1y ago

What is a good graphic design app for MacOS?

I do not need to do photo editing or anything like that. I need to be able to make graphics for my business' social media, and to display on my in store monitors. I get marketing graphics from different publishers whose products i sell, and i need to be able to add my business name and other info.

I have Photoshop CS5 on my dying windows laptop, and i just got a new MacBook pro to replace my old air. Now that i do not have reliable access to Photoshop i need a Mac alternative.

Does anyone have a suggestion? Cheap would be best. I am willing to pay for a program that does what i need.

16 comments

Affinity Designer would be worth looking at https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/
- I second this option for cheap 1-time purchase that is fantastic to use!

https://www.photopea.com/ is basically a web based free photoshop alternative. Should do most of what you need.

Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are the best solutions in my opinion, especially for someone used to Adobe products. One-time payment, bundle available. Look out for discounts if it's not urgent. I got the bundle for almost half the price in January.
Pixelmator Pro is a great, much cheaper alternative but I never really got used to the interface.

The Mrs. is a professional graphic designer. Of course Adobe Illustrator is what she uses, but she recommends either Affinity Designer or Canva. I also see her using Procreate on iPad with an Apple Pencil a lot.
Edit: she’s definitely recommending Canva. It’s got a lot of templates specifically catered towards social media, and is easy to learn.

I've been using Pixelmator Pro since I've made the switch to Mac. Before that I was a long time GIMP user and so far I am quite happy with Pixelmator.

Canva. You’d be better off just using existing templates. Apps like Pixelmator and Affinity Designer allow designers to create art from nothing.

Inkscape is pretty great and multiplatform.

I personally use Krita a lot; it is a free and open source tool for creating digital art. While it's not quite as feature rich as Photoshop, it is still quite an excellent tool for designing. Check it out here: https://krita.org/en/

Second recommendation for Pixelmator Pro.

Https://pl32.de Is an app from a German developer, cheap and well maintained. You can do pretty much anything with it. The current version is PhotoLine 24

gimp

Try GIMP first (it's free) and if that didn't work for you, consider some paid alternatives.
https://gimp.org

I know people hate subscription models but really nothing beats Adobe Creative Cloud, also if you’re using it for business purposes the monthly fee really isn’t anything. just be aware that you are locked into a yearly sub at a monthly rate so if you cancel before the year is up you’ll still owe the remaining amount. I think they have a bundle that is just photoshop illustrator and indesign (at least they used to).
- also if you’re using it for business purposes the monthly fee really isn’t anything.
  As a small business owner, you are gravely mistaken.

If you’re looking for quick and easy, Canva offers a ton of templates.

16 comments