We are truly living in a golden age of design. Thanks to touchscreen devices like drawing tablets, access to the internet, educational courses, and plenty of great software choices, there has never been a better time to dive into the exciting world of design.
Software is one of the most important considerations of any budding artist or designer and choosing the right software can make all the difference to their creativity and productivity. Here we will explore some of the best design-related software options that are available on the market right now.
Krita
Krita is advertised as an open source painting program, and while it may have started out as simple painting software, it has since evolved into something so much more. In fact, many people that Krita is the closest thing to Photoshop that’s available for free, and it comes packed with plenty of extremely powerful features that make it great for everyone.
Designed by the KDE group, Krita is available on just about every device imaginable, ranging from smartphones to tablets to laptops and desktops. It’s free to download and use, and works very well alongside the KDE desktop environment, a popular DE among Linux users.
GIMP
GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, is an image editor that can be used across a range of different platforms. While it’s not quite as advanced as Photoshop or comes with as many features as Krita, is has long become a favourite among designers that want to stick with open source and free software as much as possible. Features are limited, but it remains a tried and tested method of manipulating images. The UI is a bit clunky, and it can take some time to get used to the program, but it’s perfect for doing a bit of quick editing as quickly as possible.
Adobe Photoshop
Almost everyone has heard of Adobe Photoshop, and while there are plenty of other programs around that are catching up, none are quite as efficient, easy to use, and as powerful as Photoshop. It comes with countless features and makes for the perfect piece of software for artists, professional photographers, graphic designers, and more.
Some might not be so happy with the relatively large price tag that’s attached to Photoshop, it’s one that’s often worth paying, as no other piece of software offers quite the same functionality or efficiently, and perfect for spending winnings on from Australian online pokies.
Inkskape
Inkskape is another open source vector graphics tool that can be used for a wide range of different projects. It’s generally best used for scalable graphics, and it might not quite as good as other vector editors, such as Krita.
But the program has made a name for itself among graphic artists and other kinds of designers, and it should always be available as a tool for those times when the other applications simply don’t do the job in a specific way. Inkskape is probably best for beginners or hobbyists that are starting out in the world of design for the first time.