Welcome to the ultimate guide to graphic design learning app! You’ve probably heard of some of these software and wondered if they’re suitable for you. In this article, we’ll take a look at every software and review it, so you can quickly and easily find out what suits you.
Every teacher aims to achieve their best results when they create graphics using graphic design software; however, most teachers don’t really know which tools they are able to use. To help you out with this dilemma, I have listed some of the most wanted graphic design software for teachers.
Google Nik:
Containing seven plug-ins for Aperture, Lightroom, and Adobe Photoshop, this service has been priced at fife hundred bucks yet three years ago. However, since 2016, students and their teachers have been given a great opportunity to use it for free. How do you like that?
Even though the developer doesn’t plan to include any new features to the collection, the latter still deserves attention. The available plug-ins such as HDR Efex Pro, Viveza, and others are designed to give images a classic feel, adjust colors and tones, add filters for color correction, etc. With no doubt, every aspiring designer should have this collection in his or her tool kit.
Snapseed:
Both iOS and Android users can employ this software for free today. However, earlier they would have to pay five dollars for using it.
This flexible software impresses both students and their educators with its excellent performance, and everybody can benefit from it on the go with ease. The program comes equipped with twenty-nine powerful tools and filters and enables users to work with both DNG and JPEG files. On every stage of work, users can come back to a particular layer and adjust it to their liking in no time.
What students like most about this program are that it allows combining two images. For an on the go product, this soft is too good to be ignored and professional writers from Pro-Papers highly recommend all students to check it out.
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:
There are tons of free graphic design software you can find online today. It is just a matter of doing your research and finding the one that is perfect for you. It’s true that having some great software can make a world of difference when it comes to putting together a project. That is why it can be so difficult choosing which software is right for you out of all the ones that are out there. Does this sound familiar?