Best Free Graphic Design Software For Beginners & Pros (July 2022)

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Do you want to create great-looking graphics, but you’re just starting out and not sure if you need to buy the most popular, trendy, and expensive graphic design software? Or perhaps your computer or laptop simply can’t handle the resource-intensive software and you looking for a web-based alternative? In either case, there’s a great solution to these challenges that we’re gonna cover in this post along with some valuable design tips and how to get started with the best graphic design software that is online or web-based and free to use.

In this article, we will cover some valuable design tips along with reasons to use online-based graphic design software (also known as apps, applications, editors, and programs) that are free to use. These top design editors will provide all the images, photos, templates, videos, and more that you’ll ever need.

Best Graphic Design Software – Top 3 FREE Options

If you’re finding it challenging to use professional graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, you’re not alone, because many beginners do.

However, with the significant advances in technology, more and more companies are creating powerful photo editing and graphic design tools that are free to use, both amateurs, and pros.

There is significantly less of a learning curve to using online web-based design tools which means you’ll be able to start working on your project sooner and complete it faster.

Now in 2022, there is less resource-intensive graphic design software available, which are web-based editors that are free and much easier to use than programs designed only for professionals. Additionally, these editors are capable of producing professional, high-quality designs.

Below are 3 of the best free graphic design editors that are web-based. This means you don’t have to download bulky software onto your computer in order to use them. Just log in and get started.

These editors all offer a premium option as well starting at around $10/mo, which is pretty reasonable. They also provide everything you’ll need to start designing including photos, templates, images, graphics, and illustrations. shapes, and more.

Before continuing, let’s clarify something. “Free” is not a synonym with “bad”. Nowadays, free services often turn out to be better than old expensive ones. All this is due to healthy competition, that has caused developers to build the best graphic design software applications that can do practically anything like the big players such as Photoshop, but without a big price.

What’s the best graphic design software for beginners?

After using all three free options above, we believe VistaCreate is the best choice for beginners. Their interface is very user-friendly, the editor moves fast and the graphics used on their templates are designed extremely well with modern, trendy styles. The top image of this article was designed with VistaCreate.

Why choose VistaCreate?

Here’s the main reason: Yes, this online-based graphic design editor is part of the popular VistaPrint companies. With this understanding, you should be confident that you’re dealing with a reputable and respectable organization that has created a top-notch design application.

► Top 6 Reasons

There are many reasons that VistaCreate is the top choice for anyone needing to create amazing designs and here are just 6 more:

1. Easy & Clean User Interface
2. More Templates & Graphics You’ll Ever Need
3. Stunning Quality Looking Templates
4. Fast Moving Design Editor
5. Excellent Design Tutorials
6. Reputation

► Create amazing graphics for social media, the web, or print

When using VistaCreate, you will have endless opportunities to create graphic materials and here are just some:

….and so many other platforms that allow you to post your own graphics.

When posting your graphics on different social media platforms, it’s important to consider their specific design requirements:

YouTube

• If you create graphics for YouTube, you should be aware of their design guidelines. For example, adhere to your channel’s style (combinations of colors, fonts, pictures, and so on). You should also consider the desired and maximum sizes for all uploaded materials.

Twitter

• For Twitter, there is an optimal and maximum resolution applied for pictures and videos. Additionally, you should not forget to create your own style if it hasn’t already been done.

Similar design rules apply to most social networks and resources that are similar to YouTube and Twitter.

With VistaCreate you’ll discover a large number of templates that are regularly updated to keep up with trends and social media platform requirements. When creating graphics, a variety of convenient tools will help you and before using these tools, use the training tutorials first to help you get on the right track.

► Simple and easy-to-understand tutorials

It is necessary to get acquainted with all that we’ve discussed before making your first design. VistaCreate tutorials will help you do just that. After the lessons, you will be able to create whatever you need for your media promotion. 

If you lack experience and theoretical knowledge, you can open a large database with training materials that will help you fill the knowledge gap.

Also, it will take much less time than learning the basics of graphic design and trying to work with more complex design editors.

At the same time, training materials concern not only the functionality of the site but also, for example, the site you are targeting. If you want to learn how to properly make graphic materials specifically for Instagram, you can read about it and so on.

Forget about getting a degree in design and spending months on making something that can be done within hours. The same result will be achieved just after learning from the tutorials.

Final thoughts on VistaCreate.com

It is worth noting that most of the design assets, functions, and features of VistaCreate are available to everyone for free. So at the very least, you can try this resource to see if you should upgrade for full access. If you would like to, you can purchase full access to all materials for a small monthly fee, currently only $10/mo with an annual Pro plan. . . .

. . . .That’s less than $0.33 cents a day!

If you are still not sure, you can look through some user reviews to help understand whether you should upgrade to the pro plan.

The monthly fee is significantly less than the price of bulky and professional graphic editors which often require quite a lot from your computer or laptop to fully open up. No need to be concerned about running VistaCreate on new or “ancient” computer systems because it’s all online.

Read the reviews, try the service for free and decide for yourself – is the upgrade worth the money? We believe so, but getting to know the platform with a FREE Account is the first step.

Design Tips For Beginners

Realize the Importance Of Using High-Quality Designs

It’s probably safe to say that we all love visuals. Visual elements play a major role in our daily lives. Gone are the days when website content consisted mostly of text and sometimes a couple of pictures here and there so as not to “kill” traffic. But that time is long past and it’s getting harder and harder to captivate users with just words.

To engage your blog visitors, social media followers, or eCommerce customers with your content, you need to use beautiful, captivating, and very intriguing graphics and illustrations.

Understand design guidelines for social media platforms

Whether you’re making a YouTube thumbnail or creating posts for Twitter or Instagram, there are some general design guidelines that you should be aware of:

► Social media platform design requirements

#1 – Consider the media platform parameters: Not all the design requirements are the same. If, for example, you create videos for both YouTube and Twitch, you should take into account the individual parameters of each platform.

#2 – Don’t forget about the mobile app version: For example, on Facebook, when creating materials, there is an optimal resolution of 1200x630px. With this resolution, your images will be optimally displayed both on the desktop version of Facebook and on mobile devices.

#3 – Stick to your own style in everything: When creating pictures, previews, headers, and thumbnails, keep consistent design styles (ie; colors, layout, image effects, fonts, text, etc). This will help you create visibility for your channel or persona that is memorable and associated with you. You are essentially creating your own brand. A good example of this would be how graphic designer Jacob Cass from JustCreative.com uses the same colors and design style throughout his website and social media accounts to keep in step with his brand identity.

► Designing your brand identity – YouTube example

When creating the graphics for your social media channel or website, it’s important to create a brand identity that is memorable.

As already mentioned, people love with their eyes. This issue as a whole should be considered on the example of one specific platform for clarity. Let’s take YouTube as an example. Everyone watches YouTube, right?

When you enter YouTube, the last page you opened with the last video you watched shows up. If you scroll a little lower, you will see a column with your suggested videos on the right. What’s the first thing you notice when trying to find the right video, or your favorite YouTuber’s next video?

The first thing you see is what’s called a thumbnail. That is what attracts the most attention and how you identify or recognize the video of your favorite YouTuber. The YouTuber’s own style helps you with this by identifying the colors used for the design of the thumbnail as well as the fonts, colors, and images used.

Next, you notice the name of the channel, but there are no graphics to be changed with titles. It is the style of a YouTuber that helps them stand out among tens and hundreds of thousands of other videos and content makers.

That is why you should create your own style, or brand identity as early as possible and lay the foundation of your recognition among your current and potential new subscribers.

Some individual content makers try to copy the style of more famous YouTubers who make similar content. This may help you, but it also may cause problems in the future – no one likes plagiarism. It is much better to create your own style on your own and start “pumping” a brand named after yourself.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve covered the best graphic design software apps online along with some design tips for beginners, it’s time to start designing. The sooner you get started the sooner you’ll be posting amazing-looking graphic designs.

Please leave a comment below on your experience with using free online graphic design software. For additional reading, you should take a look at our posts on what is Adobe Creative Cloud, the top 10 methods on how to organize images, and where to get free portfolio templates for graphic designers.