For artists, technology is an enhancement of their creative skills. They memorize keyboard shortcuts, familiarize themselves with interfaces, and treat their favorite applications as a second language. In order to harness creative freedom, it’s necessary to have an extremely customizable program.

We’ve scoured the internet to compile a super useful list of the best graphic design tools in the industry today. These tools are tried and tested and will assist you in producing stunning custom designs that will leave your customers awestruck.

Get ready to express yourself with simplicity and productivity in amazing new ways and produce astounding digital art!

What should you look for in graphic design software?

With a multitude of design tools on the market, it's easy to end up picking the wrong one. Here are a few features you need to keep in mind when deciding the best graphic design software for you:

1. Target audience - Most graphic design software have either basic tools for beginners or advanced tools for professionals. So you can choose one according to your level of competency. However, if you'd like to make steady progress in your design journey, it's best to pick a balanced tool that is suitable for all skill levels.

2. Ease of use - Make sure the UI is straightforward and simple. Complicated layouts and confusing navigation will only slow you down.

3. Range of features - Don't restrict your creativity by choosing a software with limited features.

4. Variety of templates - Pre-designed templates are a common feature in many tools. But don't be too hasty. Make sure the chosen tool provides a wide choice of templates that suit your niche.

The top 20 best graphic design software of 2023

1. Glorify

If you’re looking for a quick, efficient way to create high quality designs, you’ve found the perfect match. With simple tools for beginners and advanced features for designers, Glorify provides a practical alternative to other design tools in the market. 

It offers a range of features such as thousands of thematic templates, a background remover tool, a logo maker, 3D mockups, brand kits and more! The best part is, you can say goodbye to costly outsourcing. This easy-to-use design tool is ideal for anyone looking to scale their business through powerful story-driven product imagery.

It can be used on any device or operating system as long as a browser is available.

Best for:

Entrepreneurs, marketers, agency owners, beginners, experienced designers and just about any busy professional. No prior design experience needed.

Price:

Glorify offers a free plan for those just getting started. Monthly subscriptions to their Pro and Business plans run at $39.99 and $99.99 respectively. However, if you choose either plan as a yearly subscription, you are entitled to a 25% discount. 

2. Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is undoubtedly the most influential graphic design program and is used by thousands of designers around the world. This advanced graphic design software will do it all for you, whether you are trying to create banners, flyers, blogs, or logos. Adobe Photoshop has software for every stage, from little edits to complex designs.

It can be used on Mac and Windows operating systems.

Best for:

Creative professionals such as graphic and visual artists, photographers, art directors and web developers. Advanced tools more suited to experienced professionals.

Price:

Photoshop's annual pre-paid plan runs at $239.88 per year. If you choose to bill the annual plan monthly, you have to pay a total of $20.99 per month. They also offer a monthly plan at $31.49.

3. Sketch

Sketch focuses primarily on digital design. It is often used to build websites, applications, and interfaces. Unlike Photoshop, Sketch is not designed for printing or photo editing.

With Sketch, you can develop a program by working on the site itself with other designers. The software has an intelligent design function in which, depending on the content, the part will instantly resize.

It runs on the Mac operating system.

Best for:

Those with prior knowledge of graphic design such as UI/UX, web and icon designers.

Price:

The Standard subscription plan at Sketch is priced at $9 per month or $99 per year for each editor in your workspace.

4. Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a program for illustration based on the design of vectors. You can make graphics, logos, posters, etc. and it is possible to use the designs made with Adobe Illustrator on business cards or banners and 8k displays from smartphones.

To produce something amazing, you can use this app to sketch, combine, and modify designs. Adobe has created a smartphone edition called Adobe Illustrator Draw, which is one of the best applications out there for graphic design.

It can be installed on Mac and Windows operating systems.

Best for:

Creative professionals such artists, graphic designers and comic book illustrators working with vector graphics. However, it is a better choice for beginners than Photoshop.

Price:

Adobe Illustrator's annual pre-paid plan runs at $239.88 per year. If you choose to bill the annual plan monthly, you have to pay a total of $20.99 per month. They also offer a monthly plan at $31.49.

5. Affinity Designer

This is one of the most reliable and affordable substitutes for Adobe Illustrator. Affinity Designer is known to run seamlessly, which will boost your efficiency and allow you to express your imagination more freely. At 60fps, you can switch and zoom your artwork and see live changes in gradients, effects, and adjustments along with transformations and curve edits.
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It can run on Windows, iPad and Mac operating systems.

Best for:

Beginners or those at the start of their design career. Its tools are much easier to learn and master compared to other tools for professionals.

Price:

Affinity Designer offers one-time payments instead of subscription plans. The tool runs at $26.99 for Mac and Windows users, and $9.99 for iPad users.

6. Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is another Adobe program that can be used to produce stunning graphic designs. In the publishing world, this graphic design software is mostly used to create magazines, relevant documentation, books, posters, engaging PDFs, leaflets and more. Incorporated into InDesign, the Sensei technology makes the image layout and resizing efficient.

It can be used on Mac and Windows operating systems.

Best for:

Professional marketers, publishers and designers.

Price:

Adobe InDesign can be purchased as an individual app for $20.99.

7. CorelDRAW Graphics

This graphic design software can be used to design high quality vector diagrams. To help you work smartly and efficiently, CorelDRAW has a range of useful design tools. If you are working on branding, web design, or printing projects, you can find various customization choices.

To provide you with LiveSketch, which transforms sketching into accurate vector curves, CorelDRAW now uses AI technology. The suite includes both graphic design and layout tools. For photo editing and font control, it has Photo-Paint and Corel font developers. Also, the file accessibility is enormous; over 100 file formats are supported by the software.

It can be used on Mac and Windows operating systems.

Best for:

Professionals looking to use vector illustrations and powerful editing tools. Beginners can also use this tool since its features are quite easy to use.

Price:

Their annual plan runs at $35 per month or $420 .They also offer aone-off payment plan for $875.

8. Xara Designer Pro X

Xara Designer is suitable for both bitmaps and vectors. The software is suitable for various functions such as desktop printing, graphic design, animation, photo editing and more. To get you going easily, the graphic design program offers thousands of sample graphic design templates, design elements, and over one million stock images. Scaling shapes, lines or cycles using vectors will not affect the quality of the design.

It can be used on any Windows operating system.

Best for

Businesses and professionals creating web and print content. Its steep learning curve may not make it the ideal tool for beginners.

Price:

This tool can be purchased at an annual subscription of $299.

9. GIMP

GIMP is another popular open-source program that allows you to modify and share programs with their source code. It is also possible to use GIMP to restyle images as well as . It is also possible to design interface components and sketches, along with print designs like images and logos.

It can be used on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems.

Best for:

Non-professionals since the tool cannot handle professional print color spaces and file formats.

Price:

GIMP is a free design software.

10. Gravit Designer

This graphic design software can be used to build templates based on vectors. Gravit Designer helps you create logos, edit images, and design diagrams and animations. The app is adjustable as per the needs of the user.

It can be utilized on operating systems like Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS.

Best for:

Both experienced designers as well as professionals. Used mainly by graphic and web designers.

Price:

Gravit Designer does have a free plan but this does not apply to the offline version. It can also be purchased for an annual price of $59.99 per year.

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11. Inkscape

Inkscape offers multi-functional uses. It has a strong text tool which is a great bonus since text is an important part of graphic design. The software is an open-source software and can be used on any device.

It can run on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.

Best for:

Beginners as well as professional designers and illustrators who can easily create designs with the versatile tools on offer.

Price:

This is a free graphic design software.

12. Vectr

If you are looking for the best graphic design software to build vector graphics, Vectr is your pick! These generated vectors, when scaled, will not lose their quality. To build the pattern, Vectr does not use pixels; it utilizes mathematical formulas.

This tool is available both online and as a desktop app, and can be used to design any 2D graphics. This includes company cards, banners, posters, brochures, etc.

It can run on Windows, Web Browser, Linux, Mac, and Chrome operating systems.

Best for:

Any type of 2D visual content. Businesses can make the most of this while non-professionals can also try out their features.

Price:

Vectr is a free design software.

13. Canva

If you are looking for an easy tool to start your design journey, then Canva is for you. It enables you to easily and quickly build layouts and offers several models and pictures of fonts, all of which are free to use. Canva operates on the principle of drag-and-drop. You simply need to pick elements and drag them to the desired place on the canvas.

It can be run on the Web Browser, Android, and iOS operating systems.

Best for:

Beginners, since it does not require prior design skills. The lack of advanced tools does not make it a good choice for professionals.

Price:

Their Pro plan can be purchased at $6.94 per month or $54.99 per year if billed annually. The Enterprise plan runs at $30 per month. Canva also offers a free plan.

14. PixTeller

PixTeller is an easy-to-use editor tool that allows users to create graphic images and animations. Images can be download in PNG, JPG or PDF formats while animations can be downloaded as an MP4 or GIF file. It is suitable for individual as well as company use.

It can run on any web browser.

Best for:

Both beginners and professionals since the tools are easy to use and no prior design skills are required.

Price:

PixTeller's Pro plan runs at $7 per month or $84 billed annually. Their Diamond plan can be purchased at $12 per month or $144 if billed annually.

15. Design Wizard

Design Wizard is an online graphic design tool that begins with free pricing and increases its cost along with features. This tool offers users more than a hundred designed images.

Works well on any web browser..

Best for:

Beginners and those looking to create simple, quick designs. Its simple tools are fairly easy for anyone to use.

Price:

Their Basic plan is free. You can subscribe to their Pro monthly plan for $9.99 per month or the Pro annual plan for $89. Their Business monthly plan runs at $49.99 while the Business annual costs $449.

16. Infinite Design

This graphic design software is ideal for the development of vector graphics. Infinite Design can be used to make easily create powerful and eye-catching designs.

As its name suggests, this tool includes an infinite canvas that allows you to zoom, pan and rotate. It also offers functionalities such as translation, scale, flip and distortion.

Infinite Design can only run on the Android operating system.

Best for:

Non-professionals who want to quickly create and edit images using the drawing tool.

Price:

This is a free design tool.

17. Adobe Comp

Adobe Comp is another popular graphic design programs intended to be used along with Photoshop, Illustrator and other Adobe applications. Users can create eye-catching designs through the use of fonts and patterns. You can turn your raw designs into sleek graphics with Comp and complete the designs using other Adobe software on your desktop.

It can be on iOS and Android operating systems.

Best for:

Professional designers ideally using other tools in the Adobe suite.

Price:

Adobe Comp can be downloaded for free.

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18. Lunacy

Lunacy is a another vector design tool that can be used online as well as offline. It offers users an efficient workflow with tools such as an image upscaler, background remover, avatar generator and text generator. It is a useful app for web, UI and UX designers.

Lunacy is a native app for Windows, macOS and Linux

Best for:

Beginners, professionals, solo workers and teams. It's tools are simple to use

Price:

Lunacy is a free graphic design tool.

19. Procreate

This is another popular app that allows users to create artwork from scratch. Procreate's popularity is mainly due to its responsiveness, impressive layering system and thousands of importable brushes. The app allows you to import files from other devices. Excellent organization of projects makes Procreate a good choice for individuals working on several projects at the same time.

Can only be used with an iPad. Excellent organization makes it a go-to tool

Best for:

Professionals such as freelancers, illustrators, artists and other creative individuals.

Price:

The app can be purchased for $9.99.

20. Krita

Krita is a versatile app that is easy to use, yet produces high-quality designs. It is an open-source painting program that allows users to create concept art, texture and matte images, illustrations and comics. Though it leans more towards digital art and illustration rather than marketing and graphic design, users have the freedom to create any concept they wish to.

Krita can run on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Best for:

Beginners who want to try their hand at digital illustration and art.

Price:

This is a free tool.

Closing thoughts

There are many graphic design tools on the market. What you've seen is just a tiny fraction of the long list. So picking the right one can be quite challenging, and there are many factors to consider. But always remember to pick what is right for you and your workflow.

The right tool empowers you to harness your full creative potential and bring your ideas to life. That's why Glorify tops this list of best graphic design software in 2023. Glorify inspires individuals to push the boundaries of creativity every day. With thousands of pre-designed, customizable templates on offer, you can create captivating images within minutes. This, along with other practical features makes Glorify the ideal tool to ensure a smooth and easy workflow.

Explore Gorify now!

The Best Graphic Design Software: FAQs

1. What is a good graphic design?

A good graphic design is a piece of art that involves well balanced, strategically placed elements. Graphic Design Elements are the sections or aspects of a piece of art or design. With the right color scheme, texture, style and formats, you can produce an excellent graphic design.

2. Is graphic design hard?

Graphic design is not impossible to learn as long as you have creativity and imagination and are passionate about art, craft and design. But still, it does take time!

3. What is the best software for graphic design beginners?

Glorify is an easy-to-use design tool with a simple user interface that makes it the perfect tool for beginners. Glorify's editor offers a number of effective, simple features that allows anyone to create high-quality, professional designs with no prior skills needed.

4. What is the best free software for graphic design?

GIMP is a popular free graphic design app that allows users to edit images, create original designs, convert images into different formats and many more functions. It is expandable and allows the integration of several plugins.

5. What apps do graphic designers use?

There are several popular apps used by designers based on their individual needs and workflow. Glorify, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Krita and GIMP are some of the software that professionals and beginners use depending on their skill level.

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