What Is Graphic Design Software

Are you looking for creative graphic design software to start your own graphic design company? There are several graphic design software applications to get you started. From Adobe Illustrator that helps make layouts and illustrations, In Design which is a great software program for people who have little experience in designing. To Photoshop, which helps turn any photo into a piece of artwork

Before making a decision about what kind of graphics software to purchase for your computer, you need to know about the features that the software offers. This article will briefly discuss the different graphic design programs and how each one can help you in your travels.

Affinity Designer

affinity designer examples
Via Affinity Designer

In terms of function and style, Affinity Designer is an impressive, low-budget alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Affinity even gets praise for being easier to use and faster that Illustrator, especially when working with layers. It’s suitably simple for beginners to use as a learning tool but sufficiently powerful for freelance graphic artists on a budget.

Affinity also recently got a big upgrade with new features and performance improvements. This software a great option for anyone who doesn’t want to splurge on the Adobe offering, but needs something that performs on a high level.

Affinity Designer is an impressive, low-budget alternative to Adobe Illustrator. 

Best used for: Vector files

Cost: $49.99

Skill level required: beginner to advanced

Pros: 

  • Easy to get started
  • Fast
  • Much less expensive than the big guys

Cons: 

  • A few tools that Illustrator offers aren’t available

Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign interface
Image via Adobe

A must-have for the publishing community, Adobe InDesign has been used for laying out magazines and newspapers since 1999. Put together stunning magazines, info sheets and brochures and easily export them to PDF or HTML. Though it’s kind of a one-trick pony, InDesign has a low learning curve and is great for newbies learning how to combine text and graphics.

InDesign is great for laying out magazines, postcards, flyers and print. 

Best used for: publishing layouts

Cost: InDesign itself is $20.99/month and the full Creative Cloud costs $52.99/month.

Skill level required: beginner to advanced

Pros: 

  • Undisputed champ of publishing industry
  • Intuitive cropping and resizing features
  • Huge selection of fonts

Cons: 

  • Some complaints with PDF formatting

GIMP

GIMP interface
Image via Capterra

Perhaps the most popular open-source, free raster graphics editor, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) has many of the same features that paid-for programs have. Though its layout isn’t as sexy as, say, Photoshop, you still get the advanced photo retouching, drawing and cropping capabilities of the better-known programs.

Best used for: raster images

Skill level required: beginner

Pros: 

  • Good community
  • Plenty of tools for a free program

Cons: 

  • Not as quickly updated as other programs
  • Less recognized
  • Not as intuitive to use

Gravit Designer

Gravit Designer

This is another free graphic design software that can be used to create vector-based designs. You can create logos, edit photos, and create animations and illustrations in this program. Gravit does not have an offline version in the free plan. The software is fully customizable according to the user’s needs. The pro version of Gravit is paid and has more advanced features like advanced export options, offline version, more color space, etc.

Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS

Visme

Visme is an online design tool that goes above and beyond basic design capabilities, without requiring you to learn any complex software. It has an easy drag-and-drop editor, which lets both businesses and individuals create stunning and interactive visual content. There are hundreds of templates to choose from across 40+ categories, from presentation and infographics to press releases, reports and social media images. With a free Visme account, you can use some of these templates, but you get full access to millions of stock photos, videos, icons, animated graphics, fonts and graphs to customize these templates as much as you want.  If you want to access premium templates and features like the brand kit, you need to upgrade to a paid account. There are multiple download formats available in Visme, from image to offline web. You can also publish your projects online and share them with a live URL. The unique thing about Visme is you can bring your content to life with advanced animation and interactivity features. For example, you can create a custom animated character, or add links, hover effects and pop-ups to your designs.

Platform: Web Browser 

Genially

Genially

Genially is an accessible all-in-one tool for creating interactive and animated designs. You can choose from thousands of templates or you can start from scratch to create posters, infographics, social media content, client pitches, interactive images, website sliders, and more. Best of all, Genially puts no limit on the number of creations you can make as a free user.

There are thousands of visuals to choose from within Genially’s interface from vectors and image libraries (Unsplash, Giphy, and Pixabay are integrated within the editor) to maps and charts. You can also make any element interactive and add animation effects to it in seconds. Finally, Genially allows you to add buttons to your creations to turn your designs into microsites, product catalogs, and other interactive spaces, and it also gives you the option to insert media such as videos and social media posts within your creations.

Platform: Windows and Mac

Illustrator – best graphic design software for beginners

Illustrator graphic design softwareIf you want to use vector art to create logos, sketches, typography, icons or even complex illustrations for videos or mobile then Illustrator is the tool for you. You can create artwork with seamless alignment by drawing pixel-perfect shapes. With Illustrator designing could never be faster. Illustrator comes with its own plugins that help in making a blank web page into a brilliant looking web page. Some plugins are made for older versions of Ai and have a zest of new features for new versions like Creative Cloud, making it an ideal and best graphic design software. Being part of Creative Cloud, you get to use the app on both your desktop and Mac. You may read Indesign vs IllustratorCoreldraw vs IllustratorIllustrator vs PhotoshopLightroom vs Photoshop , Affinity designer vs Illustrator and Coreldraw vs Photoshop.

Pros of graphic design software

  • Touch-type tool is awesome.
  • The Free Transform tool is very simple to use.
  • Availability for Windows and Mac.

Cons

  • The price is high.

Conclusion

Graphic design software is a broad term used to describe the type of software used in the creation of print designs, digital photos, and video formats. In this article we’ll take an in-depth look at graphic design software programs and what makes them so important to a successful design project from start to finish.

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