Free UI/UX Creative tools: Figma – Adobe creative cloud – Canva

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We are the millennial generation and described as the global generation, the very first generation that grew up in the Internet age. We belonged from the old schools where we have seen it all from playing outdoor games to being into cyber hubs. It was all a changing and challenging era where we evolved with time and got our interests in the internet. Search engines were supposed to be a big-time deal at that time, spending money just to see the internet functionality worked wonders for us. I think for a lot of us computers have been a blessing and an addiction. It was the first step to transformation, it turned us all into a newer version of ourselves.

The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper and re-imagines the world.

From painting our imaginations on a sheet of paper to painting it on the big computer display, we have all grown up. I still believe that the paint tool was the beginning of the life of many great artists, it sowed people’s interest in designing. In this techno-savvy world, where every information is at the fingertips, mobile phones have overcome books and people carry Wikipedia in their pockets, everything is easy & quick. Gone are the times where you needed to draw and make paper cards for your friends, investing so much time, now with the correct knowledge of designing tools and software, you can save your time and conclude it in a very easy and interesting way. If you are a beginner in designing and want to curate something exceptional, these are a few of many free software that is quick, handy, and easily attainable. In short, they are of great help. There is some free software like Figma, Canva, and Adobe Lightroom which are very helpful. It provides you with plenty of designing tool options and ideas to make your designs beautiful and more interesting to look at, and professional. So here, I have given one by one steps on how you can create your free account without any hassle.

Firstly, Let’s start with Canva software.

CANVA

Here is the Canva step-by-step guide for a beginner:

Canva software

Step 1:  Search Canva on google, click on one of the search results, and then the screen will appear like this as in the above picture. You can sign in via your existing Gmail account or Facebook account or sign up free.

Canva-on-google

Step 2:  After login, the home page will appear, and it will look as shown in the above picture. Here you will get different kinds of artboards of different dimensions. Canva gives you plenty of options to explore your creativity so you can keep experimenting with new things.

artboards-of-dimensions

Step 3: Click on the button create a design on the top right or click on the options given on the home page itself. Select any artboard of your desired artboard, if you have clue what dimension to take, continue working on it else you can start with Instagram posts dimension 1080*1080, it is very easy and highly convenient. You can also make videos and gifs later when you get hold of this software perfectly. Click on the artboard and a screen will appear as shown in the above picture.

design-options

Step 4:  Now on your left there are multiple free design templates. Because you are using the free version of canva you are only accessible to the free templates and not the pro templates. When you hover your mouse above the templates it will either show you free which you can use or  the pro version indicating a crown like logo on the bottom right.

free-design-templates

Step 5:  Now after selecting any free template you like all you have to do is select the template and start editing it just click on anything you want to change, for example you want to change the colour of happy birthday just click on it , and on the top there you will find colours you can select and customise it. Fonts, color, alignment everything is editable and easy. All you have to do is click and change as per your requirement, and if you don’t want any element you can remove it as well, or you can add more elements and photos to your designs.

Canva cuts out all the highly advanced features included in other tools. It can be operated in favor of a user-friendly drag and drop system, which is an ultimate blessing for the people who need to create their

graphics without a creative team’s support. Even people with solid design expertise find this software very useful to speed up their workflows.

I hope you all find it useful and effective.

Secondly, Let’s come to the most convenient online software, Figma.

FIGMA

There is no doubt that Adobe is a long-standing leader in the designing world, but it has also got tough competition. Figma is a trendy choice among web and UX designers. Although this software lacks the full range of capabilities that Adobe has, still it’s great digital and design all-rounder. This software is also designed to optimize the collaboration between designers and developers, making it easy to loop developers in early and handoff designs when complete.

Here is the Figma step-by-step guide for a beginner:

Figma-guide-for-begininner

Step 1:  Search Figma on google, click on one of the search results, and then the screen will appear like this as in the above picture. You can sign in with your existing account OR sign up and fill in your details.

sign-up-for-figma

Step 2:  After login , the home page will appear, which will look like this as shown in the above picture. All you have to do is click on the new design file.

click-on-the-new-design-file

Step 3:  A screen like this will appear, here select the artboard of your desired dimension, for that either create your customized board from the tool frame or press A. Because you are a beginner I would recommend trying with ready made artboards. When you press A , on the right under the design section you will see various frame dimensions ranging from phone to desktop, you can easily choose as per your design requirement.

artboard of your desired dimension

Step 4:  I chose a MacBook pro 14’ with dimensions of 1512*982. The artboard will look as shown in the above picture. The top left section marked under the red square is the tool section where you get access to free tools.

tool-section-figma

Step 5:  This software is very handy and convenient. You can start by creating a simple logo. The section on the right consists of the dimensions of the artboard. You can learn about padding and margins once you will be creating designs. It also has tools like masking, pen tool, gradient and many more . You can create anything in Figma and it’s quick and easy. It consists of different default fonts, strokes, effects and an export option. It has an auto save property so there is no fear of losing any work. And for downloading any file click on the export option, you will find 3-4 image formats you can download it for ,select any one for example select jpeg and click on export, you will get a jpeg of your design file.

Design anything without creative teams need to try the right tools to create visuals to bring their ideas to life.Get the free access and design right with Figma.

Lastly, Let’s come to the most professional and photo editing software, Photoshop CC

ADOBE CC

Adobe creative suites provide a vast variety of designing applications  like indesign, illustrator, photoshop,Premiere pro, After Effects and many more. From a simple transition to videos, you can design anything with their magical tools. Create a video tutorial, mockup a web page or make up a perfect presentation.Adobe creative suite covers all design prospects and dimensions. 

Adobe CC is also known as the design software giant because Adobe creative cloud tools are practically synonymous with graphic design software. Suppose if you are in a room full of professional graphic designers and ask them to shout out the first design software, then most of them will probably respond by taking the name of Adobe products. It includes Illustrator, which is Adobe selected design software, and it was designed for creating graphics that need to stay sharp and scale to a variety of different sizes. You can use this one for creating logos, custom typography, icons, and much more. Another software is InDesign which is a graphic designing software for page layouts and you can get good guidance from here. This one is generally optimized to bring together text, images, and other elements with grids and guides, which can help you position everything on-page. If you are designing something with multiple pages or printed, then InDesign is for you. In addition to this, Photoshop[2]  is another image editing software and is the best-known application. In addition to editing fixtures, we can use this software for other image-heavy design work, like merging photos and illustrations and combining more than one image into a single design and animation. XD is another software from the Adobe collection, and it helps web and UX designers create visually appealing digital collateral with reusable design elements. If you are already using Adobe, you can simply follow this page to learn more on new updates. You will be able to understand color, luminance and a wide range of tools.

In this blog we will be explaining to you a couple of things about Photoshop CC and some very basic functionality.  Photoshop is the best choice if you want to do something amazing in your photos. Photoshop CC rolls out some new, innovative and magical tools and features, which is going to make your process of creating graphics, editing photos and videos, very easy.

Here is the Photoshop CC step-by-step guide for a beginner:

Photoshop-login-signup

Step 1 : Create an Adobe account, and sign in with your existing account or create an account. Once your adobe id is made you can see a number of creative suites cloud applications. They provide a free trial varying from app to app ranging from 7 weeks ,14 days or 1 month depending on the application. You will see they are payable on monthly or yearly packages, you can purchase the paid version once you get well versed with the software.

creative-cloud-apps

Step 2: You will see something like this once you are logged in to Adobe. This screen will appear showing you plans and pricing for creative cloud apps. They give you four categories: individuals, business, students & teachers  and school & universities. You can choose according to your requirements. Every category is designed with different strategies solving different purposes. You can either use a package or a single app. Like in this blog I will use only photoshop.

pricing-plan-photoshop

steps-checkout-photoshop-purchase

Step 3:  For Photoshop CC its a 30 day trial and it is payable onwards 1,675.60 indian rupees per month. It also has a refund policy. Enter the package you want and it will show the amount payable at the time of when your free trial ends. You can cancel anytime before your due date, and you will receive the full amount on your registered account.

welcome-to-photoshop-free-trial

Step 4:  Once you are done with registering, the homepage will open which will look something like this as in the above picture. Artboards under the big square showcases the latest work. But because you are new you will have to select and create a new option that is present on the top left screen. Fill up the details and get a custom artboard.

Step 4:  Artboard will look something like this as in the above picture.The red square indicates toolbox. Photoshop CC gives you plenty of options to edit ,design and create anything from a dot. You can visit this link to learn the uses and functions of the tools (https://pathedits.com/blogs/tips/beginners-guide-photoshop-tools).

photoshop-toolbox-guide-steps

Step 5:  Photoshop works in layers. With the features and tools, you can maximize your creativity and productivity. You can start with designing simple shapes like triangles ,squares,and circles. Try changing colours, drag and drop images, start from the very beginning gradually you will learn the process,

You can put your ideas and imaginations in motion with the most powerful yet more intuitive video editing tools, features, and effects. Work more fluidly and interactively with the new interface that Photoshop provides.Later, You can create your own brushes, brush tips, and blur effects. Customization of effects is possible now.

There is no doubt that visuals and graphics are the faces of a brand, but you need to know that stunning and strategic designs don’t appear out of thin air. I hope you will find this blog useful and effective. Keep working on enhancing your skills and try new things, explore and grow.

I hope I have made all your points and doubts clear, and also if you want any help in graphic or web designing professionally, feel free to reach us via our website https://www.netgains.org/, we will be more than happy to assist you in any way.

There is no doubt that visuals and graphics are the faces of a brand, but you need to know that stunning and strategic designs don’t appear out of thin air. Unique and creative designs result from skilled work by experienced and intelligent designers and other creatives. Undoubtedly, the workers are hardworking and intelligent, but the creative teams need the right tools to create visuals to bring their ideas to life. If you want to know about the three most fantastic software systems for this purpose, then read this article at the end.

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