With the emergence of more powerful smartphone devices, there is a wide range of tools available for freelance designers. Many of these apps are free, yet versatile and have a lot to offer.
Finding the right tools can make your job more convenient and allow you to immerse yourself in your work. Let’s talk about some of the best smartphone applications that you should be looking into if you want to be serious about freelance design.
11. iDesign
If you are an animator, fashion designer, or your job requires drawing to some extent, iDesign is a free iOS illustration app that allows you to draw 2D vector designs.
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This app gives you good control and flexibility over your designs. Animators and designers can easily accomplish professional level drawings with the features that iDesign offers, which include gradients, Boolean operations on shapes, dimensioning tools, and more.
10. Marksta
Are you worried about ownership over your ideas? Marksta helps out with that by creating watermarks for your design along with the copyright information. It is important for a designer to secure ownership over their work and securing the copyright information is certainly a first step.
Professional designers will find Marksta to be a necessary choice for protecting their services. The app also provides additional features for editing photos. Overall, the app completes a designer’s toolkit by ensuring their work remains their own.
9. Adobe Photoshop Express
Adobe Photoshop Express is a free photo editing software that is available in both the Google play and app store. The app offers powerful photo editing functionality for acquiring your desired results.
The app does everything you would expect a photo editing app to do such as cropping, adjusting hues, and so on. More attention is focused on smaller details such as editing facials features and removing noise from the photo.
8. Instasize
For freelance designers who work extensively with social media, having reliable mobile editing software handy is essential for high-quality editing for quick scheduling and posting. Instasize is a free app available on both iOS and Android systems with everything a designer needs to make attractive social media posts. Color filters, advanced editing sliders, beauty tools, text overlays, and borders are some of the key features that make it a great toolkit to have on the go.
7. Adobe Color CC
Adobe Color CC allows you to choose a unique color palette for creating prolific photos. The app is useful for generating color schemes that can be custom made.
The uniqueness of the color palette comes from the existing colors of the photos uploaded to your mobile device. The app can also create themes that can be used in other Adobe desktop apps such as Photoshop and Illustrator. Adobe Color CC is available for iOS and Android devices.
6. Fontly
If you are someone that loves to design logos, posters, or anything that involves fonts, then Fontly is a great choice, and it’s free! Take a photo of anything that has a font — like a sign, billboard, or postcard — and the app will save the captured typography for other users to search.
Of course, you will be able to add your own personal touches. This app is very useful for those looking to build a community in typography. Fontify is available for Android devices.
5. SwatchMatic
SwatchMatic allows designers to generate their color palettes based on the photos they choose. Choosing from any variety of photos of their preference, designers can freely create a unique color palette to meet their designing needs.
There are numerous settings that allow designers to create almost any combination of individual colors. The colors can also be derived from colors of photos uploaded to the phone. The app is free and available to Android devices.
4. FontBook
Another free app to add to your typography flair. The app offers a large library of various typefaces with over 700,000 samples. The app is easy to navigate and is designed for fast-paced work.
It is one of the most widely used typography apps and is another good choice for searching for sampled works. It is available for iOS devices.
3. Adobe Illustrator Draw
Adobe Illustrator is an excellent choice for both beginner and professional graphic designers. The functionality of the app makes it very simple and intuitive to use. Some tools that the app features are customizable brushes, layers, eye dropper, and much more.
The app allows you to undo your work up to 50 levels and keeps track of all saved information. Use a pressure-sensitive stylus to achieve the best precision. The app is free and is available for iOS devices.
2. SketchBook Pro
For more professional work, SketchBook Pro possess the functionality to achieve very sophisticated designs. It offers more than 100 different types of brushes, each of which is customizable. Animators will find this app very useful for creating work that runs at a high frame rate, which will require numerous layers.
There is a landscape and portrait orientation to choose from to best-fit design needs. The app is available for Android devices and is priced at about 5 USD.
1.AutoCAD 360
Possibly one of the most used apps by designers, AutoCAD360 is a powerful editing app that allows designers to edit their AutoCAD drawings. The app can be used anywhere. Offline tools are available as well to further expand the app’s functionality.
The app is typically geared more towards more technical projects, but can also be used for many other projects. There is a great level of detail that designers can get out of 360 for modeling 3D drawings.
In general, AutoCAD software can be used for many different purposes including interior design, product optimization, and so much more. The best part is that it is free! The app is available for both Apple and Android devices.
It is a great time to be a freelance designer with so many tools at your disposal. The apps mentioned here are designed to enhance your designing experiences and optimize productivity output.
There are many apps across a multitude of devices. Each app has its own set of features that make it feel personalized to the designer. Make sure to play around with different programs to develop a better sense of which apps suit your work style best.
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