4 Great Graphic Design Programs (2020)

Going digital is always good advice, whether it’s building a state-of-the-art website or building a social media presence. But in order to stand out in the ever-changing digital world, you need the right tools. For web designers, graphic designers, visual artists, and illustrators, there are many software and graphic design programs to work with, each with their own uses and features. Here are four great graphic design programs you must have in your toolbox this 2020 to have a visually appealing website or create engaging social media posts.

Graphic Design Programs To Use in Your Business

Photoshop 

Adobe Photoshop is a functional and versatile graphic design tool, renowned as the greatest photo-editing and image creation software around — so much that it’s even become a verb. Photoshop is known as the secret weapon for creative professionals, developed by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It allows the users to create, edit, and retouch images by applying effects, filters, masks, and shadows using different layers. Also, it’s a tool used by thousands of everyday users to create pictures of compositions and website mockups. This graphic design program is regularly improving. Some of the latest updates are:

• Better, faster portrait selection
• Adobe Font Auto-activation
• Rotatable Patterns
• Adobe Camera Raw improvement

Most of the popularity of this software comes from the fact that it’s easy to use, and it’s accessible for devices such as iPhone and iPad, which makes it an excellent tool for both beginners and professionals.

Paint.net 

Paint.net is a free graphic design program known for its smooth and intuitive user experience. It started as a senior design project and then became very popular because, according to users, it’s more dynamic than Microsoft Paint, but less complex than Photoshop — a seemingly ideal combination. Paint.net works with layers, effects, unlimited undo, and a vast number of powerful tools, so it likely has everything you need. A particular feature of this budget-friendly editor is that it supports user-created plugins that you can get from the official paint.net forum. Plugins allow users to include more special effect options in the platform and customize the program to their liking.

Canva

Canva is a popular graphic design program built for non-designers. You can design from scratch using images, fonts, templates, and illustrations. Canva is very user-friendly, and it’s available for desktop and mobile devices.  This straightforward graphic design program is ideal for students, teachers, beginner graphic designers, businesses, marketers, and photographers. It’s the perfect platform to create social media graphics, posters, presentations, resume, and other visual content effortlessly. Its built-in templates, color palettes, and graphics make it easy to design with no knowledge or original elements, but it also has the capabilities to create an original design with your images. Like many graphic design tools, Canva has a premium version known as Canva Pro that contains a wider variety of in-app photos, elements, fonts, and animations, and exclusive access to incredible templates. 

Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a must-have vector graphics software tool for all professionals in the graphic design industry. It runs on Windows and Mac OS, which makes it a very flexible tool regardless of what you use. It allows you to create drawings, illustrations, and artworks using an extensive option of drawing tools. Ilustrador is often used for:

• Logo Design
• Typography Font Design
• Hand Lettering Design
• Icon Designs
• Infographic Design
• Banner Design
• Chart Design

Since Illustrator is a vector graphic tool, it’s the perfect program to create and design complex icons and illustrations, elements that are often included on a website or landing page.  One of the most relevant features of Adobe Illustrator comes from its vector artwork capabilities, which allows images and designs created in Illustrator to be enlarged and reduced without compromising the resolution. This well-known software is continuously updated to offer a better experience for web designers, graphic designers, and illustrators. Like Photoshop, Illustrator has two types of updates: the introduction of new features or the improvement of existing features.

How Do Graphic Design Programs Improve Your Business?

The right graphic design software tools can have a huge impact on your business and your brand. Because Having great tools helps you create not only engaging social media assets, a unique logo, and a consistent brand, but also a well-designed website that will ensure a good impression on your potential customers. With the right tools, your site will capture people’s attention, build trust, and provide great user experience, which eventually will lead your business to increase website conversions. —– S-FX.com Small Business Solutions is a boutique web design and technology consulting agency geared towards start-up businesses, small businesses and non-profit businesses.  We specialize in implementing low cost technology solutions to maximize efficiency and reduce business operating costs.