Not all designers have the money to kit themselves out with the most expensive design software, particularly when embarking on a new career in graphic design or starting a new business. With millions of newspapers, magazines and trade papers striving for designer’s attention, exclusive graphic design, layout, and content are important to achieve uniqueness, and the ultimate design software should have powerful tools and features that can render the most difficult tasks simple. Fortunately, there are lots of free graphic design software that you can choose to do the job well. We have compiled a list of the 7 best design applications and their features:
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#1 Lunacy
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Icons8 Lunacy is a free graphic design software for Windows.
This app works offline and supports all .sketch files. Original idea was to build Sketch for Windows. To help developers and designers who use different operating systems to work together.
This app works offline and supports all .sketch files. Original idea was to build Sketch for Windows. To help developers and designers who use different operating systems to work together.
It is a full-fledged graphic editor with built-in design resources: icons, illustrations, and photos. Lunacy makes software and content work together.
One of the latest updates is a project shadow copy: your design is safe even if your computer suddenly shuts down.
#2 SVG-Edit
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a graphics design format in which XML is used to detail the shapes. Once this is done, an SVG viewer is used to render the XML. Moreover, modern web browsers are just as capable of displaying SVG in much the same way they display GIF, PNG, and JPG. SVG-Edit is totally built into HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3, without the need for any server-side processing. The software is available over on Github and you can find the download link here, or you can try it live here.
Apart from using SVG-Edit to create documents from scratch and edit them, you can also download and modify the code. The software was designed for 2-dimensional vector graphics, and you would have to look up X3D for 3-dimensional formats. For a brief guide on the capabilities of this software, you can read more here.
#3 Serif DrawPlus Starter Edition
While DrawPlus may not initially come across as a design App that professional graphics designers can use, it is actually surprisingly capable, and it is packaged in a free version that has muscled itself into the list of the top free graphics design applications. The software is intuitive to use and features an array of tools that mirror the functionality of Adobe Illustrator.
Moreover, it features a few extra features implemented in a more user-friendly manner than Adobe’s design software, with 3D-rendering being the chief example. For example, you can quickly make a 3D object via extrusion and apply a plethora of 3D styles that will be instantly applied to your created object. Similarly, the app features a collection of pre-defined templates and brushes to get you started quickly
DrawPlus works well in CMYK and allows you to output print-ready artwork easily in addition to being able to work with Pantone color profiles.
#4 Easel.ly
Easel.ly is a free graphic design application developed to create infographics. While you may notice a few rough edges when you first begin using this software, it lives to its creators’ promise of being easy to use. Simply select a theme, objects and shape then drop some text in and you will end up with an acceptable infographic within no time.
The software allows you to select from a wide range of color-coordinated themes that are fully developed and can be edited to match your information requirements. In most cases, the result would be a comprehensive and visually pleasing infographic that has a professional look, and at virtually no cost at all.
#5 Daz Studio
Daz Studio is a 3D figure animation, customization, and posing tool that allows users to create remarkable illustrations and digital animations. Its is among the best free tools available to design unique artworks and create animations using environments, animals, virtual props, vehicles, accessories and more. You simply have to select your subject and or settings, set up the lighting, and then arrange your accessories to start creating eye-catching images.
With this graphic design freeware it is easy to produce illustrations for books and book covers, create custom 3D characters and avatars and other graphic design elements.
#6 GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and it is an open-source free graphics design software that debuted on Linux and other UNIX-based platforms. Today versions of the software are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
GIMP offers functionality that is almost similar to Photoshop, but its interface differs slightly. However, a version of the program that mimics Adobe’s feel and look is available and this makes migration easier for those ditching Photoshop. It offers the full suite of tools you will find in Photoshop; virtually everything that you are accustomed to, and this includes color correction, painting tools, selection, cloning, and enhancement.
The team that is in charge of GIMP’s development has put in much effort to ensure compatibility, so you don’t have to worry about problems manipulating images in popular file formats without any trouble at all. Moreover, GIMP comes with an inbuilt file manager that functions along the same lines as Adobe Photoshop’s Bridge.
One of the best uses of GIMP is by web designers and web developer for editing of high-resolution images and photography to create a web-friendly version. Typically, photographers and other creatives would send large, high-resolution images, several megabytes in size, which would not work on the web, due to website speed issues. GIMP is a great alternative to photoshop because it allows you to tweak such high-resolution imagery to create web-safe versions. With such software it would then be easy to create photography or portfolio sites with high-quality images, but which are small in size. Click here to learn more about how to use this to create the best WordPress themes for photographers.
#7 Sumopaint
This is one of the most capable web browser-based image editors. It offers most of the standard tools you will find on desktop based graphics design application (you can opt to install a PC-based version of the software if you like, by purchasing the Pro version for just $19).
To use this tool, you will need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash player installed, so this rules out using it on your Android tablet or Apple iPad. With that in mind, it is light and loads quickly. You will find the standard range of adjustments and tools. These include pencils, Brushes, shapes, cloning, gradients, etc that can all be accessed with ease from the Photoshop-esque floating toolbar. The browser-based tool can also open saved documents from your PC’s hard disk, making it a nifty choice for editing and re-editing.
Which one of these graphic design software would you try? Tell us in the comment section below.
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Graphic Design Software are infamous for being pricey and if you are just beginning your career as a Graphic Designer or are looking for casual graphic design tools for creating social media and marketing images then paying for a costly software may not be desirable. There are many free graphic design software and online tools available which offer professional quality graphic editing capabilities and we will take a look at them in this article.
You may already be aware of the most popular graphic design software: Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. However they are available at a monthly price and not free. In this post, we are sharing a list of best and free Graphic Design Software that are suitable for beginners as well as can cater to advanced graphic editing needs. These software and online tools are capable of creating social media images, poster designs, Facebook cover and a lot more. They offer simple and easy to use interface which can be learned in minutes. Many of them offer ready made templates which can be modified by simple drag and drop interface and easy change of text and colors.
If you are just looking for a free tool to edit and re-touch your photos then you may want to take a look at these free online photo editors. In this post, our list includes those online tools and software which are capable of creating graphic design items such as posters, mock-ups, flyers, logo, infographics, presentations, magazine cover, greeting cards etc. What’s great is that all the products listed below are free to use. They may offer advanced templates or products at a price however all the basic features they offer are free.
Gravit Designer
![Easy Easy](http://www.sycaralocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/logo-design-studio-pro-graphic-software-for-mac-peaceful-best-fantastic-8.png)
Although Gravit Designer is a new entrant, it has already gathered a lot of appreciation from graphic designers and is regarded as a viable free alternative to Adobe Illustrator and Sketch. Gravit Designer is a full featured vector design application which sits right inside your browser and doesn’t require any installation or paid subscription. It presents clean, intuitive interface and can be used to design any kind of vector graphics. You can also download app for your favorite platform and use it offline.
Canva
Canva offers creation of graphics using multiple pre-created layouts and templates with an easy to use web editor. You can easily create social media images, posters, flyers, book covers and a lot more graphic items using their editor. Text, font, colors and images can be changed easily and you are allowed to download and share your creation for free. Canva offers paid templates as well as paid images, however many templates and images in their collection are free. You can also upload your own images and then add text overlays.
Crello
Crello is an alternative of Canva and offers similar features and functionality. This free online graphic design software allows creation of design using pre-created formats such as social media covers, ads, posters etc. Crello offers over 5000 free designs and collection of over 60 million images.
Snappa
Snappa is another quick and easy graphic design software similar to Canva. It offers a free plan which includes 40,000+ free photos and upto 5 downloads per month. The free plan contains limited design templates to choose from and integration with 2 social accounts. You can upload your own graphics too in Snappa editor as well as import your custom fonts. Connecting your social media account allows you to share the graphic on the social platform right from the app.
Gravit Klex
Klex is built by the Gravit Designer team and offers an experience similar to Canva. It has pre-built designs and layouts which you can easily edit to your liking with change of image and text. Many graphic elements such as shapes, illustrations, emojis, icons, frames and stickers are included to be used for free in your design. You can upload your own images or choose from many of the backgrounds and free images provided in the editor.
Design Wizard
Design Wizard has thousands of templates and over a million images for you to choose from and create your own design for social media, business cards, invitation and greeting cards etc. The free plan offers a pay as you go option which includes buying premium templates starting from $1. You also get online storage of 15MB to store your design.
Stencil
Similar to other easy to use graphic design tools, Stencil also provides you with 650+ pre-designed templates, over a million images and 800,000+ icons and graphic elements to help you create your graphics. Free and simple image creation tools like Stencil are best suited for social media marketers, bloggers and small businesses. With the free plan you can create upto 10 images per month.
Vectr
Vectr is a free vector graphic editor similar to Gravit Designer. You can download it to use on your desktop or use the web interface. Vectr is easy to learn and free tutorials and user guides are provided as well. You can send anyone a URL to your Vectr document for real-time collaboration, others can watch you create and edit designs live.
Inkscape
Inkscape is a professional vector graphics editor available for Windows, Mac OS X as well as Linux. It’s open source software licensed under GPL. Inkscape is trusted by professional graphic designers and is one of the best free alternative to Adobe Illustrator. The learning curve may be a bit steeper compared to other graphic editors listed above, however with Inkscape, you would be able to create complex vector graphics which may not be possible to create in other free editors.
GIMP
![Easy to use graphic design software for mac os Easy to use graphic design software for mac os](http://mybrushes-app.com/drawing-tool/corel-painter-10.jpg)
Talking about free alternatives, GIMP is long reigning king of free image editing software and is accepted as a powerful free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. You can refer to GIMP tutorials to get started with this amazing and free photo editor. GIMP is open source and available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems.
Do you use any of these free graphic design tools already? Were you looking for an alternative to Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop and found what you needed? Our team here at SDR uses many of the graphic editing tools listed above to create our blog graphics, logo, social media images etc. You can check the following collection of articles which will help you get better sense of graphic design if you are a beginner.
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