So You Want To Make Graphics And Edit Photos (But You Don’t Have Photoshop)?
So. You want to start making graphics and editing photos, eh? But you don’t have Photoshop, you say? Have no fear! Lila to the rescue! I’ve been making photo edits and graphics for over a year now and I have never touched Photoshop! How do I do it?
First things first, I’m the realest you’ll need the proper tools! So that’s what we’ll be discussing today. I’m going to give you all the resources you’ll need to make graphics and edit photos sans Photoshop! There are a lot, but don’t feel overwhelmed, because you’re not going to be using all of them, some of them are just alternatives you can use if you find that one doesn’t work for you. So let’s jump right in!
Photo Editing Programs:
The first thing you’ll need is a good photo editing program to actually, you know, edit photos. There are the ones I use (they’re all free btw):
- GIMP: The free alternative to PhotoShop, GIMP is what I use when I have to do more “in depth” editing. It’s the closest to a free version of PhotoShop you’ll get, as far as I know, although it’s a little clunkier.
- Fotor: A quick and free photo editor, which lets you edit brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, tint, sharpness, and vignette and has a ton of filters
- Collager: This lets you create free style collages, but what I really use it for is its gradient transparency feature when I want to graft an image over another.
- Pixlr Editor (online): Another free alternative to PhotoShop (although, like GIMP, it’s less powerful), but this program is online.
- Pixlr Express (online): A quick and easy editor, Pixlr Express has more editing option than Fotor, but less than the full version of the Pixlr editor.
- iPiccy (online): This program is online and is free. You can use it to edit and “air brush” images.
- LunaPic (online): This is where I edit all of my gifs (without editing each frame). It has tons of simple and more complex gif editing options.
- Online Image Editor: This can be used to edit both photos and gifs. One of my favorite features of Online Image Editor is its transparency “wizard!”
- EZGif: This is a really simplistic gif editor, but I use it for quick edits, like cropping and splitting a gif.
- ImgFlip: This site allows you to create gifs from compiled images, saved videos, or online (a.k.a. YouTube) videos.
- BeFunky (online): This is a free online editor AND collage maker (it has grid collage options or others).
- PowerPoint: Are you confused? Laugh all you want, but I actually do a lot of photo editing by inserting photos into a PowerPoint and then using all of the photo editing options PowerPoint has available. After that, I take a screenshot of the PowerPoint in full screen and crop it. Like I said, laugh all you want, but it works 😉
Fonts:
Fonts are really important for design and editing as they can add flair, style, and personality. Here are some of the free font resources I use:
- Free Design Resources
- 1001 Free Fonts
- Font Space
- DaFont
- Random: Often if you search “free font” you’ll find a handful of blogs offering up freebies or deals on fonts.
Vectors and Clipart:
When making graphics, you’ll want to use vectors and clipart (images, usually with transparent backgrounds, which don’t become pixelated when you resize them). It’s rarer to find free vectors and clipart, but here are some sources of freebies:
Icons:
You’ll also want to use icons to create things like social media icons. Here are some resources for free icons:
- Free Design Resources
- Icon Finder
- Tumblr: Source of free photo icons
Royalty Free Images:
If you don’t take your own photos, you’ll need a source of royalty free images. Royalty free images are images you don’t have to pay to use. For some of them, you have to credit the creator, for others, you don’t. Here are my resources for royalty free images where you don’t have to credit the creator:
Tutorial And Resources Sites:
Confession: I’m not the Supergirl of design. I don’t know everyhing. So here are some websites offering multiple free resources and tutorials!
- Gimp Blogging: Free tutorials on how to use Gimp to create certain affects.
- Gimping Along: More free Gimp tutorials.
- Code Color Create: A source of images, icons, and tutorials
- Free Design Resources: Free resources like fonts, royalty free images, icons, and vectors for designers.
- Design Your Own Blog: Countless helpful tutorials and lists of resources to help you design your blog.
So that’s it for now! Please leave a comment letting me know if this was helpful and letting me know any design tutorials you’d like to see next (i.e. how to make a blog button, how to design a header, etc)!
I will definitely not laugh at the fact that you use Powerpoint to edit photos. I use Numbers (the Apple-equivalent of Excel) for everything design-related for my blog. So yeah, I don’t think that that’s such a crazy idea really 😁 That aside, I really like these tips and sources, I’ll surely come back to this post regularly to check some of these sites!
thanks, jonas! i’m glad it helped!
This is such a great post! I’m not new to design, but there’s even some resources on here that I wasn’t aware of! This will definitely be helpful to people who are just starting out. Thanks so much for sharing 😊 I love that you use PowerPoint! Also, another great resource for free vectors and things is Freepik. Just thought I’d share because It’s my go to!
thank you! i’m so glad you found it helpful! i’ll definitely look into freepik!
Awesome post… that I’m totally bookmarking to keep coming back to every once in a while.
I actually hadn’t known about some of these photo editing sites. I’m such a lame person when it comes to making photos legitimately okay-looking. Though, I’ve been knee-deep into Canva (shout out to my job for actually introducing me to that one) lately which is incredibly easy and comes with templates when I am lacking the inspirations. Since you mentioned it, I would be interested in the making of blog buttons, social media buttons, etc. Thanks!
i’m so happy you found it helpful! canva is another great free tool! i can definitely do social media icon and grab box tutorials!
Awesome post… that I’m totally bookmarking to keep coming back to every once in a while.
I actually hadn’t known about some of these photo editing sites. I’m such a lame person when it comes to making photos legitimately okay-looking. Though, I’ve been knee-deep into Canva (shout out to my job for actually introducing me to that one) lately which is incredibly easy and comes with templates when I am lacking the inspirations. Since you mentioned it, I would be interested in the making of blog buttons, social media buttons, etc. Thanks!
i’m so happy you found it helpful! canva is another great free tool! i can definitely do social media icon and grab box tutorials!
Whoa…I never knew that there were THIS many options for editing photos. Thanks for this awesome post and for all of the resources that you linked. You’re the best <3
Your post opened my eyes to an entirely new world of things to learn and try that I had never known about. I'll definitely check out those links….but I'll probably force myself wait 'till summer because if I don't, I'll probably end up spending all my time on examining this new species I've been exposed to…And then I'll end up failing school because I'll neglect my homework for this, since I have terrible self-control haha.
lol that’s totally ok–i aim to turn you all into editing addicts! i’m really glad you found the post helpful!
Whoa…I never knew that there were THIS many options for editing photos. Thanks for this awesome post and for all of the resources that you linked. You’re the best <3
Your post opened my eyes to an entirely new world of things to learn and try that I had never known about. I'll definitely check out those links….but I'll probably force myself wait 'till summer because if I don't, I'll probably end up spending all my time on examining this new species I've been exposed to…And then I'll end up failing school because I'll neglect my homework for this, since I have terrible self-control haha.
lol that’s totally ok–i aim to turn you all into editing addicts! i’m really glad you found the post helpful!
Before switching to GIMP I used to use PowerPoint as well, mostly to remove the white background from PNGs . Another way of saving images here is to right click on the image and pick the option ‘Save Image As’. It’s a brilliant post! 🙂
thanks! glad to hear i’m not alone on using powerpoint, lol!
Before switching to GIMP I used to use PowerPoint as well, mostly to remove the white background from PNGs . Another way of saving images here is to right click on the image and pick the option ‘Save Image As’. It’s a brilliant post! 🙂
thanks! glad to hear i’m not alone on using powerpoint, lol!
All I can say is , ‘this page is bookmarked for frequent reference!” XD
Thanks for all the informative tips 🙂
no problem! thanks for stopping by!
All I can say is , ‘this page is bookmarked for frequent reference!” XD
Thanks for all the informative tips 🙂
no problem! thanks for stopping by!
Great post. I’m a total novice when it comes to design so haven’t heard of most of these sites. I think my blog could probably do with an overhaul so will be following future posts. I would be particularly interested in one on headers as I’ve never been able to combine a picture and text and make it look good 🙂
thank you! i’ll definitely so a post on headers as soon as i can. it seems to be a pretty requested topic!
Great post. I’m a total novice when it comes to design so haven’t heard of most of these sites. I think my blog could probably do with an overhaul so will be following future posts. I would be particularly interested in one on headers as I’ve never been able to combine a picture and text and make it look good 🙂
thank you! i’ll definitely so a post on headers as soon as i can. it seems to be a pretty requested topic!
Ah this is a brilliant post! I’m still trying to learn the ropes when it comes to design and it’s the thing that stresses me out the most about blogging, so this is super useful, thank you! 🙂 x
thank you! i hope this alleviated some of your stress! design can be really fun once you get into it and realize it’s not so hard!
It’s definitely given me some super useful tips and websites, which is great! Thanks again – hopefully I’ll find it less time consuming soon haha! x
no problem 🙂
Ah this is a brilliant post! I’m still trying to learn the ropes when it comes to design and it’s the thing that stresses me out the most about blogging, so this is super useful, thank you! 🙂 x
thank you! i hope this alleviated some of your stress! design can be really fun once you get into it and realize it’s not so hard!
It’s definitely given me some super useful tips and websites, which is great! Thanks again – hopefully I’ll find it less time consuming soon haha! x
no problem 🙂
Impressive ! I’m using photofiltre instead of photoshop. And I bought a font because most of the free ones are for personal use only
huh. i’ve never heard of photofiltre, but ill check it out! most of the fonts ive found on the sites ive provided are for commercial and personal use, as far as i know (ill have to start double checking, though. it’s always good to double check).
Impressive ! I’m using photofiltre instead of photoshop. And I bought a font because most of the free ones are for personal use only
huh. i’ve never heard of photofiltre, but ill check it out! most of the fonts ive found on the sites ive provided are for commercial and personal use, as far as i know (ill have to start double checking, though. it’s always good to double check).
Yees ! I was so excited when I saw this post on my reader! I already (kind of) use Gimp but those other resources I definitely have to check out .
thanks! i’m glad i could help–if you use gimp definitely check out gimp blogging and gimping along, they’re lifesavers!
Okaay, I’ll definitely do it, thanks 😀
Yees ! I was so excited when I saw this post on my reader! I already (kind of) use Gimp but those other resources I definitely have to check out .
thanks! i’m glad i could help–if you use gimp definitely check out gimp blogging and gimping along, they’re lifesavers!
Okaay, I’ll definitely do it, thanks 😀
I cannot thank you enough for this post, I just recently started doing graphics for my blog and this post is immensely going to help! So thank you one again. Great post! 😀
aw, thank you! i’m glad you found it so helpful! have fun making graphics 🙂
I cannot thank you enough for this post, I just recently started doing graphics for my blog and this post is immensely going to help! So thank you one again. Great post! 😀
aw, thank you! i’m glad you found it so helpful! have fun making graphics 🙂
I have Photoshop but I can’t find my way around the thing so I just use Picmonkey for everything hehe. Happy reading! http://www.curious-daisy.com/top-ten-tuesday/top-ten-bookworm-delights/
haha, that’s funny!
I have Photoshop but I can’t find my way around the thing so I just use Picmonkey for everything hehe. Happy reading! http://www.curious-daisy.com/top-ten-tuesday/top-ten-bookworm-delights/
haha, that’s funny!
This is such a helpful post! I’m hoping to start making some blog graphics and taking (and editing) my own pictures over the summer and while I used to do quite a bit of graphic design, it’s been years so this will be immensely helpful. Totally bookmarking this so I can come back to it. Thanks for such a great post! 🙂
i’m so glad you found it helpful 🙂
This is such a helpful post! I’m hoping to start making some blog graphics and taking (and editing) my own pictures over the summer and while I used to do quite a bit of graphic design, it’s been years so this will be immensely helpful. Totally bookmarking this so I can come back to it. Thanks for such a great post! 🙂
i’m so glad you found it helpful 🙂