Recommended software design

Are you are looking for graphic design software but don’t know where to start? We can help!

Below we set out recommended graphic design software for :

  • Design websites
  • Design logos
  • Design branding
  • Design creative
  • Design large format
  • Designing mascots and characters
  • Designing animation and video
  • Designing wireframes

Below we highlight our magnificent seven graphic design software options with pros and cons.

Pixlr

Not everything in life is about £££. Pixlr provides a free and paid option for its graphic design online software.

Pixlr Choose advanced or playful for an easy online editing experience. The software is aimed towards point, click, drag, and drop. So if using a playful setting sounds ideal,  you may find your learning curve is quite short! graphic design format Pricing wise, there is a free, low, and higher price, but even for a professional subscription, the price tag is very low! Graphic design free software Pros – Quick editing jobs can be used with free software easily – Choose FREE and get started immediately – Novices can use the software in minutes – Default settings for web and social graphics, a real time saver – Free Stock Images! Cons – Its internet-driven, so you’ll need to be connected – Ads in the free version are visible – The stock library is limited compared with market leaders – Advanced editing features are limited compared with market leads

Canva

You may have heard of the name before? Canva is a well known graphic design software. If you are thinking about a paid licence of Pixlr then Canva is an obvious comparison.

Canva graphic design software

Like software on rocket fuel Canva gives a wide range of user benefits including :

  • design anything, publish anywhere
  • 60 million free photos and illustrations
  • Thousands of professional templates
  • Upload fonts + 1000 premium fonts
  • Unlimited folders, 100GB storage
  • Create animations

Well thought out templates to assist or leadership for marketing documents. marketing presentation software

To brand guidelines, pitch decks, templates for posters, flyers, business cards, logos infographics… there are thousands of pre-made templates to be a design starting point.

recommended design software templates

graphic designer software

T-shirt design templates, resumes, Instagram, brochures, invitations, wallpapers. Too much to list, we recommend you got check it out.

Pros – The easiest we’ve seen to create amazing design work – Just 10.99 per month or get a discount and pay yearly – Free one month trial! – Just about every type of template you can think of – Massive stock library included – Easy to use, great support – Probably the best we’ve seen for social media graphic design use Cons – Aimed at the wide graphic design audience – Great for SME, maybe not so for a corporate brand – Not as specialist as Adobe – limitations to image handling once you have set dimensions – Not totally WYSIWYG

As an all-rounder graphic design software, we recommend Canva for its wide-ranging tools and ease of use; a great option to start without any serious commitment!

Adobe Illustrator

Add Effects, manage styles, and edit individual characters creating amazing typographic designs. Illustrator graphic design software

Turn simple shapes and colours into sophisticated logos Using drawing tools and so much more! Gain access through the Adobe Creative Cloud for just £19.97 per month.

Advanced logo design tools take simple concepts into breathtaking designs.

Adobe logo design software recommended logo software design suite

Take your digital designs to the next level for banners, infographics and so much more. Great support and documentation as you’d expect, also a free trial available.

adobe graphic designs

With 17,000 fonts. There is one there for you.

font graphic design Pros

  • Sophisticated software on a monthly budget
  • A free trial
  • Colossal font directory
  • A trusted name, you can rely on
  • Widely used as the industry standard
  • Used by most web agencies and professionals
  • Allows for in panel editing
  • Completely scalable
  • Ideal for both print and web graphics

Cons

  • Steep learning curve for most
  • Will require patience to learn for many
  • You will most likely benefit from going through the many online tutorials

Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing and typesetting software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books, and ebooks – wikipedia.

Adobe graphic design for desktops

Part of the Adobe family, you can gain access to the creative cloud from just £19.97. From flyers to ebooks, In design can help you deliver amazing designs for your clients. Adobe

ebook graphic design software

Work by yourself or collaborate using Adobe technology and with InDesign, you can quickly resize ebook designs with clever layout suggestions.

Pros

  • Sophisticated software on a low monthly budget
  • A free trial or from £19.97 per month to access the cloud
  • Colossal library of creative assets
  • Used by most web agencies and professionals
  • Ideal for both print and web graphics

Cons

  • The time to learn the software
  • Some will benefit from the online course and a lot of tutorials before starting
  • Maybe too much for a first-time internet user

Adobe photoshop

Adobe Photoshop, the daddy of them all… originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editor that became the industry go-to standard for all types of graphic designers.

Adobe photoshop editing software

For editing photos for the web, eCommerce, print, large format, Photoshop is a go-to. With a large community and online tutorials, it’s much easier to use than the CS1 / 2 editions!

graphic design adobe pricing

With pricing starting from just £9.98 per month, access to sophisticated software is fingertips away.

SVG edit

Surprise! SVG Edit is one of those choices that you may not have automatically have been drawn towards…but…if your team is more developer based they may well prefer and see benefits to using a GITHub tool.

SVG-edit is free, an open-source SVG graphic editor requiring no other additional software to work, and being open-source means you can download the software and make alterations to the code/version to suit your own needs.

SVG Edit

With a huge community, GITHub provides a different option for you to consider that is closed to entwining code and graphics. GITHub software

Pros

  • Open source code
  • Turn SVG file to WMP, JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG
  • Freehand drawing, raster to stylised text features
  • Layer controls
  • Ideal for developers and graphic designers

Cons

  • Learning curve if you’ve got familiar with Adobe
  • Online support only

Graphic design software review summary

Designing for yourself vs for others are two very different animals! For individuals running blogs, needing social media memes, wanting fast business documents then Pixlr or Canva will more than likely be just fine and get you what you need. If you have the time, patience, and desire to learn then taking Adobe creative suite is the answer to take your game to the next level!