A look at the best design software for students

Today, it is not just the graphic designers who need to have a handle on design software. Students in every discipline need to create eye-catching presentations, reports and papers. While what you say is as important as ever, how you say it is a factor that should not be underestimated.

A fifty-page treatise in 10-point font is going to turn any reader off, but even the driest academic subject can be brought to life and made more readable and accessible if you use the right design software. Here are some of the most popular choices.

Adobe Indesign

Even technophobes will feel a degree of comfort here – after all, we have all used Acrobat for creating and reading PDFs, and Indesign is from the same developer. It is ideal for creating professional yet appealing magazine-style layouts, and means that even if your document is heavy on the data and light on imagery, it will not look dry and boring. A particularly useful feature is that you can import Excel into indesign using a simple add on.

Indesign is intuitive to use, and you will find your way around it in no time. It is also mobile friendly, and you can transition from PC to tablet to smartphone without fuss. The only real downside is that it is better with data than graphics – while you can use it to add images, the graphics editing tools themselves are basic at best.

Adobe Photoshop

However, that is why the Software Gods created Photoshop. It’s the original photo editing software, and for the purposes we are discussing here, it remains the best. Combining images, changing contrast, even removing unwanted items from an image or changing the perspective – all are skills that even a Photoshop beginner can pick up in no time.

The software is also highly effective at video editing if you want to add an additional level of creativity to your content.

GIMP

Adobe might be the weapon of choice for most people looking for effective but simple design software, but it has not entirely cornered the market. GIMP is a viable alternative to the all-conquering Photoshop, and there are some compelling reasons why you might even prefer it.

Photoshop suffers slightly from having been around since 1990. GIMP looks and feels fresh and new, and has the edge when it comes to user experience. However, its newness can be seen as a double-edged sword, as the software tends to have more bugs that its main rival.

Inkscape

If you need to produce vector images as part of your content creation, this is the software for you. For “free hand” sketching and coloring, it is simply unbeatable, and best of all, it is completely free to download and use.

While beginners feel comfortable around the intuitive user interface, those who are more experienced will love the software’s functionality and the ability to edit source code directly. The software comes with a seemingly inexhaustible choice of filters and a range of other features. The only time it really shows its freeware roots is in the fact that is can be slow, but most users agree that this is a small price to pay.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.