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3 Free Design Software Alternatives for Beginners

The price of software alone is enough to deter you from pursuing a career in the digital media field, with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop running as high as 700$ each. But fear not, there are powerful alternatives to get you up and running, and they’re all free.

GIMP

Let’s face it; Photoshop isn’t the easiest or the cheapest way to get into graphic design. There are several alternatives to Photoshop that are free like Pixlr, Paint.NET, and more. But the software that really stands out to me is GIMP. This software is completely free to use and is updated constantly. It also provides support in several languages and has numerous features that can also be found in Photoshop. Tasks like enhancing or retouching are made easy with this software.

You can export your images to several different extensions as well, including the most popular .png, .gif, .jpeg, .jpg and if hard drive space is an issue, it will export and compress files into .zip, .bz., and .gz as well. Probably my favorite feature though, is being able to manipulate windows to create an environment you feel comfortable to work in; you can move the tools windows freely.

Inkscape

Need a vector editor alternative to Adobe illustrator? Then check out Inkscape. This software is also open source and is extremely powerful, capable of developing professional logos, illustrations, and art that require high resolution scalability. What makes Inkscape unique is the use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as the native format, not only that but you can export your projects to formats friendly to web browsers and commercial printing rooms. Inkscape also has a great community backing it, which contributes to tutorials and guides as well as the software itself, reporting bugs and testing out new features.

Synfig

So we have the resources above to create vector art and professional artwork, what if your main goal was to tie them together into animation? The next solution would be Synfig Studio, a 2D Animator. Like the software mentioned above, it is completely free and open source. It eliminates the need to create animations frame-by-frame, allowing for higher quality work. With work flow in mind, Synfig can create projects and results in a more efficient manner and with fewer resources. The feature that stood out most to me was that you can use the software with pen tablets, adding to the efficiency. This allows for pressure sensitivity in your creations, giving you natural line weighting.

In the long run, getting a graphic design degree or certificate based around Photoshop or Illustrator will be more beneficial, and help you develop skills that are beyond what the software mentioned above is capable of, however these are great tools to get you headed in the right direction.

Author bio: the article is written by Zac Jackson on Behalf of Sessions College for Professional Design.