“ Most of you are too busy monitoring Google’s latest algorithm updates, examining web analytics, and building links and content to stay up to date on the design world. ”

Image editing

We all need to edit and create images from time to time, but if you only do it occasionally, software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator works out to be pretty expensive. Fortunately, there are several feature-rich image editing programs available.

Gimp – Anything you can do with Photoshop can be done with Gimp, and it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The learning curve can be steep, but it’s worth the time.

SVG Editor – If you’re obsessed about website speed, you probably love SVGs (scalable vector graphics) and this handy tool from Google make it easy to create and edit them.

Canva – The drag-and-drop interface of this web-based design program make graphic design quick and simple, plus it comes with a library of over one million professional stock images.

Web design

Designing a website requires a blend of creative and technical skills. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools available to efficiently complete both. From the pretty parts, to the nuts and bolts, to the little details, here is everything you’ll need

Palette generator – Upload an image and this tool will generate the perfect color palette to compliment it that you can download as a CSS file.

Subtle Paterns – Creating seamless backgrounds can be a pain, so instead of starting from scratch, just download from over 400 high-quality seamless background images, including textures and patterns.

Infographics

Infographics are still an effective method to earn social shares and links, and they are a great way to present a lot of data-rich information, but they can be a pain to create. Here are several tools to simplify the process that might even be better (and easier) than traditional design software.

Infogram – Build beautiful data-driven infographics in just three steps with this free tool.

Piktochart – With a simple point and click editor and over 4,000 graphics, icons, and template files, Piktochart makes it easy to create infographics that look exactly the way you want.

Vizualize.me – Turn your boring resume into a unique visual expression of your skills and experience to stand out from the crowd.

Social media

Social media can multiply your website’s exposure exponentially, but it takes a lot of work. From branding profiles on each network to crafting engaging visual content your fans will share, you’ll have to create a lot of graphics to feed the beast. Doing that manually, the old-fashioned way is tedious and slow, so I recommend these tools to speed up your workflow.

Data visualization

Google Charts is a great way to create all sorts of charts, and the best part is that you can create them on the fly by passing variables in the URL.

Typography

Today you have plenty of options when it comes to font choices, so please stop using Arial, and for the love of all that is good, never use Comic Sans or I will hunt you down. You can choose from thousands of free fonts, so it’s easy to pick one that fits your project perfectly.

Typegenius – Choosing the perfect font combo can be tough, but Typegenious makes it easy. Just pick a starter font from the drop down list and the site will recommend fonts that pair well with it.

Google Fonts – I recommend embedding Google fonts instead hosting them on your own server because they load more quickly and there is a chance they’re already cached on visitors’ computers.

Font Awesome – This is an awesome (hence the name) way to add all sorts of scalable icons without a load of extra http requests. Simply load one font for access to 519 icons that colored, scaled, and styled with CSS.

DaFont – Download and instal these fonts (.ttf or .otf formats) for designing documents or images on your computer.