Like all designers, you probably spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect pattern, font, and colour combo for your project. But what if you could just bookmark a page that had all the design tools and resources you’ll ever need, cutting out those gruelling hours of searching?
Well, you can. Here you’ll find the best tools and resources available on the web for print and graphic designers. Whether you’re looking for some image inspiration or design communities to share your ideas, we’ve got you covered.
Just click on a category to be taken to the resource list. Happy designing!
Edit images online by resizing or cropping them, adding text or borders,
and creating round corners or animation.
A free open-source photo editing software with painting tools, colour
correction, cloning, selection, and enhancement. It’s like Photoshop, almost.
An image editing software with tools that both amateurs and
professionals can enjoy. It’s free for personal use.
An open-source vector graphics editor that can be used to create or edit
illustrations, diagrams, line arts, charts, logos, and complex paintings.
Free vector graphics editor for Linux. A great tool for illustrations, diagrams,
and bending text. It’s basically an interactive drawing program based on Python.
A freeware bitmap graphics editor program for Windows that was originally designed
for the anime/manga industry, but can be used for all kinds of graphic design.
A freeware paint and drawing program for Windows that can simulate natural brush
strokes and effects for artists who are used to working on a canvas.
A simple online time tracking and invoicing software that makes it easy to manage your
time across multiple projects simultaneously. Know which clients are taking up all your time!
With Smush.it you can apply intelligent automated compression to your images,
while saving valuable bytes in the process and making your images easier to download.
This stationery set includes letterheads, stickers,
and envelopes with a variety of colour swatches.
A free online graphic design tool for elements of social media design, including infographics
and Facebook or Instagram templates. Perfect for quickly creating shareable images that look good.
A free tiny script/plugin that provides an automated layout of grids and guides in Photoshop, forming rows and columns with automatic gutters, margins, and spacing. You can also save your favourite layouts for next time.
An easy infographic design tool that requires very little
effort to create beautiful, high-quality infographics.
A wireframing and mockup app for iPads that allows you
to design on the go. No more time wasted on public transport!
This image processing app offers myriad ways to edit and enhance your images.
There are hundreds of stunning filters and textures that you can work with to create beautiful photos.
An iPhone/iPad app that turns your device into a graphics tablet so that you can use it to draw directly into Photoshop or another application on your Mac. Its features include palm rejection, pinch and zoom, customisable shortcuts, and pressure sensitivity.
A vector graphics app for Android that allows you to create designs using your smartphone or tablet. It includes layer options, symmetry tools, the ability to import images to the canvas and add special effects, and a path editing and pen tool for precise control.
iDesign works on iOs 5+ with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
You can create high-quality 2D illustrations and technical drawings.
It also comes with multiple layers, smooth multi-touch zoom, iCloud support, and more.
For iPhone and iPod touch, this app includes a visual type anatomy glossary, font size ruler, em calculator, and more. If you’re a graphic designer who knows the difference between a font and a typeface, and love it when conversations turn to ems, kerning, and baseline grids, then this is for you.
A media painting app that’s compatible with Photoshop, allowing you to finish and touch up your designs on your computer. It also comes with brushes, full colour, paint, erase, smudge tools, and more, and allows you to work with up to 5 layers.
Apply dozens of different filters to more than 20 different image formats,
then export the finished photos as either JPEG, PNG, or TIFF.
Not only can you get Photoshop brushes here, but you can also find vector packs
and clip art, t-shirt designs, and t-shirt vectors in both illustrations and fonts.
Get 10 free digital skin and hair brushes that can be used in Photoshop
and Corel Painter. It’s an amazing boost to any digital artist’s armoury.
This brush pack contains 12 brushes, from grungy
shapes to clouds. There are an extra 5 optical flares included also.
A set of 41 colourful grunge brushes made from Heavy Body Professional Acrylic Paint.
Includes large vector rasters, high-resolution scans, and medium and small sized brushes for all projects.
This package includes 9 high-resolution fairy tales brushes for Photoshop.
Perfect for creating fantasy backgrounds and textures reflective of rocks and metals.
A set of 57 clouds brushes for Photoshop CS6.
It’s free and you can use it for personal and commercial purposes.
A themed selection of background textures, from Seamless Burlap
to Retro Linen, which can be used in specific contexts.
Find free background textures such as vintage film filters,
old stained notebook pages, and lots more.
Find a variety of textures to choose from, including water, wood,
paper, nature, soil, fabric, ground, marble, plaster, plastic, roads, rock, and tiles.
Here you’ll find 100 different textures in a variety of categories
such as wool, metallic, leather, denim, cardboard, wall, and so on.
There are over 65 free textures here, including coloured smoke,
abstract paint, grunge, leaf, rust, rope, cracks, old paint, concrete, and more.
Subtle Patterns offers 401 different tileable textured patterns, such as
pink rice, paisley, confectionary, dark embroidery, symphony, and contemporary china.
Not to be confused with the free textures above, this set
includes rusted steel, circuit boards, bubbles, and spray paint.
All the textures in this pack are high-resolution and
high-quality, with everything from paper, rust, and grass, to walls and water.
Pentagram used a simple grid of squares to create a new visual identity for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology research centre. The new logo is an abstract set of pixel-art hieroglyphics that expresses multiple groups in the lab. The finished identity is essentially a typeface masquerading as a logo.
Airbnb’s rebrand is centred around the idea ‘Belong Anywhere’ and is anchored by a logo that combines a heart with a map-pin icon. It encompasses every detail of the brand, including its site, apps, and photography, representing a coherent aesthetic.
Cornell Tech’s 1 year educational program tackles the intersection of technology
and entrepreneurism, and Sullivan’s recognisable mark symbolises the intertwining
strands of knowledge required for today’s tech careers.
For IFC’s rebrand, Gretel used geometric stamps to reference old-school
theatre marquees, and flat washes of colour to provide branding for its original series.
Sound Meets Type is basically the interpretation of a user’s sounds in order to shape new typefaces, which leaves an exploded wireframe that visually captures how a letterform sounds.
Here you’ll find 7 distinct, themed types formatted on the website so you
can explore and pick the right typeface for your designs.
If you’re interested in 3d printing, here is a list of the top
3D printing resources that should be on your radar.
A blog that celebrates creative talent from around the world. Get your daily fix
of print and graphic design, art, illustration, typography, photography, and branding.
One of the best places on the web to find
fresh and beautiful inspiration for web design.
A gallery filled with traditional and digital artwork, which is a
great source of inspiration for different kinds of design projects.
Covers graphic design, product design, web design,
typography, leaflets, and plenty more for your inspiration.
Create beautiful mood boards to look back on when you need
an inspiration boost. You can also collate and save images that inspire you.
Provides plenty of inspiration and resources for graphic
designers, illustrators, 3D artists, and animators.
A blog filled with great design tutorials,
graphic design articles, and free resource downloads.
Shares the latest and greatest findings, tips,
and techniques for both web and graphic designers.
A massive resource of visual inspiration and tutorials
covering graphic design, illustration, typography, and more.
A small collection of high-quality stock photos
and images released to the public domain for free.
A large directory of open-source images that
includes thousands of pictures from different categories.
Attribution is required for some of the images.
Contains high-resolution photos of mostly beautiful
landscapes submitted by photographers for public use. The site
adds 10 new photos every 10 days, and attribution is required.
More than 520,000 high-quality photos, illustrations,
and vector graphics curated from across the web. They’re free for
commercial use and no attribution is required.
A collection of free photos that can be used for
personal and commercial purposes. New photos are added daily
from various categories, including fashion, nature, abstract, technology, and more.
Search for free HD stock photos and design mockups for
your projects. You’ll also find fonts and templates, but the site is mainly for images.
This is a photography community where you can search,
share, buy, and sell royalty-free photos. The library has 50 million inspiring photographs.
This site offers a massive selection of free fonts. You can
download over 30,000 fonts in more than 15 font families,
as well as preview custom text prior to downloading.
An archive of free fonts that you can browse by letter,
style, author, or popularity. You can preview the fonts
in custom text before downloading.
A collection of over 28,000 free fonts shared by
designers around the world. You can preview several
fonts simultaneously for comparison prior to downloading.
Self-descriptive. This provides a list
of 35 free downloadable fonts you can use on your
website, pamphlets, and so much more.
Here you’ll find free fonts in a variety of categories.
You can also search fonts by keyword and preview before downloading.
Lots of different typefaces that you
can use for free for commercial purposes.
Search by a list of tags, from corporate to calligraphy.
Offers a nice glossary of design terms
relating to fonts. With this full A-Z of design terminology,
you can find out how to search for the font you want.
Gathers together the best typography resources, making it
easy to find the perfect font for your design project. You get
to see what the fonts look like in print or on the web.
With a free account on Typecast you’ll get access to more than 3,650
web fonts. You can also design a working prototype that can be exported
and produced in HTML and CSS to be used in your web designs.
Whether you’re looking for a simple font or a more unique
typeface, Free Typography’s got you covered. You can also
submit your own fonts if you want to build your portfolio.
The biggest collection of fonts on the web. You can buy
the fonts and host them yourself with MyFonts self-hosted kit;
this way you get to own your fonts instead of renting them.
Features more than 600 font families that you can use
for free on your website. You can also customise your preview
to match your use case, enter custom text, and change the font size or style.
Web font hosting service by Hoefler & Co. Their ScreenSmart
fonts look beautiful onscreen, well worth paying $99 a year for.
Another web font hosting service with its cheapest plan resting at $20 a year. Offers fonts or online typography, included typefaces designed from scratch for onscreen reading. Their Font Swapper tool allows you to preview how websites will look with different fonts from Webtype.
Provides a huge selection of high-quality
desktop and web fonts in a single subscription. Sign up
for free or subscribe for as little as $7 a month.
Offers a number of free fonts, from stencil and
bold to modern and geometric designs.
Find that perfect font without wasting time.
The website’s simple layout makes it easy to navigate through the fonts.
Showcases free fonts that you can use, study, share, and
rework for personal purposes. With their extensive
catalogue, there are plenty of fonts to choose from.
As more designers and institutions create typefaces
for the public domain, this site provides information
and airs ideas about the concept of free fonts.
A collection of free historical style fonts.
From Egypt to Art Noveau, you’re sure to find
something suitable here for any vintage projects.
A curated gallery of all things type.
With many pages of gorgeous and inspiring
typography, We Love Typography is type heaven.
Another curated collection of outstanding
typography and design from around the world.
Features 166 pieces of type design for inspiration.
For type in all shapes, sizes, colours, and styles, look no
further than Typeverything. The types are created by a handful of
talented artists. Just scroll down the site to view hundreds of inspirational images.
Browse through their selection of over 100 typefaces and up to
500 different font weights. Buy fonts and read news as well as find details
on the Playtype stores about where you can buy digital fonts in a physical space.
WalkOn is a retro font that fuses an Art Deco feel
with a contemporary approach. Use it to add a splash of class
to your corporate designs, or for headlines and editorial copy.
An experimental font with a futuristic feel. Its uppercase
design is suitable for eye-catching headlines, posters, and much more!
Stellar is a condensed sans-serif with an elongated x-height
that remains legible, whether it’s big or small, and gives the font
personality. Designed to give purpose to your ‘galactic or atomic’ ideas.
For a minimal aesthetic, try the futuristic
sans-serif Lombok. IT’s free and perfect to use
on posters or any design that needs to grab attention.
If you’re new to typography or need a refresher,
Matthew Butterick’s valuable guide offers practically everything
you need to know to be a better typographer in 10 minutes.
A web font delivery service and rich collection of
resources for learning how to use them, as well.
Learn how to mix font families as well as how to create
a typographic palette with Wit, Energy, Poise, and Dignity.
A free four part course on learning typography, covering a bit
of history, type anatomy, text vs display, web typography considerations,
using symbols and ligatures, legibility vs readability, and many more!
Wordmark.it helps you choose fonts by allowing
you to preview words and phrases using them. Also
preview text in any font installed on your computer to save time.
A great resource for identifying fonts. If you want to
know what font is used in a particular image, upload
or specify the image URL and WhattheFont will identify it for you.
A free hosted service that provides access to
a large library of fonts that you can add to your site.
Offers more than 600 different font stacks or combinations that are
well suited for use together. Select the combos you want and download
the CSS from the site. You can also create your own font stack!
A bookmarklet that allows rapid checking of fonts and font
styles directly in the browser without the need to edit code and
refresh pages, making it the ideal companion for creating CSS font stacks.
A web typography tool that allows you to
preview font combinations in a fast, browser-based way.
Another typography tool, this one allows you
type in the word you want to see and instantly view
it set in the typefaces installed on your computer.
A tool for typing in a foreign language. Simply type into the textbox
and insert accent marks, diacritics, and other characters without a special
keyboard. Copy the text into your document, email, or message afterwards.
A search engine for more than 16,000 glyph vector
icons, such as logo and web or social icons. Includes
a Photoshop plugin to insert icons directly into a project.
This site offers high-quality icons, fonts, vector
illustrations, patterns, and textures. Dribbble is also
an excellent source for design inspiration.
The best place to download original and exclusive
free vector graphics, illustrations, wallpapers,
backgrounds, and illustrator brushes.
Over a million free vectors, PSD, photos, and
free icons. Includes exclusive freebies and graphic
resources that you will most likely need at some point.
A collection of icon-style vector graphics that
include pages, folders, RSS, and comment graphics.
Download free vector images, business card
templates, web design backgrounds, and
other web design elements for designers.
A massive collection of free vector art, graphics,
wallpaper backgrounds, illustrator brushes, silhouettes, and lots more.
Provides high-quality premium and free graphic
and web design templates, icons, and vectors, as well as web resources.
Free Christmas themed vectors for your festive designs,
including Xmas characters, classic Christmas shapes, baubles, and more.
Download a free pack of 300 beautiful Japanese
themed icons, from chopsticks to swords and shrines.
30 sets of free attention grabbing icons for designers.
These include supernova icons, payment icons, flag icons, and more.
Download 14 different sets of free social
media icons, from hand-sketched icons, furry cushion
icons, colour-stroked, bulb, and extreme grunge garments icons.
Give your website a spooky makeover for
Halloween or any other spooky occasion with icons
of skulls, pumpkins, coffins, horror characters, and lots more.
Get 6 free icon sets for your food related
projects, including icons of yummy food and cakes,
fruit and veggies, bread, pie, and popular chocolates.
Create a colour scheme and preview
the combinations of colours made in real time.
You can also view the results via an interactive web layout.
With ColorPic you can generate a colour
palette of up to 16 colours, and then used 4 advanced
colour mixers to select from a spectrum of colours.
A free colour picker tool for Windows that allows
you to pick and reproduce any colour from the screen.
You can also preview the colour and view its RGB info and HTML code.
Another free colour picker tool that
can grab the pixel under your mouse
nad turn it into different colour formats.
This colour picker supports RGB, HEX, and CMYK
colour codes in various modes. It has a colour grabber.
A portable application that supports a variety of colour
codes, including RGB, HEX, HTML, and HSV. It also provides
colour palettes from selected colours and has HSV and RGB sliders.
A colour picker software that shows colour values in
RGB, HSV, HEX, CMYK, and HTML formats. You can use
a colour’s shortcut key to copy its HTML code value.
Pixie also has a colour mixer and magnifier.
A simple free tool to act as your colour diary and it
also has a colour picker and magnifier. It supports CMYK,
RGB, LONG, HEX, as well as web colour codes in various formats.
You can find many colour schemes created
by previous users with Adobe Color, as well
as experiment with different colour combinations.
A colour app that has 3D effects. The
interactive 3D pyramid allows you to change the
hues and tints and also mix two colours at the same time.
Popular design forum based in the UK, with
thousands of members from around the world. A friendly
community with a large amount of informative posts to read.
Showcase your work and get constructive feedback from
other designers. There’s also an active business and freelance
section where you can ask questions and find many useful tips.
One of the oldest and biggest graphic design
forums on the web with more than 20,000 members.
The community is very active and consists of a variety of general categories.
Another huge graphic and web design
forum that covers a variety of related topics
and has tens of thousands of searchable posts.
A collaborative creative site with over 20,000 members.
It provides a space for creatives to engage on various topics through
the forum and to showcase the work of Australian graphic designers.
Online marketplace that offers logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to the best freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world via a process called crowdsourcing at a low cost. Post a project on DesignCrowd and watch designs pour in from around the world.
The how-to magazine for everything Adobe.
Also provides in-depth tutorials, cutting-edge
techniques, secret tweaks, and expert insights.
The number one magazine for web designers and developers. Each issue boasts a wealth of expert tips and advice, including more than 30 pages of tutorials covering subjects such as CSS, HTML, JavaScript, WordPress, PHP, web graphics, and more.
Provides graphic, web and freelance designers with essential business
information, including cutting-edge technological advances, profiles of
famous and new designers, noteworthy projects, as well as creative inspiration.
The international journal of visual communication,
presenting the best work produced internationally in
graphic design, advertising, illustration and photography.
The international quarterly review of graphic
design for professional artists and designers. Includes
critiques and back issues are available for purchase.
Publishes the largest showcase of emerging designers and
artists, along with expert insights. Also features award-winning
designs and coverage from a wide variety of sources.
Juxtapoz takes a broader look at design,
featuring work by architects and product designers
alongside the latest images from graffiti artists.
Lists more than 100 stock image websites and also
features listings for fonts, sounds, clip art, logotypes,
Photoshop brushes, textures, icons, mixing tools, and more.
An online application for comparing fonts
for both print and web design. You can also
automatically generate CSS code for your chosen font.
Design a website for free without code! You’ll also
be able to manage content easily and publish independently.
Export your assets to different devices in seconds
and improve your workflow by simply naming your layers.
This brochure template has a large space dedicated
to imagery, which can help showcase your best work.
A flyer and poster template combination that’s font-focused
and grabs attention with its bold, vibrant and colourful
text. Layers are specified into groups, making editing a breeze.
Ready to print those designs you’ve been working hard on? Dark Horse can transfer your design to anything from paper, stickers, booklets, posters, and envelopes. Get a quote now.