Tons of graphic design resources and tools that can help you be even more creative are right at your fingertips. Looking for vectors? Or stock images? How about trendy, unique fonts? Or maybe a little bit of inspiration? It’s all within reach—especially if you know where to go.
Save some time and needless web wandering with this guide to the best graphic design resources and tools for designers and enthusiasts alike. Whatever your project, you’ll find the resources you need.
Image resources
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Nothing is more eye-catching and attention-grabbing than a great visual. From stock images to icons to vector graphics, images bring texture, action, and energy to any design. If you’re looking for gorgeous visuals, take a look at these resources.
Resources for photos
Unsplash
Head to Unsplash for creative and beautiful stock photography shot and selected by a collective of photographers. Download, modify and distribute the photos for free.
Pricing: Free | Visit unsplash.com
Pexels
The aim of Pexels is to provide high-quality photos and videos for free in order to promote better designs for all. Their treasure trove of incredible imagery is endless.
Pricing: Free | Visit pexels.com
Offset
Royalty-free but paid images created by artists and used by the likes of magazines and large corporations. You can find anything from food photography to scenic landscapes.
Pricing: Starts at $249 for small images | Visit offset.com
Resources for illustrations
Drawkit
Get print- and digital-ready illustrations for your next project. Drawkit offers a collection of free, paid and customizable vector illustrations, ideal for adapting and adding to any design.
Pricing: Free basic selection, Paid options start at $29 | Visit drawkit.com
Humaaans
This is a unique tool created by Pablo Stanley that allows you to customize illustrations of humans in various contexts.
Pricing: Free | Visit humaaans.com
Vexels
High-quality vector graphics come in all shorts of shapes, sizes and styles. Looking for that perfect minimalist masterpiece? Vexel’s got it. Or how about something super complex? They’ve got it. Looking for a 100% custom piece? Well, Vexels has that too.
Pricing: Starts at $7.50/month for freelancers | Visit vexels.com
Resources for icons
The Noun Project
Check out this rich resource of icons sourced from all over the world, built with the aim of creating a visual language for everyone. Icons from The Noun Project are always royalty-free, but require attribution unless you sign up for a paid NounPro account.
Pricing: Free basic account, NounPro for $39.99/year | Visit thenounproject.com
Flaticon
The Flaticon platform has 2 million icons and counting—all for free with required attribution.
Pricing: Free | Visit flaticon.com
Inspiration resources
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Think of inspiration like creative guidance. To find your design voice, you often need to search for it. By seeing designs that work well, surprise us and even move us, we can see new ways of delivering that with our own creations. Having access to plenty of designs is a vital part of the design process. And what’s wonderful about today’s graphic design inspiration is that you can get very, very specific to find exactly what you’re looking for.
99designs Discover
Our Discover page is a great resource for browsing logos, brand identity packs, icons, illustrations and more created by professional designers from all over the world.
Free inspiration | Visit 99designs.com/discover
Behance
For creative inspiration of all kinds, go straight to Adobe’s online design platform. You’ll be able to discover all sorts of designs and share your own.
Free inspiration | Visit behance.net
Httpster
Httpster is a regularly curated collection of beautiful website inspiration that you can click through and explore. Oh, and it’s also free.
Free inspiration | Visit httpster.com
Adobe Color
Adobe Color makes it easy to explore current color trends, develop palettes from your favorite images and save your favorite color schemes to Adobe apps.
Pricing: Free | Visit color.adobe.com
Typewolf
Curious about what’s trending in type? Visit Typewolf for a collection of lookbooks, recommendations, blog posts and typography guides filed with fonts to inspire your next design.
Pricing: Free | Visit typewolf.com
Niice
Think of this like Pinterest for designers. Niice is an easy-to-use platform dedicated to providing inspiration for design teams. Use this tool to showcase collective ideas and make it easy to collect feedback and input.
Pricing: Free basic account, Unlimited pro accounts start at $99/month | Visit niice.co
Typography resources
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Font Squirrel
Meet the self-proclaimed “free font utopia.” On top of being an incredible source of fonts, Font Squirrel has nifty tools such as font generator and font identifier.
Pricing: Free | Visit fontsquirrel.com
Lost Type
Lost Type is rich resource where you can try out and purchase contemporary typefaces created by the hottest type designers.
Pricing: Pay-what-you-want for personal use, Commercial use starts at $25 | Visit losttype.com
Editing tools and resources
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Every design project requires editing. Whether you’re resizing images, cropping photos, adjusting color, or creating mockups for clients, there is a handy web tool out there that’s right for you.
Image editing tools
Adobe Online Photo Editing
Probably the most well-known image editing tool, Adobe Photoshop has become synonymous with graphic design. And now, you can use its powerful, cloud-based imaging tools right in your browser or smartphone, wherever you are and whenever inspiration strikes.
Pricing: Starts at $9.99/month | Visit adobe.com
GIMP
GIMP is a free and open-source image editor with all the image manipulating tools a graphic designer, photographer or illustrator could need. And, that’s right, we said free.
Pricing: Free | Visit gimp.org
Pixlr
Retouch, filter, adjust and even draw on your photos right in your browser or mobile device with Pixlr. The basic version is free, but the paid PixlrPro account gives you more templates, fonts, and browser compatibility.
Pricing: Free basic account, PixlrPro for $5/month | Visit pixlr.com
Mockup tools
Pixeden
With both premium and free options and a solid inventory of high quality templates, Pixeden is your one-stop tool for mockups. Take your pick of objects, backgrounds, textures and fonts to present brand ideas in a way that does your work justice.
Pricing: Downloadable free templates, Premium files for $6/month | Visit pixeden.com
Shotsnapp
Try this web-based app to mockup images for app or website design. Shotsnapp is incredibly easy and straightforward to use for all of your digital projects.
Pricing: Free basic functionality, Pro start at $36/year | Visit shotsnapp.com
Screenshot tools
Collabshot
Collabshot’s free desktop app makes it quick and easy to selectively capture, edit and instantly share screencaps and screenshots.
Pricing: Free | Visit collabshot.com
Tutorials and classes
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99designs Blog
You’ll always find in-depth guides, tutorials, resources and more to expand and refresh your design skills. Discover everything from history of international design movements to the principles of brand identity.
Pricing: Always free | Visit 99designs.com
Skillshare
Skillshare has an extensive amount of classes to uplevel your design skills or inspire you to try new things. Maybe you always wanted to take a shot at book cover design, but were intimidated. Learning about a craft has never been this easy and accessible.
Pricing: Free, Premium starts at $36 for 3 months | Visit skillshare.com
Better graphic design resources = better design
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Having instant access to great graphic design resources only makes room for even better designs and more creativity. We hope that this guide fills your head with inspiration and gives you the opportunity to work faster and more efficiently.
Got graphic design tools that you love? Share them in the comments below!
