Essential Graphic Design Software for Beginners

Graphic Design Software are the backbone of creators as world is turning to visuals. The real task is of graphic and web designers to make the dream turn into reality. It is possible with the best graphic design software.

Gone are the days when people only indulged in reading content online. Nowadays, more than words, the site should look interesting in the first place. In fact, with eye-catching visuals and gripping content, the user gets convinced to stay on the website and use it. That is to say, graphics are important in deciding how users perceive your website. Thus, as a graphic designer, this is your territory and you are the king. So, it is your responsibility to bring something interesting for the viewers. However, in order to create a website with such intriguing visuals, you will require graphic design software tools that will help you reinforce images, models, and text that are to be shown on the website. Well, if you’re a newbie in the field of graphic design, you are in the right place. Here in this article, I’ll provide you the list of essential graphic design software for beginners in 2023 (both paid and free) that will render a professional look to your website graphics.

List of the best Graphic design software (2023)

1. PhotoShop
2. Illustrator
3. Adobe InDesign
4. Coral Photoimpact
5. Blender
6. Cyberlink
7. Cinema 4D
8. GIMP
9. CorelDraw
10. Inkscape
11. ACDSEE Photo Editor
12. Autodesck 3D Max
13. Autodesk Maya
14. Vector
15. Paint.net
16. Coral Paintshop Pro
17. Sumo Paint

Graphic design software for graphic designers (Review)

1. Photoshop – graphic design software

Photo editing is an interesting piece of art which was never so easy. However, with the automatic options, you can infuse life into your images. Also you will able to craft beautiful designs with Photoshop that become ‘the talk of the town’ in minutes. Also, with Photoshop graphic design software you can easily combine multiple images to make a beautiful amalgamation. Moreover, it provides you the features to remove unwanted objects from the image. And you can use its basic features like perspective correction, channel mixing, and clone stamp tool and have a stunning piece of design in a couple of minutes. Therefore, Photoshop runs smoothly both on Windows and Mac operating systems, and apps available for iOS and Android. In fact, Photoshop is also considered one of the best graphic design software for beginners as it comes with many simplified options. However, this graphic designing tool does have a higher learning curve. But for the comprehensive amount of features, and control, it is certainly worth that hassle.

Main Features of Photoshop:

• Basic: Cropping, straightening, rotating and flipping.
• Auto-Fix: One touch adjustment.
• Blemish Removal: Ability to remove any spot or dirt from the image.
• Colour: Slide controls to enhance the colors of the image.
• History Panel: Keep track of all the changes you’ve made to the image.
• Image Rendering: Panoramic image option.
• Borders: Add your personal touch.
• RAW photo support: RAW format support.
• Sharing: via sites like Facebook, Revel, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.
• Layers: Make changes to the image, without affecting the pixels.
• Pen Tool: Draw any shape, or edit any existing shapes.
• Photoshop 3D: Import 3D objects directly.

Pros of graphic design software

• Video editing is smooth.
• Create images, professional graphics, and 3D artwork from the scratch.
• The crop tool is quite effective.
• Highly advanced image effects.
• Performance is highly improved.
• Great customer support.

Cons

• Image cannot be scaled.
• The interface is crushing.
• Higher learning curve
• Some tools lack progress bar visibility.

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2. Illustrator – best graphic design software for beginners

If you want to use vector art to create logos, sketches, typography, icons or even complex illustrations for videos or mobile then Illustrator is the tool for you. So you can create artwork with seamless alignment by drawing pixel-perfect shapes. With Illustrator designing could never be faster. Illustrator comes with its own plugins that help in making a blank web page into a brilliant looking web page. And some plugins are made for older versions of AI and have a zest of new features for new versions like Creative Cloud, making it an ideal and best graphic design software. So you get Cloud libraries, where you can store amazing design assets, like colors, brushes, graphic text, and more. Also being part of Creative Cloud, you get to use the app on both your desktop and Mac. You may read Indesign vs Illustrator, Coreldraw vs Illustrator, Illustrator vs Photoshop, Lightroom vs Photoshop , Affinity designer vs Illustrator and Coreldraw vs Photoshop.

Features of Illustrator:

• Amazing image library.
• Drag and drop.
• Font library with search option.
• Advanced color options.
• Grid features with anchor points and snapping.
• CAD tools.
• Activity tracking.

Pros of graphic design software

• Touch-type tool is awesome.
• Powerful vector design tool.
• The Free Transform tool is very simple to use.
• Third party integration.

Cons

• The price is high.
• No perpetual license option.

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3. Adobe Indesign – best graphic design software for designers

Backed by the Adobe brand, InDesign is an excellent graphic design software for beginners to creating clean layouts for desktop and mobile devices alike. Typically, Adobe InDesign is ideal for layout design usage like online magazines, And meet the professional demands of the graphic designers. Whether you want to create layouts for printed books, brochures or digital magazines Adobe InDesign is the tool you need. Also the flexibility is great as it allows you to easily drag-drop isolated layers. And you can resize images with ease. Being part of Creative Cloud you get easy access to the desktop app for PC and Mac. Also you get the comparison app Comp CC available for tablets and Smartphone devices including 29 desktop apps and 10 mobile apps. And you can also use Behance and Typekit services to enable you to connect your workflow between photography, videos, good designing and web or app development. And with Adobe Creative Sync you can share or sync all your work between your desktop and mobile apps so you can work efficiently. Once you join as a member you will get the latest updates and new features with installation decision being solely yours.
Typically, Adobe InDesign is easy to use, however, few advanced features like text control may take time to learn. However, it is a simple graphic designing software for easy-going work, yet has advanced features to support professional use as well.

Features of Adobe InDesign

• Print and digital document creation.
• Great typographical support.
• Creative cloud syncing.
• Easy online publishing.
• Rich images and graphics.
• Cross-program object library.

Pros

• The combining of text and graphics becomes easy.
• Intuitive and beautiful designs.
• The learning curve is very low, ideal for newbies.
• The features that come with InDesign are unbelievable.

Cons

• Limited tools for creating graphics.
• The graphic design tools are not as powerful.
• The adjustment of photos is limited as this is not a photo-editing software.

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4. Corel PaintShop Pro

The Corel Paintshop Pro was released by the Coral team. Also it is a powerful photo editor that provides features for image editing, correction, and drawing tools. And even possesses professional grade tools that can be easily used by both professionals and newbies. Also it provides video tutorials and other forms of support forums to better the understanding of the software. And has more than 90 creative filters that can be used to improve the texture and color of your image. Moreover, it is compatible with image files like RAW, JPG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, PSD and PDF.

Features

• Keyword tagging.
• Layer editing.
• Photoshop like features at lower price.
• Good vector drawing tools.
• Automatic noise removal.

Pros

• Features similar to Photoshop at lower price.
• A supporter of batch processing, i.e. multiple files can be edited at the same time.
• Powerful effects and editing tools.

Cons

• Only compatible with windows.
• Interface is not that great.

5. Blender

Blender is a powerful open source 3D creation suite that allows graphic designers to to create 3D animations,  through digital sculpting, animation tools, and 3D modelling. Also it supports complete 3D pipeline- modeling, rigging, simulation, animation, rendering, motion tracking, compositing, video editing, and 2D animation pipeline. Blender has a low learning curve making it approachable for both graphic designers as well as beginners. While Blender is loaded with features and functionalities that let you handle every simple to complex design without any difficulty. Moreover, working on intricacies becomes easier with this graphic design software. One can not only work on 3D animations, add effects to the images but also, create 3D modelling.

Pros

• Easy of use.
• Free and open source.
• Powerful 3D modelling tools.
• Digital sculpting features.
• Plugin and third party support.

Cons

• Offers better performance on Mac.
• Not all tools are free.
• Unintuitive UI.

6. Cyberlink

Features of graphic design software tool

• A bunch of tools to offer under these tabs, namely, Library, Adjustment, Edit, Layers, Slideshow, and Print.
• A pen tool to draw colored pixels on photo layers.
• Fast rendering.
• Amazing effects and AI tools.
• History log: serve the purpose of undoing the unwanted changes.
• Multicam and motion tracking.
• Screen recording.
• Cyberlink provides a strengthened support system like support forums, telephone support, video tutorial, user guides, etc.

7. Cinema 4D

Features 

• Cinema 4D comes in four levels: Prime, Broadcast, Visualize and Studio.
• Involve 3D animation without any formal training.
• Stunning animations and transitions.
• Drag and drop.
• 3D modeling and animation.
• Image editing and tracing
• Amazing support for materials and textures.
• Accessible user interface.
• Smooth learning curve.

8. GIMP

GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is the perfect alternative to Adobe Photoshop. So, what makes GIMP a better choice over Photoshop, it is an open-source free image editing software. In fact, the professional graphic design tools make it ideal for not just graphic designers but photographers as well. And the photo manipulation feature of this software is highly used to craft crystal-clear graphics. However, once you start using GIMP, it will definitely achieve the pedestal of being your main desktop publishing tool. The GIMP interface is totally customizable. On the other hand, the full-screen mode allows you to view and edit at the same time. However, it does not include all the extensive features. But, there are many notable features that will provide you a great designing experience. GIMP runs on GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows, and other OS. Also being a cross-compatible graphic design software program, it has a strong community support. Again this is, hands down, one of the prime choices when selecting the best graphic design software for beginners. Also you can check the difference GIMP vs Photoshop.

Features of GIMP:

• Graphic design elements.
• Customizable interface.
• Export images in different file formats.
• Photo enhancement.
• Digital retouching.
• Great community support.

Pros of graphic design tool

• The UI is bright and modern.
• Free image editing software.
• Very easy to use.
• Comes with single windows usage.

Cons

• Have a few bugs.
• Struggles with Cintiq tablets in the initial stage.

9. CorelDraw

Are you an aspiring web designer and looking for a graphics editor that gives you the ability to create infinite designs without any restrictions while honing your skills at the same time? If so, you might want to check out CorelDraw, a vector graphics editor. That is hands down one of the most popular Industry Standard editors presently. While CorelDraw has some cool productive functions and such an ease of use that no other vector editor can match up to. However, the tool gives you full control so you can get fast and dynamic results. Notably, CorelDraw version X5 and above, you get an inbuilt organizer (Corel CONNECT) also. With tools like Twirl, Smear, Repel and Attract – vector object editing was never so easy. Likewise, the Alignment guide enables you to position objects as per your requirement. CorelDraw works smoothly with large files in Corel Photo-Paint, making it a must-have in the graphic design software list. In fact, it also supports apps like Barcode wizard, Duplexing wizard, Bitstream Font Navigator, etc. And it was always a Windows software. But now is compatible with Mac also.

Main Features of CoralDraw:

• Live sketch tool.
• Vector illustration tool.
• Organize and manage font library.
• AI-powered tools.
• Apply colour and change transparency.
• Various file format compatibility.

Pros

• The interface customization is ideal.
• The design is very fresh.
• The training videos are very helpful.
• Choose from perpetual license or subscription.
• The right-click gives awesome vectorization.
• Shaping docker gives maximum usage.

Cons

• Tools are hard to learn for newbies.
• Navigation is not easy.
• Navigation board is not visible.
• The freehand brush is hard to use.

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10. Inkscape

Inkscape is a professional tool ideal for vector art lovers and graphic designers who use SVG file format. Also the tool is perfect for Windows, Linux, OS, FreeBSD, and Mac as well. And it doesn’t matter whether you are a professional or just a person who wants to create vector images for a personal blog. Also this software allows you to create and edit works including various pieces of artwork, charts, illustrations, and so on. And in terms of sketching, coloring or making illustrations Inkscape is very easy to use. Again with the Ghostscript extension .eps files are easily readable.  Also allows you to import other file formats like, JPEG, PNG, BMP, and more. You can check difference between Inkscape vs Illustrator.

Inkscape Features:

• Ability to directly edit the source code.
• Keys to move screen pixels.
• Various drawing and shape tools.
• Text tool
• Edit clones on the canvas.
• Edit gradients.
• Fill paint-bucket with one click.

Pros

• Absolutely free.
• Layer system.
• Endless Filters.
• New effect tools as a bonus.

Cons

• Extremely slow.
• Some features are paid.

Best Graphic Design Software Compared (2023)

Bonus Graphic design software tools

11. ACDSEE Photo Editor

Features of graphic design tool

• Availability of numerous standard photo editing tools.
• One can draw their own web designs or use the software’s pre-designed templates.
• Better sharing options to offer.
• Graphic design tools.
• With 3200% as the maximum zooming option. It has a lot of basic editing tools at hand.
• ACDSEE Photo editor offers to import and export options as well.

12. Autodesk 3D Max

Autodesk 3D Max Features

• Polygon modeling.
• Procedural modeling.
• Interactive viewports.
• Multiple file support.
• High quality materials.
• Integrated Arnold renderer.

13. Autodesk Maya

Features:

• 3D animation.
• Motion graphics.
• 3D modeling.
• 3D rendering and shading.
• Fast playback.
• Time editor.
• Character setup.

14. Vector

Features 

• Not just a standalone app but a web-based app as well.
• Vector has a low learning curve.
• Its basic graphics editor is free.

15. Paint.net

Features

• A tabbed document interface is used to manage multiple images.
• Simple and intuitive user interface.
• Supports popular file formats.
• Automatically updated.
• Highly responsive and said to be one of the “fastest image editor available”
• Paint.net has layers for enriched image composition experience.

16. Corel PhotoImpact

Corel PhotoImpact provides an easily navigated and friendly interface. The Corel PhotoImpact X3 provides one with a wide collection of designing and editing tools made easily accessible to you. This can make it appear tricky. Hence, it has been divided into eight operative fields. ExpressFix or Full Edit mode serve the purpose of editing the photos. ExpressFix provides the option to adjust exposure, color, skin tone and focus with just a click. Whereas, Full Edit has the editing options like portrait touch-ups, enhancements and effects. And it has an interesting combination of both basic and advanced tools. It holds the compatibility with 32 file formats inclusive of RAW, JPG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, PSD and animated GIFs. PhotoImpact is designed to help beginners as well as professionals meet there designing needs. Again the tool provides features that help them meet there designing needs, along with stunning customization features.

Pros of graphic design tool

• Availability of panorama and HDR imaging tools to create visually captivating effects.
• It offers an extensive support system.
• It has the main docked panel to hold all the other panels and swiftly hide and show them as per requirement.

Cons

• Limited sharing features.
• Sluggish development in its software.
• Apart from the above-mentioned graphic design tools which had broad.

17. Sumo Paint

Sumo Paint is an online image editing tool for the graphic designers that allows them to quickly edit photos, and design them. And it comes with an attractive interface that support full retina resolution, and provides a great image editing experience. Also Sumo Paint is a great graphic design software for beginners starting of with digital art, photo editing, and graphic designing. And it is a great graphic designing tool for beginners as it has an easy learning curve. Again it has as a smooth interface, and offers varied capabilities to create, edit, and touch photos and digital art.

Pros

• Wide range of tools and features.
• Easy to use interface, with light learning curve.
• Digital drawing tools like Symmetry and Cube Designer.
• Free version.

Cons

• Free version does not have many features.
• Advanced features may not be enough for professionals.

What to look for before choosing graphic design software?

Certainly, it doesn’t matter if you are an amateur web designer or a professional digital creative designer, knowing the best graphic design software can be really helpful for you. However, the above-discussed list of graphic design software includes top-notch solutions to help you get started with ease. Indeed, technology has changed the way we work and has given us a new perspective to look at things around us. That being said, choosing the best graphic design software from the available pile of options can be an overwhelming experience for some. However, if you are well-aware of your requirements and goal, then choosing an ideal solution won’t be any tough. If you wish to make the right decision then it’s essential to look for certain things in software.

Ease of Use

Any software you pick for your business must be easy to use. No matter how efficient software is if it’s not simple to use, it will not be of any help to your clients. All the features and functionality it is offering should be convenient to use. However, it should be that simple that even a novice shouldn’t find any problem using your software.

Pricing

This is another factor to consider. Yes, any tool that’s free will have a vast customer base (provided, the software you are picking is competent). Whereas, if it is a paid software, then it may require a lot of time to build your customer base. However, it’s not about free or paid solutions, it’s all about the efficiency of any software that drives traffic.

Features

Features of any graphic design software should be such that it should not have to make any extra effort to attract visitors. Instead, it should generate people’s interest automatically. Features are the main deciding factor that helps you make your choice. Any quality tool will enable you to create designs of your choice (even the difficult ones) without any technical skills. However, basic knowledge of graphic designing is always an additional help.

Beginner-Friendly

It is not feasible to determine which type of visitors you will have on your website. Similarly, it is not possible for graphic design software to figure out which type of or people with what graphic knowledge scale will use their software. So, it is up to you to pick up a solution that is beginner-friendly. You should look for graphic design software that could be used by people with minimal graphic design knowledge.

Which graphic design software tools do you use for designing?

As a graphic designer, knowing which graphic design software tool to use is crucial. With so many graphic design software for beginners available in the market, it is not easy to pick the correct one out but Photoshop is the best. Designing a website and doing away with the burdensome coding can lead you to develop some highly intriguing & professionally looking websites. With TemplateToaster offline website builder software you can design such websites in a matter of minutes. In practically three steps you can bring life to your vision. This website theme designer tends to be compatible with almost all graphic design tools making it flexible to work with. If you are looking for video compression you must go through video compression software.You can also read Essential Photo editing software , video editing software and best logo designing software for beginners and top Wireframe tools for UI/UX designers.