16 Best Graphic Design Software Applications for a Great Job
Graphic design entails the use of visual compositions and the combination of different elements to form meaning and communicate ideas through typography, imagery and color.
The only way to create incredible virtual designs is with the use of suitable software packages with their own area of specialization.
In this article, we have carefully picked out the best graphic design software that can help you render a great job for your viewers and clients and achieve the best result.
16 Best Graphic Design Software Applications for a Great Job
- Adobe InDesign
- Inkscape
- Adobe Illustrator
- GIMP
- CorelDraw
- Cinema 4D
- Affinity Designer
- Xara Designer Pro X
- Gravit Designer
- Photoscape
- Sketch
- Adobe XD
- Adobe Photoshop
- Corel PaintShop Pro
- Graphic Design Studio
- Adobe Lightroom.
Adobe InDesign is a powerful and must have tool for every print graphic designer. It is a typesetting and a publishing software tool used by production and publishing personnel and graphic designers. It offers the best tools and features to create flyers, brochures, magazines newspaper, and ebooks and export them to HTML or PDF.
Inkscape is a free and professional vector graphic editor that enables designers to create scalable vector images and graphic designs that cannot blur even when zoomed in or during resizing. It is a software tool that runs on Mac OSX, Windows and Linus desktop.
Inkscape is the right tool for you if you are a web designer, illustrator, or graphic designer (experienced or a beginner) interested in vector drawing.
Inkscape provides an impressive user experience familiar with that of Adobe tools.
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphic solution for graphic designers that want to create designs for websites, video games, logos and print.
Illustrator is the perfect software for artwork, corporate logos and page layout; it comes with its unique plugins which helps to speed up the free flow of the design process.
It provides a drag and drop feature for users to move object forms anywhere on the screen. It has an in-panel editing feature that allows the designer to create and edit multiple designs on the design form.
It is compatible with numerous devices of different operating system and configuration like Mac and Windows.
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) offers incredible photo editing features. Its tools gives a professional quality touch when creating an artwork.
It can be used basically to edit and fine-tune images and snaps. Its design processes is not complex, it can be used by any level graphic designer.
It makes it possible for users to sketch by utilizing the tools like pencil, airbrush, and cloning. The excellent user experience is the main feature that makes the software package one of the best for graphic designing jobs.
Coreldraw is a vector based designing software which is used for creating various designs for different establishments.
CorelDraw can used to create logos, brochures, flexes, invitation cards and other vector based designs.
CorelDraw Graphics Suite is equipped with pro-level remarkable features which is relatively easy to use when you get a grip on it.
CorelDraw is a powerful suite that works with both bitmap and vectors for the best unified design flow.
CorelDraw offers an accessible user interface with multiple tools and applications that render profound editing features.
- Cinema 4D
Cinema 4D is a great software package for all 3D graphic designers who want to achieve the best results.
Beginners and professional designers can key into Cinema 4D’s wide range of tools and features to achieve the best results.
Cinema 4D is graphic design software package for 3D animation modeling and motion graphics.
The software comes with one of the best arrays of tools that are effective to carry out motion graphic designs.
This software package makes it possible for texturing, rendering, lighting, and modeling of 3D designs.
- Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a vector graphic design software used by professional designers and artists who are working on icons and logo, UI designs, branding, web designing, typography, illustrations and other concept arts.
Affinity Designer is one of the best software tools to work with; it is cheaper and a possible alternative option for Adobe Illustrator.
It allows designers to work on different environment both on pixel and vector environment. You can lock, move, and position objects and elements on the form depending on multiple things.
it can also work with grids, alignment guides, and shapes, and nodes.
Xara Designer Pro is a software package used by photo and graphic designers for illustration, photo editing, and DTP, and web and page layout designs.
Xara Designer Pro X offers advanced tools and features that is used to create stunning design elements.
Xara Designer Pro X is used mainly for web and print designs for editing pictures and illustrations.
It is one of the fastest and sufficient vector rendering software tools with the perfect performance that allow users to modify their designs through unlimited redo and undo options.
- Gravit Designer
Gravit Designer is a web based graphic design application that delivers a perfectly rendered vector graphics. It is basically one of the most sophisticated and suitable tools for graphic and web designers.
Gravit Designer dashboard is easy to assess and navigate. It allows the user to switch between tabs and activate a dark mode.
It offers various powerful tools like Bezigon tool, Pen tool, and Lasso tools.
- Photoscape
Photoscape is one of the best software tools a graphic designer can work with. It offers the best feature for editing of images and managing picture archive.
It is a free graphic design tool that is suitable for all the various levels of graphic designers who don’t want to subscribe to premium packages.
Photoscape offers one of the best photo editing tools; it offers various types of image editors, including batch editor, viewer, print, combine, print, screen capture, animated GIF.
The user interface is simple and easy to navigate through which helps beginners to work effectively with the software. It is packed with different text fonts, drawing tools like paintbrush, effects brush, filters, clone stamp and others.
- Sketch
Sketch is vector graphic editor available for MacOS. The software is primarily used in creating icons, interface elements for designing of UI and UX of web and mobile applications.
It has various saving formats that are compatible with any platform you want to import the design to; it can be saved in various formats not limited to PNG, JPG, TIFF, WebP, SVG, and PDF.
Adobe XD is a vector-based software tool developed by Adobe Inc. for web and mobile application designing. It is available for MacOS and Windows.
Adobe XD makes it possible for both graphic and web designing to be carried out. You can create prototypes and artboard and import images for your website.
Adobe XD enables you to connect live and interact with a number of viewers on different devices; your team members can be working on the same project at the same time and you can receive live feedback from each one of them.
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed by Adobe Inc.
Adobe Photoshop is the master of photo editing; every graphic designer boasts of having this tool in their PC, both beginner and experienced designers.
It enables users to manipulate pictures, remove unwanted objects in the picture, add shading and insert other elements if needed.
It has essential features like perspective correction and clone stamp, which is mostly used by beginners while advanced tools such as brush aids and effects can be used effectively by expert designers.
Corel PaintShop Pro is one of the best photo-editing and graphic designing programs that are accessible and far more easy to use than Photoshop; it is more comprehensive than Photoshop features.
PaintShop Pro is a sophisticated photo editing software designed to enable users to enhance and transform their photos.
The software package has a simple user interface that is divided into two tabs, which are, the manage and edit tabs.
The manage tab provides a reliable photo organizer while the editing tab provides all the editing options and features.
Graphic design studio package is a graphic design software tool that enables you to create fascinating vector art and graphic designs for both web and print media.
The design tools are easy and flexible to use. They have an incredible user-friendly interface where you can create, draw and design your vector arts.
Adobe Lightroom is developed by Adobe Inc. for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.
Lightroom helps you import, manipulate, organize, and manage your images.
Lightroom is photo management and editing tools combined in a single software package. It allows for importing/saving, editing, viewing, organizing, tagging, and sharing of digital images.
Conclusion
There are many graphic design software packages available with their unique and stunning features and set of tools that can help you render a great job for your clients.
They are all developed and programmed with the sole aim to help you create incredible artworks and designs.
As a graphic designer, it is left for you to know the particular tools you are most familiar with. Working with the software application you have mastered enables you to work efficiently without lagging.