The Best Graphic Design Software for 2025 | news.qlsh.net
The Best Graphic Design Software for 2025
Graphic design software has forever changed the way designers and fine artists work, with artificial intelligence (AI) further accelerating developments. PCMag has been evaluating graphic design software for more than a decade, so you can trust that we know what’s best for every artistic need. We’ve tested programs that have been around since the beginning (such as CorelDraw, Illustrator, and Photoshop), as well as newer arrivals that help you create marketing content for social media platforms (Adobe Express, Canva, and Figma). Our top image editing pick is Adobe Photoshop. Our selections also span the collaboration, interface design, page layout, typography, and vector editing categories. Make sure to click through to our detailed reviews of each entry and read our guide toward the end for advice on picking the best software for your work.
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
EDITORS’ NOTE
November 5, 2025: With this update, our lineup of recommended design software remains unchanged. We have vetted the existing picks for currency and availability. We are currently retesting Affinity.
(Credit: Adobe)
(Credit: Adobe)
Pros & Cons
Vast set of photo correction and manipulation tools
Cutting-edge generative AI features
Slick user interface with a lot of guidance
Mobile and web design capabilities
Rich drawing and typography options
Excellent raw camera file support
Cloud Documents, collaboration features, and Synced Libraries
No perpetual license option
Runs many processes in the background
Why We Picked It
If you work with raster images and need compositing layers, Photoshop is hard to beat. Adobe’s software is the industry standard, so any clients or vendors you deal with likely want files from it. Other apps support its formats but don’t guarantee full compatibility and lack Photoshop’s slick interface and cutting-edge image manipulation tools. It’s also the top choice for detailed photo correcting, editing, and enhancing.
Who It’s For
Photoshop is for professional designers and photographers who want to make detailed pixel-level edits and apply advanced features. Serious amateurs can greatly benefit from learning to use Photoshop, and the program includes multifarious help and tutorial resources. It’s not ideal, however, if you aren’t willing to pay a recurring subscription fee.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
Subscription
Learn More
Adobe Photoshop Review
(Credit: Adobe)
(Credit: Adobe)
Pros & Cons
Free
Lifelike brush, pen, and pencil physics
Available for iPad, iPhone, and Windows
Highly editable raster, vector, and live brushes
Simple and effective animation, now with presets
Excellent support
Can’t access Illustrator brushes
No Android or ChromeOS version
Why We Picked It
Adobe’s painting, sketching, and watercolor app makes creating art feel incredibly natural. It also includes effective animation tools and excellent help resources. The app is now entirely free, meaning you get all the once-premium brushes and shapes at no cost. Adobe provides 5GB of cloud storage for your creations.
Who It’s For
You must have an iPad, iPhone, or Windows device (such as the Microsoft Surface) to use Adobe Fresco. You also need a stylus like an Apple Pencil or Surface Slim Pen. If you meet those requirements, simply download the app and start creating.
Specs & Configurations
Learn More
Adobe Fresco Review
Adobe Illustrator CC
(Credit: Adobe)
Adobe Illustrator CC
(Credit: Adobe)
Pros & Cons
Unparalleled typography tools and features
Advanced features for vector brush making
Superb tracing
Powerful Puppet Warp feature
Complete integration with Creative Cloud ecosystem and Adobe Capture
No perpetual license option
Inconsistent key commands and processes between Illustrator and InDesign
Illustrator on the web not supported on Safari
Why We Picked It
Illustrator is the premier vector editing and drawing application. Yes, you can edit vector graphics and pull off some effects a bit easier in some other apps (namely CorelDraw). But most graphics designers are still better off learning and creating with the industry standard Illustrator. With it, you also get companion tablet apps for creating digital drawings and impressive type support. The app now has AI capabilities, such as the ability to create or expand vector images based on your text prompts.
Who It’s For
Illustrator is for any professional graphics editor or illustrator, as well as hobbyists who like to create visual art. If you need to create images or logos that scale cleanly for posters and other large-scale projects, you simply won’t find a better app. If you aren’t willing to pay a recurring subscription fee, however, look to either Affinity Designer or CorelDraw.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
Subscription
Learn More
Adobe Illustrator Review
(Credit: Adobe)
(Credit: Adobe)
Pros & Cons
Superbly balanced contextual interface
Easy and smart automatic global page adjustment
Interactive export for PDFs and HTML5
Can output to ebook formats
Requires a subscription
No tablet or web version
Why We Picked It
InDesign is another Adobe product that has become the industry standard; in this case, it’s for publication layout software. It pushed QuarkXpress out of that spot years ago. As with its Creative Cloud stablemates, Adobe continues to enhance InDesign with tools for the ever-changing publishing landscape, and add creativity and ease-of-use features. You also get unmatched typography tools with Adobe Fonts and stock media from Adobe Stock.
Who It’s For
InDesign is squarely for publishing layout design professionals. Marketers and those who need to produce publications can also benefit from it. As with all the professional design software from Adobe, it requires a recurring subscription fee. If you balk at that prospect, look elsewhere.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
Subscription
Learn More
Adobe InDesign Review
(Credit: Canva)
(Credit: Canva)
Best for Professional Branded Content
Canva
Pros & Cons
Friendly, intuitive interface with helpful pop-ups
Multitude of robust yet uncomplicated AI tools
Reasonable pricing
Doesn’t require a design background
Excellent free version
Somewhat constraining for professional designers
Potentially overwhelming number of features
Limited typography options
Why We Picked It
Appealing modern design templates for presentations, printing, and social media are the highlights of Canva. The desktop, mobile, and web apps are free, though you can access a wealth of extra templates and stock content for an annual fee. Canva now lets you use AI to generate images and even videos based on text prompts. The Canva Teams subscription adds strong collaboration features, too.
Who It’s For
Canva is a great option if you don’t have a ton of design experience but still need to create marketing, promotional, and social media content. That said, professionals will certainly appreciate how it eases the process of making compelling designs. A free plan offers a lot, but for the full feature set you need to pay an annual subscription.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
Subscription
(Credit: Figma)
(Credit: Figma)
Best for Prototype Designers
Figma
Pros & Cons
Real-time collaboration
Works with vector files
Robust third-party integration options
Good font tools
Allows code handoff to developers
Limited offline capabilities
No CMYK color support for print-destined designs
Why We Picked It
Figma is the preeminent platform for collaborative interface prototyping, whether you’re trying to design anything from a desktop app to a website. The core Figma Design component provides a superb set of tools, including deep font options, extensive design kits, and useful templates. If you work on a team of designers, you will benefit from branded design systems, convenient coworking features, and robust version control. You can even hand off important aspects of your design to your developer team to vet before they start coding. The whole experience is extremely intuitive, and Figma provides lots of help resources and tutorials to help you out.
Who It’s For
If you frequently need to collaborate with others for your design prototyping work, Figma is by far the best platform we’ve tested. It’s a complete solution that’s accessible no matter your level of experience. Just keep in mind that you need a consistent internet connection to take advantage of all its features.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
Subscription
(Credit: Savage Interactive)
(Credit: Savage Interactive)
Best for Subscription-Free Drawing, Painting, and Sketching
Procreate
Pros & Cons
Affordable
No subscription needed
Bursting with features
Minuscule learning curve to get started
Adjustment FX and Finishing Filters
Only works on iPads (and iPhones)
No tear-off windows
No cloud storage
Why We Picked It
Procreate is a premium, low-cost iPad app for artists of every kind, from professionals to hobbyists. With abundant customization features and an intuitive user experience, it helps anyone create 2D and 3D paintings, animations, drawings, hand lettering, and more.
Who It’s For
Procreate is primarily for artists who work on an iPad and illustrate, paint, or sketch. However, the app’s low, one-time cost makes it friendly to everyone with an artistic inclination.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
One-Time Purchase
Learn More
Procreate Review
(Credit: Serif)
(Credit: Serif)
Pros & Cons
Professional-level capabilities, yet accessible to beginners
Competitive pricing and no subscriptions
Available for iOS
Several unique capabilities
No vector symmetry or pattern-making tools
iPad version takes time to get used to (unless you have a keyboard attached)
Why We Picked It
One reason to choose Affinity Designer is its one-time cost. The app also provides a good helping of vector drawing tools and generous font support. Its unique Contour tool for joining shapes organically is excellent, too.
Who It’s For
If you don’t want to pay the monthly fee for Adobe Illustrator, you should get Affinity Designer. Otherwise, it has several standout features and is very accessible.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
One-Time Purchase
Learn More
Serif Affinity Designer 2 Review
(Credit: Adobe)
(Credit: Adobe)
Pros & Cons
Fluid templates and many stock assets
High-quality AI image and text generation
Powerful and useful image and video editing features
Handy ChatGPT and TikTok integrations
Can convert files
Some generative AI tools are hit-or-miss
Charts and graphs don’t support live data
Why We Picked It
Adobe Express competes directly with Canva. It’s a template-based graphic design tool for nonprofessionals who need to create marketing materials or social media posts. It integrates Adobe’s vast depth of imaging smarts and lets you create something attractive without much fuss. You might be able to get by with the free version, but the paid tier gets you more stock content and the ability to store, manage, and share multiple brands’ assets (such as logos, color palettes, and typefaces). It works with both images and videos and lets you output your creations in formats suitable for all the popular social networks or as a PDF. AI features for generating font styles, images, and videos are available.
Who It’s For
Adobe Express is ideal if you need to quickly create compelling materials for marketing or social network posts without in-depth knowledge of Adobe’s design applications. The free version is fine for hobbyists, though a paid Premium subscription is worth it for professionals who can’t justify the cost of the full Creative Cloud suite.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
Subscription
Learn More
Adobe Express Review
Pros & Cons
Professional-level features, some of which are unique
Fun, easy, instant-gratification effects
Cloud-based collaboration and asset management (subscription only)
Easier to learn than Illustrator for a pro-level tool
Fewer new razzle-dazzle rollouts than the competition
Still requires a workaround to access onboard fonts managed by Extensis Connect Fonts
Why We Picked It
Like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw is for drawing and editing vector illustrations. However, it offers some capabilities that would require add-ins in the Adobe app, is easier to use, and costs less.
Who It’s For
CorelDraw is worth a look if you are looking for an intuitive, relatively affordable entrée into the world of vector graphics design. It also serves professionals who want some of its special effects tools. Best of all, Corel doesn’t make you pay a subscription fee.
Specs & Configurations
Pricing Model
One-Time Purchase, Subscription
Learn More
CorelDraw Graphics Suite Review
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The Best Graphic Design Software for 2025
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Buying Guide: The Best Graphic Design Software for 2025
What Type of Graphic Design Software Do You Need?Wherever you look, you see graphics of all kinds. The range of job titles for people who create them is similarly expansive: app designer, illustrator, interaction designer, photo retoucher, type designer, visual designer, web designer, and on and on. Even non-designers can get into the act with template-based products such as Adobe Express and Canva.Some splendid tools are at your disposal, each with particular strengths. However, as developers expand individual program features, their original boundaries have become harder to distinguish. A good case in point for this is Affinity, which, after its acquisition by Canva, combined photo editing, illustration, and layout tools.
Adobe Illustrator (Credit: Adobe/Shelby Tupper)
Another major example is Adobe Photoshop, the go-to photo editing tool, because it also creates awesome photo-realistic text effects. In 1989, no one could have guessed Photoshop would become the favorite front-end web design tool (with nods to Sketch and its ilk). Though CorelDraw’s forte is in the production and service bureau industry, it also lets graphic artists produce astounding photorealistic vector art and illustration using blends, gradients, and transparencies—though Illustrator is now the best-known name in vector art.The eight-piece CorelDraw Suite is similar to Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite. Although our review is specific to the CorelDraw graphic design app, it’s satisfying to have access to a group of integrated tools with seamless asset interchangeability and compatibility. It’s a similar story for Affinity. While Adobe’s suite remains the industry standard, exporting Affinity or CorelDraw files to Illustrator (or Photoshop) formats is a snap. It’s just as simple to open an Illustrator file in those apps.
Affinity Designer (Credit: Affinity Designer/Shelby Tupper)
Each designer has different abilities, goals, and psyches, and you’re sure to discover the tools and processes within these three suites that meet your needs. Ultimately, you should choose the tools that make you feel the most proficient and stick with those that release timely and purposeful upgrades. It’s important that your graphic design software encourages your technical growth and challenges you to boost the skills you need to keep yourself relevant during today’s visual design and interface sea changes.What’s the Best Free Graphic Design Software?Working graphic design professionals have to pay for their software, but some options let you dabble in the field without laying out any cash. Free levels of both Adobe Express and Canva can suffice if you need to produce quick-and-easy graphics projects, for example. The free and open-source Inkscape can get you started with vector graphics, though it makes you forgo some major creature comforts. Adobe Fresco, an exceptional drawing and painting app, is completely free, too. Affinity is now free, too, but we have yet to put it through our testing wringers.
Recommended by Our Editors
A handful of free or freemium apps can replace Photoshop, such as the open-source but clunky GIMP, the impressive web-based Photopea, and a select few mobile photo editing apps.What Software Should 3D Artists Use?While we didn’t include them in the list above, 3D modeling and animation software are another type of software you might need, depending on your creative focus. In this we recommend Autodesk Maya for all-around 3D modeling and Houdini if you need to learn special effects. For a free option, try Blender.
已发布: 2025-11-05 14:01:00
来源: www.pcmag.com
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