Best 5 Free Graphic Design Tools to Boost Your Performance

The demand for graphic design is increasing significantly, particularly in this digital era. Graphic design has become an important part of every aspect of life, ranging from the vision’s communication, branding power, and visual storytelling. Consequently, graphic designers must work quickly and efficiently by utilizing effective graphic design tools to expedite their workflow. 

With the rapid advancement of technology and the growing demands of the market, an influx of innovative graphic design tools is emerging, packed with advanced features that aim to simplify the work of designers. In the past, graphic design tools and devices came with a high cost and were often complex to navigate. Now, accessing these tools has never been easier for everyone, including beginners, and the prices are incredibly affordable.

This article will explore many popular graphic design tools like Canva, Design Wizard, Adobe Express, Corel Vector, and Krita. We will explain each platform’s features and its weaknesses, empowering you to select the perfect fit for your design style.

What Makes the Best Graphic Design Tools?

There are many graphic design tools available, and sometimes, designers are confused about which one to use. As a result, most designers choose to continue using the applications they are familiar with, despite their high costs. 

Choosing the perfect tool involves several key considerations that can turn your design experience into a more efficient and enjoyable ride. A great tool combines an attractive appearance with user-friendly functionality, powerful features, and comprehensive support for all your design requirements.

You can make a better decision about which graphic design tools are best for you by understanding the following standards:

• Ease of use: Complex interfaces and hidden features often frustrate users. A good tool should have an intuitive interface and be easy to use. 
• Supporting features and flexibility: Select a tool that is compatible with multiple devices. Additionally, a graphic design tool that includes supporting features to meet creative needs, such as a background remover, exclusive templates, and collaboration options, will provide significant value.
• Price range: For beginners or independent designers, graphic design tools with basic functionality are often enough to aid their work. For them, especially considering the cost of the tool, they want to use it wisely, which is important since they must ensure that the tool chosen is both affordable and functional.

• Accessibility: For experienced designers, the demand for accessible graphic design tools continues to grow. Cloud-based platforms, in particular, have gained popularity for offering practical, flexible solutions in today’s digital landscape.
• Speed and Performance: The speed of the software’s performance will impact the design results. Quick-working tools enhance productivity and save designers’ time.

• Collaboration and export options: In today’s design landscape, collaboration is key. That’s why graphic design tools that offer seamless collaboration features have become essential for modern designers.

Best Free Graphic Design Tools

With the advancement of technology and the increased demand for visual content, there are numerous free, accessible graphic design tools to utilize. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, you can use them without paying a lot of money. We’ve collected a list of the best graphic design tools that are free and may help you with various design jobs, such as social media and branding. Check them out!

Canva

Canva ranks first among the best graphic design tools. This is an application that can be used on a website, desktop, or mobile device, and it has a simple interface and a wide range of functionality. It’s no surprise that it remains the most popular design platform today. Furthermore, Canva empowers anyone, including beginners, to create a visually attractive design in a matter of minutes. Canva is useful not only for professional projects but also as a learning tool for individuals who wish to explore the field of graphic design more deeply.

Canva offers various features, including graphic designing, photo editing, short animation, document making, and video editing. Even though the free version has some limitations, this platform maintains its popularity due to its functionality for many creative needs. 

The Advantages of Free Canva 

• User-friendly interface: Canva has an intuitive display with a drag-and-drop feature, making it incredibly easy for both beginners and professionals to use it. 

• Thousands of free templates: Canva offers a wide range of template collections to cater to various design requirements, be they personal or business-related. You can customize the templates to suit your needs. 

• Various free design elements: This tool offers many visual elements, such as icons, illustrations, fonts, and images, for free. 

• Online collaboration feature: Users can work together in real time on one design project in a limited capacity. 

• Export to various formats: As long as you only use free elements, the design results can be downloaded in various formats. For example, presentation designs can be exported to PPT and PDF.

• Available on various devices: Canva can be accessed through web browsers and mobile applications, providing users with the flexibility to work on designs anytime, anywhere.

The Limitations of Free Canva

• Limited access to premium features: Features such as background remover, exclusive templates, and premium elements are only available in Canva Pro.
• Limited cloud storage: Free accounts have a file storage capacity limit and cannot freely organize folders.
• Limited brand kit: Free users cannot permanently save brand identities such as logos, fonts, and color palettes in their accounts.
• Collaboration features for large teams are limited: Only the Pro version offers advanced settings like role management, detailed comments, and access control.

Design Wizard

In second place, Design Wizard is one of the best free graphic design tools to consider. This platform offers over 10,000 free, ready-to-use templates for various visual purposes, ranging from social media content and presentations to short video editing. With a simple and intuitive interface, Design Wizard is easy to understand even for beginners. Its fairly comprehensive features, which are not too different from Canva’s, make it an attractive alternative for designers seeking a lightweight yet functional design platform.

The Advantages of Free Design Wizard:

• Basic access to design templates and elements: Users can use a variety of design templates, image assets, and free fonts, but with limitations.
• Drag and drop feature: The interface of this tool is effortless; you can add texts, modify sizes, and arrange objects simply by dragging and dropping, without requiring much design experience.
• Free ads and watermarks: Like Canva, Design Wizard allows you to remove watermarks from downloaded designs as long as they use free assets.
• Customize canvas size: Although limited, you can create up to 10 designs of different sizes, arranging them as needed for social media posts, posters, and banners.
• Download & share integration: You can save your design projects within your Design Wizard account or share them directly to social media platforms.

The Limitations of Free Design Wizard:

• Limited number of templates & images: Users must use paid features to gain more access to premium templates and stock images.
• Limited export capabilities: Exporting in HD quality is not possible in free mode.
• Cloud storage is limited: Free accounts only get 25 MB of storage.
• Advanced features not available: Features like background removal, chart maker, video editing, and real-time team collaboration are only available in the paid version.

Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a web- and mobile-based graphic design and creative content platform developed by Adobe. This design tool is an evolution of Adobe Spark, which was formerly divided into three separate applications: Adobe Post, Adobe Slate, and Adobe Voice.

With a modern interface and user-friendly navigation, Adobe Express allows users to create posters, flyers, short videos, social media content, and even presentations directly from their browser or mobile device.

Adobe Express includes some top features, such as

• The tool is a great social media visual design resource that enables users to create posts, stories, and advertisements for various social media platforms.
• This tool is excellent for making short videos such as advertising videos or basic animations.
• Adobe Express can generate a single simple website page for sharing information.

The Advantages of Free Adobe Express:

• Easy and modern interface: Adobe Express has a clean and intuitive interface, making it ideal for beginners unfamiliar with design software. 
• More comprehensive tools and features: This graphic design tool offers excellent functionality, including background removal and automatic resizing.
• Readily available templates: There are many interesting templates for a wide range of creative needs, including social media design, posters, invitations, and resumes. 
• Integration with Adobe Creative Cloud: Adobe Express allows users to save and access cloud files, and it works with other Adobe applications.
• Quick action features: Users can resize photographs, clip films, convert files to PDF, and remove backgrounds.
• Free icon and font collections: Adobe Express, while limited, offers free access to a variety of fonts, icons, and design elements.

The Limitations of Free Features in Adobe Express

• Adobe watermark: Content generated in the free mode will have a watermark.
• Limited access to premium templates and Adobe stock assets: Most interesting images, illustrations, and templates are not available in the free mode.
• Limited automatic background remover & resizer: The background remover and automatic resizer features can only be used a few times on a free account.
• Locked brand kit feature: Users on the free plan cannot access the brand kit, which is a feature that allows customers to save and organize brand identity elements such as logos, custom color palettes, and custom brand fonts.
• Limited cloud storage: Free accounts only get 2GB of storage in Adobe Creative Cloud.
• No real-time team collaboration: Adobe Express has not yet offered real-time team collaboration features for free users.

Corel Vector

Corel Vector was formerly known as Gravit Designer. It is a vector-based graphic design tool developed by Corel. This design tool can be run directly from a web browser (online version) or downloaded to a computer device (desktop version).

Corel Vector is part of the CorelDraw Graphics Suite and is aimed at users who need the flexibility to design anywhere, anytime, and access it for free. Therefore, Corel Vector has more or less the same functions, focusing on processing vector designs.

The Advantages of Free Corel Vector:

• Complete vector design: Corel Vector includes free vector tools such as the Pen Tool, Bezigon, and Editor Path.
• Clean and user-friendly interface: Corel Vector’s user-friendly interface, which includes a clean design and drag-and-drop capabilities, is simple to use even for beginners.
• Multi-platform: This program can be used in a browser without any installation. Aside from that, Corel Vector comes in desktop versions for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS.
• Multi-page and layer support: Corel Vector can load a few pages at the same time in a project. Moreover, the layer and group tools features make it easy for us to organize the design elements. 
• Common exporting formats: This graphic design tool, like others, supports standard quality PNG, JPG, and PDF exports.

The Limitations of Free Corel Vector:

• Cloud storage is only available in pro mode: Corel Vector does not offer cloud storage in its free version.
• Limited export options: The free mode does not enable high-quality exports, and export formats like SVG, EPS, and print-ready PDF are only accessible in the Pro version.
• No Support for the CMYK Color Format: Unlike CorelDraw, Corel Vector does not support the CMYK color format for printing needs.
• Limitations in pro features: Features like symbols, styles, and anchors are only available in the pro version.
• No brand kit feature: The brand kit feature is not available in Corel Vector, regardless of whether you use the free or pro version.

Krita

Krita is free, open-source digital painting and illustration software designed by artists, for artists. This desktop-based graphic design tool offers many features comparable to paid programs like Photoshop, making it ideal for digital artists, illustrators, and animators.

Standout Features and Advantages of Krita:

• Free and open source: Krita is completely free to download and is openly developed by a global community of contributors.
• User-friendly interface: The interface resembles Photoshop, making it easier for those already familiar with it to transition smoothly.
• Digital painting focus: Krita is specifically built for digital painting, offering a wide variety of brushes, blending modes, and textures tailored for artistic work.
• Custom brush engine: With over 100 brush presets and 9 highly customizable brush engines, users can add or even create brushes that suit their unique styles and needs.
• Comics and manga support: This tool includes features specially made for comic creation, such as panel layout assistants, speech bubbles, and a text tool designed to support narration and panel illustration.
• 2D frame-by-frame animation: Krita supports frame-by-frame animation, complete with onion skinning, a timeline, and export options in video or GIF formats.
• Layer and masking system: Krita allows complex layer management (group, filter, vector layers, etc.), along with various mask types like transparency, filter, and transform masks.
• Perspective and grid tools: Helpful tools like perspective assistants, grid overlays, and rulers make it easier to create proportionally accurate illustrations.
• Professional file format support: Krita supports a wide range of file formats, including PSD, PNG, JPG, TIFF, and OpenRaster.

Since Krita is fully open-source and entirely free, there are essentially no locked features or paywalled tools. However, there are a few limitations that may affect certain types of users. Here are some of Krita’s key advantages and drawbacks:

The Limitations of Krita:

• Specialized for digital painting: Krita isn’t like other general graphic design tools like Canva or Design Wizard; it’s tailored specifically for digital painting and illustration needs.
• No cloud-based storage: Krita projects are saved locally on your device, as there’s no built-in cloud storage or sync feature.
• Limited text tools: Krita’s text features are not as advanced as those in software like Photoshop, and it may not be suitable for complex typographic design tasks.
• Steeper learning curve: The interface and brush settings can be overwhelming for beginners unfamiliar with the digital painting workflow.
• No mobile version available: Currently, Krita is only available on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS (via Linux support)—there is no mobile app version.

In conclusion, with the abundance of graphic design tools available, anyone can now create designs easily, quickly, and without significant cost. From social media content, presentations, and illustrations to branding needs, everything is easy to do. You can customize the advantages and features of each discussed application to meet your specific needs.

Now, to learn graphic design, you don’t need to worry about the high subscription costs of products. Because now, there are many free graphic design tools available that have complete and powerful features. Choose the best design tool, use its features, and bring your visual ideas to life!

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