The 10 Top Digital Tools for Graphic Designers

Whether you work making logos, put together posters for marketing campaigns, or just doodle together a mascot for a product, you need tools. Graphic design these days is a discipline that requires a sizable number of digital tools, along with physical equipment. If you want to show yourself to be a professional, you not only need the skills, you also need the gear.

With so much work being done in a digital space, it’s no surprise that some of the most important tools available aren’t tangible. Let’s take a quick look at what some of the most crucial apps are for a graphic designer. We’ll cover ones that might sound obvious and a few that aren’t quite so apparent.

Sketchbook Pro

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/xIoA-PC53XA

Whether you work making logos, put together posters for marketing campaigns, or just doodle together a mascot for a product, you need tools. Graphic design these days is a discipline that requires a sizable number of digital tools, along with physical equipment. If you want to show yourself to be a professional, you not only need the skills, you also need the gear.

With so much work being done in a digital space, it’s no surprise that some of the most important tools available aren’t tangible. Let’s take a quick look at what some of the most crucial apps are for a graphic designer. We’ll cover ones that might sound obvious and a few that aren’t quite so apparent.

Typography Tools

Graphics are one thing, and typography is another. When you’re working in graphic design, you usually focus on one but you’ll always end up dealing with the other.

Typecast

Typecast is a great way to check out fonts and typography. It boasts a selection of 90,000 fonts from a variety of sources, so you can pick the right lettering to go with your design.

Freepik

Freepik, a pivotal digital tool for graphic designers, offers a dynamic range of meticulously curated creative free design assets: vectors, stock photos, free videos, templates, icons, fonts, 3D images, and its own AI image generator. With an intuitive interface, it fuels imagination and inspiration while saving valuable time. Its versatile resources suit diverse projects, empowering designers to transcend boundaries and focus on refining their artistic vision.

Freepik’s vast collection and user-centric design make it an invaluable ally, elevating design projects to new heights of creativity and innovation. Plus, it’s a freemium service that allows users to avail of its creative wealth at minimal cost. With Freepik, designers get the best of both worlds — an expansive library and affordability.

Freepik has become the go-to digital tool for graphic designers, allowing them to work with more speed and ease than ever before. You’ll never have to worry about running out of ideas and it will save you plenty of time in the process.

Fontshop

Another option here is Fontshop. It boasts a similar exhaustive selection and the ability to preview what it would look like next to the rest of the design. This takes a lot of guesswork out of typography in graphic design and is an immense time-saving tool.

Adobe Creative Suite and Alternatives

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Of course, no graphic designer can get away with not having some key components of Adobe Creative Suite. While it’s expensive, especially with the need to regularly pay for the license to use it, it packs so many features and so much power that it’s hard to find an alternative that doesn’t feel lacking in some way.

Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a giant for a good reason. While it eats up so many of your system’s resources just starting up, it makes up for it with raw power and feature-richness. Nearly anything you need to be done to an existing image can be done in PS.

If budget is a concern, you could poke through some alternatives. Pixlr is good for simpler functions. GIMP is an open-source alternative that can take a while to learn due to its interface, but it does perform almost all of the same functions as Photoshop does.

Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is the big name for making vector graphics. If you’re making logos, graphics, cartoons, and fonts, this is your go-to tool. Using it has a bit of a learning curve, but the number of features, functions, and tools built into it makes it worth the effort.

However, much like the rest of Adobe’s Creative Suite, this eats up a lot of your computer’s power. It’s also expensive. If you’re looking for an alternative, Inkscape is free and offers nearly all the functions.

InDesign

In the world of publishing and typesetting, few tools see as much use as Adobe InDesign. From the pages of magazines to technical manuals to brochures and ebooks, if it needs typesetting, the most effective tool available in InDesign. Like all other Adobe tools, it requires time to learn and master, but rewards that effort with an extensive list of options.

If you need an alternative to InDesign or you don’t think you’ll need this esoteric function or that rarely-used feature, there are other options. The two that come closest to packing the same exhaustive list of features are Scribus (an open source alternative) and Lucidpress.

Pantone

Every graphic designer will need to know what the colors and tones look like in print. The way they look and the way colors display on a screen doesn’t always match the hard copy. Pantone Matching System fills this function, letting you preview how your swatches and choice of hues will look on various print media before you ever send anything to the printer or client.

Evernote

Ideas come and go, and trying to remember them can sometimes be a challenge. Evernote is the most popular way to note down your ideas on the go. You can go with only the broad strokes or delve as deep into detail as you like. The app has a number of ways to organize and contextualize your thoughts, acting as an archive of anything you want to note down. When you’re ready to put your ideas into action, you can use a tablet stand for easy viewing once you start working.

Evernote does require a subscription to make full use of, however. If you’re just looking for something quick and portable for taking notes and remembering ideas, most smartphones come with a basic memo app. Another alternative is Google Keep, which has basic features for organization of your ideas but isn’t as robust as Evernote.

Grain Edit

Grain Edit is an app that can tweak an image to evoke an aesthetic inspired by decades past. If your logo, poster, or other design needs to have a look and feel from the 50s, 60s, or 70s, this tool makes things so much easier. You can use a variety of pre-set designs, or take an existing one and tweak it so it works for your goal and vision.

As a bonus, Grain Edit also provides a selection of tips and ideas for inspiration on how to use the tools provided.

If your work has you dealing with existing photos a lot, Repic is a tool you want to have in your box. It has a variety of features, palettes, brushes, and functions that can make dealing with a photo much easier. The interface is also built with convenience in mind, particularly in switching from using one tool or palette to another.

Conclusion

Graphic design isn’t easy, but it’s creative work and can be one of the most rewarding careers in the world. Once you’ve got the right tools on your equipment, the only limit is your creativity, time, and what restrictions the client wants to implement for the sake of their brand.