The best Mac for graphic design Best MacBook for graphic design. When it comes to Apple laptops for graphic design, it’s a bit of a toss-up between a larger Intel machine and a smaller M1 system. The M1 13-inch MacBook Pro is fast, but the small screen isn’t great for graphic design. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and it is an open-source free graphics design software that debuted on Linux and other UNIX-based platforms. Today versions of the software are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. GIMP offers functionality that is almost similar to Photoshop, but its interface differs slightly.

• Graphic Tools Apple Download
• Best Graphic Design Software For Mac Free
• Top 10 Free Graphic Design Software For Mac

Are you looking for Best Free Graphic Design Software? You have landed at the right place! Here you will get to explore some of the top free graphic design software for beginners as well as experienced persons.

In this artistic design sphere, millions of graphics are created every day. So, you surely want to stand out and outshine from the rest of the crowd.

No doubt, the premium graphic design softwarecome packed with interesting and eye catching features that you won’t get in a free version. But, paid packagesdon’t fit in everyone’s budget especially when you are running a startup or building a new career in designing graphics. This is when these free graphic design software come to our rescue without putting burden on our pockets.

When your team grows and you can well manage its cost, then you must anyways think to move on. You can switch towards the premium or paid apps that can offer wonderful and enhanced designing benefits.

These free graphic tools will make you present your artistic self in a unique and an innovative way. You will love to use these best free graphic design software and end up creating some really fascinating graphic designs.

These graphic design tools are not listed in any particular order. Each one is unique in its own particular way to help you develop stunning visuals.

So, here we present to you an exclusive list of10 Best Free Graphic Design Software for you to go through. Select the one that suits your requirements.

10 Best Free Graphic Design Software:

1. Canva:

Canva is an amazing free web based app. In fact, one of the best free graphic design software for beginners as well as professionals. It is really easy and simple to use. A perfect graphic design tool that brings some really sophisticated designing abilities for its users.

Key Features of Canva:

• Easy to use drag and drop features.
• Thousands of beautiful and professional layouts to choose from.
• A great selection of fonts to make your graphic look amazing.
• Plenty of free icons,shapes and elements to design your graphics.
• Free photos to add to your graphics. There are some paid photos and icons to use, but that too quite reasonable at 1 USD only.
• It helps you create stunning images, infographics, presentations and social media graphics in an elegant style.

Canva is a common choice, when it comes to selecting the Best free graphic design software. The simplicity of its tools and the growing number of features are attracting a whole lot of users towards it.

For further details, don’t miss to checkout our exclusive post: Canva Review: Best Free Graphic Design Software

2. Vectr:

Vectr is another best free graphic design software available in web app as well as desktop app. So, you can use it online or download it for free. You can freely and easily make good presentations, logos, cards, mockups and 2D graphics etc. with this free and easy to use graphic editor.

Key Features of Vectr:

• Helps you create simple and clean vector graphics.
• It is easily understandable graphic design tool.
• Plenty of options like fonts, shadows, filters etc.
• A handy graphic tool for the ones getting started with vector graphics.
• Great live collaboration and synchronisation features i.e. you can share your work with anyone and anywhere.

3. SVG-Edit:

Scalable Vector Graphics commonly known as SVG-Edit is a online open source graphic software. There is no need to install any additional software for it. You can easily design or edit the SVG elements. SVG-Edit is a powerful graphic tool built on CSS3, Javascript and HTML 5.

In case you are thinking to reproduce your vector drawings programmatically, SVG-Edit is the perfect way to do it. You can freely edit and create documents. You can also download the code and make it work as per your requirements.

Key Features of SVG-Edit:

• Fee hand drawings, lines, shapes like lines, circles, squares, ellipses etc.to create great vector designs.
• Resizeable canvas to put your imagination into beautiful designs.
• Background settings, draggable dialogs, resizeable SVG icons and so on.
• Stylish text, images and color gradient picker.
• Different configurable options and numerous other features to create some great designs as per your needs.

This helps you create two dimensional vector graphics in a simplified manner. Moreover, these days web browsers are quite capable of displaying SVG just like GIF,PNG or JPEG files.

4. Inkscape:

Inkscape is yet another powerful free graphic design tool .A great alternative to Adobe Illustrator, Freehand or Corel Draw. This open source graphic tool is available for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.

You can use this tool for creation of logos, illustrations and graphics that require high scalability. It is widely used tool and that too totally free of cost. This is a preferred choice amongst different marketing, branding, graphics industries.

Key Features of Inkscape:

• It has a good Scalable Vector Graphics or SVG integration and it supports SVG as its primary file format.
• It comes with advanced features like alpha transparency support, markers, clones, embedded bitmaps etc.
• Flexible drawing and text tools to create impressive vector imagery.
• User friendly and a clear interface make this graphic tool a good choice.
• It suits designers of all kinds for establishing professional grade designs as needed.

You may also like to checkout our popular blog post: Best Free Software for PC: Top List

5. Paint.net:

Paint.net is a simple yet powerful free image and photo editing software for your computer that runs on Windows. An easy to use tool that offers basic as well as some advanced features to create impressive designs of your choice.

Key Features of Paint.net:

• A windows based tool helpful in photo editing with powerful editing options.
• A wide range of special effects to give a beautiful look to your designs.
• A whole range of selection tools, support for layers and adjustments.
• A good alternative to Photoshop, Microsoft Photo editor and GIMP etc.

Paint.net is a basic graphic design software but is widely used due to its user friendly and simplistic features.

6. Easel.ly:

Easel.ly is another powerful web based tool especially for designing infographics. Even if you are a newbie, it shall be quite easy for you to use it. A number of free infographic templates plus shapes and objects shall help you create some good and visually appealing infographics in a short span of time.

Key Features of Easel.ly:

• A great user friendly tool for beginners at no cost.
• You can create and share visuals online in an easy manner.
• Customizable fonts, colors, text styles and sizes etc.
• A wide variety of editing options to customize your design in your own unique way.

7. Google Chart:

Google chart is a free tool offered by Google developers that allows you to create graphs and charts from various data. These graphs/charts can be easily inserted into a webpage or spreadsheets.

Key Features of Google chart:

• A user friendly graphic design software to create and customize your graphs and charts.
• You can easily create your data representation visuals like interactive pie charts, area charts, hierarchical tree maps etc.
• Easy to embed these charts/graphs into your webpage.
• A great tool for web developers to visualise data on their website free of cost.

Graphic Tools Apple Download

8. Infogr.am:

Infogr.am is another free graphic online tool to create visuals and infographics as desired. You also get access to a whole range of charts,graphs and maps etc.

Key Features of Infogr.am:

• You can create cool infographics for free.
• You can upload pictures and videos also.
• Customization takes place in excel style spreadsheet giving a perfect look to the infographic created.
• You can publish your design at the Infogram website or embed it on your own website.

A great way to create stunning charts and infographics to impress your audience. Moreover, it’s all possible without spending any money.

You may also like: Canva Alternatives: 5 Best Similar Graphic Design Software!

9. Blender:

Blender is a free,open source and probably one of the best 3D Graphic software. It is freely available on different platforms like Windows, Linux and Mac. It has been specially designed to create interactive 3D applications, animated films, video games, 3D art and anything related to 3D content creation.

Best Graphic Design Software For Mac Free

Key Features of Blender:

• A free 3D graphics program to create 3D visual effects.
• Photo realistic rendering that offers real time viewport preview.
• Easy customization and flexible interface add to its advantages.
• Its fast UV unwrapping, 3D modelling, fast rigging, texturing, impressive animations and amazing simulations are the major highlights.
• It comes loaded with a number of extensions and editing features to develop mesmerizing 3D graphics to appeal your viewers.

You may also like: Best Free 2D Animation Software for Beginners!

10. Daz Studio:

No matter what are your skill levels, if you are fond of learning 3D animation designing, you must visit Daz studio. This 3D animation tool helps you build your own virtual world using virtual props, accessories, places, animals, environment etc. Just go ahead and enhance your 3D skills by creating digital animations and illustrations.

Key Features of Daz Studio:

• It suits artists of all levels and even beginners interested in 3D models and 3D animations.
• A top graphic design tool that is easy to use and loaded with a variety of customization features.
• Real time rendering and photo realistic results are the main highlights for users of Daz studio.
• You can create custom 3D animations, 3D avatars and graphic designs, short films, illustrations for books. A lot more to do here.

11. GetStencil App:

We came to know of Stencil App from our friends and family. At the first look, it seems like a great tool. We will keep updating about it as we try and explore it further. In the meantime, Stencil has got a free account as well, do give it a try !!

If you like it, you can checkout the premium version of GetStencil App that has some really interesting features to help you create stunning visuals.

This was our list of Best free graphic design software for you to checkout this season. Don’t wait! Come up with some stunning visuals.

If you are a graphic designer, a web developer or even an amateur who wants to learn and enter the graphic world, this might solve your purpose. And all the bloggers out there looking for exclusive blogging tips, placing some cool infographics on your blog is a great way to please your visitors. These graphic design applications shall be quite useful in creating some great images and infographics.

So, here we have shortlisted only some of the Best free graphic design software. The list is a bit longer. There are various other free graphic design software that can be added to it like:

• Pixlr
• GIMP
• Drawplus starter edition
• Sumo Paint
• Vizualize
• Sculptris

Are you also preparing for a designer interview? If yes, you may also be interested in Best Graphic Design Interview Questions.

Have you used any of the tools from our list of Best free graphic design software? Are you planning to try any of these free graphic design software?Do share your views and experiences on the same in the comment section.

About the author:This guest article was written by Emma Best from Laptopical - a guide to the latest laptop reviews and laptop related news. You can also follow her on Twitter.

I've been using my MacBook Pro since a while now and I must say: I really love it. The most common app(s) that designers use has to be Adobe Photoshop (Or the full suite). The app(s) are great, but there is a downside: The price tag. Photoshop CS4 costs $699, CS4 extended is $999 and the full Creative Suite starts at an stunning $1799. For many people this is just a little bit too much to 'play around with'.

Luckily, there are also many free applications out there that can do the same kind of job that Photoshop could do for you. This article rounds up the best 15 free Mac Programs for Graphic Designers. Some of these applications can even do stuff that can't be achieved using Photoshop, or are much more simple to use.

Keep your wallet in your pocket, since all these programs will cost you nothing.

GIMP

The most popular of all free photo editing software, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is highly-supported and frequently updated. Comparative to Photoshop, users can perform basic tasks such as photo retouching, color correction, and image size, or more complicated tasks like image composition and creation. GIMP has a scripting interface for advance users, as well as plugins, extensions, and filters.

Seashore

If you want GIMP, but don't have X11, then Seashore is the appropriate software for you. Based on GIMP, it has nearly all the settings and functions of the more advanced program without the higher requirements.

Top 10 Free Graphic Design Software For Mac

Inkspace

An excellent alternative to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, Inkscape is a free vector graphics program supporting standard SVG format, as well as XML and CSS standards. This program can do everything you'll need in a vector graphics program - tracing, path operations, direct XML editing, etc. Import and export formats include all the common image types, including JPEG, PNG, and TIFF.

Front End Digital Media Workshop

Don't waste time manually resizing individual photos for your various projects. Front End Digital Media is a batch conversion app for images (as well as video and audio), and allows you to mass resize, resample, split, join, and up/down sample JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PSD, and PICT image files.

Image Tricks

The biggest appeal for the Image Tricks app is the ability to apply dozens of different filters to over 20 different image formats. The finished photos can then be exported as either TIFF, JPEG, or PNG.

Comipro Plus

If you create cartoons of any type, Comipro Plus is an excellent app. Designed in Japanese but usable to English speakers, this program helps create modern-looking comics, including editing and adding word bubbles.

Google SketchUp

Different from a normal vector graphics program, Google's SketchUp allows you to not only create a design, but view it in 3D. It is easier to use than more complicated 3D software, such as AutoCAD, and is free.

Colorate

Colorate is used to change and manipulate the colors in a photo. The Library generates a color swatch based on the photo, then allow you to add a new color pallete, either blending the current one, creating a custom one, or randomizing a completely new pallete.

Goldberg

This program is best used for those times when you're viewing your photos, and notice that a color is slightly off, or a side needs cropped a bit more. Instead of firing up a full photo editing application, you can simply make minor adjustments, including color correction, blurs, noise, and embossing.

NIH Image

If you need to animate one of your photos or designs, this program is for you. It's compatible with a wide array of programs, and in addition to animating images, it can also perform minor tweaks to contrast, sharpening, smoothing, filters, and more. It also analyzes particles, angles, and paths.

Scratch

This program is so simple, it can be used also immediately with no prior instruction. It is used for creating small games, interactive art, and animated stories, and is primarily marketed to children. Despite it's juvenile market, it is an excellent tool for putting together quick interactive banners and images without the learning curve.

DAZ Studio

If you're in need of realistic 3D models, DAZ Studio is an easy-to-learn 3D program for creating 3D objects, including people, animals, and objects (buildings, cars, etc). DAZ Studio is easier to use than other 3D animation tools, and is perfect for creating surrealistic and 3D art.

Bryce Download bluestacks 2 for mac.

Built to run with the aforementioned DAZ Studio software, Bryce is used to create real-looking landscapes using photos of real landscapes. Take a picture of your yard, a forest, some mountains, or other landscapes, import it into Bryce, and then add all the elements needed to turn it into a new world.

ArchiCAD

If you need a 3D design tool with more power and features than Google SketchUp, ArchiCAD is the right program to you. Similar to AutoCAD in both function and name, this program allows users to design their sketches and ideas into a realistic 3D render.

JAlbum

Every graphic designer requires an efficient way to keep all their photos and images organized. JAlbum is the ultimate photo organizer, as it not only allows you to organize your photos and folders using simple drag-and-drop functionality, but it also creates thumbnails and HTML pages of your photos for easy online publishing. The HTML pages to publish can be made to either export a gallery or a slide show. In addition, there's support for IPTC and EXIF data, lossless editing, image filters, style sheets, and an integrated FTP client.

Bonus: Pixelmator

I've added Pixelmator myself to this list, as Emma didn't include this app to her top 15 list. I really love to use Pixelmator myself and I don't think it should be missing from this amazing list.

Pixelmator, the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images.

Bonus: Blender

Just like Pixelmator, I've added Blender myself to this list, as Emma didn't include this app to her top 15 list. Blender is a great open source app for 3d content.

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Are there more Mac Apps that you, as a graphic designer, love to use that is missing from the list above? Please share!

This guest article was provided to you by Emma Best from Laptopical.

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