It’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words. But what about the tools you can use to make these kinds of pictures? And is it even possible to make helpful pictures and diagrams right on your phone? Well, you can do that. We’ll also show you some of the best graphic design apps for iPhone and iPad in this article.
With a few well-made apps, it’s easier than ever to draw while you’re on the go. With these apps and a little practise, anyone with an iPhone can make a simple graphic quickly. Even experienced graphic designers might like some of these apps. So feel free to look at this list.
1. CANVA – BEST OVERALL Graphic Design Apps for iPhone
We can all agree that Canva has changed the way graphic design is done. It’s not easy to make a user interface for a task like graphic design. But Canva has done a great job of making a very easy-to-use user interface. It is by far the best interface we have ever seen in free online software.
Canva has a tonne of free templates and elements that you can use to make graphics. First, you can choose a category quickly, like presentation, poster, logo, or Instagram post (or any other social platform like Facebook). You can also make animations and videos quickly by using templates that are already made.
We’ve been using Canva for a few years now, and we love how much control we have over the parts of a graphic. You can even change the details of templates and elements that are already there to make them fit better with the ones you add.
But some parts of the free version have a watermark, which you can get rid of by buying the pro version. The pro version is also the only way to get rid of the background or change the size of an image. In the free version, there are no ads at all, which is good.
But one thing that bothered us about the app was that it showed a project collaborator editing long after they had left the draught. This could make it hard for you to change or make the graphic.
Overall, we can recommend Canva to anyone, and we’re big fans of it ourselves. Also, the free version is enough for most people who just want to use the most basic tools. So, you don’t have to buy Canva Pro, but it’s a good deal because it’s cheaper than most other apps.
Price: Free, Pro Version: $1.99 onwards and $119/year
Download Canva
2. ADOBE EXPRESS – POWERFUL DESIGN APP FROM ADOBE
Adobe was one of the first companies to make apps for design. They were quick enough to make Adobe Spark, which is now called Adobe Express and is a direct competitor to Canva that is free to use. This app is on our list of the best graphic design apps for iPhone and iPad because it also does a good job of making graphic design easy.
Like Canva, Adobe Express has a variety of beautiful templates that you can use to start your design. They have templates for posts on social media, posters and flyers, logos, and infographics. It also has tools that help you do things like remove backgrounds, change the size of images, and change parts of templates. Isn’t that pretty cool?
What we like most about it is that it has the same effects, filters, and textures as Photoshop. You also get a number of tools to edit and change videos. But people who have used Adobe Spark before might have trouble because the user interface has changed. This is a little disappointing because the old interface was easy to use, perfect, and simple.
There is also a “pro” version that gives you access to all templates, fonts, stock photos, and Adobe Express on the web. Since it’s a well-known brand, we’d suggest getting a premium subscription if your job requires you to design tools a lot.
Price: Free, Pro version: $9.99/month onwards.
Download Adobe Express
3. PIXELCUT – BEST Graphic Design Apps for iPhone
Pixelcut is one of these graphic design apps for the iPhone. Along with traditional graphic design tools, it has a tool for making AI art. The design tools are similar to those in Canva and Adobe Express, so all of the basic features are there, along with templates and elements for posters, social media posts, and presentations that have already been made.
But the AI tool for making graphics needs quite a bit of work to get it where it needs to be. Like all AI generators, you have to answer a question and then wait for your art to be made.
Aside from AI generation, the background remover and the magic eraser are two other features that make Pixelcut stand out. We found that they worked well, but they seemed to lower the quality of the image. Pixelcut also gives you an animation tool that makes it easy to turn your drawings into movies and GIFs.
Pixelcut also lets you make a website to show off your work. This website can be added as a “link in bio” on social media apps. Pixelcut has a free version and a pro version. The free version is good enough for most people, but the pro version gives you access to all templates, cutouts, and other elements to improve your graphic design experience.
Even though the user interface was mostly easy to use, a lot of people had trouble signing in to the app. Despite that, Pixelcut is mostly stable, so it’s easy for us to recommend it.
Price: Free, Pro version: $9.99 onwards
Download Pixelcut
4. DESIGN LAB: GRAPHIC TEMPLATES – DESIGNING APP WITH GREAT EDITING TOOLS
Design Lab is another graphic design app for the iPhone and iPad that has a lot of features. Even though it doesn’t have a lot of unique features, we were impressed with how well this app worked and how it got the basics right.
This app has templates to get you started on your design, as well as a good set of filters and adjustments to make your photo look better. You also get a powerful text editor that lets you change the size, position, and transparency of text, as well as curve it and change it in 3D.
Layer-based editing is also available in Design Lab, just like it is in Canva. This lets you easily change all the parts of your graphic. But a few people complained that templates wouldn’t load on the mobile network and that the app would randomly crash. So be careful!
The free version of the app has a good number of templates and features, but you can only use the app to its fullest extent if you buy the pro version.
Price: Free, Pro Version: $9.99/month onwards
Download Design Lab
5. CREATE: GRAPHIC DESIGN + FONTS – MINIMAL USER INTERFACE
All of the other graphic design apps for iPhone on this list mostly use templates and elements that have already been made. Create, on the other hand, is an app that gives you full control over your drawings by letting you make graphics from scratch without using any templates.
When you start with a blank canvas, you can start your illustration by adding shapes and text. To give you more information, you can add pictures from your gallery to the canvas. There are also good options for changing the fonts and colours of the graphic. Create has vector design as well, which we thought was a good addition.
Keep in mind that this app is mostly for people who want to make something from scratch instead of using a template. If you want to use it as an alternative to Canva, it might not be as appealing.
There is also a pro version of this app that lets you save an unlimited number of projects, share project files that can be edited, make your own canvas sizes, and export to.pdf and.svg, among other formats.
Price: Free, Pro Version: $3.99/month onwards
Download Create
So there you go! Here is a list of 5 great graphic design apps for iPhone and iPad that we highly recommend. But if you have any questions about that, you can look at our Frequently Asked Questions section below.
FAQS ON GRAPHIC DESIGN APPS FOR IPHONE AND IPAD
1. Can you create graphics in the Photos app on iPhone?
The Photos app has a few tools for making notes, but it can’t be used to make illustrations and graphics with a high level of detail.
2. Can you import photos to Canva?
Yes, you can import captured photos in your gallery to Canva.
3. Which is the best format to export a graphic?
PNG is a high-quality image format that is the most recommended file extension for an illustration.
TURN YOUR IDEAS INTO GRAPHICS WITH THESE APPS
Now you can use these graphic design apps for iPhone and iPad to make colourful pictures of your ideas. Even though there are other popular apps like Paper by WeTransfer and Autodesk Sketchbook, they are mostly for sketching and not for making illustrations, so we were careful to only include apps that are useful for making illustrations. We hope this has helped you decide what to do.