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Graphic Design Tools I Use
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items I've been a graphic designer for over 25 years and these are some of my current tools/programs/etc.
I have been using Adobe products for over 25 years, so I'm sticking with them for now. Yes, they cost more than some of the other programs, but I know them and they do give deals for repeat customers. It's worth it to me. I mainly use: InDesign, Phot...
Adobe Creative Cloud | Professional Creative Software
Once you get used to the wrist rest, you'll never go back.
MROCO Ergonomic Mouse Pad with Wrist Rest
A decent mouse. Wireless ones seem to have issues more quickly, so I've been sticking with wired these days.
Logitech G300s Ambidextrous Gaming Mouse
I'm sure I'll need an upgrade soon, but this computer has been great the past few years. I'm a PC girl--possibly the only PC-using graphic designer. ;) Macs get on my nerves, sorry!
SkyTech Archangel 3.0 Gaming PC - Ryzen 5
What would I do without Wordmark? I use it at least a couple of times per week. I love the ability to tag and save lists, plus I can order the fonts differently so I don't keep favoring the early ones in the alphabet.
wordmark.it helps you choose fonts
Clipart is such a huge part of my work now. Etsy has some good artists and decent searching abilities. The tricky part is that every artist has different licensing, so you have to read carefully. I appreciate that they can make more for their work, t...
Watercolor Clipart - Etsy
CreativeFabrica is good for very inexpensive fonts and clipart. You have to weed through all of the fake/AI stuff, but there's some gold in there.
Fonts (2025) - 212123+ Free & Premium Fonts
This is a plugin that lets you create snippets of text to call up with just a word or two. Super helpful for many computer tasks. You can even format it with links, color, etc. Great for my website, Etsy, etc.
Text Blaze: Snippets and Templates for Chrome
Rulers are nice for straight-edges as well as, of course, measuring things. Lots of times you need to draw or measure out what you're creating and having rulers really handy has been super helpful.
Ruler
I've been using Corjl since 2019. It's not perfect, but it's a great way to make templates that customers can personalize.
Corjl - Create, Protect & Distribute Secure Digital Templates
Pretty straightforward and competetive pricing. Don't make the mistake of not backing up your work, clipart, etc.
Cloud Backup and Storage solutions for home and business ...
Obviously Pinterest can come in handy for inspiration, trend info, and then sharing your work.
Pinterest
Really helpful (and friendly) for spell-checking, writing scripts for Adobe products, ideas, problem-solving, and getting you started on text/copy. I don't recommend pasting exactly what it says, but it can be a helpful beginning.
Introducing ChatGPT - OpenAI
It's been a life-saver. I have thousands of clipart elements and this helps me keep it somewhat more manageable. I've tried the AI taggers and they suck (for now at least).
File Management Software for Windows | Tagging for Windows
A must for software tutorials
YouTube
I don't need this for my current job, but if you're doing any sort of corporate designing where you need to stay on brand and have consistent colors, pantone swatch books are going to come in handy.
PANTONE® USA | Color Solutions, Trends, Guides & Tools
I've used them a lot for print jobs. They're great!
Printivity: Cheap Online Custom Printing Services
Super cheap for large runs of postcards, business cards, and other smaller pieces. They gang the different jobs so that you can get a very high-quality stock without paying the prices that you would at a local offset printer.
AmericasPrinter.com - Business Cards, Postcards, Flyers ...
Good-quality vector art with different payment plans depending on your needs.
VectorStock - Vector Art, Images, Graphics & Clipart