Top 3 Free Graphic Design Tools in 2023
November 08, 2023
Design and Production
Despite the rise of graphic designers, some artists still don’t have the necessary graphic design tools to use since some software and apps are a bit pricey. This also goes for people who are quite hesitant to start designing. In this article, we’ll help you pick out one of the top 3 free graphic design tools in 2023, depending on what you need.
What is Graphic Design?
Let’s start off by discussing graphic design and why people do it. Graphic design by definition is simply creating aesthetic visual elements that would cater to different age groups. Graphic design has tons of real-life applications that can go from designing simple posters to actual advertisements.
However, it is not limited to just posters and ads, as graphic design can be seen literally everywhere. Everything in the world right now revolves around online and digital methods. Like so, we can see tons of uses of graphic design in websites, social media, online games, even email.
Free Graphic Design Tools for all
More and more people are now realizing their passion for the area but cannot start indulging in what they love. This is most likely due to the fact that most graphic design software cost a bit much.
Since you’re here, you’re probably looking for a more cost-effective version of what is being offered out there. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! This article will feature the best free and easy to use software out there right now.
Canva
Let’s start off with something most people are already familiar with: Canva. The graphic design tool was launched back in 2013 in Australia. The company aimed to compete with top-tier office software companies, Google and Microsoft.
If you’re a student, you’ve probably used Canva either once or twice, but if you don’t know it, we’ll try to explain what it is. Canva is an online free graphic design tool that can offer you multiple experiences and can be used for different situations.
Social Media Posts
Canva can offer you a blank slate that you can design however you like, you can even pick the design size with your own measurements! Needless to say, you can use Canva to create different types of social media posts, and it’s not that hard to understand too.
On Canva, you are offered with different kinds of fonts, color palettes, and elements that you can add. These elements are very versatile, and whatever kind you need, you can just search up on the bar. For example, if you need a cute little drawing of a dog, just search dog up!
Once you’re done, you can download the design you created as an image and post it on social media. Easy, isn’t it?
PowerPoint Presentations
Another great feature of Canva is its PowerPoint-making section. Here, you can let your imagination run wild since these presentations are also a blank canva(s) for you to use. You can use the said tools before to create your own template for the PowerPoint, or you can even choose a pre-made template if you’re in a hurry.
A downside, however, is that sometimes these presentations won’t work if you try to open them with other PowerPoint software. Make sure to open the presentations on Canva itself, or download it as a PDF file.
Video Editing
Canva also offers a few video editing tools that can get you through any assignment. You can add any type of text you want in videos, as well as music that fits with the vibe you’re going for. The video editing software Canva provides is very simple and straightforward, but it does lack a bit of flair, so make sure to add as much of that on your own!
Figma
As we’ve said before, graphic design encapsulates more than just basic posters, it can also be used for web design. Web-design is a crucial part of the digital world right now since practically anything can have websites now. This is also mainly used by digital marketing agencies or companies that need their own websites.
Launched in 2016, Figma is a free online tool that can be used for web-designing. The best thing about Figma is that you can use it on any platform too, may it be iOs or Windows.
Web-Design
For the most part, Figma is fairly straightforward and easy to understand. The interface of Figma shows all of the things that you need to create a user-interface yourself. If you already understand the basics of creating a design, then go ahead and use Figma. If you’re a beginner however, the basics won’t be that hard to grasp and you’ll be designing in no time!
Collaboration
A main selling point of Figma is that it can be used to collaborate with other graphic designers. You can see yourself who edits and the version history of the Figma file through one of the tools provided. Moreover, it allows team-members to communicate clearly through a small chat box on the screen. Any activity is rewarded by team-play so make sure to keep that in mind!
PhotoRoom
Last, but not least, we have PhotoRoom. This software can also be used on any platform and is mainly used for image editing. Its very first version first released back in 2019 and has undergone some upgrades since then.
PhotoRoom is an AI-powered software that allows users to edit photos how they like. It offers an array of free editing tools for you to bring your vision to life. The software is also used for creating designs, quite similar to Canva, but offers much more options for editing.
If you want to keep things simple, then we’d recommend sticking to Canva, but if you need more of an editing tool rather than a creating tool, use PhotoRoom!
Our Final Thoughts!
Finding a good and cost-effective graphic design tool right now is quite difficult, and we hope we reduced a bit of the hassle. The top 3 free graphic design tools you could choose from are Canva, Figma, and GIMP. Canva mainly focuses on general graphic design, Figma is widely popular for user-interface and web-design, and GIMP is used for photo-editing.
We want to remind you that each of these software has different uses, so we recommend learning what they do first before choosing what is right for you.
