You know how good cookies taste so much better when you’ve made them yourself? It’s just so satisfying–especially when other people like them too.
The same can be said for a great piece of visual content that you create yourself. A like-worthy Instagram graphic or an imaginative infographic–when the result is just what you wanted, it’s a good feeling.
And there is good reason for you to try designing your own graphics. It’s old news that social media posts with images perform better than those without. In fact, according to SocialPilot, Facebook image posts get 179 percent more interactions than the average post, while tweets with images have an 18 percent greater click-through rate than tweets without.
If you want to keep up with the other content being put out there, you need to be able to produce enough content to stay above the fold. Unfortunately, unless you have an in-house graphic designer handy, creating enough graphics can be costly. And even if you do want to design your own graphics, graphic design softwares like Photoshop and InDesign are expensive.
Luckily, there are alternative softwares that allow you to create professional-quality graphics–for free. And many of these tools have templates to make the design process easier for you.
Here are five alternative graphic design softwares for an affordable price.
Canva
This graphic design tool offers easy drag and drop and remade templates to create everything from social media posts to infographics and more. This platform is free and you can purchase stock photo or templates to make your designs pop.
Venngage
Infographics have become one of the most widely used types of visual content. And why not? They’re a creative way to present information and are easy to share across virtually any platform. Venngage is a graphic design software used by some of the top tech companies and boasts an extensive library of customizable infographic templates to jumpstart your design. You can also start a design from scratch using a drag and drop page. While you will need to sign up for a paid account to access their full set of features, students can use it for free and individuals start at $19/month.
Snappa
If you’re looking to specifically create marketing graphics, Snappa has got you covered. They have a library of stock photos and curated templates with automatic image resizing for each posting across different platforms. While automation is part of what makes Snappa one of the easiest to use graphic tools out there, users can also upload and edit their own images if they want to start from scratch. There is a free option that gives customers 40,000 HD photos and graphics, 5 downloads per month, anymore.
GIMP
GIMP is an open-sourced image manipulation program with essential editing functions like photo enhancements and retouching. The tool also has a customizable interface, allowing you to change icon sizes, colours, and widget spacing. One of GIMP’s biggest selling points is that you are able to save your images in over ten different file types.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is primarily a photo editing tool, Unlike the rest of the softwares on this list, you have to download Paint.NET to use it–but it’s totally free to use. This tool has many similar features to Photoshop: special effects, layers, unlimited undos, and a handful of other features. Be aware, though, that Paint.NET only runs on Windows.
Is there an affordable design tool that missed the list? Mention it below.
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