Part of a church communicator’s responsibility is to make sure that our message impacts the congregation. Graphic materials are a part of that. They are essential in announcement slides, videos, and social media. So what’s the best software for creating graphics? Here’s what the Facebook group had to say:
The Question:
Reagan Olejarczyk asked, “What do people use for logo and graphic design software? Currently, we use canva.com, but I am considering switching. Does anybody use an Adobe program? Would you recommend it?”
The Answers:
“GIMP is a great, free alternative to Photoshop. I still use Canva quite a bit, though. If you aren’t already you can get it for free as a non-profit.” – Eric Kendall
“As a graphic designer, I use Illustrator as a fully capable program to produce vector graphics, which is definitely what you want for a logo.” – Jeremy Victory
“I’ve been LIVING in Adobe for over 15 years now. Never would consider anything else… Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, and Audition. I spend the majority of my time in Photoshop, though.” – Colin Rowley
“If you need the design help and templates, try Adobe Spark. But if you want a quick and easy way of creating simple designs on your own, Adobe XD is my absolute favorite. These days I only fire up Adobe Illustrator for complicated projects.” – Seth Brown
“Check out Affinity Designer and Pixelmator Pro.” – William Kunkel
“If your designs use lots of curves and swoops, check out (for free) Inkscape’s Spiro Curves feature; no other graphics program that I’ve tried can replicate how effortlessly it makes graceful curves.” – David McGuire
Conclusion:
There are quite a few software programs out there for graphic work. Some are free and some cost money. If you’re willing to pay a little, the Adobe Creative Cloud is something to seriously consider. A lot of communicators use it to design logos and graphics. There are a few free options mentioned above as well, such as GIMP and Canva for non-profits. Based on this discussion from the group, hopefully you can find the software that works best for you and start creating!
