The evolution of technology has deeply touched every facet of people's lives.
It has changed the way we work on particularly every task there is. And the art of drawing and its disciplines are no exception.
What artists used to create using only a pencil, paper, and pigments not can be done using a computer console.
Below we've listed the best graphic design software solutions of 2019. This way, if you're looking for one, you can make a very informed decision on purchasing one.
If you have already been using graphic design software, and yet you still feel like you've outgrown its use, you've come to the right place.
Graphic design software is made up of very powerful tools that are basically used in creating, editing and management of computer graphics.
Graphics may come in the form of images, clipart, drawings, illustrations, web graphics, icons among others.
The best graphic design software solutions of 2019 are
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Canva
- Adobe InDesign
- GIMP
- Pixlr
Adobe Illustrator CC
Probably the most famous software among graphic designers. It's no accident it tops the graphic design software solutions of 2019 list.
A vector graphics solution, Adobe Illustrator CC is very high-suitable for professional graphic designers and artists too.
It has a very wide array of tools that can help you tremendously in the creation of graphic designs for
- Websites
- Brand logos
- Video games
It works very well with vector graphics, enabling users to come up with beautifully crafted designs, sketches, and illustrations.
The products allow a very faster process for design creating owing it to its built-in design preset and templates. Not to forget to mention that they are very easily accessed.
Its integration with Adobe Creative Cloud makes sharing of your projects very easy.
Also, sharp segments and clear lines can be produced while the solution can create paths that align automatically to the nearest pixel grid.
Its “Snap to Pixel” feature can also be customized to align an artwork with a very high precision of pixel boundaries.
The reasons to choose Adobe Illustrator CC are
- State-of-the-art illustration too
- Industry-standard vector software
- Scale artwork to any size (from mobile to billboards while maintaining quality)
Adobe Photoshop
The Adobe Photoshop software is very well-known for photo, image and graphic design solutions.
Adobe Photoshop CC is mainly targeted at professional graphic designers, artists, and photographers.
It allows users to design
- Websites
- Posters
- Icons
- Mobile apps
- Banners
For photographers, it's the perfect app that aid in picture creation and enhancement, which makes it an excellent tool for photographs.
Using Adobe Photoshop, you can create and enhance amazing illustrations, 3D artwork, and painting. The very unique pattern and effects, along with the brushes aid in the perfect creation of digital works.
Other key features you can benefit from are the brush smoke smoothing, brush management, access to Lightroom photos and many more.
The main reasons to choose Adobe Photoshop CC are
- Easy to use templates
- Intuitive tools
- Professional tools for basic photo enhancement
- Draw, paint, and design with thousands of pens, pencils, markers or brushes.
Canva
The Canva software is a cloud-based platform that allows you to easily create professional-quality graphic designs.
It gives you a very robust and intuitive drag-and-drop editor and access to million graphics, images and fonts to quickly develop any kind of content.
It can be used by beginners and professionals that are looking to
- Produce materials
- Corporate brochures
- Flyers
- Invitations
- Visual charts
- Book covers
- Presentations
A very large library of templates is also available to help you start with your design for whatever purpose it might be.
The graphic design solution enables you to configure templates and documents, and also edit your designs.
And since it's purely an online service, it allows you to collaborate with others by letting them edit or apply changes.
Canva is currently free for teams with up to 10 members. It comes with 1GB of storage and access to some 8,000 templates.
Additionally, there's a low-cost plan to work and a quote-based enterprise plan that unlocks more features and unlimited storage.
Reasons to choose Canva
- It can be used by beginners and professional easily
- Designer for project collaboration
- All tools for basic image editing
Adobe InDesign
A page design and layout solution, Adobe InDesign CC is used mainly in the creation, preflighting, and publications of documents for both printing and digital media.
It's a desktop software that can be used to design
- Posters
- Brochures
- Stationery
- Flyers
- Annual reports
- Magazines
Additionally, you can also create eBooks, very interactive PDFs and digital magazines using this tool.
Adobe InDesign CC has a lot of tools that will help you collaborate with writers and editors, which allows you to come up with designs and documents tremendously faster.
It also has the ability to share text, colors, graphics, and shapes because it gives you access to Creative Cloud Libraries.
Another notable feature includes paragraph borders, object height and width, endnotes, fonts and so much more.
Currently, you can purchase this tool as a single application or a part of Adobe Creative Cloud. The prices come in variations, starting from $29.99/month.
The reasons to choose Adobe InDesign are
- Premiere page layout and design solutions
- Very applicable for print, digital and web projects
- Professional layout
- Typesetting tools
GIMP
A free and open-source software, GIMP has a huge amount of features that can give the most popular software in its category a run for its money.
This tool is very capable of easily tuning images and creating tremendously amazing work of art from simple photos. It's very notable functionalities include
- Noise reduction
- Image enhancement
- Customizable brushes
- Color adjustment tools
GIMP has also some features that can amazingly benefit advanced users like the Bezier curves, filters, layer masks, and amination package.
The platform supports pre-installed plugins, which is a very useful feature. Its user interface is very simple and can be used with easy, which needs no training at all.
Albeit the product may not have the most comprehensive functionalities of the tools above, it still has all the editing features you need.
Customization options let the users enhance productivity at the highest level. Additionally, the software also supports third-party plugins, making everything easier for you.
The reasons to choose GIMP are
- Powerful image editing
- Manipulation tool you can use for free
- Professional, high-quality color management tools
- Wide customization through integration with several programming languages
Pixlr
And last but not least, Pixlr is a suite of web-based image editing apps that can run on pretty much any browser.
The software offers all kinds of essential photo editing tools for the most basic up to the most professional-level enhancements, multi-image templates, overlays, and effects.
While it has a wide range of tools for very sophisticated editing, it also provides tools for quick image fixes without requiring professional quality.
This makes it very easy and handy for swift touch-ups, and with native mobile apps for editing on the go.
The Pixlr software is made up of four main applications:
- Pixlr X – Online photo editing platform
- Pixlr Editor – A web app
- Pixlr Express – Also a web app
- Pixlr Pro
The first three are for free, while the last one is a very affordable subscription-based plan. The software is a very lightweight app and consumes very little memory even on smartphones.
Pixlr has also a very solid and large community to help you with the most basics up to the most advanced questions you might have.
Currently, it has more than 500 million total users, and approximately 10 billion images edited using this application.
The reasons to choose Pixlr are
- Free online image editor you can access anywhere and any time
- Comprehensive editing tools
- You can use it to edit photos right within your DropBox
If you feel like we've missed out on software that deserves to be here, please contact us.
Alicia leads content strategy for LearnWorthy managing a team of content producers, strategists, and copywriters. She creatively oversees content programs, awareness campaigns, research reports, and other integrated marketing projects.
