What is the best Free Graphic Designing Tool?

[Nomad]

Photoshop is undoubtedly the best graphic design software but it is an expensive program. What is the best free graphic designing tool that works as well as photoshop?

 

[Garfiun]

For a number of years now I have used GiMP and totally free.

 

[Shortie]

I use Gimp whenever I need to make graphics or edit an image. My PC is barely hanging on though so I try not to do too much on it nowadays until I can sort out a new PC for myself. I'm not sure if GIMP would even run on this thing anymore if I'm being perfectly honest.

 

[Nomad]

I use Gimp whenever I need to make graphics or edit an image. My PC is barely hanging on though so I try not to do too much on it nowadays until I can sort out a new PC for myself. I'm not sure if GIMP would even run on this thing anymore if I'm being perfectly honest.

GIMP is good, I have used it. However, I think you should be using photopea.com. It is browser based photoshop-like free program. You can even open PSD file or save as PSD.

 

[Cory]

I am no graphic designer by any means, but when I like to make simple modifications to an image I like to use the online editing tool, Pixlr.

 

[blackballoon]

I was introduced to Photopea a few months back and I love it as a PS alternative.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

On a related note, if you take a lot of cell phone photos, Lightroom is free for iOS. I'm not sure about the other ones.

And you can really make a cell photo look amazing too!

 

[Arantor]

The reality is that there is nothing like PS. GIMP is made by programmers for programmers and the UI has been getting steadily worse for many years now, to the point that when 2.10 came along, I actually snapped and bought a PS subscription, despite having been using GIMP since 2000.

There are other apps for doing graphical work, whether you want browser based or not - personally, I'm not wedded to it being browser based.

Paint.NET is probably more usable than GIMP if not necessarily more powerful, Krita is good if you want a more painterly style. If you're doing vector work and Illustrator is out of your price range, Inkscape will do but it's not as nice as Illustrator.

If you're doing *design* work, though, I'd suggest thinking about Figma that has some limited free plans, or Penpot which is an open source equivalent.

 

[capnsquarepants]

The reality is that there is nothing like PS. GIMP is made by programmers for programmers and the UI has been getting steadily worse for many years now, to the point that when 2.10 came along, I actually snapped and bought a PS subscription, despite having been using GIMP since 2000.

There are other apps for doing graphical work, whether you want browser based or not - personally, I'm not wedded to it being browser based.

Paint.NET is probably more usable than GIMP if not necessarily more powerful, Krita is good if you want a more painterly style. If you're doing vector work and Illustrator is out of your price range, Inkscape will do but it's not as nice as Illustrator.

If you're doing *design* work, though, I'd suggest thinking about Figma that has some limited free plans, or Penpot which is an open source equivalent.

I agree with Paint.NET being usable enough for most use cases. I use it for quick edits that don't require a lot of work.

Never really used anything other than Paint.NET, really.

 

[TwitchisMental]

I personally use Gimp and think it is one of the best. A lot of people hate the UI, but I have loved it since day 1 haha.

Paint.NET is another great free tool.

Oh and for 3D work, Blender is a fantastic tool.