The Top 9 Tools You Should Master as a Graphic Designer
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn order to excel in your career as a graphic designer, these are the tools you should master.
Graphic design tools are numerous, and learning to use them effectively is important if you want to succeed as a graphic designer. Clients want to hire professionals who can create what they need using the best tools available.
This article discusses the top design tools you should master to thrive in your career as a graphic designer. Let’s jump in.
1. Adobe Illustrator
If your work as a graphic designer centers around vectors and vector images, then Adobe Illustrator is your best friend. Illustrator is part of Adobe’s Creative Suite, an all-encompassing collection of tools for video editing, web development, graphic design, and photography.
The software allows you to create unique graphics, logos, fonts, and vector illustrations in one place. This means that you’ll spend less time switching between various applications trying to cobble together your best work.
Also, there are tons of hidden tools within Adobe Illustrator that you can use to create astonishing designs. Of course, vector designs are unaffected by pixelation and other image quality parameters, so you can rest assured that your work will look fantastic, even when it’s rescaled or resized.
2. Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the most ubiquitous graphic editing tool for graphics designers today, setting the gold standard for other image editing software globally. It’s the first major professional-grade editing tool you’ll likely use when creating and editing images and other graphics.
If you’re a novice graphic designer, some simple techniques to help you learn how to use Photoshop can be incredibly valuable. You can learn how to apply basic editing techniques like background removal, creating custom shapes, and adding unique effects to photos and images.
Additionally, it is useful for everything from manipulating 2D and 3D images to performing image analysis and composition. Of course, you can also use it to edit computer-generated imagery and real-life photos.
3. Adobe InDesign
Creating graphics for ebooks, online magazines, and other publications can be challenging as you must factor in the potential effects of fonts, layouts, and other placeholders. That’s where Adobe InDesign thrives.
One of its key features is Adobe InCopy, enabling team members to collaborate on projects in real-time. It also has an AI-powered automatic arrangement and resizing feature, making it easier to create layouts and designs. Consequently, it’s invaluable for creating and saving digital magazines, brochures, and newspapers.
4. Sketch
Sketch runs exclusively on Apple’s Mac computers and is one of the best drawing and painting apps for digital artists. As it’s ubiquitous to the macOS interface, its features are optimized to the letter for the software. It has a user-friendly interface and provides some of the best photo editing features you’ll ever use.
Additionally, the Sketch application is fantastic at helping you create optimized workflows and is compatible with numerous plugins. It’s also free, although you can get a paid business package requiring contacting the company. Finally, if you ever need help figuring out an issue with it, you can turn to the ever-active Sketch community for a solution.
5. Inkscape
Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics tool compatible with several other platforms. It offers file support and integration with tools like Adobe Illustrator while allowing you to import files from CorelDRAW.
However, its user interface isn’t as friendly (or pretty) as many of the other tools in this article. You can improve your learning curve by reading forums and getting familiar with updates and documentation on the tool. Conversely, you’ll find it easier to understand if you’re already familiar with other graphic design tools in Adobe’s Creative Cloud.
6. Canva
Canva is a free graphic design tool with an intuitive user interface that even design novices will find easy to use. It contains thousands of templates, fonts, and backgrounds, allowing you to create easily curated graphics from scratch by mixing, matching, and editing the features you like.
Regardless of what type of graphic you want, Canva has an option. There are also several hidden Canva features you can use if you know where to look.
The best part: the software is mostly free, although you’ll need to pay to access some of the templates and fonts. The paid options are Canva Pro and Canva For Enterprise, and depending on what you need it for, one or the other is best for you.
7. GIMP
GIMP is one of the best free tools for professional photo editing and graphic design. Today, it is considered a viable lightweight alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It is an open-source graphic design software similar to Inkscape, although its user interface is much friendlier.
Conversely, one of its main strengths is compatibility. You can run GIMP on Solaris, Windows, Linux, and macOS devices, with minute differences in functionality. The software also possesses a strong community, with robust documentation and a steep learning curve for newbies.
The best part: it also gets frequent updates, keeping it fresh and able to handle any graphic creation and editing tasks you throw at it.
8. Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a budget-friendly alternative to Adobe Illustrator with similar design tools, features, and functionality. It’s an excellent tool for newbie graphic designers, boasting a user-friendly interface and added features that improve its practicality.
Also, it contains a grid system, snapping options, and a dual environment feature. The latter allows you to create vector designs and pixelated images in one workspace to see designs in real-time.
Affinity Designer’s Zoom feature can go up to 1,000,000%, which is CAD (computer-aided design) software territory. Thus, it enhances your ability to create detailed designs. You can retrace up to 8,000 steps to find older versions of your work on a design and build from there. This makes it easy to make client revisions and improves collaboration.
9. Adobe After Effects
After Effects is well-known for its animation capabilities, but it is also an amazing tool for graphic designers. It is a blend of motion graphics and visual effects software with similar features to Adobe’s graphic design products.
If you’re a graphic designer familiar with motion effects and incorporate them in your work, you’ll be thrilled with After Effects. The software enables you to create stunning, professional imagery using color key images, patterns, textures, and other special effects. Consequently, you’ll be able to create 3D visuals that stand out from the crowd and please your clients.
Level Up Your Graphic Design Career With These Tools
The tools listed above are useful for creating engaging still and live graphics. Consequently, building your proficiency and adding them to your arsenal of professional skills and tools is smart. You’ll work with a wide range of clients across your career, and your ability to deliver unique work that helps them achieve their goals is key to your success.