Business owners know that the first step to marketing their business is by creating a great impression. This can be done through creative and eye-catching graphics printed out or posted on social media pages like Facebook and Twitter. Believe it or not, this simple action can generate more sales in your business. The difficult part is finding the right software to accomplish such tasks. If you are wondering “what is the best graphic design software?” then you’re definitely at the right place.
What do you think about graphic design for small businesses? Most of the times, small companies don’t have a lot of money to invest on expensive software or services. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t get quality results. They can! Luckily for them, there are a lot of high-quality free and cheap graphic design software available today.
CorelDRAW
Not just in this list of graphic design software to break up appearances of Adobe’s name, CorelDRAW is a design industry classic – and one which continues to be an influential and in-demand option today. See here for the latest CorelDRAW discounts.
Covering both bitmap and vector design, CorelDRAW does what Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator do so well separately in one combined package.
Key features:
Content Exchange: It is an online digital library with thousands of high-resolution pictures and digital images. It also includes templates, fonts, professionally created templates, interactive frames, gradients, vector, and bitmap fills.
Customizable UI: You get a configurable UI environment for the desktop, including icon resizing, options for how your documents open, and the color scheme for the window border.
Pricing:
- Annual Subscription – US $249
- One-Time Purchase – US $599
| Pros | Cons |
| ➕ Supports 48 different file types (HTML, TIFF, AutoCAD, JPG, PNG, etc.) | ➖ Complex, not a beginner-friendly software |
| ➕ Surface Pen works flawlessly with no lag | ➖ No complimentary mobile applications |
| ➕ You can take advantage of touch functionality, with smooth transition from desktop to tablet mode |
Adobe InDesign
Another Adobe software, InDesign is best suited if you are in the publishing industry. Adobe InDesign is your go-to software if you want to design magazines, books, posters, brochures, etc.
Save up to 40-70% with these Adobe CC Discounts.
Key features:
- Adjust Layout: If a designer changes the template’s text, then the graphics will adjust accordingly.
- Adobe InCopy: This feature allows you to work with your team members on the same project by sharing colors, graphics, and text.
- Sensei Technology: AI-powered Sensei technology helps with the automatic arrangement and resizing of objects.
Pricing:
- Annual plan, prepaid – US $239.88/yr ($19.99/mo)
- Annual plan, paid monthly – US $251.88/yr ($20.99/mo)
- Monthly plan – US $31.49/mon
| Pros | Cons |
| ➕ Easy to combine graphics and text | ➖ Less intuitive user interface |
| ➕ Supports HTML exporting for websites | ➖ Best suited for professional industry use only |
| ➕ Capable of resizing multiple objects at the same time | ➖ Comparatively expensive to similar software |
Adobe Illustrator
When it comes to vector drawing and editing, Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard. From logos to artwork, Adobe Illustrator offers several features to help designers to accomplish a host of tasks. Since it’s part of Adobe Creative Cloud, you have to pay for a subscription. The software updates are free, though.
Available on: Windows, macOS
Pricing: Adobe Illustrator’s basic individual plan costs $19.99 a month. The business plan costs $29.99 a month.
CorelDraw Graphics Suite:
CorelDraw Graphics Suite packs some pro-level features and offers a highly accessible interface that is easy to use. It is a bundle of multiple applications that deliver powerful editing features.
Key Features:
- Content Exchange: It is Corel’s online digital library through which registered users can get access to thousands of high-resolution photographs and digital images. It also offers over 2000 vehicle templates, 1000 fonts, 350 professionally designed templates, more than 500 interactive frames, over 600 gradients, vector, and bitmap fills.
- Flexible Payment: Corel offers three payment programs through which users can buy the software along with nominal charges for regular upgrades. It also offers an upgrade program for existing users.
- Customizable UI: You get a customizable UI environment for the desktop, icon sizing, toolboxes, options for how your documents open, and window border color scheme. Users can also visit Corel’s developer community website to design macros that suit their workflow.
- New Pointilizer: Corel’s new pointilizer offers a lot of variable parameters that are not just limited to regular dots.
Pros:
- It offers app-wide workflow and under-the-hood innovation and performance enhancements to boost productivity
- Works perfectly without any lag with Surface Pen
- Users get the option to choose GPU acceleration over the default CPU while working with system-intensive sophisticated vector graphics
- Smooth transition from desktop to tablet mode to leverage touch features
- It offers better EPS and third-party PDF importing capabilities and leverages with their GPL Ghostscript feature
- It is capable of exporting files in up to 48 file types, including AutoCAD, JPG, PNG, SVG, AutoCAD, JPG, and TIFF. It can also open 35 file types, including EPS, HTML, AutoCAD, PDF, PowerPoint, SVG, and even old FreeHand files
Cons:
- Unlike Adobe, there are no complimentary mobile applications offered by Corel
- Two many payment options might confuse the user
- Not easy to operate for beginners
Pricing Plans:
CorelDraw is available for a 15-day free trial. Its full version is available for $474 with a 30-days money-back guarantee. You can also pay for an annual subscription for $198, or just $16.50/month.
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.
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:
If you have a small business or represent a small business, you should consider investing in some good, easy to use graphic design software. A great website design is important because, well it’s your storefront. And if it doesn’t look good…maybe it’s time for a re-design.