As a graphic designer, one of your responsibilities is to be well-versed in software for designing advertisements. While the hundreds of apps in the online market can be confusing for any user, it’s important that designers take the time to investigate all their options. The key, however, is knowing what to look for when comparing design apps
Creating graphic design, typography, photography, or illustration? Photoshop is the best software for advertising design. It’s easy to navigate and features powerful tools including flexible editing options and a wide range of custom brushes.
This is a review of the best graphic design software for newbies who don’t have access to a graphic design curriculum and people who are looking to get started in the exciting field of graphic art. Graphic design is one of the most in-demand professions these days, especially given how much we rely on visuals rather than text when it comes to internet content.
Since the invention of computers, graphic design has made a favorable leap into a new dimension. Today graphic design is not mere handcrafting, but is transforming into an interactive process that combines traditional craftsmanship with state-of-the-art technologies. The graphical industry has some major players in the market and they are constantly launching new software to drive innovation in the sector.
What is a Graphic Design Software?
Graphic design software is a solution that supports designers and creators in bringing projects to life. Some graphic design software focuses on vectors and illustrations, while others allow for creating beautiful animations or videos.
Professional graphic designers often have access to a wide range of software options for different projects. For instance, the Creative Cloud from Adobe has a host of software options within the package, focusing on things like illustration, publication creation, and photo editing. Graphic design software gives you more power to enhance your creative skills.
Adobe Photoshop.
Adobe Photoshop is easily the most recognizable of the graphic design software. From basic cropping that your grandmother could figure out to more complex raster designs, when it comes to image manipulation Photoshop can do it all. Photoshop is known for classic features like the pen tool, layers and masks, but the most recent version adds some cool tricks such as a Frame tool for easy masking and a new Content-Aware Fill workspace. With a potentially limitless skill ceiling, Photoshop is a great graphic design skill to start learning.
When it comes to image manipulation Photoshop can do it all.
Best used for: image editing
Cost: Adobe now offers a subscription service for its products with a 30-day trial available. The Photography plan for individuals (lightroom, lightroom classic, Photoshop, 20GB of cloud storage) comes in at $9.99/month, with the full Creative Cloud costing $52.99/month. However, there are different prices for students and teachers, businesses and teachers, and schools and universities.
Skill level required: beginner to advanced
Pros:
- Nearly limitless skill ceiling
- Integrated stock library
- Plenty of design tools for image editing
Cons:
- Interface can be tough to get used to
- Less-than-perfect updates
- Can’t create true vector files
Adam’s Take
If you’re looking for the best graphic design software for your needs, I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop. Used by professionals, this software will get you the results you want.9.2out of 10
Best For
Overall Graphics
Price
$20.99+/mo
Annual Discount
No
Promotion
Adobe Photoshop is synonymous with photo editing for graphic designers. It is one of the most popular photo editing software tools in the market in a robust package that offers excellent graphic design capabilities.
Key Features:
- Design Tools: Offers a lot of design tools for both mobile apps and web
- Creative Cloud: Its active synchronization with Adobe Creative Cloud offers a lot of unique features, including Content-Aware Crop, Face-Aware Liquify, Artboards, the Design Space view, synced libraries, a glyph panel, Cloud Documents, touch, and stylus input support, among others.
- User Interface: The Adobe graphic design software interface is continuously updated to provide a more customizable user interface. It offers several targeted workspace layouts, including Graphic and Web, Motion, 3D, Painting, and Photography, Designer can also create your own custom layout of panels and windows.
- Open-Source GIMP Software: If you don’t want to pay a dime, then you can download and install this software for free. Consider installing it on a powerful machine to avoid lag and other performance issues.
User Experience:
With the ability to work in offline mode through your browser, you can use Adobe Photoshop to quickly edit photos with a few clicks.
The software provides an intuitive user interface that is easy to use, making it a great choice for those who are new to photo editing.
At the same time, advanced features allow those that are experienced to get the most out of the software.
Pricing Plans:
Adobe offers Photoshop at a subscription price of US$20.99 per month per license.
What I Like/Dislike About Adobe Photoshop:
Like:
- It offers a complimentary mobile application
- Its slick user interface offers a lot of assistance for easy use
- Got a rich set of typography and drawing tools
- Comes loaded with 3D design capabilities
- Offers a library and photo management with Adobe Creative Cloud
- Efficient file transfer between different programs
- Multiple design tools come with responsive graphics
- Ability to edit animation and video layers
- Users can define the size of the canvas, create custom brushes, work in 3D, isolate elements from backgrounds, among others.
Dislike:
- Adobe now offers Photoshop along with the subscription of Creative Cloud. The recurring payment turns out to be more costly, and people who want to buy software forever don’t have the option to buy a perpetual license
- A plethora of features might overwhelm a new user
- Offers lessor support for raster and vector images like SVG files
Product Updates:
- Improvements to cloud documents means you can now work on your Adobe Photoshop projects even when you’re not connected to the internet.
- Edge enhancement in your skies means that you can get better definition and detail in your photos, making them look more realistic.
Adobe InDesign.
Adam’s Take
For publishers that want to create stunning outputs that are also functional, I suggest you check out Adobe InDesign. With a lower learning curve than Photoshop, InDesign is an excellent software for those who want to create beautiful layouts for published works quickly.8.8out of 10
Best For
Publishers
Price
$20.99/mo
Annual Discount
No
Promotion
Adobe InDesign is a must-have software tool if you are in the business of publishing. It offers excellent capabilities to design stunning magazines, info sheets, and brochures while easily exporting them to PDF or HTML.
Key Features:
- Easy To Use: Unlike PhotShop, InDesign requires a low learning curve. That means new users can quickly learn how to combine text and graphics to achieve the best results.
- Adjust Layout: The ‘Adjust Layout’ feature empowers the designer just to change the text of the template, and design gets adjusted automatically, which is great for infographics.
- Sensei Technology: Adobe’s AI-powered Sensei technology ensures automatic resizing and arrangement of images.
- Adobe InCopy: Designers can leverage InCopy to work with other members of the team by sharing text, colors, and graphics.
User Experience:
With an interface similar to Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe InDesign provides a familiar experience for those who are used to using Adobe products.
If you work with text, images and/or vector artwork, then InDesign will give you the professional results that you’re looking for.
While there is a learning curve to using the software, there are tons of tutorials that can help you get up to speed quickly.
Pricing Plans:
Adobe offers InDesign at a monthly subscription of $20.99. The full Creative Cloud costs $52.99 per month.
What I Like/Dislike About Adobe InDesign:
Like:
- Graphic designers can efficiently combine graphics and texts for easier streamlining and optimizations of files.
- It allows users to add tags to indexes, keywords, anchor text frames, footnotes, table of contents, and captions with hyperlinks.
- It supports HTML exporting that enables web developers to export clean and simple codes during the implementation of the website’s layout designs. This works great for WordPress sites.
- It can help you eliminate redundant div tags in HTML files along with insignificant content grouping.
- Has the capability of resizing multiple objects and changing the width and height at the same time.
- Designers can leverage its Eyedropper tool to apply position or size instantly to another object within the document.
- It is an industry standard for desktop publishing.
Dislike:
- The less intuitive user interface can make things overwhelming for new users.
- Not positioned for general users. Suitable for enterprise use only.
- Relatively expensive than other similar software available in the market.
- PDF comment integration needs perfection
Product Updates:
- Adobe has updated the InDesign UI to better match the scaling of other Adobe Creative Cloud products on high-resolution displays. This makes it easier to use InDesign on devices with high pixel density, such as Retina displays.
- The Adobe Capture extension for InDesign lets you quickly turn photos into design elements that you can use in your InDesign layouts. With the extension, you can capture colors, shapes, and textures from photos and apply them to your designs.
Canva
If you’re a marketer, chances are you’ve already used this popular graphic design tool. There are many great things about Canva. One: it’s free. There is a paid version, of course, that offers more templates and functionalities (e.g. team collaboration), but in general, you can get a lot from the free version.
Since we’ve mentioned design templates, it’s safe to say that whatever your needs, Canva probably has you covered. From backgrounds to icons and complete templates for different types of ads, Canva has tons of truly beautiful and unique designs. That said, remember that many other people will be using the same templates, so try to customize them to match your brand identity better.
Finally, Canva scores really high for user-friendliness. With a drag and drop model, it will take minutes to get the hang of things and start designing!
Affinity Photo
Price:
- Mac Device one-time purchase of $24.99
- Windows one time purchase of $24.99
- iPad one-time purchase of $9.99. You enjoy the same features as those on the desktop.
Pros:
- Affinity photo has a seamless workflow between the desktop app on your computer and the mobile app on your phone or tablet.
- The interface acts as one cohesive unit so that you can design from anywhere at any time without interruptions in workflow. Affinity also doesn’t have a subscription.
Cons:
- It takes some time to learn the software
- The layers arrangement can be frustrating
- Some advanced features can be challenging to use
The Affinity photo app is excellent if you’re a professional designer who needs powerful software that can work for various design elements, such as creating logos, landing pages, or photographs.
What To Consider When Choosing Graphic Design Software
The software you require depends on what you are creating. There are certain things you’ll need to consider when choosing graphic design software.
- Check the tools and features included on different products. Will they help you accomplish your goals?
- Consider your skills level. Can you work with cloud-based apps or only desktop features?
- What are your preferences? Do you prefer to work on different devices and on the go? Perhaps you’ll need a graphic design app for mobile.
- Budget. How much can you afford? There are free and subscription options as well as one-time payment options.
- Suppose you want to learn progressively. In that case, you might want to consider a beginner-friendly graphic design tool and then move on to a more complex one.
- Are you purchasing a product for a team? If so, you’ll need an app that makes it easy for all to work and collaborate with ease.
Conclusion
Advertising is one of the most important marketing activities for any business. Being able to effectively communicate a message is imperative to every organization and advertising is the way to achieve this. The software featured below is all capable of helping you design eye-catching advertisements that instantly and powerfully communicate your message.
In the digital world and in advertising, everything that is being used is web and mobile friendly. With the high competition in the market, it is essential to advertise your product or brand on platforms that reach more people and are required to be attractive and eye catching. There are many apps available for creating stunning graphics, however some of them are paid and some are free.