The graphic design industry is constantly changing, and with the consistency of Apple’s devices, being in the capital of technology, designers are using a lot more apps and programs then there were just a couple years ago. This blog is made to share apps that I use on a daily basis in my work. I also write reviews on other apps that can be useful to any graphic designer in their work or everyday life.
Table of Contents
Best Apps For Graphic Design
- GIMP – GNU Image Manipulaiton Program
When it comes to customization, few software tools come close to GIMP. In addition to providing a free photo editor, GIMP offers a range of high-quality functions such as customizable brushes and automatic image enhancement tools.
With GIMP, you’ll be able to access the same features without paying anything.
Available on: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Pixlr X
Pixlr X is a free online editor tool with several advanced features. The best part is its simple interface, which makes it easy to use. Going a step ahead of other image editing tools, Pixlr X offers a number of cutting tools such as lasso, shape, drag, and magic.
Available on: Windows, iOS, Android, Browser
- Krita
Krita is an open-source tool that has been around for a while. It’s quite popular among illustrators and concept artists thanks to the various features it has on offer. More than editing, Krita is popular as a drawing tool.
Available on: Windows, macOS, Linux
- Vectr
Vectr is ideal when it comes to working collaboratively. That’s because it comes with synchronization and live collaboration options. This makes it easy for a team to connect and collaborate on the tool.
Available on: Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
- Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is a great option for vector graphics. Created by people behind Corel Draw, Gravit Designer is a free vector software with a clean interface and it can support most design tasks.
Available on: Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS
Best Paid Apps for Graphic Designers
There are several paid apps that are popular with designers. Graphic design software tools provide several advanced features that free tools don’t offer today. Let’s take a look at some of the best graphic design software options.
- Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is undoubtedly the best graphic design software and photo editor in the world. Designers and illustrators all over the world use this software for a host of tasks including 3D modeling, typography, and drawing. Designed to be intuitive, the user-friendly interface lets designers create their own layout panels. What’s more, it’s well suited for both mobile and web design.
Adobe has recently introduced AI tools that let users remove backgrounds in seconds. Adobe Creative Cloud regularly updates the software to update design tools.
Available on: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android
Pricing: Purchased on its own as a subscription, Adobe Photoshop costs $22.99 a month. The Creative Cloud Photography plan costs $9.99 a month. Adobe also provides a 7-day free trial option.
See Also: Graphic Design Secrets Revealed: Trends to Make Your Site Irresistible (INFOGRAPHIC)
- Adobe Illustrator
When it comes to vector drawing and editing, Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard. From logos to artwork, Adobe Illustrator offers several features to help designers to accomplish a host of tasks. Since it’s part of Adobe Creative Cloud, you have to pay for a subscription. The software updates are free, though.
Available on: Windows, macOS
Pricing: Adobe Illustrator’s basic individual plan costs $19.99 a month. The business plan costs $29.99 a month.
- Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is an affordable alternative to Illustrator. As far as features are concerned, Affinity Designer has all the cool functionalities of Illustrator. In addition, it offers some of its own features such as one million percent zoom.
Available on: Windows, macOS
Pricing: Plans start at $24.21, a one-time fee. This one-time fee is for iPad, for Mac and Windows, it costs $60.54.
- Canva
Canva is a feature-rich editing tool. Ideal for making image adjustments such as resizing, cropping, and adding effects, Canva also provides features to do more. This includes a font combination picker, photo collage maker, and a color palette tool.
Available on: Browser, iOS, Android
Pricing: Canva comes with a free trial and free version. The paid plan starts from $12.99 a month.
- Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya is considered one of the best software tools for 3D work. It offers a number of features and tools such as remodeling, rendering, and animation to cover the entire 3D workflow. An advanced tool, it’s not for beginners who will require a steep learning curve before start using this.
Best apps for graphic design free
What makes a great social media graphic design app?
How we evaluate and test apps
All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who’ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it’s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We’re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.
Social media posts have a very short lifecycle, so you don’t want to spend hours creating them. That’s why graphic design apps are crucial: instead of starting from scratch each time, you’ll have a range of great templates and design resources (like stock images, icons, shapes, and text styles) ready to go. Then, all you have to do is mix and match things with your own brand elements to have something unique and powerful.
And you don’t need to pay huge prices to get incredible results. What makes graphic design apps free isn’t a lack of quality. I’ve considered more than 30 free graphic design apps and found five incredible, free resources. Granted, some of these are more limited free plans of premium products, but they’re are all up to the job of creating awesome images for your social media marketing channels.
To evaluate each social media post maker, I spent a significant amount of time browsing hundreds of themes to get a feel for the quality of each one. I also created at least two test posts using the templates (with most of the favorites, even more). I generally focused on the overall ease of use and professional offerings of each app, but I also had some key criteria that each app needed to meet to be included on this list:
Is this app easy enough for anyone to use? Tools like Photoshop and Illustrator are incredible in the right hands, and unusable in the wrong ones. Social media management is rarely done by people with a design background, so any app has to cater to regular people. This isn’t to say there won’t be some learning curve, just that it doesn’t require a textbook to climb.
Is this app suited well for social media marketing? Again, Photoshop and Illustrator can do incredible things, but they are complete overkill for most people trying to create images for their social media marketing channels. I wanted apps that streamlined the process of creating strong graphics, not offering every tool under the sun.
Is the app experience good? A free graphic design app has the potential to be, frankly, awful to use. But even if you’re not (yet) paying for a service, you shouldn’t be hamstrung by a slow, janky, and just unpleasant experience. Especially when there are great apps out there you could be using.
Are the design assets varied and professional? It’s easy to find social media templates online, but many of them are awful. You can’t slap some cheesy clipart on a graphic that represents your brand, or keep recycling the same social media post design over and over. We only included apps that had assets that would allow you to represent yourself or your company in a professional light. (To be honest, this criterion cut the most apps.)
Can you use the app in multiple ways? If you create one post for Twitter, it should be easy to repurpose it for Instagram, or even for a flyer. Similarly, you should be able to quickly edit and update last year’s Christmas sale post with this year’s info. Apps that made this list had to be multi-purpose, rather than force you into one way of working.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines