6 Graphic Design Tools Your Business Needs To Try

In a society where expressing yourself online is becoming an increasingly important part of our daily lives, companies are designing tons of applications that give users a professional edge when it comes to social media marketing and digital marketing. Whether it is a social media post for your business, or a selfie of you and your friends, graphic design and photo editing applications are very useful tools. Also, it is no mystery that some people are more technologically inclined than others, and companies know that. As a result, there are a variety of different software’s out there that are all trying to achieve the same goal but vary in usability.

So here are 6 of the best graphic design and photo editing apps that you can use whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced graphic design or content creator!

Beginner Graphic Design & Photo Editing Apps

Pablo By Buffer

Pablo by Buffer is an online image design tool, available for free. It offers the most basic essentials necessary to making high-quality social media posts.

Its simplistic layout is easy to navigate allowing you to create a complete post in three simple steps. For example, you start by selecting an image or uploading your own, then adding text, and finally selecting a photo filter.

Pablo by Buffer.com is a great option for those just getting started in creating professional looking posts for their social media pages.

Canva

Canva is another free image design website, similar to Pablo by Buffer. Compared to Pablo, Canva is a little more expansive and offers more options for customization.

You can choose from a variety of pixel dimensions for your posts depending on the social media channel that you are designing for. Canva also offers many useful templates including those for popular social media platforms, email headers, event invitations, digital advertisements, and presentations, allowing the user to complete a post very quickly.

This app is a great tool for creating a large variety of professional posts for a variety of online channels.

Intermediate Graphic Design & Photo Editing Apps

Pixlr

Pixlr is a free cloud-based software centered around file & photo sharing and photo editing. Pixlr has a variety of tools that can satisfy any photo editing needs. The various tools allow you to make quick changes, apply filters, create collages, and add stickers.

Pixlr is intended for non-professionals but still has the ability to produce high-quality edits, and requires some knowledge of photo editing and graphic design. This free app features multi-device compatibility and provides exquisite photo editing across all platforms. A more advanced version of Pixlr called Pixlr Pro allows you to make more detailed edits in layers and can output an assortment of file types. This advanced version, however, requires a subscription fee.

Snapseed

Snapseed is a free mobile photo editing app used to enhance photos with edits and digital filters. This application produced by Nik Software (now owned by Google) is fairly simple and user-friendly.

On Snapseed, the process of editing a photo includes simple swiping gestures to select from an array of different effects and enhancements. The app also encourages direct file sharing with various social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. It also features photo resizing options to fit the platform’s image templates.

Snapseed is easy to use but still requires photo editing knowledge. But it’s worth it because this app produces clean and professional looking posts perfect for any social media platform.

Advanced Graphic Design & Photo Editing Apps

Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom is an image management and image processing software used for photo editing and media sharing.

What does it do? Lightroom focuses on high-quality photo editing as opposed to graphic design. Primarily used by professional photographers, Lightroom provides tools for extremely detailed edits and processing raw image files.

This application is for advanced editors, as familiarization with photo editing is necessary in order to get your money’s worth because this software requires a monthly fee.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the most prevalent photo editing and graphic design software in the creative industry. Since its release in 1990, it has been unparalleled in popularity.

PhotoShop focuses on the ability to edit and compose images in multiple layers to every stretch of the imagination. It has seemingly endless possibilities and offers the ability to customize every element of any photo or design. PhotoShop can produce images at any set of dimensions and resolution and therefore can be used to output images for any social media platform. Some of the customization options in PhotoShop include blending options, color space and contrast options, a variety of file formats, and tons more.

Adobe Photoshop is a professional program not intended for beginners. It requires knowledge in the area of digital graphic design and editing and an understanding of the PhotoShop toolkit. Such a powerful and popular tool comes at a price and is available from Adobe for a subscription fee.

What Is Your Favorite Graphic Design App?

As seen above, there is a vast selection of programs for photo editing and graphic design, varying in difficulty and specialty. The success of your company is not defined by the software you use to produce content, it’s all about how confident you are in your ability to use editing software and what you produce with them. Any advanced tool such as Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom will be confusing at first, but with the right training and practice, they can really take your content to the next level of professionalism and quality. Canva and Pablo are useful for simplistic posts that get the point across while simultaneously achieving a clean, professional look. Snapseed and Pixlr are also extremely helpful in producing high-quality content with limited knowledge and resources.

In the end, all of these programs have their strengths and weaknesses, and it really depends on your willingness to either learn a difficult software for the highest level of customization or to stick to the basics while still achieving the clean look. In either case, no digital editing software is bad, and there is really no situation where you can go horribly wrong. The important thing is that you utilize your knowledge and make great content for your social media page no matter what!

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