Ever wanted to learn about good free graphic design software? Or maybe you are in the market for some bbest graphic design apps? Probably what bbest graphic design app you should use depends on what you’re going to be designing. I’ve also included a few popular graphic design crowdsourcing sites where you can potentially earn some money, depending on your abilities.
Wondering if there are any good free graphic design software? Or which are the best graphic design apps? While the world of graphic design is becoming very digital there is still a place for physical tools. In other words, you can’t always use your computer or phone to design a logo. Instead, sometimes you need premium graphic design apps to do the job. It’s important to know both options so that you can use the most appropriate tool for each project.
Infogram:
- Platform: Browser
- Rating: 4.8/5.0 Stars
Create engaging infographics and reports in minutes. More than 35 interactive charts and over 550 maps to help you visualize data, including pie charts, bar graphs, column tables, and word clouds.
Infogram is an intuitive visualization tool that empowers people and teams to create beautiful content. Take your stories to the next level with object animations. Set objects to zoom, bounce, flip, fade, and slide effortlessly into your work. Powerful analytics gives you detailed viewer demographics, average on-screen rate, and how many people shared your content.
Visme:
Pros
- Lots of templates
- Saves color palettes
- Suitable for teamwork
- Can create animation and videos
- Integrates with other apps
Cons
- More expensive than competitors
Visme is an online tool for branding and creating visual assets such as charts, slideshows, storyboards, and even social media ad units. You can cope with such a variety of tasks thanks to an extensive stock library of graphic resources. Visme focuses on brand aesthetics and has features to preserve color palettes, images, videos and other assets of your brand/company.
In addition to classic presentations, you can create short videos and animations with transitions. The software offers numerous templates and allows you to add text or select the transition you want.
One of the most important innovations is the possibility to work as a team on the same file. You can draw up a special plan and develop a report or diagram of your business for your design team.
Visme integrates with many applications so that you can retrieve assets and data that you already store somewhere. What I really like is the possibility to download and share a file from a view-only link, inviting people to leave comments and annotations on the file.
Klex:
- Platform: Browser, Windows, macOS, Linux
- Rating: 4.8/5.0 Stars
With it’s powerful tools and brilliant effects, Klex makes it easy to create stunning and memorable designs for your business, family and friends.
Klex runs with the same powerful engine that runs Gravit Designer. This means you have the same impressive technology from a professional tool, but simplified to be accessible to literally anyone who wants to produce amazing graphics.
Professional design within your reach with just some clicks. Guaranteed headache-free, with all the freedom you need to make your perfect design. Create anything from social media posts, business cards, invitations, presentations, book covers and much more with our stunning preset layouts, or personalize them and have your professional looking design ready in just a few minutes!
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:
Free graphic design software, also known as computer graphic and image editing software, is a type of computer program that is often used by professional graphic designers to create logos, pictures, brochures and other materials. That’s why the more the program can do, the better. Free graphic design software applications have greatly improved over the years — so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use them for your project.