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Designing a new font, a brand new logo, a game character or a complete website starts with choosing the right design software or the appropriate tool. Many designers have a thought in their mind which results into a pencil or pen drawn draft on paper, after which a design tool or design software is appealed to, to design a digital draft.

Web design software

When using a search engine to look for decent web design software, one is often referred to software which prioritizes a quick and easy website design. One could opt for spic-and-span themes which only require some content adding after which in many cases the website can be published still the same day. Nevertheless, experienced web designers will stay away from this kind of web design software when considering appropriate software, because they prefer web design software allowing themselves to build a website from scratch. Similar web design software allows a digital creation of ideas and drafts which results into a unique product.

Web design tools

When talking about web design tools, we are often asked to explain the difference between web design tools and web design software. Although the differences are small, there is a difference between both aspects. Web design tools are tools which support web design realization. A perfect design tool example is for example the famous Adobe software ‘Pen Tool’ which is used on a daily basis by many web designers.

Graphic design software

In general graphic design software can be referred to as software which is used by graphic designers to create bowl drawings, logos, products, websites, billboards, typefaces, adverts and other graphics in a user-friendly way. Because there is a clear overlap between graphic design software and web design software it is often categorized in the same software family. Their close relationship and the fact many graphic designers are also web designers strengthens this overlap.

What is the best design software and tool?

To find out which design software and design tools are a must have, we asked 126 designers the following question:



If you could only use 3 design tools for your daily activities, which 3 tools would you choose?