Where can I find free online graphic design software? If you want to be a graphic designer, you know that this is one one of the first things to learn. Like all other creative professions – including writing – the tools of the trade will only help you achieve your dream.
Free online graphic design software includes the most popular software programs that everyone needs for their design. These include vector illustration, image editing, desktop publishing, and presentation packages. Graphic design is the art on which the creation of images and objects on a computer display. It has been around for many years and is still popular anywhere today.
Canva
Best for the online template-based design of vector images and web/print documents. Create cards, social media posts, and a lot more.
You can use this online tool to create a wide range of documents and media that requires image manipulation. It is best used for social media purposes and other individual tasks such as creating cards.
Features:
- Simple and robust design.
- Comes with pre-made templates for a wide range of applications.
- Great organization, making it easy to find the templates you need.
Cons: Some of the images are too large giving different results when posted online or printed.
Verdict: As far as online graphic design software comes, this is a leader in the market and offers a wide range of options. Whatever you need to design quickly, you will find it on Canva.
Price: Free graphic design software for the basic plan. The Pro version comes at $9.95/ Month (annual billing) or $12.95/Month on a monthly basis. The Enterprise version comes at $30/Month (annual billing) or a custom quote for a month-by-month subscription.
Gravit Designer
From the people behind Corel Draw, Gravit Designer is the free best graphic design software you’ll find today.
Even if it doesn’t have the mass appeal of Illustrator or Affinity Designer, Gravit Designer has a clean and intuitive interface that can be reconfigured to suit your needs, and pretty much all the tools you’re going to need for creating vector graphics, including non-destructive booleans, a knife tool and path graphs, plus multiple fills and blending modes, and a powerful text engine. It should easily cope with most design jobs, from icon design and prototyping to vector illustration and animation.
You can use Gravit Designer online or download a copy to your computer. Note that you automatically start out on a (free) trial of Gravit Designer Pro when you sign up, and once your trial is over, you transition to the free version, but lose the Pro features – unless you pay for a subscription of course.
However, Gravit Designer’s free version is still excellent. You can export as PDF, SVG or bitmap, and you get access to the Gravit Cloud service that enables you to get to your work wherever you are.
DesignWizard
DesignWizard is similar to Canva, but includes all of its available tools in the free version. With over 10,000 free templates, you can easily create digital items such as social media posts and YouTube channel art, as well as print items like gift certificates and sales posters.
DesignWizard has a library of over 1.2 million images, videos, illustrations, and graphics for your use. You can also upload fonts, photos, and logos, create custom color palettes and resize designs so every final product is unique to your brand.
Piktochart
Infographics are powerful and shareable. In a little over two years, infographic search volumes increased over 800 percent. We know infographics get the job done, but not everyone has the design know-how to create them.
Piktochart gives non-designers the ability to create basic infographics without relying on powerful design software like InDesign. Choose from 400 templates, icons and graphics to get your message across.
While nothing can replace the expertise of a designer when it comes to creating a compelling infographic, Piktochart is a solid platform to start learning on if you want to understand what goes into the creation of an infographic.
Keep in mind that these are templates, and templates have limitations.
Adobe Ilustrator
If you’re working with vectors, Adobe Illustrator is the software you need. First released in 1987, this veteran software provides the power and versatility you need to create everything from simple logos and icons to detailed, multi-layered artwork.
Adobe 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. Plus, because it’s subscription-based software, you’ll get all the latest updates for free.
The most recent (June 2021) brings Apple Silicon compatibility to Illustrator so it’ll run on the latest M1 Macs at top speed. It also adds the ability to rotate your view of the canvas to make life easier when you’re working with fiddly, detailed projects.
Since October 2020, there’s also been an accompanying iPad app. That 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.
Affinity Designer
The monthly subscription to Adobe Illustrator can be just a little too expensive for some people, so many pros are now turning to Affinity Designer from Serif. It may not have all of Illustrator’s features (see our Affinity Designer review for full details), but it’s close enough for many creatives. Advertisement
Affinity Designer works with both AI and PSD files so you don’t need to worry about compatibility. And it generally runs faster than Illustrator, although that will vary depending on what kind of hardware you’re using.
Affinity Designer also has features you won’t find in Illustrator, including infinite redos and one-million+ per cent zoom. But the most attractive difference is the fact that it’s a one-off purchase and requires no subscription. Despite this, updates have until now been passed on to users for free. The latest update in August (1.10) means that rendering is now up to 10 times faster for complex documents than previously.
Sketch
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).
Sketch 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.
Vectr
Vectr’s a great choice if you’re looking for the best free graphic design software for working collaboratively. As well as featuring a pretty strong set of vector tools as well as filters, shadows and fonts that make it suitable for most everyday design jobs, it also packs in live collaboration and synchronisation options so that you can team up with colleagues or allow clients to see what you’re doing and provide feedback as you go.
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.
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.
Blender
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Blender is an open-source, 3D creation suite that makes it possible for graphic designers to create everything from rigging to animation to rendering and motion tracking. It also provides support for 2D animation and has an active community of users committed to helping Blender improve.
While Blender is a powerful tool, it’s not ideal for beginners — complex menus and a massive amount of design options mean you need to know your way around graphic design basics to make the best use of this tool.
Conclusion
If you’re a business owner, freelancer, marketing professional, or just someone who wants to spice up your marketing materials for personal or small business use, consider using one of the many online graphic design software programs to help you. With so much to choose from, it can be hard to decide on which software best fits your needs.