14 Best Graphic Design Software & Apps

I think we can all agree that the right tools are the key to successful design projects. If artists need brushes, paints, oil, and a canvas, then graphic designers need powerful software and apps.

The right graphic design software will make your work more efficient. As such, it is worth spending time understanding the best programs in any given category. This article will look at two categories: online software and tools and graphic design software for PCs.

We’ll explore the best graphic design software in several niches, such as photo editors and infographic makers, vector editors, and icon managers.

Last but not least, even if you aren’t a graphics designer in a professional sense – a lot of these tools are useful to have at hand since editing images is typically something that everyone does, no matter their expertise level.

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Online Tools & Apps for Graphic Designers

This section introduces tools that can be used directly from the browser. And some provide the option to download them directly as software also.

1. BeFunky

BeFunky is a powerful and user-friendly graphic design software that allows users to create professional-quality designs without any prior design experience. With BeFunky, you can easily edit and enhance photos, create custom graphics and logos, and design unique collages and digital art.

The software features a wide range of tools and features, including a drag-and-drop interface, a library of pre-designed templates and elements, and advanced editing tools for fine-tuning colors, textures, and more.

Whether you’re a professional designer or a beginner looking to make your own designs, BeFunky offers everything you need to bring your creative ideas to life.

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2. Figma

Figma is a popular vector design and prototyping software that designers around the world use daily. It is a cloud-based platform that allows multiple users to collaborate on a design in real time, making it ideal for teams that need to work together on a project.

Figma features a wide range of tools and features, including vector editing, prototyping, and design collaboration tools.

With Figma, designers can create wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes and share their designs with others for feedback and collaboration. Figma is known for its intuitive interface and robust features, making it a popular choice for designers of all skill levels.

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3. Stencil

If you are looking for cloud-based online graphic design software that provides you with flexibility and a wide variety of features, Stencil is a great choice. With over 2 million photos, icons, and graphics to use, you can create endless combinations of creative images and graphics.

This platform will allow you to upload your own fonts and logos, giving you more freedom to customize your images. If you want to create quotes to share online, you can pick and choose from more than 100,000 quotes in the Stencil library.

You can also enhance your images using image filters, resize them instantly, share directly on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, or schedule your posts via Buffer. This free image creator is fast and easy to use and can also be used as a Chrome or Safari extension and a Firefox add-on.

Overall, Stencil is a fantastic choice for digital marketing and social media agencies that are creating and posting social media content on behalf of their clients.

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4. Snappa

Snappa is a graphic design software that allows users to create professional-quality designs quickly and easily. With Snappa, you can create custom graphics, logos, and marketing materials in a matter of minutes, even if you have no prior design experience.

The software features a user-friendly interface and a library of pre-designed templates and elements, making it easy to create stunning designs without the need for complex design tools. Snappa also offers advanced features, such as the ability to resize designs for multiple platforms and to collaborate with others on a project.

Overall, Snappa is a powerful and versatile tool for anyone looking to create professional-quality designs.

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5. Vectr

Vectr is a comprehensive, free vector graphics software that offers a solid alternative to Adobe Illustrator and Sketch. It is cloud-based and can be used on multiple platforms, including Windows, Web Browser, Linux, Mac, and Chrome OS. With a simple, intuitive interface and features, Vectr provides an easy-to-use platform for creating 2D graphics, such as business cards, logos, posters, and brochures.

One of the key advantages of Vectr is its real-time collaboration and sharing of designs, making it easy for teams to work together and gather feedback on their work. Additionally, Vectr includes a comprehensive toolset for image editing, including the pen tool, shape tools, and gradient options.

Vectr is also beginner-friendly, with free tutorials and videos available to help you learn and use the software. However, Vectr requires an internet connection to function, and the importing and exporting of designs has been reported to be occasionally difficult.

Overall, Vectr is a great option for those looking for free vector graphics software that is both powerful and easy to use. Despite some limitations, it is a solid substitute for Adobe Illustrator and is ideal for novice engineers and designers looking to create presentations, logos, brochures, and cards.

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6. PixTeller

PixTeller is a graphic design software that allows users to create custom graphics, logos, and other designs quickly and easily. The software features a user-friendly interface and a wide range of pre-designed templates and elements, making it easy for users to create professional-quality designs without any prior design experience.

With PixTeller, you can edit and enhance your photos, create custom graphics and logos, and design unique collages and digital art. The software also offers advanced features, such as the ability to resize designs for different platforms and to collaborate with others on a design.

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7. Easil

Easil is a powerful graphic design software that helps businesses of all sizes create stunning visuals with ease. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, thousands of customizable templates, and a wide range of editing tools, it’s a comprehensive solution for all your design needs. Whether you’re creating graphics for social media, blogs, posters, banners, or any other purpose, Easil has you covered.

One of the key features of Easil is its collection of over 1000 high-quality, pre-designed templates. These templates are designed by professional graphic designers and are available in a wide range of sizes, making it easy to create graphics that look great no matter where you use them.

Easil is also a great choice for businesses that want to elevate their brand. With features like text masks, text effects, and the ability to upload your own brand fonts, you’ll be able to create visuals that perfectly reflect your brand’s style and personality.

Another key feature of Easil is its GIF maker, which lets you animate text, graphics, and photos in unique and creative ways. This is a great way to catch the attention of your audience and get your message across in a fun and engaging way.

Finally, Easil offers a fantastic range of free fonts, as well as a color palette generator that makes it easy to get the right color every time.

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8. Corel

CorelDRAW is a popular graphic design software used by professionals and hobbyists alike. The software offers a wide range of tools and features for creating and editing vector graphics, including powerful drawing and shaping tools, advanced typography options, and support for a variety of file formats.

CorelDRAW also offers flexible collaboration features, allowing you to work with others on a design in real-time. In addition to its powerful design capabilities, CorelDRAW also includes built-in learning resources and support for third-party plugins, making it a comprehensive tool for designers of all skill levels.

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Graphic Design Software for PCs

This section introduces graphic design software to be used on your PC. In other words, these are the tools you’d use to do complex graphic design tasks from start to finish.

1. Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is a powerful graphic design software that is designed for professional designers and novice graphic designers alike. It offers an affordable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, with a similar suite of design tools and added user-friendly features. Whether you’re working on personal projects or client work, Affinity Designer has everything you need to bring your designs to life.

The software offers a dual environment, allowing you to work in both pixel and vector art environments without having to open any other application. It also boasts a 1,000,000% zoom, which is a feature that sets it apart from its competitors. With this level of precision and accuracy, you can create beautiful vector illustrations with ease.

One of the best features of Affinity Designer is its versatile grid system. This feature lets designers set up grids while creating isometric video game graphics, icons, and more, helping them acquire total control over angles, gutters, spacing, and subdivisions. The snapping option also allows designers to lock and position objects and elements with ease, using grids, alignment guides, shapes, and more.

In addition to its powerful design features, Affinity Designer also offers a wide range of color options, including RGB, CMYK, and LAB color spaces. With up to 32-bits per channel, you can create vibrant, eye-catching designs that stand out.

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2. Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a leading vector design software that offers a wide range of tools and features to create stunning artwork, logos, illustrations, and graphics. It’s part of the Adobe Creative Cloud and is available as a monthly subscription. The software is best suited for professional graphic designers and illustrators, but hobbyists can also benefit from it.

Adobe Illustrator’s user interface is accessible and customizable, and it offers drag-and-drop options to make it more efficient. With the in-panel editing feature, designers can edit multiple artboards at once, and the software is highly compatible with Mac and Windows devices.

One of the key advantages of Illustrator is that it integrates with other Adobe products. And while the pricing might be a bit steep – what makes Illustrator so appealing is the number of resources you can find online. Not only does Adobe itself provide tutorials, but also graphic designers who share tutorials in the form of articles and YouTube videos.

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3. Blender

Blender is a fantastic tool for graphic designers looking for a comprehensive, open-source solution for their 3D animation and design needs. With its vast array of features, from rigging and animation to motion tracking and rendering, Blender has everything you need to create production-ready models.

One of the superior features of Blender is its grease pencil mode, which allows you to create vector-based artwork, animations, comics, sculptures, and more with ease. The software is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms and is always free to use, making it a great option for designers on a tight budget.

Blender also has an active online community and a plethora of plugins that can help you extend its capabilities even further. Whether you need inspiration or help with a project, Blender’s community is always there to offer support.

However, it’s worth noting that Blender is not ideal for beginners. The software has complex menus and a large number of design options, which means that you need to have a good understanding of graphic design basics to make the best use of the tool. But for experienced designers, Blender is an excellent choice that provides an unmatched range of features.

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4. GIMP

GIMP is a versatile graphics editing software that offers an extensive range of features for photo enhancement and digital retouching. The customizable interface, which allows you to change the theme, spacing, icon sizes, and tool sets, is one of the key features of GIMP. The modular docks make it easy to switch between different views and tasks, while the full-screen mode provides a great way to preview and edit artwork.

A unique feature of GIMP is that it supports a wide range of input devices, including pressure and tilt-sensitive tablets, USB, and MIDI controllers, which can be bound to various actions, speeding up the workflow. Additionally, it offers transparent virtual file system support, allowing users to load and save files from remote locations using protocols such as FTP, HTTP, and SFTP/SSH.

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5. Graphic

Graphic is a vector-based graphic design and illustration software that is designed specifically for Apple devices, including Mac, iPhone, and iPad. This program is a great alternative to Adobe Illustrator, offering a wide range of features for creating simple and complex designs.

Among the top features, Graphic offers the ability to detect brush strokes’ width when used with an Apple Pencil, making the illustration workflow more intuitive. The program is also very user-friendly, allowing you to import or export Photoshop PSD, SVG, and PDF documents.

However, Graphic has some drawbacks, including the lack of accessibility to some essential tools and a lack of advanced features. Additionally, it is known that Graphic doesn’t offer regular updates. The fact that it’s only available on Apple devices might also be a limitation for some users.

On the plus side, Graphic has a range of professional features, including color and gradient tools, path editing, and vector illustration tools like vector drawing, shape tools, and text with style. It also offers a customizable canvas grid, smart alignment guides, and optimized features for the iPad Pro.

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6. Inkscape

Inkscape is a free vector drawing software that provides a range of flexible drawing tools and professional text tools, making it an excellent choice for anyone looking to create vector images. The software supports object creation and manipulation, fill and stroke, operations on paths, text support, rendering, and various file formats such as SVG, PNG, PDF, EPS, and more.

One of the main advantages of Inkscape is its user-friendly interface and simple setup, making it accessible to a wide range of users. Despite its ease of use, it still offers advanced tools such as pen tools, node editing, and shape tools. Additionally, the software allows you to export in various formats, including PDF, PNG, sk1, EPS, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, and PostScript.

However, like most software, Inkscape has its drawbacks. One of the main criticisms is its struggle with a high volume of data and the tendency to freeze when fed too many actions at once.

Despite its challenges, Inkscape is an excellent choice for graphic design software, especially if you are looking to perfect your design skills. It is available on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and Android.

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Conclusion

As technology has evolved, so have the applications of graphic design. In today’s world, they have gone far beyond print materials to include the digital world and even virtual reality. And the best part is that you can start learning graphic design without all that much investment.

While it’s true that many graphic designers have a natural talent (an eye for detail), it doesn’t mean you have to be a natural-born artist to create effective designs. Like everything else, graphic design is a skill that can be learned.

If you want to learn graphic design, the best way to do so is to study design principles and practice creating designs on your own. It can also be helpful to take classes or workshops to learn from experienced designers and to get feedback on your work. Another great way to learn is to study successful designers’ work and try to replicate their techniques.

Ultimately, the key to becoming a good graphic designer is to be willing to put in the time and effort to practice and improve your skills.

And the majority of software and tools listed in this article provide more than just a means to start from scratch. It’s also one of the reasons there are so many different solutions for doing graphic design because many tools specialize in a specific category and provide the best relevant features.