Sawaram Suthar / 8 Mins Read
Updated: July 16, 2024
Photoshop Losing Its Grip? Explore new-edge design software like Figma, Adobe XD, and Canva Create. This blog dives into their functionalities, ideal use cases, and how they compare to Photoshop aka a perfect photoshop alternatives.
Have you ever felt that developing eye-catching graphics was a hidden code only designers could crack? Heavy and complicated tools like Adobe Photoshop may make you feel like you need a decoder to execute the software.
A recent survey revealed that Adobe Photoshop has a 42% market share. However, many pros are put off by Photoshop's intricacy. This is especially true for people outside the design sector.
The good news is that several user-friendly design options like Figma, Canva Create and Adode XD are available to replace photoshop. In this article, we will look at 3 best Photoshop alternatives that might help you realize your creative potential.
Let us bridge the gap between your vision and stunning graphics. Continue reading to discover how to unlock your inner design star!
While Adobe Photoshop boasts unmatched power for editing photos like a pro, it can feel like mastering a foreign language for those new to design.
Here's where Canva comes in. A best photoshop alternative launched in 2013, Canva prioritized user-friendliness from the start. Anyone can create impactful visuals without needing a design degree or experience.
With the recent introduction of Canva Create 2024, they've taken things a step further. This update introduces new features focused on workspaces and team collaboration.
Visualizing user trends can be quite revealing. The graph we're looking at shows user growth for both Canva and Photoshop over ten years.
What the image shows us is rather fascinating. 2013 Photoshop was the king of the castle, with a far more extensive user base. But then came Canva, with its user-friendly interface.
Canva's features and emphasis on social media visuals have gained traction over time. This trend indicates that user-friendliness is an essential aspect of Canva's success. In addition, affordability is another prominent feature that attracts new users to Canva.
Explore Canva's outstanding tools intended to improve your creative productivity and collaboration:
Canva's UI is built in a way that lets users start designing right away. Shortcuts and preferred templates are readily available. You can start producing without any effort. This saves time and helps you keep your creative flow. It makes the design process more accessible and more pleasurable.
The Quick Action Toolbar allows faster access to popular functions such as one-click background removal. This implies that you can complete typical tasks quickly. This helps with sustaining productivity and reducing time spent on tasks.
Canva's commenting system lets you enlarge, hide, filter, and sort comments to facilitate collaboration. This feature is vital for improving team communication. It ensures that feedback is clear and manageable. Enhanced commenting increases the quality of the finished design.
Receive information about project and design updates. Real-time updates are vital because they ensure that everyone is on the same page. It guarantees that any modifications or improvements are instantly apparent to the whole team.
Canva Enterprise allows you to manage teams, permissions, and brand rules from one spot. Centralization is critical for ensuring uniformity throughout an organization's design initiatives. It makes managing big teams easy and guarantees everyone follows the same standards.
Canva helps you design and optimize Google, Meta, and Amazon advertisements from the site. This connection is critical to optimizing your advertising workflow. It simplifies the creation, testing, and deployment of effective advertising campaigns.
The new "Text to Graphic" feature lets you create visuals based on your descriptions. The tool also has a library of pre-designed Styles & Layouts to give your projects a polished look. Magic Write, the AI copywriting assistant, can help you generate text in your own unique voice.
Additionally, the AI-powered Apps Marketplace offers a variety of tools for image editing, photo effects, and video creation, giving you even more creative options.
The tool's enhanced photo editor lets you effortlessly manipulate elements within photos with Magic Grab. Using the video editor, you can easily generate highlights, remove background noise, and publish videos directly to social platforms.
Here's a table outlining the key differences between Canva Create and Photoshop:
| Feature | Canva | Photoshop |
| Target Audience | Non-designers, social media marketers, small businesses | Professional designers, photographers, artists |
| Strengths | Easy to use, drag-and-drop interface, vast template library | Powerful editing tools, precise control, vast customization |
| Weaknesses | Limited editing capabilities compared to Photoshop | Steeper learning curve, subscription model |
| Collaboration | Workspaces and team features for real-time collaboration | Limited collaboration features |
| Cost | Freemium model with paid plans for advanced features | Subscription model |
Founded in 2012, Figma presents a strong photoshop alternative for design teams seeking a collaborative environment. Unlike Photoshop's solo-focused approach, Figma allows design teams to work on projects simultaneously, fostering real-time feedback and streamlined iteration. It also boasts promising prototyping features, making it a strong contender for UI/UX design workflows.
According to the graph, Figma appears to be the most popular prototyping tool on the list, with a steeper increase in userbase over the years compared to Photoshop. This suggests that Figma is the growing trend for prototyping, while Photoshop is a more established tool.
Figma empowers design teams with robust features to create, iterate, and deliver exceptional user experiences. Here's a glimpse into Figma's core functionalities:
The Figma editor has been recently updated. Clearer icons and optional labels make navigation simple, while customizable panels allow you to adapt your workstation. With the "Anything" button, you can easily access AI functions.
Figma AI allows you to quickly build UI mocks, mockups, and prototypes. It also handles repetitious chores such as layer renaming, background removal, and text replacement. Furthermore, visual search (on chosen plans) aids in maintaining design consistency throughout your team.
Close the gap between design and development. Dev Mode enables developers to analyze design aspects and create code samples, accelerating implementation and ensuring accuracy.
Handing over designs to the development team might be difficult. Figma uses Design Status to simplify the process and keep everyone informed. The Ready for Dev View serves as a focal point for developers, whereas the Focus View promotes clear communication during design reviews. Code Connect fills the gap between design and development. It reveals relevant code, transforming your design concept into a development reality.
You can create layouts and user interfaces using components such as buttons and icons. You can also generate realistic prototypes to evaluate user interactions. This is necessary for producing designs that look attractive and operate well.
The tool allows you to manage central libraries of reusable design components. This will maintain design consistency across all of your projects, saving time while maintaining a unified appearance.
FigJam allows you to brainstorm and workshop ideas visually within Figma. This helps turn possibilities into actionable strategies, making the creative process more dynamic and engaging.
This capability is available on the Organization and Enterprise plans and provides design system code straight to Dev Mode. It improves design consistency and accelerates development.
Figma allows you to manage fonts, gradients, and other design elements. This guarantees that design aspects are seamlessly translated into development code while maintaining consistency.
Exporting library data for study with current analytics tools provides insights into design system usage, allowing you to better analyze and optimize your design processes.
Multi-editing capabilities increase design efficiency. You can select matching layers, resize and position items, change text boxes in batches, and work on many design versions at the same time, improving your process and saving time.
Create pre-built templates for weekly syncs, brainstorming sessions, and retrospectives. This facilitates planning and organizing team activities.
Organize related ideas and concepts automatically on FigJam boards. This allows for more efficient organization and analysis, making complicated projects easier to handle.
Design teams can use Figma's full feature set to create unique user interfaces, optimize collaborative workflows, and bridge the gap between design and development, resulting in a smooth and efficient product creation process.
Here's a table highlighting the key differences between Figma and Photoshop:
| Feature | Figma | Photoshop |
| Target Audience | Design teams, UI/UX designers, web designers | Photo editors, graphic designers, artists |
| Strengths | Real-time collaboration, powerful prototyping features | Powerful image editing tools, vast filter library |
| Weaknesses | Limited photo editing capabilities compared to Photoshop | Not ideal for complex photo manipulation or UI/UX design |
| Collaboration | Real-time collaboration features, version control | Limited collaboration features |
| Cost | Freemium model with paid plans for advanced features | Subscription model |
Adobe XD is a popular and powerful vector-based design software. It is built to meet the needs of UI/UX designers. Its user-friendly interface and extensive features make it a top choice for creating user interface prototypes and designing systems for various digital products.
While both Adobe XD and Photoshop are from Adobe, they are designed for different purposes. Adobe XD is built explicitly for UX prototyping, making it a favorite among those designing user experiences.
As we can see from the above graph, Adobe XD is more popular than Photoshop.
Now that we have a general understanding of Adobe XD, let's take a look at its features:
Adobe XD allows you to create visually appealing components like layouts, buttons, and icons. This improves the user experience by making your designs both appealing and practical.
You can create interactive prototypes that imitate user interactions and evaluate the design flow. This promotes a seamless user experience, allowing you to test and refine your ideas.
The platform enables users to effortlessly plan the structure and layout of your digital product with basic, low-fidelity drawings. This allows you to visualize the general framework before getting into the design.
You can create designs that effortlessly adapt to different screen sizes and resolutions. This is critical for reaching a larger audience and ensuring everyone has a positive experience.
The tool allows users to create and maintain libraries of reusable components and styles to guarantee consistency across all projects. This saves time while keeping your designs unified and on-brand.
To maximize the user experience, map out the pathways they travel via your digital product. This allows you to discover possible issues and enhance the overall experience.
Adobe XD integrates well with other design products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, and third-party plugins. Combining the best of various tools improves your workflow.
Simple animations demonstrating interactions and transitions will bring your prototypes to life, making your designs more interesting and realistic.
Test your prototypes with real people to get helpful input on usability. This lets you detect problems and improve your designs to match user wants and expectations better.
Here's a table summarizing the key differences between Adobe XD and Photoshop:
| Feature | Adobe XD | Photoshop |
| Target Audience | UI/UX designers, web designers | Photo editors, graphic designers, artists |
| Strengths | Prototyping tools and design handoff features. | Powerful image editing tools, vast filter library |
| Weaknesses | Limited photo editing capabilities compared to Photoshop | Not ideal for complex photo manipulation or UI/UX design |
| Collaboration | Real-time collaboration features | Limited collaboration features |
| Cost | Freemium model with paid plans for advanced features | Subscription model |
Wrapping Up
Design software has evolved from a single-tool solution to a robust ecosystem. Canva and other user-friendly software enable novices and social media creators alike. At the same time, Figma allows for collaborative UI/UX design methods. Adobe XD simplifies the design-to-development handoff process.
However, the design ecosystem goes beyond particular programs. These instruments require seamless data sharing, and frictionless asset exchange is similarly vital in other applications. This connection promotes a holistic design environment and allows users to create unique experiences.
Understanding your design requirements is critical. Using tools tailored to your workflow and skills may open up a world of creative possibilities. The future of design will be defined by a diversified and collaborative environment rather than a single dominant force.
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Sawaram Suthar (Sam) is a Founding Director at Middleware. He has extensive experience in marketing, team building and operations. He is often seen working on various GTM practices and implementing the best ones to generate more demand. He has also founded a digital marketing blog - TheNextScoop.
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