Graphic Design: Buying Advice, Tips, and News

Publisher has officially hit end of life, but don't fret. Based on years of hands-on testing, I've rounded up the best replacements for beginner and pro designers alike.

No matter what you want to create, Adobe products make it possible...and a lot easier. As the school year starts, snag a massive discount on Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, and more.

Delivering excellent value and an intuitive user experience, Procreate is a best-in-class app for artists of all levels who want to animate, create 2D artwork, paint on 3D models, and much more.

Adobe Illustrator is the preeminent vector graphics editing software, thanks to its splendid collection of brush and text tools, ability to apply vector graphics to 2D raster objects, AI-based text-to-vector feature, and many other class-leading capabilities.

Whether you're a seasoned designer or someone exploring digital art for the first time, the top graphic design apps we've tested deliver outstanding results across the board.

Stop fighting limited tools and unlock the industry standard with Adobe Creative Cloud Pro. Get over 20 apps and Firefly AI for half the price, for the first year of your subscription. Offer ends May 10.

Claude Design lets you produce visual work like product designs, prototypes, pitch decks, slides, and one-pagers, and then fine-tune your creations, either solo or in collaboration with your team.

Canva offers an eye-popping variety of AI-powered graphic design tools that effectively help you move ideas from your imagination to the screen or print—no matter your skill level.

An appealing choice for non-designers, Adobe Express is a capable and welcoming template-based tool for creating attractive content and designs in a flash.

Figma is a potent tool for teams and individuals who want to explore ideas, get feedback, build prototypes, and streamline the development of standardized assets within corporate design systems.

The free Adobe Fresco is a splendid painting, sketching, and watercolor app that makes creating vector or pixel-based art feel almost natural.

CorelDraw is a capable graphic design and production app with unique tools and team collaboration for people of all skill levels.

Microsoft Designer has all the tools a nonprofessional designer needs to create pleasing graphics for social media and more.

All users of the art platform are able to sample DreamUp with up to five free prompts.

Adobe also announces new collaboration and AI selection tools as well as updates to Photoshop, Lightroom, After Effects, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro.

Blender is free and open-source 3D animation software with a strong set of modeling tools. For artists entering the world of 3D animation, Blender provides unrivaled access to tools and concepts you need to learn.

Cinema 4D empowers artists to create in 3D and it's easier to learn than many other packages. Modeling and some types of dynamic simulation have seen significant improvements, but other areas still feel left behind, including pricing options.

We asked a professional designer what's on her wish list. Check out these fantastic gift ideas for the artist in your life, from high-end drawing tablets to stylus replacement tips that simulate the feel of drawing on paper.

Adobe XD wins the UI/UX design tool tussle not only because of the boost it gets from integration with Creative Cloud apps, but also because of its responsive design tools.

The leading design software company unveiled a dizzying array of updates to its creative cloud suite, as well as a tool to combat deepfakes.