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Professional graphic design software can be way, way too expensive. Here are 10 awesome alternative online graphic design options for every designer and budget.
Sick of sticking to just one graphic design software program? Why don’t you give some new online graphic design software a try instead?
We’ve compiled a sampling of 10 beautiful, accessible, and user-friendly options to empower you to find a design software that works perfectly for you—and will help you create some real stunners to include in your online design portfolio.
Stunning design that speaks to an audience is paramount for brands of all sizes. Whether you need this software to help you start a blog like this one or edit product photos for your ecommerce business, selecting the best graphic design software can take your brand identity to the next level. Free graphic design software Pixlr claims to be ‘the most popular online photo editor in the world’. It boasts more than 600 effects, overlays and borders, and lets you do all the main things you’d expect from a photo editor, from cropping and resizing to removing red-eye and whitening teeth.
1. Design Wizard
If variety is the spice of life, Design Wizard is the tastiest graphic design software option on the menu—and one of the most accessible. With its deft attention to visual detail, Design Wizard offers thousands of aesthetically pleasing templates for both social media and print, as well as over a million high-quality images (including icons, vectors, and transparent images).
The expertly curated visual library is updated daily, and is chock-full of endless video, illustration, and graphics options. Everything is licensed and completely ready for commercial use
And with a range of packages from Apprentice (free!) to Expert ($16.95 monthly), every budget is welcome.
Design Wizard at a glance:
- Best graphic design software for beginners
- 1,000,000+ premium images
- 15,000+ templates
- Template options for both print and social media
- Affordable and scalable pricing
- Custom template resizing and other free personalization capabilities
- Integrations with Hubspot, Marketo, and Buffer
2. BeFunky
Anyone can create captivating, professional-grade visual content with this free graphic design software. BeFunky’s main offering comprises three creative tools that are simple enough for beginners but powerful enough to tackle a variety projects: Photo Editor, Collage Maker, and Designer.
BeFunky’s “fun and functional” design software proves that you don’t need a background in design to produce stunning results. With the option to work from beautiful pre-designed templates or build your own from scratch, there’s a ton of creative flexibility.
BeFunky at a glance:
- Free graphic design software
- Quick, easy, and enjoyable to use
- 1,000,000+ free stock images easily accessible (thanks to a partnership with Pixababy
- Make banners, infographics, flyers, posters, brochures, and more
- Design on the go with the mobile device app
- Upgrade to premium BeFunky Plus account any time
3. Canva
What if creating a beautiful visual canvas was as easy as drag-and-drop? Canva makes it possible by prioritizing simplicity, variety, and affordability.
When you visit their website, you will be asked to indicate what you’re using Canva’s design software for—education, small business, large company, non-profit, and so on. Canva wants to provide an excellent experience for designers of all kinds.
Billed primarily as a photo editor, Canva is a veritable Swiss army knife: it also works as a color palette generator, font selection tool, photo collage assembler, and infographic maker. It also features hundreds of free design elements for every project. Canva even provides online educational resources.
Canva at a glance:
- Impressive functionality for free graphic design software
- 100+ free design elements and fonts
- Diverse range of print, digital, and social media templates
- Templates are easily customizable and resizable
- Most tools are mobile-friendly and available as iOs and Android apps
- Upgradable to Premium based on needs and business growth
4. Pixlr
A powerful and intuitive (and did we mention free?) alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr also made our list of the best free online photo editors. With over 500 million users, we’re not the only fans.
But Pixlr also holds its own as a solid free graphic design software option, especially for beginners who don’t want to invest too much time and money or learn a complicated application straight out of the gate.
You can get started creating and editing beautiful images with Pixlr’s robust toolset in literally minutes, directly in your internet browser or via iPhone or Adroid apps—without any convoluted installation process.
Though Pixlr is especially incredible for editing photos on-the-go and provides a free vector editor and an array of free fonts, graphics, and stock images, many advanced features require a Pixlr Pro account. Luckily, it’s a small price to pay, as far as online graphic design software goes, at just $5 a month.
Pixlr at a glance:
- Excellent free alternative to Adobe Photoshop
- Easy to use for beginners with no installation required
- A variety of free fonts, graphics, and stock images
- Design on the go with iPhone and Android apps
- Supports five popular file formats (.png, .jpeg, .jpg, .bmp, and .tiff)
- Uses its own file format (.pxd) for easier editing
5. Crello
With an astounding image archive of over 65 million files, 12,000 templates, and hundreds of fonts, Crello is a frontrunner for most professional graphic design software option on the list. With expertly created templates that can be customized in a simple and streamlined way, Crello makes designing enjoyable.
This design software can help you create an extensive array of aesthetically stunning designs for print materials, digital ads, and social media posts. You can even create animated graphics. Visual assets are organized into themed collections to help inspire you.
If there’s enough wiggle room in your budget, we suggest checking out Crello Pro; it’s only $8.30 a month. Featuring unlimited commercial use without Crello watermarks or branding and access to advanced animation functionality, it’s well worth it.
Crello at a glance:
- Professional graphic design software quality that’s still easy to use for beginners
- An extensive and unparalleled library of free images, fonts, templates, and animations
- Features a gallery of design formats and themed collections to stimulate creativity and inspiration
- Help resources, tutorials, and how-to guides
- A high-value Pro option at an affordable price
6. Snappa
The best graphic design software for beginners is one that makes designing feel like a snap. Enter Snappa, the graphics software that will allow you to design like a pro.
Snappa breaks down the design process into easy, actionable steps. You can find the perfect image dimensions (whether it be for a blog, ad, email, or social media platform) in a one click, choose from thousands of crowd-pleasing templates in the blink of an eye, and take advantage of over 500,000 beautiful, high-quality stock photos in seconds.
You can also connect your Buffer account to Snappa to pre-schedule your posts, add a variety of text and effects to images, resize graphics for cross-platform posting, and make use of many other desirable free features.
Snappa at a glance:
- Quick and easy to use
- 500,000+ high-quality stock photos
- Free option includes access to templates, graphics, and five downloads per month
- Integrates with Buffer for post scheduling and more (for Premium accounts)
- Highly scalable with Starter (free), Pro ($10 per month), and Team ($20 per month) options
7. Infogram
A popular online graphic design toolkit, Infogram transforms charts, graphs, maps, graphics, dashboards, social media visuals, and more into little works of art. Infogram’s design appeal spans several industries including the non-profit sector, online publishing, education, and government, helping all kinds of business develop their own brand themes. Select from over 20 professionally designed themes or go rogue with your own color palette, logo, and fonts.
Infogram’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows you to plug in your data and transform it into something aesthetically beautiful and impactful—quickly. Along with personalized design options, there are also various pricing options for every creative, entrepreneur, business, and enterprise.
Infogram at a glance:
- Used by over 30,000+ companies worldwide
- 1 million images and icons
- Data integration
- Easy data integration: import from a spreadsheet or cloud service
- Five different pricing options make it very scalable
8. Tinkercad
Take your 2D ideas and bring them to life with Tinkercad, an effortlessly simple online graphic design toolkit for creating innovative 3D designs and coding. Catering to designers and creatives of all levels, Tinkercad is absolutely free. You can get started immediately—nothing to download, no lengthy installation process.
With an irresistible gallery of designs conceived by a community of creators to spark your inspiration, you’ll be itching to start learning 3D design. Tinkercad’s motto? “No experience preferred.” Get started with Tinkercad’s learning resources and you’ll never look back.
Tinkercad at a glance:
- 100% free
- Innovative collection of graphic design software tools for 3D design
- Educational resources are an ideal introduction to Autodesk, the leading 3D design and engineering software
- A community creators gallery fuels inspiration
9. Gravit Designer
You might already be familiar with this free graphic design software under its previous name, Gravit. Billed as a “cross-platform design tool for the 21st century,” Gravit Designer delivers the goods.
Whether you use it online or download it as an app, Gravit Design is an incredible resource for vector design and comes with a seriously robust toolkit. Icon designs, logo presentations, illustration work, animation, text integration? You’re covered.
Designed for simplicity and ease of use, the platform is still granular enough for a wide variety of projects. A serious perk for busy designers is the Gravit Cloud service that will let you design-on-the-go from any device, anywhere with internet access. Talk about a productivity boost!
Gravit Designer at a glance:
- 100% free
- Choice of using online or via downloadable app
- Cross-platform functionality
- Robust toolkit for vector design
- Can export files as PDF, SVG, or bitmap
- Gravit Cloud services facilitates on-the-go design work
10. Vectr
Vectr is a free graphic design software for creating beautiful vector graphics that is both elegant and easy to use. Simple and streamlined, designers at any level can jump right into their work without any pesky learning curve.
Another great cross-platform option, Vectr will synch your projects in real-time so you can begin designing at home on your desktop web browser and continue later on your iPad. It’s a completely seamless experience. What’s more, you can grant collaborators access to your document so that they can watch you create and edit as it happens.
Whether you’re working on website design mockups, brand logos, presentations, brochures, posters, and more, your designs will look crisp and clear—no matter the size. The sky’s the limit!
Vectr at a glance:
- 100% free
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Seamless cross-platform capabilities
- Share and edit documents with collaborators in real time
- High quality designs at any size or scale
- Free user guide and tutorials
More budget-friendly online resources for creatives:
11 Extremely Helpful (And Free!) Online Graphic Design Courses
The Best Online Illustration Classes for Artists
Best Free Online Courses and Tutorials for Photographers
11 Extremely Helpful (And Free!) Online Graphic Design Courses
The Best Online Illustration Classes for Artists
Best Free Online Courses and Tutorials for Photographers
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Do you remember the time, when you used to draw pictures of your family or landscape using those crayons?? And then showing it to your parents and friends, so that they can hang your achievement on walls!! Those were the days. But now technology has changed the way we draw and express our emotions. We have shifted from notepad and crayons to iPad and tons of virtual tools. Now, you can show all your creativity on your electronic devices by using the best drawing software.
Significance of Art and Illustration Software
From prehistoric times, art and culture have remained a significant part of our culture. In fact, several countries around the world are relying completely on their historical art for boosting the economy via tourism. It is a tool for expressing your feelings, thoughts, and creativity on a single piece of paper. However, with the development of technology, the mode of presenting art and culture has taken a different course. But the artistic creativity and masterpieces are still in demand and possibly may never go out of fashion.
But with the passage of time, art has become a business. People are demanding increasingly masterpieces in a limited period. On the other hand, printing creativity from the brain to paper needs time and patience. Hence, the need for best illustration software is gaining popularity and has now become a necessity for artists. This software gives amazing tools and features that make editing and drawing easier and brings perfection to the thoughts.
Best Drawing & Illustration Tools
In this blog, we are covering the best drawing and illustration software especially designed for professional artists and designers.
List of Contents
1. Adobe Photoshop CC
The most trusted and used brand by artists and designers around the world for decades. Photoshop has gained its reputation for being the most creative software along with an array of cloud-based tools that makes editing and drawing easy and simplified. When it comes to Photoshop, the name is sufficing and that is the reason they have dominated the market like a pro.
You can this software for making websites, logos, icons, banners and bring your creativity to life. One of the best tool for beginners to begin editing via interactive templates and time-saving tools. You can bring your imagination to life in more refined and effective manner with Photoshop Creative Cloud. The software is available for monthly subscription as well as for an annual subscription. Latest editing software, free download. Visit Now.
2. Autodesk SketchBook
Considered as an art app that is oozing with tons of brushes to explore and experiment, Autodesk SketchBook offers multi-platform support for architects, designers, and professionals. If you are not a novice and has worked on different software but want to enhance and experiment with your creativity, then this is the best illustration software for you.
For more than 140 pre-designed brushes, uncluttered interface, and the ability to add layers on the images makes it as the best drawing software of all times. It works on Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac devices and gives you the option to twist and import your own brush to the program. The grouping functionalities and blending notes are another noteworthy feature to talk about.
When it comes to cost, the program gives you the flexibility to choose the package as per the requirement. You can consult the customer care executive for further aid and assistance. Visit Now
3. Corel Painter
A painting solution that can produce incredible results, Corel Painter is the perfect platform for students and budding artists and designers. It has custom brushes and supports third-party apps and hardware. It gives an array of creative software packages and is a cross-platform application. The ‘thick paint’ feature of this best illustration software allows you to produce some highly authentic looking masterworks.
However, the program is not massively advanced but offers many brushes along with the ability to create your own personalized brushes. You can link Painter with other programs like Photoshop and other amazing software. Available on both Mac and Windows and you can download the software from their website. Visit Now
4. CorelDRAW
Next to Photoshop, when it comes to CorelDRAW, the name is sufficient. It is one of the most popular and trusted graphics and illustration tool that allows you to work and explore your creativity. The USP of this software is the recently launched LiveSketch vector tool that produces images like artificial intelligence-guided drawing. This tool adjusts and corrects the strokes drawn from hand and assimilate intelligently with other vector curves.
With this tool, CorelDRAW has taken the virtual drawing to the next level, where you can actually feel the image. Both Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence technology have been incorporated into the tool that brings your imagination directly on-board within seconds and with more realistic and natural appearances. The application is available only for Windows but has gained its reputation in much lesser time. Visit Now
5. Artweaver
If you are looking for a creative drawing app that has been in the market for decades, then you can trust Artweaver blindly. This easy-to-use program comes with several collaborative chops and features. It is one of the oldest painting software with tons of pencils and features to choose from. Create masterpieces with flexible interfaces and if you are a beginner, then you should start exploring from this software.
The extraordinary brush system that is configurable in nature allows you to choose from the wide array of brushes and tweak it as per the needs. If you are working on art projects in a collaborative manner, then this software can come handy as it allows you to share the document with other partners. It can record your work and hence help you in the workflow. However, the software is only available for Windows but at a considerably cheap price. Visit Now
6. ArtRage
Developed and produced by Ambient Design Ltd, ArtRage is the best illustration software for both smartphones and desktops. Do not get confused with Hobbyist application as both are the same apps. ArtRage was launched as Hobbyist and then the company changed its name and added several professional features to the software.
Now, the application has become more sophisticated and is available for both Mac and Windows. Its flexible interface was recently launched along with various painting and editing tools. You can also customize brushes as per the requirement and the image-editing effect tool allows you to add shadows, highlight, liquify and emboss effects to the image. Visit Now
7. Rebelle
This software was developed and produced by an artist named Peter Blaskovic, who wanted to make drawing more versatile and interactive. With unlimited customization choices and the ability to show creativity in wet, dry, watercolor, and acrylic modes, this application is better known as “one-of-a-kind paint software”.
The development of this program was accidental and not intentional as the creator developed this program as part of his experimental drawing projects. He planned to develop a drawing platform that is easy-to-use and can also use natural paintings tools. Some of the highlighted features of this app are wet diffusion and drying techniques, realistic color blending, and has tons of watercolors, acrylics, inks and pastels. Visit Now
8. Inkscape
The only free and open-source program in this list is Inkscape that offers reliability and tons of features. Home drawing software. You can generate vector graphics on Mac, Windows, and Linux. However, it lacks several features that are available in the paid software. Still, the program is powerful enough that can be used on daily basis.
Some of the best features that were recently launched are mesh gradients, interactive smoothing for the Pencil tool, new path effects, improved SVG2 and CSS3 support, and an “Object dialog” for direct management of all drawing components. Visit Now
9. GIMP
It is a free software available for Windows, Mac, GNU/Linux, and other open source operating systems. This open-source program is community based and aims to support the society with free drawing software. with several customization choices and 3rd party plugins, it gives the opportunity to every budding designer, artists, illustrator, and photographer to augment their productivity.
Its outstanding tools and features delivers a superior framework for scripted picture modification. Also, the program supports multi-languages like C, C++, Python, Perl, Scheme, and others. GIMP gives high-quality color management features for producing highly reliable color simulation across various platforms. You can also use with other free applications like Inkscape, Scribus, and SwatchBooker. Visit Now
10. PaintTool SAI
If you cannot afford highly-priced software and still want to learn to sketch virtually, then you can use this software. With customization options and great flexibility, PaintTool SAI is a great alternative. It can replace Photoshop or any high-end software but still, it is worth a try.
Some of the features of this program are complete digitizer support with pressure, remarkable anti-aliased drawings, extremely precise composition with 16-bit ARGB channels and simple but powerful user interface making it easy to learn. Also, the software completely supports Intel MMX Technology and gives data protection feature to evade irregular termination. Visit Now
Conclusion
Painting is all about pixels now. Higher the density of pixels, more beautiful the image is. These programs and software definitely save your time, but the real masterpiece always comes from imagination. There is no shortcut for creativity and these programs are supplementary sources that help you achieve your full potential.
Best Illustration Software For Windows
So, this was all about the best drawing software that are currently ruling the market. Start experimenting and exploring these virtual tools and share your experience in the comment section below.
Best Free Graphic Design Software
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