Free Graphic Design Software for Beginners
By now, you know that visual elements are part of a compelling digital marketing strategy. But what happens when you don’t have design software or expertise at your disposal? Free and easy graphic design software gives those who aren’t experienced designers the power to create visual content for all kinds of content, including blog posts, social media posts, webpages, and more.
7 (Actually) Free Graphic Design Software Tools for Beginners
Need a team of expert designers?
We know that one tool may not be quite enough to get the job done. Our top 6 list of free graphic design software spans a wide variety of project types, from social media posts to infographics to photo editing. They’re also actually free!
1. Canva
Canva is a versatile, free graphic design tool that’s perfect for social media design elements. Canva’s templates take the guesswork out of appropriate sizes for each social media platform. Canva is great for simple graphic design projects that give your social media posts a creative boost. They even offer a fantastic one-page website builder if you’re looking for an easy way to get started with web design.
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As with any free tool, the options are limited if you’re creating a large number of graphics or you need them to be highly customized. But the amount of free material available through their design app is surprising. You can use just about every feature of Canva for free, including animations and any template. There’s also a huge collection of free illustrations, photographs, and fonts.
Canva is an excellent tool for a number of digital design use cases, including creating Facebook or Pinterest graphics to promote your blog content. Their template library contains a wide range of sizing options you can search using the names of your favorite platforms. You can also use it to create event flyers and posters. Some people even use Canva for website design.
2. DesignWizard
DesignWizard is similar to Canva, but includes all of its available tools in the free version. With over 10,000 free templates, you can easily create digital items such as social media posts and YouTube channel art, as well as print items like gift certificates and sales posters.
DesignWizard has a library of over 1.2 million images, videos, illustrations, and graphics for your use. You can also upload fonts, photos, and logos, create custom color palettes and resize designs so every final product is unique to your brand.
3. Piktochart
Infographics are powerful and shareable. Infographics are “30 times more likely to be read than an article with the same content.” Piktochart gives non-designers the ability to create basic infographics without relying on powerful design software like InDesign. Choose from 400 templates, icons and graphics to get your message across.
While nothing can replace the expertise of a designer when it comes to creating a compelling infographic, Piktochart is a solid platform to start learning on if you want to understand what goes into the creation of an infographic.
Here’s an example of an infographic created in Piktochart.
4. Pixlr
Pixlr’s free online image editor allows you to edit your photos with over 600 overlays, effects and borders. It’s available as an application on iOS and Android. It’s popular with Instagram users and photography buffs who haven’t quite leveled up to using pricey photo editing software.
You’ll get the most out of this tool if you enjoy editing photos before you share them, but it isn’t the most powerful option if you’re building shareable graphics.
Keep in mind that free doesn’t mean easy. Don’t get frustrated if you struggle to make the most of these online tools. They’re best-suited to those who have basic design or photography experience.
5. Fotor
Fotor is a longstanding photo editing tool that has grown rapidly over the years. In addition to traditional editing features like crop, resize, and touch-up, Fotor now also offers powerful AI enhancements. It’s AI features are not free, of course, but it’s worth taking advantage of it’s free trial to find out what it can do. Fotor is fast and available instantly through your browser. It’s also very user-friendly. 
6. GIMP
GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and it’s your go-to free tool if you work with photography in any capacity. While it’s not available in browser, and it’s definitely a more advanced tool, we wanted to include it in case you had more demanding photo editing needs. It doesn’t have templates and can be a bit more challenging to use than some of the other software in this list, but it’s a powerful way to do advanced photo editing and design.
7. Adobe Express
Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) is Adobe’s free version of Illustrator, and its equivalent software to Canva and DesignWizard. Like those tools, you can work in Express within your browser. It also offers a huge library of free templates and images. If you’re already familiar with other Adobe products, this might be a great place to start.
Need a team of expert designers?
While these tools are free and powerful, they provide a boost to beginners because they rely on templates, and templates have limitations.
If you want something 100 percent unique to your organization, start from scratch with the help of a designer who understands strategy.
If you’re not ready to tackle your graphic design task alone, we can help! Our team of expert graphic designers will work with you to create outstanding materials to represent your organization. Contact Big Sea today!
