There isn’t really a singular design software that is best for graphic design, because what constitutes the best is going to depend largely on what you would like to accomplish. Rather than identifying a single best design software, I can recommend the use of a few that complement each other.
Adobe Photoshop — A photo editing software that is great for:Photo editing — This is its main intended use. Adjust the settings of your photos, touch up details, fix up lighting, etc.Photo-manipulations — You can go beyond simple editing and create something completely new with photos, illustrations or designs as source material.Digital art — Use photos and textures to create elaborate artworks. Although this isn’t necessarily graphic design, it can be an essential part of a graphic designer’s repertoire.Pixel art — You can also use Photoshop to create pixel art, which is an art form that inspired many vector-based illustrations today.Texture-heavy layouts — Although InDesign is the more optimal software for layout design, I have done texture- and artwork-heavy album layouts in Photoshop because it was easier than switching back and forth.Post-production — Often used in the final stage of a design process as well, to add texturing and highlights to an illustration/artwork.Web design —Photoshop is quite capable when it comes to web design.Adobe Illustrator — An illustration and design software that is great for:Logos — Illustrator is the industry standard when it comes to logo design. It’s easy to use and has a wide range of features.Lettering — Illustrator also has a wide range of features that make various kinds of lettering possible, from modifying typefaces to drawing letters by hand, or writing with the pen tool and a calligraphic weight contrast.Icons — For the same reason Illustrator is good for logo design, it is also excellent for designing icons. New features like round corners also make designing variations on icons a lot easier.Vector illustrations — Illustrator is also known for its excellent vector illustration capabilities.Typefaces — I have found Illustrator to be an amazing tool when it comes to designing a typeface. The final corrections I do in Glyphs, but the setting up of the metrics and most of the design is done in Illustrator. And again, round corners is of great use.Adobe InDesign — A layout and design software that is great for:Layouts — It’s the industry standard for layouts; album layouts, books, posters, etc. InDesign is extremely versatile.Presentations — It’s easy to copy/paste designs from Illustrator into InDesign, load in images, and add typography to set up a presentation of your project to be exported as PDF for your client.Typography — InDesign features some of the best typography capabilities on the market. Particularly useful for book type setting and magazines.Web design —Although InDesign is not particularly intended for the design of websites, it works excellent in that capacity as you have a lot of control over the metrics and placement of elements.Logos & icons — Although I strongly prefer Illustrator for logos and icons, InDesign has many vector capabilities and could thus be used for logo and icon design as well. I often switch between Illustrator and InDesign during my work process.
Those are the powerful main three design software to use, and many graphic designers tend to use all three in combination with each other. Although this covers a large part of graphic design, there are a few more routes one can take to extend the graphic design practice:
Websites — Besides web design, you can learn HTML and CSS to not only design but execute the website as well.Notepad++ — Many standard text editors such as Notepad++ would do just fine, though I personally recommend the use of:Adobe Dreamweaver — Dreamweaver is essentially a text editor that is very rich in features on coding websites, and it suggests codes to implement as you type which makes coding a lot easier, as well as more intuitive for beginners. It’s also easy to connect to your server and get the website online.Animation — It can be hugely beneficial to learn to animate your designs, as many brands rely on some animations to be made.I have limited experience with animation software myself, but here is a list that describes a myriad of excellent animation software: Best Animation Software in 2017 | G2 Crowd3D — For some graphic designers it can be of interest to learn to do 3D design, which can then be used for logos, products, presentations, animations, etc.Unfortunately I don’t know much about 3D software, but this list might interest you: 25 Best 3D Modeling Software Tools for 3D Design & 3D CAD | All3DPType design — If you’re setting up a big brand, sometimes there is a need for a custom typeface. Or perhaps you want to implement icons on a website and want to turn your icons in a font which you can then embed, rather than using images. Either way, the ability to design typefaces and generate fonts can be hugely beneficial.FontLab Studio 5 — I’ve used FontLab Studio 5 and had a fairly smooth experience, although the software is a bit technical and lacks some oversight in certain aspects. As such, if you are using Mac, consider using:Glyphs — Glyphs is an amazing software for type design and to generate your fonts. With Glyphs you have a lot of oversight, a lot of control over the design, interpolation capabilities, and OpenType features are added automatically. Compared to FontLab Studio 5, Glyphs may be less rich in features, but for most users offers more than enough, and is much easier to use.FontLab Studio VI — Do keep an eye out for—or try out the preview of—FontLab Studio VI, because it will likely offer a lot more oversight and control than FontLab Studio 5, and it’s going to have various amazing features that are going to revolutionize the way type design is done. Watch the following video: Introducing FontLab VI
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