Let us see, what is still popular on this market, and what software is slowly becoming obsolete. Also, we’ll try to enlist some popular general development trends.
Anyway, if you are following graphic design software status, you might find this article useful. We have done quite a job to gather all what is interesting and trendy for a graphic designer nowadays. Note that we are not trying to build some ratings. Instead, we’ve decided to speak of all the tools and trends that are worth mentioning. Let’s go!
Adobe Photoshop
A real classic in the world of graphics design Adobe Photoshop has not lost its popularity among both professionals and amateurs. With the equal ease you can develop websites and mobile apps, posters and icons. Easy-to-use tools and plenty of templates make Photoshop a perfect tool for designers, artists and photographers.
Why you may want to continue using Adobe Photoshop? Well, it is familiar and handy, full of useful tools and templates. While being popular en masse, it is still good for any purposes – editing photos, making the whole site, like links management service, for instance to creating complex layouts.
Canva
Famous cloud-based platform for graphics design was merely a tool for those who didn’t know how to use Photoshop. Yet it has been evolving and today it is an easy-to-use tool for creating a professional quality graphics design. Gread drag and drop editor allow a user to work on an intuitive level and to develop any kind of content. Usable both by pros and beginners, it is truly worth noting.
Why you may want to try using Canva? First of all, it is cloud-based. That means you can easily save your templates and return to them later from any place with Internet connection. You don’t have to take a laptop with you – you just enter an Internet club and proceed working with whatever you were working with. Besides, it is full of templates in case you urgently need to create some visuals.
Global Trend: Muted Colors
Muted color is a color that was desaturated with black or white. It is a big thing in 2019 and there are no reasons designers will refuse to use them in 2020. Being opposite to vivid colors they make image cool and appealing to an eye. Muted colors are widely used by big companies, for example LinkedIn, Facebook and Microsoft are adjusting their color palette according to this trend. It is a perfect decision for any purpose, whether an official documents or an invitation to a party.
What are the muted colors good for? Well, in case you are working with white background, using lighter color guarantees that it will blend greatly adding more soft but notable contrast. If you want to make sure people will see the message in your works, use muted colors.
GIMP
Free open-source editor which is good for skilled designers and beginners who just want to adjust their photos. GIMP is good for everyone, and really easy to master from zero. It is really easy to learn this editor, thus it can be a first step for anyone who’d like to develop at least minor skills in photo editing. It has a great set of tools, including image enhancement, feature to customize brushes and reduce noise. Also, perhaps it is a tool with the most simple interface.
Why you may want to try using GIMP? To begin with it is free. It is easy and clear, meanwhile being quite resourceful. It contains lots of tools and can be used as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Novices can learn how to use it in a few hours, and if you are a pro, you’ll be surprised with a built-in tool-set.
Autodesk SketchBook
An application for professionals. Whether you are an artist, a pro designer or a concept developer, Autodesk is a tool you’ll definitely appreciate. A great set of tools for drawing and painting, allowing to create a picture from a scratch. Besides, the tool-set is full of customizable brushes and a great color library. SketchBook provides you with an intuitive interface and supports tablets. You can literally draw with your bare hands if you want – Autodesk is good if you want to have a vibes of a real painting.
Why you may want to try using Autodesk SketchBook? Hard to believe but this awesome tool is free for individual use. It supports numerous image formats, including JPG, PSD, PNG, TIFF and BMP. It gives you the feeling of traditional drawing. And, finally, if used on a tablet it allows you to scan line images with transparent background and color them the way you like.
Global Trend: Flowing shapes
Beautiful shapes and lines with the feeling of flow are really popular among today’s designers and the popularity of this style keeps on raising. They can be perfectly combined with muted colors and all the rest of your designing ideas. Their popularity is caused by the general feeling they create, a feeling of something natural. After all there are not too many angles in the nature itself. Flowing shapes helps to create a graphics that looks more authentic, creative and unusual being, at the same time, really appealing.
Piktochart
Another cloud-hosted graphic design software in this list is good for everyone, who is looking to create a sharp graphics or strict and solid presentation. The tool provides you with all you need to fast draw a report, infographics or even slides. Drag-and-drop editor provides user with intuitive experience – you don’t have to read the manual to start work with Piktochart immediately. And let’s not forget about over 600 templates and the support of interactive elements. To cut a long story short, it is a great tool if you need to add some corporate style to your works.
Why you may want to try using Piktochart? It is really good for fast creating of numerous presentations. It is very easy to use. It is full of templates, so you can finish your routine tasks in a blink of an eye and go on working on your projects. A nearly flawless tool for corporate designer.
Adobe Dreamweaver
Another brainchild of Adobe in our list. Dreamweaver is a must if you want to build a website or mobile app visual content. A perfect tool to create websites, everything you may need for this is comfortably located in a single dashboard. What is even better is that you can show the websites template to your client and immediately adjust it the way needed. The set of built-in tools includes a different screen sizes chart. As the matter of fact, using Dreamweaver you have just to code everything once, and AI will do the rest for you.
Why you may want to try using Adobe Dreamweaver? It is a great idea if you are working mostly with websites. The coding engine allows you to create exactly what you need and adjust all the specifications. It is a handy tool to create sites by using templates or to start from a scratch. Finally, Dreamweaver supports several monitors for Windows.
Global Trend: Artificial Intelligence
AI continues its infiltration into the exquisite art of design. Automation and simplification appear everywhere. Cloud-based design applications with built-in AI assistants are rapidly expanding their audience. There are tools today that allow users to manually “stitch” together the whole movies made of photos. While people composing images, AI invisibly adjusts lights and color depth. Lots of thing done by designers was transferred to the machine, and the result is improving on a daily basis.
What are the Artificial Intelligence is good for? The so-called “AI-injected web design” dramatically eases the work of today’s designer. Soon all you have to do will be to insert pictures and to enter the preferences and AI will do the rest of the work. Will the machine force people out of design? Well, not tomorrow. Meanwhile you can use all the advantages AI provides you with to make your work easier and more impressive.
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We have done some researches and asked people, and we admit this list is not even nearly comprehensive. Although we’ve managed to enlist here the most popular software solutions together with cloud-based tools which, by the way, grow more popular among ordinary people and professionals. 2020 designer may do even more shift to cloud-based and AI-enhanced area, but it is still an innovative specialists with a great sense of beauty. Try not to think of what you do as of a job, it is an art after all.
Are you disagree or have your own suggestions on trends and software? Well, feel free to write your opinion in comments!
