If you’re serious about the success of your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel, learning how to use any one of the best graphic design software options for bloggers and creators may well be one of the smartest moves you can make.

After all, no matter what niche you choose to work in, and no matter what platform you decide to present your thoughts and ideas, the kind of visual media you use can truly make all the difference.

Adding graphics, photos, and illustrations not only helps to capture your audience’s attention but, if done properly, can also provide a welcome boost to your SEO strategy. That’s before I even mention that bloggers will have a much better chance at keeping readers invested in your content if you break up all that text with a well-placed, relevant image.

The only question, of course, is which graphic design software should you use?

To answer that question, I’ve put together the following comprehensive guide, weighing up the pros and cons of the 11 design tools that stand out as the very best of the best. Also, to help you decide which tool is right for you by outlining everything you need to know.

What to Look for When Choosing the Best Graphic Design Software

It’s time I let you in on a little secret: There’s really no such thing as the single best graphic design software.

Since everybody has different needs when it comes to creating visual media, it’s more a case of there being the best software to meet those individual needs, even if that means that the software that’s best for me isn’t necessarily the best for you.

Below, I’ve outlined the key criteria I used when making my selections. I’ve also explained how each factor may influence your decision when choosing the right software.

Ease of Use

The thing I like best about all of the 11 options included in this guide is that you don’t need a degree in graphic design to use them. This is particularly important if you’re new to the world of content creation.

Even though you may have absolute confidence in your ability to write a blog, edit a video, or record a podcast, the thought of trying to make high-quality graphics with no experience or technical skill can be a little intimidating.

If that sounds familiar, you’ll want to look for platforms such as Canva and Snappa. They offer the highest levels of beginner-friendly usability, whereas more experienced users may find that they’re perfectly comfortable with tools like Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.

Templates and Graphic Options

On a similar note, beginners may find that the easiest approach to creating high-quality graphics is to use a tool that offers pre-made templates, which you can then simply customize using an editor in much the same way that you’d customize your website using a top drag-and-drop web editor.

Here, quality and quantity both matter in equal measure.

The more templates you have, the better chance you’ll have of finding the one graphic that suits your branding and niche. The higher the quality of those templates, the better it is for creating a professional image for your online platform.

Features

Whether you’re choosing a new graphic design tool, the best AI writing tools, or even a top blogging platform to help you launch your online brand, the general rule is that the more features the service offers, the better.

That way, you enjoy all the freedom and flexibility to create whatever you like.

Not that this is always necessary.

If you know that you’re only going to use graphic design to touch up photographs or create infographics, then it may prove smarter to look for a tool that does that particular task exceedingly well, even if that means it’s not as good at creating other types of graphics that you’re probably never going to need anyway.

Export Options

Most of the best graphic design software tools will have multiple options for exporting your finished designs, but it’s still worth double-checking that they offer the kind of content you need.

For photographs, jpegs work better as the file size tends to be smaller than other graphic formats while still making your images look great online.

PNG files produce the best quality for text-based graphics, though use these sparingly as the larger file size can really slow your site down if you use too many of them.

Be mindful also of any free graphics software which brands your finished designs with their own watermark, as this can tarnish an otherwise amazing design and diminish the quality of your product.

Cost

Lastly, think carefully about how much you’re prepared to spend on graphic design software.

If it’s not much (or perhaps even nothing at all), then you should look for platforms that offer a free plan. Do that, however, and you may miss out on certain features that you’d only get with a premium plan.

Since every blogger and creator is different, I’ve included options at different prices so that you can find the one that best suits your budget.

Top 11 Best Graphic Design Software for Bloggers and Creators

The features, functionality, and usability of every graphic design software are unique; you might find one better than the other in some features and functions. Nevertheless, each of these graphic design software will offer you something to suit your needs. Scroll down to check out which one is best for your use.

1. Canva

Since it first burst onto the scene in 2012, Canva has carved out a reputation as the go-to graphic design software for thousands of amateur and professional creators.

The reasons for this are three-fold.

First, it comes with a generous free plan which provides access to hundreds of pre-made graphics templates for just about every need.

Whether you need a new banner for your blog, a featured image for that excellent blog post you created, or an eye-catching thumbnail for your next YouTube video, Canva can do all that and then some.

Second, all those templates are a breeze to customize thanks to a highly-intuitive image editor that’s so straightforward you’ll have no problem creating fantastic graphics even if you’ve never done so before.

Third, there’s the fact that Canva offers a very generous free plan that is perfect for creating high-quality visuals on a low budget.

Combine all that with a simplistic filing system to help you organize your graphics, and it’s no wonder Canva is the number one graphic creation tool on the web right now.

Key Features:

Templates for a wide range of online and offline graphics
Intuitive graphic editor
Logo maker
Video intro maker
Whiteboard
Content planner (premium only)
Stock photos
Upload images
Smart mockups
Third-party integrations
Collaborative working.

Pricing:

Using the drag-and-drop editor to customize one of 250,000+ templates in over 100 design categories, plus access to over 1 million photos and graphics, make Canva’s free plan one of the best around.

Yet if you find that you want access to more assets, it’s worth upgrading to one of the following two plans:

PLAN NAME	PLAN DESCRIPTION	PLAN PRICE
Canva Pro	100+ million stock photos, graphics, and videos 610,000+ templates 100 brand kits Organize your projects into folders Background remover tool Automatically schedule your social media graphics to 8 top social media platforms.	$12.99 p/m
Canva for Teams	Everything in the Canva Pro plan, plus the following collaborative working features: Workflows Activity logging Assign tasks Create branded templates User permissions.	$14.99 p/m

Pros and Cons of Canva

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How to Get Started With Canva?

1)Visit Canva.com and select ‘Sign up for free’

2) Sign up with your email address, Google account, or Facebook profile

3) Complete the onboarding process to customize Canva to your needs

4) Invite any collaborators you’ll be working with or select ‘may be later’ if you’re working solo.

5) Search for templates for the type of graphic you want to create

6) Choose your preferred template

7) Use the Canva editor to customize your template.

2. Snappa

Quite possibly the best Canva alternative out there right now, Snappa provides unlimited access to over 6,000 design templates, 5+ million high definition photos and graphics, plus a wealth of tools to customize them all.

Although the drag-and-drop interface doesn’t look quite as fancy as Canva’s, its back-to-basics simplicity is all part of its appeal. All you need to do is open up a template and click on any element within that template to change everything from style, color, and font choices, to the size, position, and much more.

If the thought of designing your own graphics is enough to give you a panic attack, you’ll love discovering just how easy it can be with Snappa.

Key Features:

6,000 templates
Drag-and-drop graphic design tool
Pre-set image dimensions for social media posts
Stock photos
Graphic effects
200+ fonts
Background remover (premium only)
Image resizer.

Pricing:

Each of Snappa’s three plans offers access to all 6.000 templates and 5+ million photos, though the free version does sadly limit you to only one user and three downloads per month.

If you’re planning to create a lot more graphics than that, you’ll need one of the two premium plans:

PLAN NAME	PLAN DESCRIPTION	PLAN PRICE
Pro	Includes all the features in the free plan, plus: Unlimited downloads Buffer integration for scheduling your completed graphics to go out on social media Custom font uploads Background remover.	$10 p/m
Team	Includes all the features in the pro plan plus the ability to add up to five users.	$20 p/m

Pros and Cons of Snappa

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How to Get Started With Snappa?

Head to Snappa.com and click ‘Get Started free’
Enter your name, email, and password to create an account
Watch the tutorial video to learn how to use Snappa
Choose your template option and start editing.

3. Visme

You may have heard that creating an infographic can be a great way to drive more organic traffic to your website.

Infographics not only get plenty of shares on social media, but they can also be a powerful tool for posting on other sites to generate backlinks.

What you may not have heard before is that Visme is one of the best tools on the market for creating those highly-shareable, authority-building graphics.

Though the platform does all the usual things you’d want from graphic design software (such as creating social media posts, featured images for blog posts, etc.), it’s the platform’s data visualization tools that really stand out from the crowd.

Load one of the many beautifully-designed infographic templates, click on each element to customize it to your liking, then use any of the scores of third-party integrations to post that graphic to your favorite platform.

It really is as easy as that.

Key Features:

Visual-based infographic editor
Social media templates
Integrations with top email marketing platforms
Sync posts directly to social media, blogging platforms, and other tools
Collaborative working tools
Create presentations.

Pricing:

Visme comes with a generous free plan which offers:

• 100 MB graphic storage
• Limited access to design assets
• Access to the majority of templates
• Standard support.

If you decide to upgrade, you’ll choose from one of the following two plans:

PLAN NAME	PLAN DESCRIPTION	PLAN PRICE
Personal	250 MB storage Unlimited access to templates and assets Download file in jpg, png, and pdf format Email and chat support.	$12.25 p/m
Business	Everything in the personal plan plus: 3 GB storage Download in gif, video, HTML5, and PPTX formats Brand kit Analytics Third-party integrations.	$24.75 p/m

Pros and Cons of Visme

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How to Get Started With Visme?

Go to Visme.co and click ‘Sign up free’
Sign up with your email, Google, or Facebook account
Complete the onboarding process
Go through the brand wizard and customize the templates to match your branding
Choose your first template and start designing.

4. Adobe Photoshop

Even if you’ve never used Adobe Photoshop, you’ve undoubtedly heard of it.

The very name Photoshop has become as synonymous with image editing as Google’s has with search engines, and not without good reason.

Though Adobe’s flagship design software lacks the kind of pre-made templates and beginner-friendly simplicity that other platforms offer, this robust package delivers everything serious content creators need to create professional-grade images.

Whether it’s touching up photos, removing backgrounds, creating banners and social media posts, or anything else, no other tool gives you complete control over your images quite as Photoshop does.

Sure, the learning curve is steeper and the price is higher than average, but if you want to create graphics just like the pros do, this is the one to go for.

Key Features:

Create multiple layers and edit them individually to create unique images
Remove and replace backgrounds
Layout guides and frameworks
Support for video editing
Automatically adjust images
Collaboration tools
Quick editing features.

Pricing:

Adobe Photoshop is available in a single, all-inclusive plan which costs $20.99 per month.

This includes:

• Full access to Adobe Photoshop
• 100 GB of cloud storage
• Adobe Express
• Adobe Portfolio
• AdobeFonts
• Access to Behance
• Creative Cloud libraries.

An unrestricted 30-day free trial is also available so that you can try out all of Photoshop’s features before you buy.

Pros and Cons of Adobe Photoshop

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How to Get Started With Adobe Photoshop?

Point your browser to the Adobe Photoshop web page and click ‘buy now’
Choose Adobe Photoshop from the menu
Enter your account and payment details
Log into Adobe Photoshop to start creating.

5. PicMonkey

Adobe Photoshop may be the industry leader for photo-editing, but as I mentioned above, it’s a professional-grade software solution that can be overwhelming for beginners.

If you still want to publish top-quality photographs but you need a much simpler way to do so, look no further than PicMonkey.

Whether you’re building your reputation as an Instagram influencer and need to add a little wow factor to your selfies, or you’re looking to create click-worthy YouTube thumbnails, scroll-stopping Facebook posts, or anything else, PicMonkey makes your shots look like they were taken by a world-class photographer.

The best part is that it does all this in a user-friendly way that will hold plenty of appeal for new content creators.

Key Features:

Auto adjust images
Image cropping
Add text, filters, and effects
Export to jpg or png
Image resizer
Background eraser
Color changer.

Pricing:

PicMonkey doesn’t have a free plan, but it does offer a 7-day free trial of the following plans:

PLAN NAME	PLAN DESCRIPTION	PLAN PRICE
Basic	1 GB storage Download images as jpg or png Basic video editing Access to the font library Use effects, filters, and templates.	$7.99 p/m
Pro	Everything in the Basic plan, plus: Unlimited storage Smart resize Background remover 1 x brand kit Premium stock photo library Animations.	$12.99 p/m
Business	Everything in the Pro plan plus: Multiple brand kits Upload your own fonts Add tags to manage your files better Add users.	$23.99 p/m

Pros and Cons of PicMonkey

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How to Get Started With PicMonkey?

Visit PicMonkey and select ‘Start a Free trial’
Sign up with your email, Facebook, or Google account
Select ‘skip’ to use the free trial, or choose your plan and enter your payment details
Select a template or upload an image to start editing.

6. Adobe Illustrator

You have an idea for the perfect visual graphic, but you can’t find it anywhere, and you don’t want the headaches that come with outsourcing your work to someone else.

If that sounds like you, and you’re already skilled in traditional forms of art, Adobe Illustrator may be the one for you.

Used to create everything from logos, icons, advertising displays, and more, Illustrator gives you everything you need to draw and design beautiful works of digital art from scratch.

Much like Photoshop, this isn’t the most beginner-friendly tool on the market, but talented artists will have no problem putting it to work on creating just about any kind of design you can think of.

Key Features:

Logo designer
Typography font designer
Hand lettering designer
Icon designer
Infographic designer
Freehand drawing tools
Create and export 3D objects.

Pricing:

Priced the same way as Photoshop, Illustrator comes with a 30-day free trial, after which you’ll pay $20.99 per month for full access to the app plus 100 GB of cloud storage.

Pros and Cons of Adobe Illustrator

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How to Get Started With Adobe Illustrator?

Visit the Adobe Illustrator page and select ‘Buy Now.’
Choose your billing cycle and enter your payment details
Create your account and log in to start creating.

7. Adobe InDesign

So far, I’ve focused almost exclusively on graphic design software for creating logos, social media posts, and blog graphics, but what if you need software to create visually stunning layouts for your website, eBook, or other digital media?

The simple answer is that you turn to Adobe InDesign.

This powerful yet intuitive tool offers an impressive array of features for creating everything from book covers and magazine layouts to interactive digital documents, complete with video clips, audio, animations, and more.

As with all Adobe products, there’s a steeper-than-average learning curve to get to grips with, but if you’re confident in your abilities and you want to create the kind of visually compelling media that truly sets you apart, InDesign should definitely be top of your shopping list.

Key Features:

Page layouts
Poster, flier, and postcard design
Brochure, magazine, and ebook design
menu design
Presentation design.

Pricing:

As with all Adobe products, InDesign is available for $20.99 per month, which gives you full access to the software plus 100 GB of cloud storage.

Pros and Cons of Adobe InDesign

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How to Get Started With Adobe InDesign?

Point your browser to Adobe.com/products/indesign.htm
Click ‘buy now’ and choose your billing cycle
Enter your payment details to pay for your plan
Log into your account to start designing your page layouts.

8. CorelDraw

I may be writing about the best graphic design software for bloggers and creators, but if you’re a business owner using content marketing to grow your business, you may find CorelDraw is the perfect graphic design software for you.

Along with all the standard digital graphics (social media, blog posts, etc.) CorelDraw comes complete with tools for making retail signage, point-of-sale promotions, and even fashion items such as t-shirts and accessories.

Though it’s certainly on the pricier side, the fact that CorelDraw meets all of your business’ promotional needs makes it a worthwhile investment for any growing enterprise.

Key Features:

Hand-drawn illustrations
Logo maker
Signage maker
Collaboration tools
Photo Editing
Font manager
Screen capture tools
150 professional templates
1,000 high-resolution stock photos
7,000 graphic assets.

Pricing:

The complete CoralDraw package is available for $22.42 per month and includes a full suite of tools, including:

• CoralDraw vector illustration and page layout tool
• Corel Photo-Paint
• CoralDraw.app graphic design tool
• Corel font manager
• Aftershot photo editing.

Pros and Cons of CorelDraw

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How to Get Started With Corel Draw?

VisitCorelDraw.com and click ‘Buy now’
Enter your payment details and create an account
Download, install, and launch the software to start using it.

9. GIMP

GIMP is an open-source graphics software which means it’s always 100% free to download and use to your heart’s content.

While the user interface leaves a little to be desired, learning how to use this one ensures you’ll have all the tools you need to do everything from photo manipulation and digital art creation to logo design, social media post creation, and much more.

If you love the idea of high-quality desktop design software but don’t want to pay for Adobe’s flagship software, GIMP’s reputation as the best free Adobe Photoshop alternative will no doubt appeal.

Key Features:

Image retouching and restoration tools
Create icons, banners, social posts, and more
Open-source framework.

Pricing:

As I mentioned above, GIMP’s open-source nature means you can use it for free with no premium upgrades required.

Pros and Cons of GIMP

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How to Get Started With GIMP?

Visit GIMP.org and click the ‘download’ button
Download, install, and launch GIMP to start using it.

10. Sketch

If you’re planning to monetize your content or simply increase the level of interaction you have with your customers, learning how to build your own mobile app is a great way to do it.

With Sketch, you don’t need to know a single lick of code to take your app from its initial concept and prototyping all the way to publishing it on top app stores.

The only downside is that this is a Mac-only application, but if you’re already using an Apple product to create your content anyway, you’ll find there’s little better for creating apps that don’t just offer an abundance of interactive functionality but which also look incredible.

Key Features:

Native macOS editor
Real-time collaboration
Prototyping tools
Vector editing
Assign tasks and set user permissions
Version history.

Pricing:

One of the things I love best about Sketch is that it’s a brilliantly affordable piece of software.

The Standard plan costs just $9 per editor monthly and comes with unrestricted access to all of Sketch’s features.

There’s also an upgraded Business plan that comes with unlimited cloud storage and priority support. However, you’ll need to contact Sketch to get a custom quote for this package.

Pros and Cons of Sketch

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How to Get Started With Sketch?

Visit Sketch.com and click ‘Get Started for Free
Create an account
Verify your email address
Download the Sketch macOS app, install it, and launch it to start creating.

11. Figma

Many hands make light work, and few understand this better than Figma.

This complete graphics creation package is designed with collaboration in mind, with tools to help your team plan out their content schedule, brainstorm new ideas, and even design tasks for multiple users.

Beyond that, what I like about Figma is that its sleek, modern interface makes it so easy to create beautiful designs even if you have no technical experience, making it a great choice for new startups or any collaborative partnership at the start of their content creation journey.

Key Features:

Prototyping
Online whiteboarding
Vector editing
Auto layout for responsive design
Sticky notes
Real-time collaboration
Save and reuse elements.

Pricing:

Figma offers a free plan which includes the following:

• Create 3 designs and 3 whiteboards
• Unlimited personal files
• Unlimited collaborators
• Plugins, widgets, and templates.

If you need more than this, you can upgrade to one of the following two plans:

PLAN NAME	PLAN DESCRIPTION	PLAN PRICE
Figma Professional	Includes all the features in the free plan plus: Unlimited designs Sharing permissions Team libraries Audio conversations.	$12 per user per month
Figma Organization	Includes all the features in the Professional plan plus: Organization-wide libraries Design system analytics Branching and merging Centralized file management.	$45 per user, per month

Pros and Cons of Figma

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How to Get Started With Figma

Visit Figma.com and select ‘Get Started
Sign up with your email address or Google account
Complete the onboarding process
Log in to the Figma dashboard and add users to start collaborating.

Frequently Asked Questions About Graphic Design Software for Bloggers

To further enlighten you with knowledge, if we may have missed out above, read these facts and questions.

Which software is best for social media graphics?

Canva’s attractive, highly-customizable templates are the best option when it comes to creating scroll-stopping graphics for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other top social platforms.

What is the best free graphic design software?

Canva has a great free plan, though GIMP is my pick for the best free desktop alternative to the popular Adobe Photoshop.

What graphics do I need for my blog?

At a bare minimum, you’ll need a logo or header image, plus a featured image for each of your posts. Depending on how you promote your site, you may also need graphics for promoting your posts on social media and other online platforms.

What is the Best Graphic Design Software for Bloggers and Creators? My Final Verdict

At the start of this guide, I said that while there’s no such thing as the single best graphic design software for bloggers and creators, there is such a thing as the best software to meet your individual needs.

If you read through my top 11 picks, you may already know precisely what that software is.

If you don’t, allow me to make some final recommendations.

For quality design on a budget, check out the free plan offered by Snappr or the open-sourced desktop app, GIMP.

If you’re working as part of a team, both sketch and Figma offer first-class collaboration tools that are definitely worth checking out.

However, if you want the best combination of a generous free plan, thousands of attractive templates, and beginner-friendly ease of use, look no further than my own personal graphic design software of choice, Canva.