If you’ve ever worked in graphic design or even taken a computer course, you know that the design tools you use are important to your creative success. But with so many options available on the market, it’s hard to know which ones are right for you when it comes to features and pricing. You’re busy actually designing the graphics which is why we did the heavy lifting involved in compiling the best design tools for you. Read on to explore our top 5 design tools for graphic design in 2021.
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop is arguably the most famous software of the Adobe Cloud, as it is known in spaces from high schools to professional companies. The software was created as a raster graphics editor and has grown into the industry standard for digital design. From photographers, to video professionals, to graphic designers, Photoshop gives professional incredible creative control over their 2D and 3D images.
Major Features:
- Image manipulation and compositing
- Video editing
- Image analysis
- Project share capability for team collaboration
- Filters
- Illustrator tie-in
- Connection to Creative Cloud
Photoshop Price:
A subscription to Adobe Photoshop includes Photoshop on desktop and iPad, 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Fresco, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and access to the latest features and updates as soon as they’re released. There are three plan options available:
- Annual plan (paid monthly) – $20.99/month
- Annual plan (prepaid) – $239.88/year
- Monthly plan – $31.49/month
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is another famous software in the Adobe Cloud. It is a vector-based graphics app that lets you create logos, icons, drawings, typography, and complex illustrations for any medium.
Major Features:
- Create digital graphics, illustrations, and typography
- Create for print, web, interactive, video, and mobile media
- Create vector graphics
- Vectorize raster images
- Blend objects
- Connection to Creative Cloud
Illustrator Price:
A subscription to Adobe Illustrator includes Illustrator on desktop and iPad, 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and access to the latest features and updates as soon as they’re released. There are three plan options available for Illustrator as well:
- Annual plan (paid monthly) – $20.99/month
- Annual plan (prepaid) – $239.88/year
- Monthly plan – $31.49/month
Adobe After Effects
After Effects is an Adobe software that is used to create motion graphics and special effects for video, online content, and presentations. It is most effective in applying animations to static graphics and adding effects to videos that have already been edited.
Major Features:
- Motion graphics
- Visual effects
- Render Queue – gives you information such as, what’s rendering, how much time is remaining, rendering progress and how it’s using your system
- Creatively Cloud mobile – a feature that allows you to check on rendering status via mobile app
- Connection to Creative Cloud
After Effects Price:
A subscription to Adobe After Effects includes 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and access to the latest features and updates as soon as they’re released. The same three pricing plans as above also apply to After Effects:
- Annual plan (paid monthly) – $20.99/month
- Annual plan (prepaid) – $239.88/year
- Monthly plan – $31.49/month
Adobe Creative Cloud Option
It may have been clear from the above sections that each Adobe software costs the exact same amount of money. This can really add up over time if you’re invested in using each of these tools. Adobe offers a solution to this through its Creative Cloud (formerly known as Adobe Creative Suite) subscription.
Purchase of the entire Creative Cloud gives you access to Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects, in addition to 20+ other Creative Cloud apps for photography, design, video, web, UX, and social media. You’ll also still enjoy 100GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and access to the latest features and updates as soon as they’re released. The price breakdown is as follows:
- Annual plan (paid monthly) – $52.99/month
- Annual plan (prepaid) – $599.88/year
- Monthly plan – $79.49/month
Even if you never use more than three types of Adobe software, you will end up saving $10/month or $119.76 a year by opting into the Creative Suite. And while you have the access, you can explore additional specific design tools that might be useful to add to your graphic design deck.
Blender
Blender is described by its creators as a free and open-source 3D creative suite. The software is geared towards individuals and small studios and is cross-platform compatible, meaning it runs equally well on Linux, Windows, and Mac computers.
Major Features:
- Rendering
- Animation and rigging
- Video editing
- Grease Pencil – a Blender feature which allows you to draw in a 3D space
Jitter Video
Jitter is a design tool focused on motion graphics. Once you’ve created something in Jitter, you are able to export it as a video or GIF.Â
Major Features:
- Text animations
- Custom and preset animations
- Figma import through available plugin
- In-browser platform
Jitter Pricing:
Jitter is quite a reasonably priced platform. It has two plans, free and Pro. The free plan includes unlimited projects and GIF and video exports at 720p and 30fps. An upgrade to Pro unlocks exports at 1080p and 60 fps (HD), watermark-free creations, and priority support from the company.
The free option is great for newer designers or individuals who want to test drive Jitter’s features before making a purchase of $108 for the annual subscription or $12/month for the monthly subscription.
Conclusion
The software we’ve shared represents the most effective design tools for graphic design this year. The graphic design field is constantly evolving because of its digital nature and it’s important to keep up. This is especially important in fields such as digital marketing, which is also a rapidly changing sphere. The subscription models of the paid software allude to this because a subscription over a lifetime purchase allows users to receive upgrades as they develop and even move on to a new platform or software if they decide it serves them more. Staying on top of the latest trends will help you stay ahead of the curve when it comes to graphic design and make economic choices when it comes to investing in design tools.