Jan 20, 2020 Gimp is one of the most popular and open-source graphics design and photo editing tools. It is a featured-packed graphic design suite and image editor. This tool is the same as Adobe photoshop layout. A fantastic tool for any beginner or advanced designer. Blender is a common free and open source software which graphic designers have loved since its inception to create 3D animations. The essential features are: supports HDR lighting with realtime viewpoint Mirror functionality for light weight painting. YouiDraw is the open-source vector graphics software that provides a variety of customizable textured brushes to the users. This free vector drawing tool offers modern tools like a pencil for the plain line or sketchy and different color options. With different color and border size, users can shape new text.
5 Graphic Design Software Options for Beginners
If you’re new to graphic design and not sure what software to start with, we’ve got you covered. From the top-of-the-line industry standards that employers will expect you to know, to free and lower-cost alternatives you can experiment with, below are five types of graphic design software that can help you start turning your creative ideas into reality.
1. Adobe Creative Suite
If you’re serious about pursuing graphic design professionally, Adobe Creative Suite contains much of the standard software you’ll use as a graphic designer—including Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Sure, these applications might take a little extra time to learn, but if they help you land a job, it’ll be worth your investment. You can start with a 30-day free trial and then pay on a monthly basis after your trial ends. Plus if you decide to go all in and study graphic design, Adobe offers all students a 60% discount on their Creative Suite software.
2. GIMP
GIMP—short for GNU Image Manipulation Program—is one of the most popular free (and open source) alternatives to Photoshop. Compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems, GIMP includes a comprehensive set of tools for everything from image editing and retouching to full blown creation of artwork, icons, and other graphic design elements using layers, masks, and more. GIMP supports all popular file formats (and a few rare ones too) and is easy to use, even if it’s your first graphic design software.
3. Inkscape
A strong alternative to Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape is another free and open source graphic design software program. It’s a vector graphic editor that works for Windows, Mac, and Linux with a relatively simple interface and flexible tools for print, logo, and web design. These tools allow object creation, object manipulation, fill and stroke, text formatting, and operations on paths. (Many designers find cloned objects particularly useful.) Inkscape is primarily for working with SVG, but allows for export to PNG, PDF, EPS, PostScript, and more.
4. Affinity
Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are relatively new competitors in the world of graphic design software. As you might expect, Affinity Photo is focused on photo editing, while Affinity Designer is vector graphic design software great for branding work, concept art, print projects, icons, and web mockups. Affinity software is designed to be fast regardless of the size or complexity of your work. It’s also highly customizable, with an intuitive, modern interface, advanced layer controls, the ability to undo up to 8,000 steps, and standard file format compatibility. This software is available on Windows or Mac at the reasonable price of $50 each.
5. Sketch
While it’s only available for Mac users, the vector editor software Sketch is quickly becoming a favorite for many in the design industry, especially those focused on web, app, user experience, or interface design. Priced at $100, this graphic design software is comparable in many ways to Illustrator and, in some aspects, Photoshop as well. Features include support for multiple pages and artboards, symbols and styles that can be easily repeated and updated across a design, and the ability to edit and merge vectors without destroying their original shapes. Sketch however is not a photo editing tool or ideal for print work, so you’ll have to rely on something else for that.
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Filed under: Visual Design
May 25, 2017
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Image editing software is exceptionally popular amongst the graphic designers. With the plenty of options available online, it is difficult to choose the best graphic design software.
Below is the best graphic design software list using any of which you can create an organized and innovative design. So, it is not only Adobe Photoshop but also numerous other advanced software which has become handy for the designers.
1. Inkscape
To name a free open source graphic editor which has been widely used by the graphic designers is Inkscape. The other listed features are:
- impressive set of 3D boxes tool
- create layer transparency effects and complicated shapes easily
- user-friendly and clear interface
- supports Windows, Mac OS X as well as Linux
2. DrawPlus Starter Edition
When you need two dimensional vector graphics editor software, DrawPlus Starter Edition is a loved choice. Here are its major features:
- realistic brushes help create natural-appearing images
- extrusion images with 3D box tools
- compatible with vector editing
3. Easel.ly
Yet another free graphic design software is Easel.ly. It is popularly used to develop info graphics. Apart from being easy to use, the other features are:
- choose and customise theme, shapes and objects for the graphic design
- plenty of colour-coordinated themes for comprehensive info graphic
- simple interface with user friendly instructions for beginners
4. Canva
Ideal for both professionals and the beginners, Canva makes it possible to design a graphic easily. Some major properties of the software includes:
- handy for professionals with richness of toolbox
- sophisticated design creation scopes
- supports expert filters for impeccable advanced editing
5. Adobe Photoshop
Undoubtedly, the most popular and widely used by the professional as well as novice graphic designers is Adobe Photoshop. It has some salient features such as:
- compatible on all versions of Windows
- graphic designing, editing and creating new elements is done with ease
- ideal for any web project
- offers plenty of editing tools to be stored in library
6. Blender
Blender is a common free and open source software which graphic designers have loved since its inception to create 3D animations. The essential features are:
- supports HDR lighting with realtime viewpoint
- Mirror functionality for light weight painting
- compatible with NLA and synchronises sounds
- GPU & CPU render-layer support
7. MyPaint
Looking for an easy, fast and open-source graphic design editing software? Get MyPaint software which has been a reliable choice amongst the digital painters. The essential features are:
- has different modes such as line, symmetry, new layer blending etc.
- infinite canvas feature to set frame size of your choice
- colour selector supporting Hue, Chroma etc.
8. GraphicConverter
For image editing and graphics conversion of the Mac users, GraphicConverter is a relief. It has a native 64 bit application and works on other features like:
- full version costs $39.95
- supports multilingual instructions in Chinese, Norwegian, Czech, Dutch etc.
- can be upgraded
9. FatPaint
Open Source Graphic Programs
This oDnline graphic design software is absolutely free to use and is a loved choice to create custom printed products.
The other advanced features include:
Open Source Graphic Editor
- Fatpaint’s server can save its images from Picasa, Wikimedia, Google etc.
- write text and make customised page layout
- illustrations, logos, creating pages is easy
Concluding thought
Animation and graphic designing is witnessing the zenith of development. All thanks to the plethora of best free graphic editing software. All of them are available online. While most of them are free, there are much graphic editing software for Mac which needs to be paid before downloading the full version software.
Why need it?
For creating animation or figure customization, the graphic editing software, free download is a popular choice. The designers can make their flow of artistry blend all on the platform with the help of the intuitiveness of online graphic editing software. What a good graphic design program can offer is now much beyond the limited expectations as they can create real life images.
How they work?
The graphics editing software free. download full version contains special tool box and library options where the designers can stock their images and other necessary resources and use as and when required for the project. Picasa, Flickr, Wikimedia are the common sources of searching the images which can be stacked up in the library. Along with online batch processing system, most of the graphic designing software has photo editing and graphic designing as the primary functions. Some of them also support an image format converter like one available with Gimp. Stunning and spontaneous graphic designing is possible using the vector editing software tool. They also enable to add text into an image to make it look more customised. Digital art or illustration has a long way to go and these software with their regular updated versions can gift the world with maverick design concepts.