software often wonder: “What free graphic design software is the best?” Well, listen up and you’ll find out my opinion on free graphic design software.
Adobe Ilustrator:
Still the leading vector option
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows, macOSTODAY’S BEST DEALSAdobe IllustratorUS$20.99/mthVISIT SITEat Adobe
REASONS TO BUY
+Industry-standard toolset+Adobe Sensei AI features+Top vector and type tools
REASONS TO AVOID
-Requires CC subscription
If you’re working with vectors and you need the best then you’d better face facts: Adobe Illustrator is what you need. It’s been around forever and it’s ideal for anyone who needs the power and versatility to create everything from simple logos and icons through to detailed, multi-layered artwork that’ll scale gracefully to any size.
The latest update to Illustrator brings Apple Silicon compatibility so it’ll run on the latest M1 Macs at top speed, and it also adds the ability to rotate your view of the canvas to make life easier when you’re working with fiddly, detailed projects.
The new iPad app means that you can also start work on a project on your iPad to get all the basics in place, then transfer your work to the desktop for fine-tuning. Of course, Illustrator requires a Creative Cloud subscription which may put some people off, but a large number of working creatives will agree that it’s entirely worth the expense.
DesignWizard:
Platform: Windows
DesignWizard ranks among the best free graphic design software for beginners. The tool offers a large database of images along with a host of free templates (over 10,000), plus a simple, easy-to-use interface. While you can also quickly create custom templates, DesignWizard excels as a front-line, free graphic design tool for beginners.
Despite an easy-to-use interface and no upfront costs, it’s worth noting that most of the more powerful options in DesignWizard are only available in its for-pay version.
Canva:
Canva is one of the most popular free design tools out there, and with its easy to use drag and drop functionality, great choice of templates and illustration options, it’s not hard to see why.
With Canva, it really doesn’t matter if you haven’t designed anything before as the straightforward drag and drop interface lets you add text, uploaded images or graphics from their extensive library anywhere onto your base design.
You can use Canva as a tool for creating the following content:
- Social Media: Canva has free templates to create beautiful Instagram and Facebook stories, posts and covers.
- Personal: Users can choose from a variety of invitations, cards, resumes, postcards and even t-shirts.
- Business: From presentations, websites, logos and invoices to business cards, Canva has it all.
- Marketing: There are also appealing templates if you need to create an infographic, posters, flyers, proposals or newsletters.
- Education: For all your educational content needs, Canva offers great lesson plan templates, certificates and class schedules.
Additionally, you can choose one of their preset sizes or select your own to ensure the finished graphic fits perfectly into the designated space on your app design.
With over 10 million active users, Canva makes the job of designing graphics fun and easy, and what’s even better is that it is completely free to use; giving you access to over 8000 features, a large proportion of their stock library and 1GB of memory.
Affinity Designer:
The best alternative to Illustrator
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: Windows, macOSTODAY’S BEST DEALSUS$54.99VIEW AT AFFINITYUS$54.99View at Affinity£48.99View at Affinity
REASONS TO BUY
+Great value+Lots of useful tools+Good Illustrator compatibility
REASONS TO AVOID
-Lacks Illustrator’s advanced features
Despite its many qualities, there’s no denying that Illustrator’s just a little too expensive for many people, and that’s why Affinity Designer from Serif is starting to take a big bite out of its lunch. It may not have all of Illustrator’s features (see our Affinity Designer review to find out exactly what it’s capable of), but it’s close enough for most creatives. It’ll work with both AI and PSD files so you don’t need to worry about compatibility, and it generally runs faster (although we’ve yet to see what difference the latest Illustrator update makes on M1 Macs).
Affinity Designer also has features you won’t find in Illustrator, including infinite redos and one-million-plus zoom, but the most attractive difference is the price: a one-off payment of £48.99/$49.99 on desktop or £19.99/$19.99 on iPad.
Setka Editor:
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Setka bills itself as “everything you need to create content that converts.” This graphic design software is primarily focused on delivering enhanced content branding across your website, ad campaigns, and social media posts — and works from within your current CMS or in the cloud.
The caveat? Although the Setka Editor is free to try for two weeks, companies will need to select a plan — Starter, Pro, or Enterprise — to unlock the full feature set and keep using Setka.
Klex:
If you want to create great-looking graphics at speed, Klex is the platform to do it on. This design tool hasn’t been designed with professional designers in mind, therefore for all you design novices out there, this is a great place to start.
You can choose from a wide variety of existing templates as well as a plethora of design tools, effects and fillers. There’s then a choice of fonts if you want to add text to your designs alongside some fab customisation options too.
To dip your toe into the design world, Klex is a great tool to mess around with and we can guarantee that you’ll surprise yourself with the quality of the results you produce.
Sketch:
Perfect vectors for UI and icons
SPECIFICATIONS
Platform: macOSTODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Good for UI and icons+Easy to learn
REASONS TO AVOID
-Mac-only-Lacks Illustrator’s depth
Finding the best graphic design software often means picking a package that’s most appropriate to your requirements. While there’s no doubt that Illustrator and Affinity Designer are powerful and versatile apps, they might be overkill if you’re after something for work such as UI design, prototyping or simply making icons. In which case Sketch may suit you much better (as long as you use a Mac). It features a streamlined set of tools that are easy to get to grips with than more full-featured design apps, and you’ll get on with it much better if you need to design a website rather than create detailed vector illustrations.
Adobe Spark:
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS
Adobe Spark is a free alternative to the company’s popular, for-pay Adobe Illustrator. While it’s not nearly as full-featured, it does support integration with other Adobe products. It’s easy to use and it comes with a host of free templates. If you’re looking to quickly create posters or videos for ad campaigns, Spark is a great choice.
The potential drawback? A limited feature set makes this a great starting point for beginners but less useful for more in-depth projects or experienced designers. The good news is that Spark is available for both web and mobile, meaning you can design anywhere, anytime.
Easelly:
Easelly is another online infographic design tool. Users have access to thousands of images and infographic templates and can also have one of Easelly’s designers create a design for them.
There are even articles and webinars created to inspire users to make beautiful designs. Easelly is perfect for teachers, students and business owners who need to take complex information and turn it into an easy-to-follow format.
Easelly also has various premium plans for students, individuals and businesses.
Conclusion:
Graphic design is a tricky line of work. Switching from brand new graphic designer to freelance graphic designer for hire with no experience is very unlikely. But with these free graphic design software it can be done. And even if you’re not a beginner, there’s always more to learn about graphic design and finding new tools and apps can help your creativity and broaden your horizons.