You need to make a presentation right now! What tools should you use? Where can you find images? Where do you start? With modern web-based design services, it's all a breeze - no expensive software, image libraries or even design skills required!
We often need to design something: a birthday invitation, a social media profile banner, an enhanced video short, a presentation for work, a project for school, or just some fun being creative.
No problem. There is an entire world of excellent online photo, image, and design tools online that run in your browser or through a phone app. They are very affordable, and some have free tiers as well.
These services can do a lot and offer many templates, images, logos, videos and more. How simple is it? Here are a few quick examples:
You need zero design experience. Intuitive drag-and-drop tools, thousands of templates, and numerous tutorial videos and articles help you make what you envision. Some people are even using these tools to create side hustles!
If you want to do any design work for home or work, social media or personal projects, or anything else, check out these excellent services:
Canva
Canva is the biggest of the new-generation online design tools. It offers an enormous variety of designs you can create, from document layouts to presentations to videos. It also has an extensive template and font library, and you can comfortably mix and match different elements until you have what you need. You can do a lot with Canva; it's a winner for all types of social media content, and the pro version has great AI (Artificial Intelligence) image generators and background removal tools.
Canva offers a free tier with limited features, and you can unlock the pro version for around R100 per month (with discounts for annual subscriptions).
Picsart
Picsart is a solid alternative to Canva, offering a similar range and depth of tools and templates. It's user-friendly and has many tutorials to help you get started. Picsart has more phone apps than its competitors: Android and Apple apps for photo editing, video editing, painting, making gifs or pixel art, and several more. Some are entirely free, so try them.
Picsart offers a free tier with limited features and the pro version for just under R100 per month.
Visme
Visme has been around as long as Canva (since 2013). It's remarkably similar but with some differences: notably, many people prefer Visme's photo editing system over its rivals. Visme has a unique data capture feature where you can ask someone to provide their details before viewing one of your designs - not a bad way to get some customer leads. It also offers live chat support to its pro users.
Visme has a free tier (though it locks downloads), and the pro version starts at just over R200 per month (with discounts for annual subscriptions).
Fotor
Fotor does not have as many design and template features as other services, but that's not its goal. Instead, it's a powerful photo-editing product that runs right in your browser. Fotor features many filters and tweaking tools to bring the most out of photos, correct errors, and make advanced edits, such as changing the backgrounds and removing objects from images. But it doesn't ignore design needs: Fotor has design templates to mix with photos and quickly create collages, cards, posters and more.
Fotor has a basic version with some limitations, and monthly packages start at R170 (with discounts for annual subscriptions).
To use these design tools you'll need a steady and reliable internet connection. Check out Vodacom Fibre to see if you have coverage in your area.
