The most common app (s) that designers use has to be Adobe Photoshop (Or the full suite). The app (s) are great, but there is a downside: The price tag. Photoshop CS4 costs $699, CS4 extended is $999 and the full Creative Suite starts at an stunning $1799. For many people this is just a little bit too much to 'play around with'. Oct 12, 2017 The free version of Canva provides a large library of images, icons, layouts, text styles, and shapes for you to use, and allows you to upload your own graphics, while their premium plan offers even more design resources.
About the author:This guest article was written by Emma Best from Laptopical - a guide to the latest laptop reviews and laptop related news. You can also follow her on Twitter.
I've been using my MacBook Pro since a while now and I must say: I really love it. The most common app(s) that designers use has to be Adobe Photoshop (Or the full suite). The app(s) are great, but there is a downside: The price tag. Photoshop CS4 costs $699, CS4 extended is $999 and the full Creative Suite starts at an stunning $1799. For many people this is just a little bit too much to 'play around with'.
Luckily, there are also many free applications out there that can do the same kind of job that Photoshop could do for you. This article rounds up the best 15 free Mac Programs for Graphic Designers. Some of these applications can even do stuff that can't be achieved using Photoshop, or are much more simple to use.
Keep your wallet in your pocket, since all these programs will cost you nothing.
GIMP
The most popular of all free photo editing software, GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is highly-supported and frequently updated. Comparative to Photoshop, users can perform basic tasks such as photo retouching, color correction, and image size, or more complicated tasks like image composition and creation. GIMP has a scripting interface for advance users, as well as plugins, extensions, and filters.
Seashore
If you want GIMP, but don't have X11, then Seashore is the appropriate software for you. Based on GIMP, it has nearly all the settings and functions of the more advanced program without the higher requirements.
Inkspace
An excellent alternative to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw, Inkscape is a free vector graphics program supporting standard SVG format, as well as XML and CSS standards. This program can do everything you'll need in a vector graphics program - tracing, path operations, direct XML editing, etc. Import and export formats include all the common image types, including JPEG, PNG, and TIFF.
Front End Digital Media Workshop
Don't waste time manually resizing individual photos for your various projects. Front End Digital Media is a batch conversion app for images (as well as video and audio), and allows you to mass resize, resample, split, join, and up/down sample JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, PSD, and PICT image files.
Image Tricks
The biggest appeal for the Image Tricks app is the ability to apply dozens of different filters to over 20 different image formats. The finished photos can then be exported as either TIFF, JPEG, or PNG.
Comipro Plus
If you create cartoons of any type, Comipro Plus is an excellent app. Designed in Japanese but usable to English speakers, this program helps create modern-looking comics, including editing and adding word bubbles.
Google SketchUp
Different from a normal vector graphics program, Google's SketchUp allows you to not only create a design, but view it in 3D. It is easier to use than more complicated 3D software, such as AutoCAD, and is free.
Colorate
Colorate is used to change and manipulate the colors in a photo. The Library generates a color swatch based on the photo, then allow you to add a new color pallete, either blending the current one, creating a custom one, or randomizing a completely new pallete.
Goldberg
This program is best used for those times when you're viewing your photos, and notice that a color is slightly off, or a side needs cropped a bit more. Instead of firing up a full photo editing application, you can simply make minor adjustments, including color correction, blurs, noise, and embossing.
NIH Image
If you need to animate one of your photos or designs, this program is for you. It's compatible with a wide array of programs, and in addition to animating images, it can also perform minor tweaks to contrast, sharpening, smoothing, filters, and more. It also analyzes particles, angles, and paths.
Scratch
This program is so simple, it can be used also immediately with no prior instruction. It is used for creating small games, interactive art, and animated stories, and is primarily marketed to children. Despite it's juvenile market, it is an excellent tool for putting together quick interactive banners and images without the learning curve.
DAZ Studio
If you're in need of realistic 3D models, DAZ Studio is an easy-to-learn 3D program for creating 3D objects, including people, animals, and objects (buildings, cars, etc). DAZ Studio is easier to use than other 3D animation tools, and is perfect for creating surrealistic and 3D art.
Bryce
Built to run with the aforementioned DAZ Studio software, Bryce is used to create real-looking landscapes using photos of real landscapes. Take a picture of your yard, a forest, some mountains, or other landscapes, import it into Bryce, and then add all the elements needed to turn it into a new world.
ArchiCAD
If you need a 3D design tool with more power and features than Google SketchUp, ArchiCAD is the right program to you. Similar to AutoCAD in both function and name, this program allows users to design their sketches and ideas into a realistic 3D render.
JAlbum
Every graphic designer requires an efficient way to keep all their photos and images organized. JAlbum is the ultimate photo organizer, as it not only allows you to organize your photos and folders using simple drag-and-drop functionality, but it also creates thumbnails and HTML pages of your photos for easy online publishing. The HTML pages to publish can be made to either export a gallery or a slide show. In addition, there's support for IPTC and EXIF data, lossless editing, image filters, style sheets, and an integrated FTP client.
Bonus: Pixelmator
I've added Pixelmator myself to this list, as Emma didn't include this app to her top 15 list. I really love to use Pixelmator myself and I don't think it should be missing from this amazing list.
Pixelmator, the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images.
Bonus: Blender
Just like Pixelmator, I've added Blender myself to this list, as Emma didn't include this app to her top 15 list. Blender is a great open source app for 3d content.
Best App For Graphic Design
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
Are there more Mac Apps that you, as a graphic designer, love to use that is missing from the list above? Please share!
This guest article was provided to you by Emma Best from Laptopical.
Tags: guest articlemacappsgraphic designtoolsfree
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Spread the word and submit to:So you’ve decided to create an app for your business… great choice! You’ll soon be reaching out to a whole new audience as you put your business at the cutting edge of technology, but first, you need to develop it.
You’ll undoubtedly want your app to look great and portray your company in the right way, so for that, you’ll need a variety of fantastic graphics. From icons to headers, splash screens, custom buttons and much more, it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to their design, but fortunately, there is a range of great, FREE tools out there that can help you along the way.
Whether you have experience in design or are a complete novice, the following platforms enable you to create fantastic looking graphics no matter what your experience level:
Canva
Canva is one of the most popular design platforms out there, and with its easy to use drag and drop functionality, great choice of templates and illustration options, it’s not hard to see why.
With Canva, it really doesn’t matter if you haven’t designed anything before as the straightforward drag and drop interface lets you add text, uploaded images or graphics from their extensive library anywhere onto your base design.
You can choose one of their preset sizes or select your own to ensure the finished graphic fits perfectly into the designated space on your app design. With over 10 million active users, Canva makes the job of designing graphics fun and easy, and what’s even better is that it is completely free to use; giving you access to over 8000 templates, a large proportion of their stock library and 1GB of memory.
Gravit Designer
A great choice for designing splash screens and icons for your new app, Gravit Designer is clean and easy to use, with an interface that will adjust to exactly how you need to use it.
There is a great choice of tools for you to take advantage of, including a knife tool, blending modes and much more that will go a long way in helping you to create stunning graphics that will perfectly compliment your new app.
This free graphic design software is well worth playing around with as you get to grips with the many different elements to it, however, with a little investment in time you can make the most of all that the software has to offer.
Mac Graphic Design Apps
Pixlr
If you’re looking to use photos within your new app, Pixlr enables you to edit and play around with its various effects, overlays and borders. It is an app available on both iOS and Android, so you can upload any photos directly from your phone.
There are over 600 effects to choose from to add to your photos, as well as being able to do everything else you’d expect from a photo editor such as cropping, resizing, whitening and removing the increasingly common red eye.
If you’ve used Photoshop to work on photos in the past, you’ll soon get to grips with Pixlr as its interface is very similar and arguably more straightforward to use.
Sumo Paint
Like the idea of illustrations and cartoon imagery within your new app? Sumo Paint is browser-based and has a free version that is very easy to use.
You have access to brushes, shapes, pencils, gradients and cloning elements to name just a few of the features, all of which are accessed through a floating toolbar, in a similar style to Photoshop.
You’ll need to ensure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to use the tool, which makes it inaccessible if you want to use an iPad, however on your laptop you can benefit from a lightweight, quick loading design platform that you’re sure to love.
GIMP
GIMP is open-source graphic design software that an increasing number of people are migrating over to from Photoshop.
The interface is different in many ways, however, there is a version that replicates Photoshop’s look and feel, making it easier to move from the old to the new. You then have access to a full suite of tools to help you make incredible looking graphics, including the trusted favourites like painting tools, cloning, colour correction and enhancement.
What’s also great is that the development team have created a product that offers compatibility with all of the popular file formats, therefore making it easy to upload any existing graphics that you want to make amendments to.
Klex
If you want to create great looking graphics at speed, Klex is the platform to do it on. This easy to get to grips with platform hasn’t been designed with the pro-designer in mind, therefore for all you design novices out there, this is a great place to start.
You can choose from a wide variety of existing templates as well as a plethora of design assets, effects and fillers. There’s then a choice of fonts if you want to add text to your designs alongside some fab customisation options too.
To dip your toe into the design world, Klex is a great tool to mess around with and we can guarantee that you’ll surprise yourself with the quality of the results you produce.
Behance
Whilst not necessarily design software as such, Behance is a great place to look for inspiration and see what your peers are creating!
Behance gets millions of views each month, so if you have a design that you’re particularly proud of, you can add it to Behance for all to see too! You can then browse through thousands of designs by searching across a range of categories for further inspiration on what might look great within your new app.
Creating graphics for your app doesn’t have to be a scary process, so even if you’ve never designed anything before in your life, there are plenty of easy to use tools that enable you to produce designs that exceed your expectations and add a real touch of quality and uniqueness to your app design.