Best Graphic Design Software in 2024

What is Graphic Designing Software?

Graphics designing software allows designing of logos, apps, images, videos, and text in a creative way. It is the bread and butter for the advertising and publishing media. Design software can be used to draw the blueprint of anything, from rooms to websites to large spaces. Graphics design tools take care of everything. 

Types of Graphic Design Software for Beginners & Professionals

1. Logo Design Software
2. 3D Design Software
3. Web Design Software
4. Clothing Design Software
5. Publishing and Typesetting Software
6. Furniture Design Software
7. Poster Design Software
8. Circuit Design Software
9. Interior design software
10. Architecture Software
11. ID Card Design Software

These are just a handful of names in the long line of works that graphic design software provides solutions to. Design software has become an integral part of design and planning. It helps visualize and produce content on a whole new level; and at an increasing pace. With the help of graphic design software, a video editor can edit several videos in a short amount of time. Similarly, an interior designer can draw numerous room layouts in a day. Graphic designing software eases the workload of people who are in creative media businesses.

What is the Purpose of Graphic Design Software? 

Graphic design software creates and manipulates visual elements to communicate messages or ideas effectively. It allows designers to craft digital or print materials, such as logos, brochures, websites, and more, by combining images, text, and other graphical elements in a visually appealing and cohesive manner. 

Must Have Features of Graphic Design Softwares

Graphic Design software is known for its features. There are a variety of features available that are used to make your creative designs better and more appealing like text formatting, image editing, image drawing, etc. The best design software should have the following features: 

1. Photo Editing and Post Processing: Graphic design software provides exclusive tools for image editing. This software enhances the quality of an image by giving the options to edit. You can change the image’s shape and size, color black and white photos, adjust contrast, among many others with photo editing software. You can add depth and dimensions in a typical photo and give it a 3D effect. Image editing software also gives you the option to perform lens corrections.

2. Video Design and Editing: Video design and editing is an integral part of the graphic design software. You can use it to merge clips, edit the audio of the video, recover damaged audio files for the video. You can create seamless transitions between clips. With top Video editing software, you can create your customized toolset for you to render your videos smoothly. Video design software lets you add filters to your videos, to give them a dramatic effect. Video editing software is the backbone of the entertainment industry. It also gives you the ability to mask and highlight parts of the video that you want. 

3. Art Illustration: Illustration designing software empowers content creators to express themselves freely. The software can be used to design banners for campaigns and organizations, T-Shirt graphics, flyers, album art, product design, logos for companies, and many more. The only limit for the utilization of illustration graphic design software is imagination. Illustration software provides features that give your artwork the texturing for jewellery and 3D style designs. 

4. 3D Designing: 3D models are a necessity to create jewellery, architectural design, video game, and fabric. Best 3D design software gives the texture effect to your design; so that they replicate the material you are aiming to create. For instance, it could be used for giving woodworking design to a woody texture or pearly structure to jewellery. It can generate any shape and create high-performing design options in minutes, with an evaluation of the forms.

5. Font Designing: Graphic design software gives state of the art typography tools, which can be used to font designing and calligraphy typing. Font design software also allows you to create new font styles. 

6. Web Designing: Online graphic design software is also equipped with the features to design your website to make it look attractive and interactive for your users. You can include touch and click-based features for users to keep them engaged.

Benefits of Graphic Design Software

With the help of graphic design software, you can automate tasks like color correction, image resize, text formatting, etc. Moreover, you can also perform different design variations and iterate without manual rework. Here are some other benefits of using this tool:

1. Quick and Timesaving Designing: Graphic design software makes the work of editing media very easy and swift. Basic edits like skin tone adjustment and red-eye removal in photos or adding transition slides in videos completed in minutes to save time.

2. Makes Advertisement Processes Easier: Graphic design software has boosted the production and creativity of advertisement professionals. The software is a favourable tool in advertising because of the output capacity it has. Content creators can create numerous flyers within a few hours by using graphic design software. 

3. Advanced Editing: An average picture of a person can turn into that of a robot or a superhero with the professional help of graphic design software. You can create special effects for videos like fire and rain in your videos. 

4. Post Process Enhancement: Graphic Design allows you to enhance and colour antique images and videos. It also helps you to turn the images into e-magazines format for publishing. You can resize images, crop and merge videos to make your subject matter more appealing to your audience. This is also done for damaged audio and video. High-quality Graphic Design software enables you to improve the quality of the media by either adding external details or improving and tinkering with the existing details. 

5. Integrated Work Process: Graphic Design Software allows multiple users to collaborate and edit different aspects of a piece of content. It makes team collaboration easy and seamless. 

6. Hassle-Free Editing: This software allows users to open a variety of projects at the same time. The software lets them switch between lifting clips and scenes from one project to the next. With Graphic design software, users can save enough time in terms of adding clips and scenes into their work with the minimum hassle.

Best Graphic Design Softwares Comparison

Top 10 Graphic Design Software Comparison
Graphic Design Software	Best for	Pricing
Canva	Best for creating multimedia presentations	Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 3999/year/user
Adobe Illustrator	Best for creating logos and icons	No free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 1,675.60/month
Adobe Photoshop	Best for creating photorealistic art	No free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 1,675.60/month
CorelDRAW	Best for creating vector illustration	Pricing details are available on request on its official website
Inkscape	Best for creating technical illustrations	Free to use
Sketch	Best for creating digital graphics	No free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 829.74/month
Affinity Designer	Best for creating web mock-ups and concept art	One-time payment of INR 6,900.00 to use the software
Pixlr	Best for designing and image retouching	No free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 82.16/month
Figma	Best for creating products prototypes	Free plan available | Paid plan starts from INR 995.83/month
Procreate	Best for creating animations and sketches	It is available for one time purchase of INR 829.08

Graphic Design Software Integration and Compatibility with Other Tools 

Graphic design software can be integrated with different types of software to streamline the creative workflow. For example, you can integrate it with animation software to add motion effects to your graphics. Some other popular integrations available with Graphic Design Software are:  

• Project management Tools: Software like Asana or Trello help organize tasks, track progress, and manage feedback for design projects. 
• Communication Tools: Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams facilitate real-time communication and collaboration on design projects. 
• Asset Management Tools: With these tools, you can manage all your designing assets like graphics and mockups in one place. 
• Prototyping tools: Tools like Figma or Adobe XD allow you to create interactive prototypes of your designs for user testing and feedback. 
• Social media scheduling tools: With tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social, you can schedule and share your graphic designs across various social media platforms. 

Pricing Models of Graphic Design Software

Pricing models of graphic design software can vary based on the target audience and features provided. Here are some of the most common pricing models of graphic design software:  

• Subscription-Based Model: This is one of the most popular pricing models where users are charged monthly and annually. Once the subscription expires, users need to renew their subscription to access all features.   
• Freemium Model: Some platforms offer a limited free version with basic features. However, additional capabilities can be unlocked via paid subscriptions like in Canva. 
• Perpetual Licensing Model: Under this, one-time payment is required to purchase a lifetime license. Once the payment is done, users can access the platform features permanently without any ongoing charges. However, many vendors also offer both subscription and licensing options to its users. 
• Project-based Model: Under the project-based pricing model, users are charged based on the number of projects they work on. Therefore, the more projects you create, the more amount you need to pay. 

How to Choose the Best Graphic Design Software?

To select the right graphic designing, you need to consider the following factors: 

• Pre-Design Templates: The availability of pre-design templates will help you in creating different types of graphics in a short period of time. 
• Usability: Make sure the software you are planning to buy is easy to use and navigate without any complications. 
• Compatibility: The graphic design software should be compatible with the device and must work without lagging.  
• Supporting Documentation: The availability of supporting documentation will help you to understand graphic design software features and modules. 
• Cost: Select design software that comes within your budget and does not have any hidden charges.  

Latest Trends in Graphic Design Technology 

Nowadays, many users are focusing on creating maximalist graphics where neon colors are used, typography is bold, and layered elements are used. Moreover, many designers are incorporating nature inspired elements in their designing projects. Here are some other latest trends that you will find in graphic design software: 

• Use of AI to Enhance Designs: Artificial intelligence is becoming extremely popular to create different types of graphic designs. With AI, you can augment your creativity rather than replacing it. For example, AI can suggest color palletes according to your design and also enhance it as per your requirements. Text to design generators are the most trending tools nowadays. 
• Use of Scrapbooking: Nowadays, scrap books prints and textures are popularly used in designing. Designers design websites with polaroid textures, adding text in handwritten notes, or a brochure layered with vintage textures. Many designers are following this trend to design their books, cups, digital books, etc. 
• Use of Heatmaps: Many graphic designers are using heatmaps in their graphics to add depth and draw in users' attention. Heatmapping is the perfect option to create brand posters and immersive web interfaces for users. Graphic designers are incorporating heatmaps such as color gradients and textures into their work to create visually appealing patterns.