The provided source material focuses on a range of free software tools and stock photo websites available to consumers and designers. The information highlights resources that offer free access to stock imagery, photo editing capabilities, vector graphics editing, and design platforms. These tools are suitable for various design needs, ranging from creating social media graphics to processing raw image formats and designing 3D models. Many of these platforms offer features specifically geared toward commercial use, such as full commercial rights, simple licensing, and the ability to create marketing collateral.
Stock Photo Websites
Several resources are available for sourcing free stock photos for private and commercial use. These platforms vary in their offerings, from categorized collections to vast libraries of high-resolution images.
Photo Rack Photo Rack is a stock photo resource that provides a vast collection of images available for free private and commercial use. The site organizes its content by category, making it easier for users to find specific types of imagery. Categories available include: * Lifestyle * Nature * Food/Cooking * Animals * Industrial/Technology * Sports * Business * People * Cities * Backgrounds/Textures * Miscellaneous
A notable feature of Photo Rack is the ability to send most images to any email address as a postcard. The site is reported to have a simple layout with an FAQ section available on the main page. While the volume of images is currently described as limited, it is noted to be growing quickly. Users can sign up for a weekly newsletter to be notified of new additions to the site.
Vecteezy Vecteezy is a platform where users can explore millions of royalty-free vectors, images, stock photos, and videos. It aims to provide the ideal background, clipart, drawing graphic, or picture for design projects. Key features of Vecteezy include: * A large content library with millions of fresh images, photos, vectors, and videos to download. * Daily additions of thousands of new professional resources. * Simple licensing and full commercial rights. * Flexible plan options.
123RF and Other Resources The source material also mentions other stock photo resources, including 123RF, Image Base, Historical Stock Photos, and Geek Philosopher, though specific details regarding their features or licensing terms are not provided in the text.
Photo Editing and Vector Graphics Software
A variety of free software is available for photo editing, vector graphics creation, and image manipulation. These tools range from open-source applications to online platforms with professional features.
RawTherapee RawTherapee is a free, open-source, cross-platform system designed to process photographs in raw image formats. Released as Free Software under GPLv3, it is intended for both digital imaging beginners and professional photographers. The software develops raw files from digital cameras and provides a suite of tools for users to produce and display photos.
Photo Pos Pro Photo Pos Pro is a free photo editor used to create, edit, enhance, manipulate, optimize, and print digital photos and computer graphics. It offers both free and premium photo editing features applicable to image enhancing, editing, and computer graphics design. The company also offers additional digital photography utilities and privacy applications.
Inkscape Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor compatible with traditional Unix-compatible systems, including BSD derivatives, GNU/Linux, Illumos, macOS, and Windows. It offers a range of features to help users create and edit graphic vectors, such as: * Art previews and a supportive community. * Extensions and file format export. * Fill & stroke, filters & blend modes. * Object creation & manipulation, operations on paths, and rendering. * Templates, text support, and a customizable user interface.
SVG-Edit SVG-edit is a free, web-based, JavaScript-driven, cross-browser, open-source vector graphics editor. It works in multiple browsers and is designed for creating and editing Scalable Vector Graphics images directly in a web browser. The software consists of two parts: svg-editor.js and svgcanvas.js, the latter of which allows for alternative interface creation independent of the main SVG-Edit application.
Design Platforms and Tools
For users looking to create designs without extensive professional skills, several platforms offer templates and drag-and-drop interfaces.
Canva Canva is a free online visual communications platform with paid options available. It is designed to empower anyone to design, utilizing a drag-and-drop interface. Users can choose from thousands of templates to create designs for: * Logos * Posters * Presentations * Promotional merchandise * Social media graphics * Videos * Websites
Canva features an Apps marketplace where users can utilize third-party applications, such as ConvertMarkz, which converts Canva PDFs to desktop publishing formats.
VistaCreate VistaCreate is a free online graphic design platform tailored for non-designers. It offers thousands of templates for creating professional designs for branded storytelling. Key features include: * 150K+ templates. * 70M+ photos, videos, and vectors. * Animation and video editing with sharing capabilities. * Background remover, brand kit, and design elements library. * Design resizing, post scheduling, and print options. * Sticker maker, styles features, and team collaboration.
Looka Looka is a platform that utilizes AI and over 300 templates to assist entrepreneurs in creating logo and brand designs. It features a centralized Brand Kit that creates branded marketing collateral using the user's specific colors, fonts, and logo. The Brand Kit’s editor allows for the customization of business card designs, icons, email signatures, identity images, social media materials, and websites without requiring professional skills.
Designrr Designrr is an online software application designed to remove clutter such as ads, navigation, and sidebars from web content. It allows users to upload Microsoft Word documents, podcasts, videos, or web pages, which Designrr then uses to create ebooks or lead magnets. These can be converted to formats such as epub, Flipbook, Kindle, or PDF.
3D Graphics and Modeling Tools
The source material lists several free tools for 3D graphics, animation, and modeling.
Blender Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software tool set. It is a public project hosted on blender.org, licensed under GNU GPL and owned by its contributors. The software runs on Windows, MacOS, BSD, Haiku, and Linux. Users can utilize Blender to create: * Animated films * Art * Interactive 3D applications * Motion graphics * Virtual reality * Visual effects * 3D-printed models
SketchUp Free SketchUp Free is cost-free, simple 3D modeling software accessible via the web. It includes several components: * 3D Warehouse: Access to searchable, pre-made 3D models. * SketchUp for Web: An online modeler. * Trimble Connect: A cloud storage service. * SketchUp Viewer: A tool to view and print SketchUp models.
This platform allows users to access modeling tools from anywhere and create 3D models without the need for downloads. It is designed for envisioning, developing concepts, and creating projects online.
Daz Studio Daz Studio is a free media design software and versatile Genesis character creator developed by Daz 3D. It is used to produce images and videos and has over 3 million downloads. The application allows users to access over 30,000 realistic items, build content, and combine and morph figure shapes. Users can shop for animations, free and premium 3D models, and more. Daz Studio offers a 3D library and ready-made 3D models and kits for characters, environments, and props in styles ranging from hyper-realistic to toon. Users can choose accessories, character shapes, clothing, hairstyles, and textures.
Hexagon Hexagon’s DESIGNER is described as a CAD application that provides a powerful and versatile set of CAD capabilities for smarter manufacturing.
Additional Design and Content Creation Tools
Xara Designer Pro X Xara Designer Pro X is a professional tool for desktop publishing, document creation, graphic design, illustration, photo editing, printing, web design, and website creation. It includes all features and templates of Page & Layout Designer, Photo & Graphic Designer, and Web Designer Premium. Features include blend, drag & drop, fill, interactive design tools, non-destructive editing, solid object drawing and dragging, shadow, feather, and 3D extrude. It also allows for photo compression up to ten times smaller than comparable drawing-program images.
Adobe XD Adobe XD is a collaborative vector design tool for app design, UI and UX design, and web development on macOS and Windows. It is used to build wireframe mock-ups of user interfaces, leveraging tools for buttons, images, menus, and scrolling text. Users can collaborate or work independently on projects to build web and mobile apps, plan designs, interactive user experiences, prototype user experiences, web designs, and website mock-ups.
Jasper.ai Jasper is a large language model and AI content platform with browser extensions, integrations, and API. It is designed to answer queries, produce custom content, edit images, generate text, write creative content, and translate languages. The results can be utilized for blog articles, copywriting, customer support, email marketing/sales, and social media posts.
Sketch Sketch is a design platform and web app available for Mac users to create, collaborate, and prototype. It offers asset sharing, collaboration features, editing tools, feedback addition, thousands of fonts, layout features, online publishing, and integration with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat. It also includes preflight and typesetting features.
Conclusion
The provided sources detail a comprehensive array of free resources for graphic design and stock photography. From stock photo libraries like Photo Rack and Vecteezy to robust editing software such as RawTherapee and Inkscape, there are tools available to suit various design requirements. Platforms like Canva and VistaCreate offer user-friendly interfaces for non-designers, while specialized tools like Blender and Daz Studio cater to 3D modeling and animation. For commercial use, many of these resources explicitly provide full commercial rights or licensing, making them viable options for marketing and business projects.