Graphic design software isn't cheap, and for students or those just setting up on their own, it can seem unaffordable. But that doesn't mean that those who can't afford pricey one-off payments or monthly subscriptions have to go without – there is some fantastic free graphic design software out there with features to rival the big name packages. And even if you can afford paid-for creative apps like Adobe's suite – which we highly recommend you get if you can – you may still find these free tools useful, depending on what you're trying to achieve. Here are our best free graphic design tools – divided into sections for creating vector art, editing images, creating data visualisations and other useful tools we think you might like – use the menu above to navigate to the section you want. Free vector art software 01. Gravit Designer delivers a full vector toolkit for free. Platform: Browser, Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS Gravit Designer is a full-featured vector design app suitable for all manner of jobs, from screen and icon designs through to presentations, illustration and animation.
With a clean and intuitive interface that adjusts itself as you need it, this free graphic design software packs a wealth of tools for creating detailed and beautiful vector imagery, including non-destructive booleans, a knife tool and path graphs, plus multiple fills and blending modes, and a powerful text engine. It'll export as PDF, SVG or bitmap, and if you need to access a project on the go there's the Gravit Cloud service that enables you to get to your work wherever you are. Vectr's online options make it great for live collaboration. Platform: Browser, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS Available both as a browser-based web app and as a stand-alone desktop app, Vectr is a free editor for creating 2D vector graphics. With all the vector features you'd hope for, plus plenty of options for using filters, shadows and fonts, it's versatile enough for day-to-day design tasks.
Particularly useful are its live collaboration and synchronisation options, which enable you to hook up with anyone, anywhere, to create in tandem. A genuine alternative to. Platform: Browser If you're looking to quickly output SVG or edit an existing SVG file, there are a few online editors that will do the job just as well as Adobe Illustrator.
(scalable vector graphics) is an open format that allows you to reproduce your Vector drawings programmatically, and one of the nicest projects is SVG-Edit. This is built entirely on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript without requiring any server-side processing.
Best Design Software For Mac
So not only can you use it to create and edit documents, but as it's open source you can also download and modify the code – making your own version if you want. The standard – albeit basic – toolset of every vector-image editor is here, and although it's limited to the SVG format, it's surprisingly capable.
Free graphic design software Inkscape has very good SVG integration. Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux As with many of the free options available, Inkscape focuses on the SVG format as its primary file format. This highly capable editor has a very good SVG integration, supporting many of the more advanced features that aren't always available in other apps – such as alpha blending, cloned objects and markers. Full support for different colour modes means this is a viable alternative to Illustrator for both print and web design, and although the interface is somewhat simpler than Illustrator, it's still possible to achieve extremely sophisticated artwork. Of particular note is the ability to trace bitmap images, support for variable width strokes and native import of Illustrator files. Edit images, create colour palettes, match font pairs and more with Canva. Platform: Browser, iOS, Android It seems harsh to place Canva under the 'Image Editing Software' heading because it does so much more.
Canva is a photo editor, colour palette tool, font combination picker, learning resource, and, and it even features a dedicated with hundreds of free design elements and fonts at your fingertips. It's really more of a full graphic design suite than a photo editor, and while it comes some way short of offering the breadth of abilities of Adobe Creative Cloud, its simplicity, variety of useful tools, and inspirational learning assets make Canva a hit. You can use Canva in the browser for the full experience, but most tools are available for both Android and iOS. Need to fix your photos? Photo Pos Pro can do that and more.
Platform: Windows If you're on a Windows PC and need a decent set of image editing tools without Photoshop's price tag or GIMP's immense toolset, Photo Pos Pro should hit the spot. Built with image enhancement and editing in mind, it's perfect for typical photo editing tasks such as fixing contrast, lighting and saturation, but it'll also stretch to more advanced techniques. It boasts an extremely user-friendly interface as well as an in-depth help system to get you started, and if you want to expand its tools to fit your needs, there are plenty of expansions and plugins available. Krita has been in development since 1999. Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux Designed with the VFX industry and concept artists, illustrators, matte and texture artists in mind, Krita is a free and open source painting tool that's been in development since 1999. It comes with a full set of brushes suitable for all manner of work, and there's a whole host of plugins available, from advanced filters to painting assistants for perspective work. Notable features include brush stabilisers to smooth out any shaky lines, a wrap-around mode for creating seamless textures and patterns, and a pop-up palette for quick colour-picking.
Free graphic design software Pixlr comes with more than 600 effects. Platform: iOS, Android 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.
If you're used to using Photoshop, then you'll find Pixlr's user interface easy to pick up, as it's very similar. This free app is available in both and varieties. Note that the app does offer in-app purchases – you can pay $1.99 to remove the ads, for example, and you also pay extra for things such as borders and stickers. For photo editing, free graphic design software Paint.NET is an excellent alternative to Photoshop. Platform: Windows Paint.NET is a Windows-based alternative to the Paint editor that Microsoft shipped with versions of Windows. Don't let that put you off, though, as it's surprisingly capable, useful and free graphic design software.
The focus is on ease of use, and there's a definite tendency towards photo editing rather than artistic creation. That said, there are a range of special effects available, allowing you to easily create fake perspective, blend and push pixels around the canvas, tile and repeat selections, and so on. A good range of selection tools, support for layers, and adjustments such as curves and brightness/contrast mean that Paint.NET is a great alternative to Photoshop for photo editing, especially if you can do without some of the more recent additions to Photoshop's toolset. Free graphic design software Sumo Paint works in the browser. Platform: Browser (requires Adobe Flash Player) Sumo Paint is a highly capable browser-based image editor.
All the standard features you'd expect from a desktop tool are present and correct (and by buying the Pro version you can install a desktop version of the app if you prefer). You need the Adobe Flash Player to use this tool, so you're not going be using Sumo Paint on your iPad. That said, it's lightweight and quick to load, and the free version is very usable. The standard range of tools and adjustments you'd expect are all included.
Brushes, pencils, shapes, text, cloning, gradients and so on are all quickly accessed from the Photoshop-esque floating toolbar. It can also open saved documents from your hard drive, making Sumo Paint a perfectly viable option for editing and re-editing. GIMP is a popular, free graphic design software alternative to Photoshop. Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux Open-source free graphic design software that debuted on Unix-based platforms, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Today it's available in versions for Linux, Windows and Mac. GIMP's interface differs somewhat from Photoshop, but a version of GIMP is available that mimics Adobe's look and feel, making it easier to migrate over if you're ditching Photoshop. The full suite of tools is available here – everything you're accustomed to is within easy reach, including painting tools, colour correction, cloning, selection and enhancement.
The team that oversees development has worked hard to ensure compatibility too, so you'll be able to work with all the popular file formats without any trouble at all. You'll also find a very capable file manager built in, along similar lines to Adobe's Bridge.
Free 3D software 12. 3D software Daz Studio is available to download completely free of charge.
Platform: Windows, macOS Daz Studio is a 3D figure customisation, posing and animation tool that enables artists of all skill levels to creating digital art using virtual people, animals, props, vehicles, accessories and environments. With Daz Studio, you can create custom 3D characters and avatars, design virtual environments, produce graphic design elements and much more. There's also a handy table that shows you what this free tool offers in comparison to its paid alternatives (scroll down ).
The superb animation Big Buck Bunny was made using free graphic design software tool Blender. Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux If you're serious about 3D but struggling to afford software, then you're in luck. Is a free, open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems. Started by Blender Foundation founder Ton Roosendaal back in 2002, Blender is now largest open source tool for 3D creation. Its makers are constantly working on its development, but you can pretty much do anything 3D related with this software, including modelling, texturing, animation, rendering and compositing. Master the art of digital sculpting with Pixologic's free graphic design software Sculptris. Platform: Windows, macOS If you're interested in the art of digital sculpting, check out 3D software Sculptris from Pixologic.
Perfect for all skill levels, the software is a great starting point for users new to the discipline, while more experienced CG artists will find the it a quick and easy way to realise concepts. Sculptris is based on Pixologic's ZBrush, the most widely-used digital sculpting application in today's market. So, when you're ready to move on to the next level of detailing, skills learned in Sculptris can be directly translated into ZBrush. Get to grips with the Houdini graphic design software with this free Apprentice version. Platform: Windows, macOS, Linux Houdini is a 3D animation and visual effects tool, used widely throughout the media industry for film, broadcast, entertainment and visualisation.
And its cheapest version costs just a little under $2000. But the makers of the programme – – are a good bunch and, knowing that cost can be an issue, offer an Apprentice version for free. With this you can access all the features of the full version in order to develop your skills and work on personal projects. The programme is purely for use non-commercial and learning purposes. Free data visualisation software 18.
Free graphic design software Easel.ly offers a dozen free templates to start you off. Platform: Browser This free web-based infographic tool offers you a dozen free templates to start you off, all of which are easily customisable. You get access to a library of things like arrows, shapes and connector lines, and you can customise the text with range of fonts, colours, text styles and sizes. The tool also lets you upload your graphics and position them with one touch. You're not going to make the ever created, but it is a nice, simple tool to use.
Create infographics for your website or to share on social media. Platform: Browser Infogram is a great free tool that offers access to a wide variety of graphs, charts and maps as well as the ability to upload pictures and videos to create cool infographics. The data upon which the infographics are based can be found in an Excel-style spreadsheet, which the user can easily edit and see the results change in real time.
When you're happy with your infographic you can publish it to the Infogram website for all to enjoy, embed it in to your own website or share it via social media. Other useful free tools 22. Klex is an easy-to-use way of creating great designs quickly. Platform: Browser, Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS Made by the people behind Gravit Design, and sharing the same engine, Klex is an easy-to-learn and accessible tool for anyone who wants to create impressive graphics in just a few clicks. While obviously not aimed at pro designers, it's the perfect tool for anyone who wants to quickly bang out memorable designs. There's a plethora of ready made templates to choose from, plus thousands of assets and a great selection of effects and filters, as well as customisation options and a load of fonts and text assets.
Create your own portfolio blog with Wordpress. Platform: Browser, iOS, Android There are a whole lot of designers who don't have their own blog, but Wordpress is a great way to showcase your fantastic work, get recognition in your industry, earn extra income and get new clients.
Don't believe us? See our examples of.
WordPress is the most popular platform for blogging, and while it can be a little fiddly to set up, there's lots of helpful information online to get you going, including these.
Product tags: Overview Icon Editor to Make Icons Create High-Quality Icons for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, Android, web IconLover 5.47 is a powerful, yet easy to use icon editor for making your own icons for any operating system, including Windows, Mac OS,.NIX, Android and iOS. It creates native Windows icons (ICO format) of all sizes, up to 768x768 used in Windows 10, and native MacOS icons (ICNS format) up to 1024x1024 pixels (this size is used in the latest Mac OS X versions). UNIX/Linux, Android and iOS use icons in PNG format which is fully supported by IconLover - you can create icons in this format from scratch or convert the existing Windows and Mac OS icons to PNG. Numerous advanced features including support for variable transparency, built-in drop shadow, smoothing, roll, mirror and other effects, support for multi-layer images, ability to import and export a variety of image formats and batch processing of icons make IconLover the tool of choice for many professional icon designers. Create and Edit Animated GIFs IconLover features native support for GIF animation. You can use this icon software to create animated images, banners and buttons in almost no time.
Create and Edit Bitmap Images for Web and Other Uses IconLover can also be used for creating and editing bitmap images in a variety of formats: BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TGA, TIFF etc. It supports transparency and a full range of other format-specific features. Support for Windows compressed PNG Icons IconLover fully supports the compressed PNG format recommended for 256x256 icons in Windows Vista/7/8/10. It helps reduce the overall size of the file without sacrificing image quality and preserves alpha channel transparency.
Support for large Windows 10 Icons IconLover fully supports new 512x512 and 768x768 Windows 10 application icons. Automatically Make Icons from Images Some designers prefer working with familiar software and then import the resulting image to IconLover and convert it to icons. With support for a variety of image formats, including Adobe Photoshop (PSD), Adobe Illustrator (AI), SVG, PDF, IconLover enables icon designers easily convert images to icons. Import Vector Images IconLover allows importing vector images in SVG, AI and PDF formats. You can automatically render these vector images into raster icons of any size. The algorithm is specifically optimized for small graphics use, producing great-looking icons in all resolutions.
The importing works via installed Inkscape. Export Icon to Bitmap Images You can also use IconLover to open Windows and Mac OS icon files (ICO, ICNS) and export them to common bitmap formats for use on a website, blog, application splash-screen etc. Convert Icons between Windows and Mac OS Full support for Windows (ICO) and Mac OS (ICNS) icon formats enables designers to use IconLover for easy conversion of icons between these operating systems. You can open a Mac OS icon in this icon software and save it for use on a Windows PC, and vice versa. Design and Explore Android Apps In addition to vector import and super-size Mac OS X icons, we added support for importing graphics from Android APK files, giving you direct access to icons used in Android apps. You can now also choose icon sizes that are specific to Android, iOS and Mac OS X from the list instead of typing them by hand every time.
Create Indy Sprites IconLover makes working with bitmap and PNG masks easier. We added the ability to import, export and apply masks to images. Among other applications, masking support makes it easier making sprites for Indy games.