Essential Graphic Design Tools Every Beginner Should Know

Graphic design is an essential part of today’s business world. Many small or big businesses need graphic design to promote their business or service effectively online. Graphic design helps brands to communicate and convey their message clearly in a visually appealing manner. It takes a lot to design a visual appealing content for a brand. So, designers need designing tools to create such creative designs. 

Beginners and professional designers need tool that is easy to use and powerful for designing. In this article, we will discuss about different types of tools that designers need.

Graphic Design Software

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular graphic design tool among designers. Photoshop is a raster-based software. Photoshop is a image creating, editing, and graphic design software. Photoshop was developed by Adobe. In photoshop it’s easy to add text to images and we can modify color of the image as per our design needs. 

Photoshop has many features in fonts, brushes or pen tools, effects, and patch tools. These are some of the features of Photoshop:

  • Patch tool: With the help of patch tool we can replace selected defect portion with other pixel of the image. 
  • Pen tool: Pen tool is used when we want to draw free hands and can create our own pathways and different types of shapes.
  • Slice tool: Slice tool helps in diving the images into small parts or slices and we can individually export them. 
  • Brush tool: Brush tool is used for adding color, aesthetic look and effect in your design.  
  • Selection tool: Selection tool is used to select and manipulate the images. By using selection tools like magic wand, lasso tool, and quick selection use can select a portion of the image.
  • Crop tool: Crop tool in photoshop is used to remove some unwanted portions or the areas of the image. Like in an image you want to remove background, buildings, people that you don’t need in your design. 

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based advanced designing tool. In Vector design you can resize images with loosing it’s clarity. Illustrator is popular for creating logos, infographics, illustrations, etc. Illustrator and Photoshop has many common tools and functions. 

Here are some popular features of Illustrator:

    • Type Tool: Type tool allow you to select the style, font, and personalized text. With type tool we can place our text, adjust text size, text alignment, and can select fonts. 
    • Brushes and Pencil tool: With the use of pencil tool and brushes you can draw freehand. 
  • Vector Design: In illustrator you can create high quality and scalable designs

Canva

Canva is among the widely used graphic design software that comes with a variety of templates and fonts. Canva is a free tool but with a premium pack you can access more benefits and features. Canva is one of the best designing tool for beginners and professionals for creating professional designs. 

These are some features of Canva:

  • Drag-and-drop interface: You can easily add design elements like images, text, shapes, and graphics to your design.
  • Template library: Canva has vast templates library. You can choose from thousands of pre-designed templates for social media post, banners, infographics, presentations, and many more.
  • Stock image and icon library: You can use high-quality icons and images for your design from vast collection. 
  • Customization options: You can modify template as per your design needs like you can change colors, fonts and layouts.
  • Collaboration features: One of the best feature of Canva is collaboration in which you can collaborate with other design on the same design.

Typography Tools

Typography is all about arranging text and design text elements. With the use of right font we can clearly and impactfully convey our message to our audience. Here are some tools for finding fonts:

Google Fonts

  • Free and easy-to-use: Google fonts give variety of free library of high-quality fonts that can easily bend into your designs.
  • Wide selection: Google fonts has vast selection of fonts, it always have something for everyone.
  • Open-source: In google fonts, all fonts are open-source. We can freely use them in our designs.

Font Squirrel

  • Diverse collection: Font Squirrel provides both experimental and classic typefaces, which is free to use. 
  • Font pairings: The website offers suggestions for font pairings, helping you create visually appealing and harmonious designs.
  • Font previews: You can preview fonts before downloading them.

Color Palette Generators

In graphic design, Color theory plays a very important role. Choosing a right color palette is very important because the overall look of our design depends on it. Here are some tools to experiment and generate color palettes:

Adobe Color

  • Comprehensive tool: Adobe Color offers a wide range of options for generating color schemes, including complementary, analogous, triadic, and monochromatic palettes.
  • Color harmony: The tool provides visual representations of color relationships, helping you understand how different colors work together.
  • Customization: You can adjust the colors in your palette to find the perfect combination for your project.

Coolors

  • User-friendly interface: Coolors is a simple and intuitive tool that allows you to quickly generate color palettes with just a few clicks.
  • Random color generation: If you’re stuck, you can generate random color palettes for inspiration.
  • Color locking: You can lock specific colors in your palette while experimenting with others.

Image and Icon Resources

High-quality images are essential for creating visually appealing and engaging designs. Here are two popular platforms for finding free stock images:

Unsplash

  • Curated collection: Unsplash features a carefully curated collection of high-quality images contributed by professional photographers.
  • Diverse categories: You can find images for a wide range of topics, from nature and architecture to people and technology.
  • Commercial use: Unsplash images are free to use for both personal and commercial purposes.

Pexels

  • Extensive library: Pexels offers a vast library of free stock photos and videos.
  • Search functionality: You can easily search for images by keywords or categories.
  • Trending images: The platform highlights popular and trending images to help you stay up-to-date.

Layout and Mockup Tools

Layout and mockup tools are essential for visualizing designs and ensuring they function effectively. Here are two popular options:

Figma

  • Collaborative design: Figma is a cloud-based tool that allows teams to work on designs together in real-time.
  • UI/UX design: It’s particularly well-suited for creating user interfaces and user experiences.
  • Prototyping: Figma allows you to create interactive prototypes, giving you a better sense of how your designs will function.
  • Beginner-friendly: The tool’s intuitive interface and extensive tutorials make it easy for beginners to learn.

Smartmockups

  • Product mockups: Smartmockups specializes in creating realistic product mockups, which can be helpful for showcasing your designs in context.
  • Professional presentation: Using mockups can help you present your work more effectively to clients or stakeholders.
  • Customization options: You can customize mockups to match your specific design needs.

Conclusion

In simpler terms, to become a great graphic designer, you need to know a few key tools. These tools help you create beautiful and effective designs. Some popular ones are Canva, Photoshop, and Illustrator. You also need to understand things like fonts, colors, and layouts.

By practicing with these tools and learning about design principles, you can create amazing visuals that will impress people and help you succeed in your graphic design career.