FREE DESIGN SOFTWARE
WHAT YOU WILL FIND
This my list of free or heavily discounted softwares available for students and young professionals to use to practice their art and design skills. I believe wholeheartedly that no one should be excluded in the design world because of the costs of softwares and equipment, so this list is meant to combat that issue and even the playing field for all creators.
One of the most popular and renowned free photoshop alternatives for design and photography needs
Photopea is a web-based graphics editor which can work with raster and vector graphics
Japanese developed software used for the digital creation of comics, general illustration, and 2D animation
Low-cost single-purchase photo editing software with many advanced features beyond that of other programs
ILLUSTRATOR DUPES
Low-cost single-purchase software for creating concept art, print projects, logos, icons, UI designs, mock-ups and more
Krita is a professional free and open source painting program made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone
Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics format
Boxy SVG is a free vector graphics editor for creating illustrations, as well as logos, icons, and other elements of graphic design
A free vector graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to compose and edit vector graphics images interactively
Low-cost single-purchase software for published documents such as books, magazines and marketing materials, and templates
Scribus is free and open-source desktop publishing software similar to that of InDesign but with additional animation features
VivaDesigner is a low-cost typesetting and layout program for both desktop and web
AFTER EFFECTS DUPES
Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite supporting modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, and more
DaVinci Resolve is the free version of hollywood’s most popular solution for editing, visual effects, motion graphics, color correction and audio post production
HitFilm Express is free video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools to make awesome content, films or gaming videos. Great for beginners or students
Natron is a free and open-source node-based compositing application for 2D visual effects
ADOBE XD DUPES
Figma is a free vector graphics editor and prototyping tool which is primarily web-based, with additional offline features
Free vector graphics editor used for user interface and user experience design of websites and mobile apps
InVision is a free prototyping tool for creating interactive mockups for your designs. Has paid upgraded version for additional features
LIGHTROOM DUPES
Free and open-source photography application software. Rather than being a raster graphics editor like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, it comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive raw image post-production
RawTherapee is application software for processing photographs. It comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive post-production of raw photos
Paid photo editing software with image cataloguing, raw image file processing, and tethered photography. Big discounts for students
PREMIERE PRO DUPES
DaVinci Resolve is free a color correction and non-linear video editing application
Free and open-source video editing software allowing people to cut video and audio and add custom effects
Free non-linear editing system for editing and mastering digital video with paid upgrades
OpenShot Video Editor is a free and open-source video editor for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS.
Free and open-source video editor with easy to use features and work on Linux unlike many of the other softwares
HitFilm Express is free video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools to make awesome content, films or gaming videos. Great for beginners or students
AUDITION DUPES
A digital audio production application offering recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolsets. Free trial and discounted license
Audacity is a free and open-source digital audio editor and recording application software great for students and hobbyists
Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application that also works on Linux
Cakewalk by BandLab is a free windows-friendly audio editing software with more advanced features than many other programs
OTHER FREE SOFTWARE
OBS Studio is a free and open-source cross-platform live streaming and recording program
Open source 2D animation software that's been used by studio Ghibli for years
AlternativeTo is the most magical website where you can search any tool or software and look for alternatives, so if you don't see anything you like here, then give AlternativeTo a shot