5 Free Graphic Design Resources

It’s no secret that high quality visuals can help you tell your story, but not everyone has access to expensive software like Photoshop. Here are just a few free tools that can help you create and develop effective visual content for your website, social accounts, and more:

1. Canva

Canva is the perfect tool for anyone who wants to optimize their social media graphics. With great looking templates and royalty free images, you can have a Facebook banner or Twitter profile pic ready in an instant. They even come pre-sized for each platform and device’s specific dimensions, so you don’t have to worry about any valuable information getting cut off when you upload the images your social media sites.

2. Pixlr

Pixlr is a photo-editing platform which provides you with high-end tools to bring your images to the next level of awesome. With many different options such as the Editor (similar to Photoshop), Express (simple interface) or the mobile app, Pixlr, is one of the most versatile, free tools out there. You can edit your photos to your heart’s content or even create a new graphic from scratch. Images can be saved to your desktop and then uploaded to your website or social accounts.

3. VSCO

VSCO is a highly functional photo editing app for smartphones. With many more filters and image options than apps like Instagram, the filters on VSCO give you full control of colors, brightness and many more aspects of your photo (even skin tone). VSCO also has a highly active community of photographers, so you can explore and share others’ content as well.

4. Gimp

Gimp is freely downloadable software that works on Windows, Macs and other operating systems. It boasts many high-end tools for you to retouch or edit a photo, or create a new image altogether. If you can’t afford Photoshop, Gimp can be your high quality, free stand-in.

5. Google Photos

Google Photos is simple to use, and it follows you wherever you go. In addition to being able to upload photos from the mobile app or your desktop, it has can be a quick solution to resizing, color correcting or cropping any photo. The best part about Google Photos is that it’s “disturbingly good” at tagging your photos, so you can search your photo library by keyword or aesthetic.