Nothing beats visually appealing content online. Regardless of how detailed your content is or how much value it provides to the reader, the vast majority of visitors would prefer it to be visually appealing. That’s why graphic design is so important for marketers.
There’s ample research to show that your online audience takes mere seconds to decide whether or not it wants to stick around. One research found that visitors only take 2.6 seconds on average to focus on a specific area of the website.
So marketers only have one opportunity to capture the attention of their audience. If they’re unable to do that, or if they end up leaving a bad impression, chances are they might not see that visitor again.
Good graphic design is key, but it can be expensive to hire a designer! Fortunately, there’s no shortage of great graphic design tools that are free to help you add a visually-appealing edge to your content.
Here are a few of our favorites:
5 best free graphic design software for marketers
1. Canva
Let’s start with our personal favorite. Canva is a powerful and free graphic design tool that has something to offer to both novice and skilled graphic designers. Those who are new to graphic design can quickly create visually appealing creatives using the easy drag and drop format.
Canva provides a very user-friendly interface and templates that can be used to easily create the right-sized creatives for social media networks. It also provides more than 8000 free templates for users to choose from.
There are some features that require the user to upgrade to a premium membership but they’re really only for the skilled designers. For those who are just starting out, the core features that they need to make amazing creatives are all free.
2. Easel.ly
Infographics are a great visual resource. They help condense a lot of information into an appealing graphic that’s able to get the point across to the reader effectively. Easel.ly makes it very simple to create great infographics online.
The software’s powerful features can be used to visualize just about any kind of data. It’s fairly easy to even create flowcharts, design reports and maps based on the data. Some of the more advanced features do require a subscription, though.
To help users along, Easel.ly provides them with free templates and tutorials that enable them to get the most out of this free graphic design software.
3. Adobe Spark
Adobe is highly regarded for making some of the best graphic design software on the market. However, it’s premium products tend to be expensive. The company later launched Adobe Spark as a free alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
It has many powerful graphic design features in addition to free templates that make it very easy to create great graphics. The features it offers are perfect for quickly creating visuals for social media campaigns or blog posts.
The limited feature set also means that beginners won’t be overwhelmed by the software. Adobe Spark is available for both mobile and web, enabling marketers to design using any device of their choice.
4. Gravit
Marketers who are looking for a free vector design solution will be better served by Gravit. This graphic design software has been developed by the fine people behind Corel Draw.
Gravit provides a wide variety of tools that enable users to create vector art through a self-adjusting interface. In addition to vector illustration, Gravit also enables lighting and color adjustments, filters, blending, effects and more.
The free version isn’t fully adapted for touch-enabled devices so it’s best used on the desktop. It also lacks some of the advanced features but the free tier offers more than what most designers will need.
5. Gimp
Gimp is another highly regarded graphic design tool that’s been available for free for 25 years! It’s popularly referred to as the open source version of Adobe Photoshop.
It supports all file formats and enables designers to create artworks from a blank canvas. The advanced features include layer masks, curves, animation, and more. The interface is also customizable for an enhanced user experience.
The best part about Gimp is that all of its features are free since it’s an open source software. That makes it a compelling solution for even those who are very skilled when it comes to graphics design.
Happy designing!
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Dec. 8th, 2021