There are a lot of tools out there to help you design better. Some of them you’ve probably heard about, but some might be new to you. In this post, you’ll find 14 great resources for graphic and web designers who want to make their work more beautiful and easier to create.
1. Sketch
Sketch is a vector design tool that is easy to use. Sketch is a great tool for designing websites and apps, icons, logos, as well as user interfaces. It has all the basic tools you would expect from any design software, but it stands out by being intuitive and fast at what it does best: design.
Since Sketch was built with web designers in mind (it was originally priced at $99/year), it doesn’t have most features as other programs on this list do — but it also means that everything you need can be found without digging around too much.
2. Figma
Figma is a web-based design tool for UI/UX designers and front-end developers. It allows you to create designs in the browser, collaborate with your team, and share code snippets that are live, editable, and can be instantly previewed.
While Sketch is great for creating pixel-perfect designs that are ready for development, Figma helps you take those designs further by letting you build interactive prototypes that look and feel like the final product.
3. Adobe Xd
Adobe Xd is a vector-based design tool, which means it’s ideal for creating highly detailed graphics and illustrations. It uses Adobe’s Mercury Graphics Engine, which enables you to work on your projects with all kinds of devices, including desktops and pads.
Adobe Xd has tools for creating interactive prototypes (such as clickable buttons). This allows you to experiment with different layouts and options before settling on one that works best. This feature is great if you’re trying something new or have never used Adobe Xd before!
The best part about Adobe XD is that it’s part of the Creative Cloud suite of applications; this means that once you’ve downloaded and installed it on your computer, all other apps from this series will also be available at no extra cost!
4. Adobe Illustrator
For the creation of vector graphics, artists and graphic designers frequently use Adobe Illustrator. Since Illustrator’s initial release by Adobe in 1987, the program has undergone numerous revisions and become a standard tool for graphic designers.
For producing vector-based graphics, icons, typography, logos, and other artwork, it provides sophisticated digital drawing capabilities. One of the software programs in the Adobe Creative Cloud is Adobe Illustrator. It is popular for both commercial branding and design as well as for personal art and entertainment.
5. Inkscape
Inkscape is a vector graphics editor. It’s an open-source program that’s available on Windows and Mac OS X, as well as GNU/Linux distributions.
Here are some of Inkscape’s features:
- Support for the SVG file format
- Powerful drawing tools
- Advanced text handling — full control over kerning and ligatures; advanced typographic features such as true small capitals and automatic fractions’ support for superscripts/subscripts; automatic hyphenation; text along a path.
6. Framer X
Framer X is a platform for designing, creating, and prototyping interactive experiences. It’s used by designers to create prototypes of websites, apps, and other digital interfaces that can be shared with clients, stakeholders, or developers.
Framer X is an excellent tool for creating animated transitions between page states in your web design projects. If you need to show something like a button changing from the normal state to the hover state in an animation, Framer X has built-in tools that will make the process easy (and fun).
You can also use Framer X to create animations and transitions within your designs — like how they will move on screens when users interact with them or how they’ll animate when users scroll down a page.
7. Proto.io
Proto.io is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that allows you to create high-fidelity prototypes of your apps on a variety of platforms, including iOS and Android. It also has the ability to convert your designs into code, making it an excellent choice if you’re searching for something more than just a wireframe tool. While Proto.io is free as long as you do not need access to the source code, there are paid options available if this is something you need.
8. Origami Studio
Origami Studio is a free tool for creating prototypes for mobile apps. It’s used by designers and developers to create interactive wireframes and prototypes for iOS, Android, and the Web.
The Origami framework was created by Facebook as part of its open-source programming initiative. It lets you develop your own components using JavaScript or TypeScript (an extension of JavaScript). Origami Studio incorporates this framework into its design toolkit so that you can create user interfaces that fit beautifully with the rest of your app development process.
9. Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular image editing software in the world, and for a good reason. Generate high-quality content for your website, design blog posts, and more with the help of Photoshop.
It’s a raster graphics editor that many people use for photo retouching and editing, as well as image composition and editing.
10. Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects seems to be one of the most popular motion graphics and visual effects software applications used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. It also allows users to create motion graphics and compositing with its built-in tools.
The software is used for adding visual effects to film, video, or still images. For example, it can be used to animate film titles or integrate video footage with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Using this program, you can change scenes quickly without having to start from scratch every time you want something new on your screen.
11. Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is a simple video editing software that allows you to create, edit, and enhance videos. It’s great for creating graphics as well because it comes with built-in tools for drawing shapes, adding text, and creating animations.
12. InVision Studio
InVision Studio is a tool for creating prototypes and designing interfaces. It’s an all-in-one solution for prototyping, collaboration, and design handoff. InVision Studio is part of the InVision family of products that includes InVision Cloud, InVision Workflows, Inspect, and others.
Invision Studio includes multiple tools to help build prototypes with responsive design on mobile devices.
13. Flinto for Mac
Flinto is a Mac app for creating interactive prototypes. Use it, share it, and collaborate on, and you can get started with Flinto in less than 10 minutes.
If you’re working on an interface project and want to turn your design into a clickable prototype, Flinto is a great tool.
14. Invision App Prototyping Tool (Free)
If you need a free tool for Mac, Invision App Prototyping Tool can be a great option. It allows you to create interactive prototypes and share them with others. As mentioned above, it is not just limited to prototyping but also has other tools such as image editor and wireframing tools.
Invision App Prototyping Tool is available in both web and desktop versions; however, I prefer using the desktop version because it’s easier to work with when you’re designing websites or apps on your computer.
Conclusion
There are many tools to help you make a beautiful design. You can choose the tool that suits your needs and features. Some of them are free, and some of them are paid.
Hoping this list of graphic and web design tools has been helpful to you. If so, please share it with your friends so they can also learn about these amazing tools!
