Love blogging and writing content but can’t quite get the look of your blog and/or images right? No problem! I’ve used so many different tools over the years to try and get my blog and it’s images to look exactly how I want it to. Here’s some of the standout design tools that I’ve loved using.
Canva
First things first is to mention Canva. Quite frankly, I don’t think I know any blogger who hasn’t at least tried using Canva before because one, it’s free! and two, it has so many templates readily available to create blog and social media imagery. You can’t do anything too drastic when editing your photos, but it’s perfect for making Pinterest images, headers, or social media. I will often drop my DSLR photos into Canva and bulk make Pins!
Photoshop
If you want to take the leap (and the investment) then I would always recommend Adobe Photoshop. I must use Photoshop every single day because it has so many features that help me edit my photos. It has all of the lighting and photo editing tools, but it also has ways to transform images and fully correct them if needed. Whilst I like Canva for Pinterest – I use Photoshop when I’m making my headers as it gives me a lot more control and I can use my blogs fonts and colour scheme easier. I’ve previously written about Photoshop for editing too.
Lightroom
If you want the photo editing, but don’t need all the extra tools that Photoshop has then Lightroom is the way to go. Lightroom is purely photography focused, and it allows you to create presets which makes editing in the same style so much easier. I love making sure all my blog photos are edited in a similar and cohesive style, plus my Instagram theme is dependent on a preset too. Similar to Photoshop, I’ve already written a blog post about editing with Lightoom.
GIMP
Of course, if you’re not using photo editing programs often then it’s not really worth paying a lot of money for one. So you can get GIMP for free which allows you to edit photos, image retouching, free-form drawing, converting between different image formats, and even more. It’s not quite as powerful as Photoshop in all aspects, but it works great for blog image editing.
PhotoScape
PhotoScape has so many features that are similar to PhotoShop, except it is also free! Edit colours and lighting, add filters and effects and transform your images into beautiful creations you can’t wait to share online. You can even batch edit multiple photos to create a cohesive theme across your blog or socials.
Easel.ly
Love creating infographics? Or want to start making them? Well Easel.ly is an easy to use infographic builder. It uses interactive layout and the free version has plenty of free templates for you to play around with. Use charts, photos, and text to create exactly what you need
IconFinder
When you’re creating headers and images you may find you want to use some kind of drawing or icon! Including but not limited to social media icons. IconFinder has a huge selection of free-with-attribution icons to use for this.
For even more icons try looking on the Noun Project which also has a large selection for free.
Subtle Patterns
Sometimes you just need to find a good background and when that happens you can hop on over to Subtle Patterns. There’s 500+ patterns ready for you to freely download.
Alternatively, The Pattern Library also has a selection of patterns.
Stock Photos
On top of all of these tools, there’s also an abundance of free stock photo sites which should sit in your blog tool belt. For a larger list and more info about stock photos check out my post – but here’s a selection of the more popular ones:
Hopefully this post was helpful in pointing out some extra tools for you to use! Let me know which other design tools you love in the comments.
