10 Best Graphic Design Software: Free and Paid

01/12/2023

Graphic design is a skill in which professionals create visual content to convey messages.

Designers use typography and images to meet the specific needs of users and focus on the logic of displaying elements in interactive designs to optimize the user experience by employing visual hierarchy and page layout techniques.

Of course, your design skills matter the most, but a premium tool can make the difference between designers.

Whether you need software to help you with a logo design or to edit some photos, selecting the best graphic design software can take your designs to the next level.

Using a software for your designs will save you time and more importantly it will produce and save you money.

The best part is that your designs are digital so you can edit them, duplicate, change them, and scale easily every time you want to.

10 Best Graphic Design Software

There is are plenty of graphic design software out there but what is the best ones? pctechtest.com show you in this article our top List.

1. Adobe Photoshop

When it comes to photo editing, Photoshop is the best design software. It is one of the most used software in the industry and well respected for the history that has behind.

Like Adobe Illustrator, you can't buy the software for life, you have to pay monthly to use it.

It can be a bit overwhelming to use it as a beginner, but you have a lot of tutorials to learn from.

2. Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is the Design Software designers use daily.

It is one of the most popular software in the design industry and you can create so many awesome illustrations, logos, icons and so much more.

3. Adobe Indesign

Adobe Indesign is used for professionals in the printing industry, you can create print-based documents or even interactive digital magazines.

It has amazing features to design stunning layouts. You can export your designs to PDF and HTML.

4. Sketch

Sketch software is only available for Mac users only. It is best known for web design, app, and interface design, such as create interactive prototypes for UI/UX projects.

Sketch is intuitive and powerful. It's very easy to get started on your next project. And without any effort, you can create something — whether you're an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro.

5. Affinity Photo

You will be amazed at how cheap it is and the quality of the product. So If you are looking for a cheaper version of Adobe Photoshop this one is for you.

You can choose from both pixel art or vectorial art without installing any other app. You can edit raw in real-time and the guys from Affinity promise Super smooth pan and zoom at 60fps.

100% file format compatibility across Windows, Mac and iPad. You can work on any device. But Some tools from Photoshop and Illustrator are missing.

6. Canva

If you have no experience in graphic design and you are not planning to become a pro anytime soon then Canva is for you. You only need to drag an element to your work area and customize it

It's easy, it has millions of resources and templates, and you can basically create a design in a few minutes. It's not going to be like in Adobe Photoshop but still a good choice.

Free for basic stuff, however, you will be charged if you want to use more features. If you want to create a premium design you don't have the features that pro software offers

7. CorelDraw

Corel Draw Graphic Suite is a package that allows you to create professional vector illustration, layout, and photo-edit.

Fully featured suite with 7 apps. It was built initially for Windows, but they do have a version for macOS.

You can opt for a single-application subscription, or choose a perpetual license to own software outright.

They are less expensive compared to Adobe Creative Cloud, and they do have a bunch of design tutorials to learn from.

8. Adobe XD

Adobe XD is the number one competitor of Sketch. It is very nice if you want to design a prototype for user testing.

You can also create and share designs for websites, mobile apps, and voice interfaces. Besides, it has a nice feature called coediting and you can collaborate with your team in real-time.

It allows you to Import and export all your work between all the adobe products.

9. GIMP

GIMP is free and open source. It offers you tools for photo manipulation, artwork creation, and graphic design elements.

The interface is extremely customizable. It has a strong community that developed several plugins to increase software performance.

The software is compatible with almost all the operating systems including macOS, Windows, Solaris, and Linux.

10. Inkscape

Inkscape offers a completely free way to create vector images, and competes with Adobe Illustrator in terms of available features and tools.

While this software lacks Illustrator's processing power and polished look, it's still exceptionally full-featured.

Inkscape provides significant text editing, Bezier and Spiro curve types, and broad file compatibility.

Additionally, it includes an extension-based approach that makes it simple to add new features, and there are several incredible ones available.

FAQs

What is the best free design software?

The best free design software is GIMP and Inkscape.

If you are not ready to invest yet in a professional graphic design software then start with a free one.

GIMP and Inkscape offers you all the tools you need to design awesome stuff.

The learning curve can be a bit hard but if you are willing to invest the time it may be a good choice to start with a free software.

How to choose graphic design software?

Sometimes finding the best graphic design software can be overwhelming but if you set some criteria your selection will be much easier.

My recommendation would be to choose a software based on:

Features: depending on the desired design quality you will need premium features. If you are planning to learn how to design why not go with a premium software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. You will learn from the best, plus usually, the paid Softwares have a lot of tutorials and support from the community.

Budget: Decide if you want to go with a premium or a free design tool. If you go with premium, how much you are willing to pay for the software.

Consider these points when you make a decision and take action.

How to use graphic design software?

First, you need to understand that every graphic design software has one goal: to help you achieve the best possible designs.

So, of course, they will try to create a user-friendly interface to make it easier to use.

Every learning curve will be different be here are some things you can do to learn faster how to use a graphic design software.

1. Familiarize yourself with UI. Try every tool, see what they do.

2. Learn the basic tool. The basic tools are the ones that you will use the most so start with them.

3. Watch Tutorials.There are thousands of youtube tutorials. Just watch one and try to reproduce what the designer does. You will learn new tricks and create some awesome designs in the process.

4. Keep improving. It takes hundreds of hours to master a software, so don't give up. Keep creating and improving and eventually, it will pay off. In the end, your design skills will matter the most.

Is a graphic tablet necessary for graphic design?

If you want to do your graphic design quickly and more efficiently you should definitely consider purchasing a graphic pen tablet.

Consider if you do digital illustration work or photo retouching, a graphics tablet could make your work a good deal easier and a lot more fun.

Using a mouse was slow and clunky. A stylus offers a more natural way to draw, paint and retouch than a mouse could ever provide.

In case, you are just starting, the XP-Pen and Huion are a very good option. It works well for not only drawing but also photography, sketch, and design. They offer a wide range of features at affordable rates.

On the other hand, Wacom is the undisputed heavyweight champ of all things tablet. They have been producing high-quality drawing tablets for artists for more than 35 years.

Wacom tablets are the de facto choice of professional digital artists, graphic designers, animators, studios, and companies large and small.

In Conclusion

You need software for vector art and also raster art for creating amazing graphic design work for clients.

Depending on the software you choose, the quality of your design will be higher or lower.

Choosing the best design software matters. Cheap or free software will not have the same design output compared to a premium.

We hope this review was helpful for you. Now it's time to take action.