

- #Free and open source raster graphics editor software
- #Free and open source raster graphics editor download
Lastly, we have GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), a free raster image editing software that's as powerful as Adobe Photoshop. Not only that, but it also comes with a bunch of animated templates that you can use to create short videos for your social media as well. In addition to that, Canva also has many templates that’s designed for a specific social media platform, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and more.Īlternatively, Canva also comes with a graphic editor that’s quite straightforward and easy to use.
#Free and open source raster graphics editor download
Unfortunately, IrfanView is only available on the Windows operating system which is a bummer for those who use Mac or a Linux machine.Ĭanva is a popular graphic design tool because it has many free templates to download and import into your preferred graphic editing software. In addition to that, IrfanView can open more than 150 different file formats (with the aid of plugins), which is important as the assets your are working with might have been obtained from different sources such as a digital camera or asset libraries. The software that fits that criteria would be IrfanView, which is free and extremely lightweight at only 5MB in size. jpg, and more, you need a reliable graphic viewer that’s fast and supports multiple formats. It's also possible to convert a raster image to a vector image by using the Trace Bitmap tool found in the software.īecause you’re handling multiple graphical assets with different formats such as. With all that being said, you can use Inkscape to create logos, illustrations, and graphics for social media. In addition to that, there are many tutorials on YouTube where you can learn a lot of tips and tricks to help you improve. Inkscape has quite a large community, with developers constantly creating plugins to extend the software’s functionality. In addition to that, it comes with a few more features like anti-aliased display, transparency, and it’s able to import and export various file formats, including SVG, PNG, DXF, and much more. It comes with various features ranging from object creation and manipulation, fill and stroke, path editing, and text support. Inkscape is not only free, but it’s also available on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.

To start, we have Inkscape, which is an open-source free vector graphics editing software that’s about as powerful as Adobe Illustrator. That said, there’s no harm in having both types of graphic editors installed, as you can easily switch between them depending on the project. However, if you plan on making art with complex shading for social media, then a raster graphics editor might be more suitable instead.įor creating collages or “photobashes” for social media, both types of graphic editors can do that without any issues. For example, if you’re creating a logo with simple colours, using a vector image is crucial as it lets you scale it up or down without any loss in sharpness. Which type of graphic editor you should use depends mainly on what you’re going to do. However, the main drawback of vectors is that shading is not as easy to do while raster images can achieve complex shading and painting-like image quality. Because of that, a vector graphic remains sharp no matter how large or small you scale the image. On the other hand, a vector graphic uses points and paths (like on a graph) to form shapes. With that in mind, the sharpness of the image reduces dramatically if you scale the image up too much. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.įirst and foremost, what are Raster and Vector graphics? A Raster graphic (also known as a bitmap graphic) is basically an image that's made up of a bunch of pixels. Should you use a raster or vector graphic editing software? Let’s have a closer look at the list, shall we? In this article, we’ll talk about the difference between a raster and vector graphics editor, and list down a bunch of free software you should consider having in your graphic design toolbox. But, what are the differences between both the aforementioned graphic editors and which should you use? Also, when picking a software for graphic design, you have a choice of using either a raster graphics editor or a vector graphic editor.
