Must-Have Design Software and Tools for Creatives

Today’s creative professionals rely on a robust digital toolkit to bring their visions to life. The right design software, apps and tools dramatically enhance productivity and efficiency when crafting digital artwork, graphics, illustrations, animations and more.

This comprehensive guide covers the essential design tools every modern creative should have in their arsenal, whether you work in graphic design, motion graphics, UX/UI, illustration, photography, animation or other fields. Let’s dive in!

Adobe Creative Cloud

For most creatives, an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription provides access to the core suite of industry-standard design apps for both desktop and mobile.

Photoshop

Used for photo editing, compositing, design and web/app prototyping. The world’s most ubiquitous creative software.

Illustrator

Ideal for working with vector graphics, illustrations, typography, logos and print projects.

InDesign

Top desktop publishing and multi-page layout app used to design books, magazines, flyers, brochures and more.

After Effects

Leading motion graphics and video compositing tool for film, TV, video and web projects.

Premiere Pro

Professional video editing software for cinematic films, documentaries, social content and beyond.

XD

All-in-one UX/UI app for designing and prototyping responsive websites, mobile apps and more.

Lightroom

Powers comprehensive photo editing and organization for photographers.

Dreamweaver

Robust web development application for coding and publishing responsive website projects.

Animate

Enables creation of rich vector and raster animations for web, TV, games and mobile apps.

Acrobat Pro

Best tool for working with PDF documents including editing, formatting, adding signatures/security and more.

Must-Have Plug-ins and Add-Ons

Plugins expand Creative Cloud capabilities with useful effects, assets, tools and integrations. Here are some top picks:

GFX Monk

Massive library of graphic elements, templates and assets for using across projects.

Envato Elements

All-you-can-download access to stock photos, video, audio, fonts, templates and creative assets.

Animoplex

Huge selection of customizable motion graphics templates and assets for animating projects fast.

Savage

Transforms photos into realistic artwork with styles like pencil sketches, color splash, and oil paint in one click.

Forefathers

Retro design toolkit with filters mimicking early design and printing methods like lithography, duotones, engravings and more.

Astute Graphics

Collection of plugins for graphic and web designers adding useful tools like alignment guides, styled shapes, patterns and effects.

Toolfarm

Video plugins and templates providing transition effects, title sequences, filters, VFX and more.

TropicalType

Huge library of stunning premium fonts you can access right within apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Essential Complementary Tools

Round out your creative toolkit with these additional apps purpose-built for specialized tasks:

Affinity Designer

Full-featured vector graphic design and illustration software rivaling Adobe Illustrator.

Clip Studio Paint

Powerful comic and manga art creation and coloring app. Great Photoshop alternative.

Procreate

Leading digital illustration and painting app made for the iPad and Apple Pencil. Intuitive sketching.

Figma

Top collaborative UI/UX design platform for teams. Great Sketch alternative.

Substance Painter

3D painting software allowing applying of materials and textures to 3D models during rendering.

ZBrush

Sculpting and 3D modeling solution for fine art and video game asset creation.

Cinema 4D

3D modeling, animation and motion graphics software ideal for animators.

DaVinci Resolve

Professional yet approachable video color grading solution.

Mixamo

Auto rigging and animation tool for 3D character models.

Spark AR

Platform for easily creating augmented reality camera effects and filters.

Helpful Productivity Booster Apps

These utility apps and browser extensions give added convenience and efficiency gains:

Setapp

Subscription providing access to a huge library of Mac apps for creativity, productivity and utility.

Shiftscreen

Mac menu bar tool providing quick window manipulation commands like tiling and stacking.

CleanShot X

Top Mac screenshot tool with markup, scroll capture and video recording capabilities.

f.lux

Adjusts screen color temperature based on time of day to reduce eye strain.

DaisyDisk

Visualized disk space analyzer helping free up storage space on Macs.

CheatSheet

Displays keyboard shortcuts for actively using Mac apps right in the menu bar.

Clearview

Browser extension de-cluttering web pages to focus reading on just the main content.

Grammarly

Checks writing across the web for spelling, grammar and style improvements.

The Best Design Resources

These sites offer endless fonts, templates, assets, learning guides and inspiration daily:

• Creative Market
• Design Cuts
• Graphic Burger
• PixelSquid
• Creative Booster
• Envato Tuts+
• Pixabay
• Behance
• Dribbble

Equipping your creative toolkit with the right blend of design apps, plugins, utilities and resources will empower you to increase output and take the quality of your digital artwork and content to the next level.