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Adobe’s pricey toolbox is often seen as a necessity for designers and creators, but the software company also offers some free design tools and apps. I tested seven free Adobe design apps; let’s see how they measure up to the paid tools.
1Adobe Photoshop Express
Photoshop is one of Adobe’s most famous and used tools. Photoshop Express is like having Photoshop in your pocket for free.
With Photoshop Express, you can apply themes and looks to quickly change the style of your photos. There’s a huge library of filters including variations of styles and sliders for intensity.
You can edit RAW photos, which is great for keeping control over the quality in your editing process. Using Adobe Sensei technology, you can selectively edit your images, changing specific parts of your image—including saturation, color balance, or even creating stickers from cut-out image parts.
Like traditional Photoshop, there’s a healing brush, layer blend options, retouch tools like the skin smoother, and tools like Photoshop’s neural filters, includingadding a smileor caricature and facial resize features.
Photoshop Express is a great free tool for editing on the go. It doesn’t have the full editability that Photoshop offers, but you can do a lot with it.
Download Adobe Photoshop Express for free from theApp Store,Google Play Store, orWindows Store. There are some premium features available.
2Adobe Express
Adobe Express is Adobe’s equivalent to Canva, available as a browser app and as a mobile and tablet app. Express is a great tool for creating graphics for social media, including images and videos.
There’s a handful of greatAI tools in Adobe Express, which are part of its free plan, making Express one of the few places you’re able to access free AI design tools. Some of its AI tools include auto video captioning, animating from audio,creative text effects, text-to-image generation, text-to-template generation, and generative fill.
For a template-based tool, there’s a lot of customization available for free users. You can create original and good-looking designs based on the provided, fully editable templates. This gives Illustrator and InDesign a run for its money since it’ll save you time and energy to produce similar quality results.
Adobe Express is free, but there’s also a premium upgrade for extra features—including a background removal tool. You don’t need an Adobe subscription to access Adobe Express, just an Adobe account to log in.
Download Adobe Express for free from theApp StoreorGoogle Play Store, or visit Adobe Express online.
3Adobe Firefly
Adobe Firefly is the browser-based hub of Adobe’s generative AI tools. While it’s not officially an app or software, you can access some current and upcoming Adobe AI tools for free, and there’s also a premium upgrade for extra features.
Firefly was released to test out yet-to-be-implementedtools like generative recolorand text effects before being integrated into Adobe software. Some of these tools are still available on Firefly, and as Adobe works on future AI features, more are added—but they are removed once permanently implemented. At the time of writing, you can use Generative Expand, Generative Fill, and Text to Image.
4Adobe Fresco
Adobe Fresco is a free tablet-only digital drawing app. AlthoughFresco has a lot of competition with Procreate, it offers a bunch of extra features not found in the famed iPad app, such as vector drawing, exporting to Adobe libraries for cross-platform support, and being available for Microsoft tablets as well as iPads.
Along with Adobe Express, Adobe Fresco is probably one of the best free Adobe apps. The closest comparison to Adobe Fresco is the Adobe Illustrator tablet app, which is a paid-for product.
You can draw in vector and raster by using live paint brushes, pixel brushes, vector brushes, and smudge brushes. Fresco lets you import textures, use layers, add animation, and manipulate your drawings in many ways. You can save in a variety of formats and export your Fresco art into other Adobe software.
Download Adobe Fresco for free from theApp StoreorWindows Store.
5Adobe Aero
Aero is a largely unheard-of Adobe app and it’s totally free. It’s a specified tool for creating Augmented Reality (AR) designs.Adobe Aero can be downloadedon Apple tablets and phones running iOS 14 or higher and is available on some desktops too.
You don’t have to be an AR expert to use Adobe Aero. Adobe provides a library of 3D assets you may use, or you can import your own made elsewhere—like Blender. Aero is a fun app to experiment with a lesser-used creative outlet. Since it’s Adobe’s only AR app, there’s no comparison to paid tools.
6Adobe Color
Adobe Color is a free browser-based app, and some of its features are integrated into Adobe Express.
Adobe Color has many helpful features for designers to improve the colors within their designs. It includes a contrast checker (to meetthe WCAG contrast standards), the vector recolor tool which is also available in Adobe Illustrator, a color theme creator, and color themes for color blindness.
Using Adobe Color in your workflow is a great way to easily add accessibility to your design cycle. Some aspects of this tool exist in other Adobe software, but it’s nice to have everything in one place with the browser tool.
7Adobe Capture
This free Adobe mobile and tablet app is great for designers. It captures inspiration from the real world and creates ways to apply it to your designs. Designers and artists usually have camera rolls filled with satisfying patterns and color palettes found in the wild; Adobe Capture integrates that into one app so you can easily access it when creativity strikes.
The Adobe Capture app works hand-in-hand with most other Adobe tools, both free and paid, you just need an Adobe account to sign in. It also works without an internet connection—I had so much fun capturing assets from nature during a dog walk, so I can use those patterns, palettes, and graphics in future designs.
Hit the camera icon in the app, and you may capture anything from audio, materials, typography, shapes, graphics, colors, looks, patterns, and brushes. Once captured, these assets can be used in a variety of ways through the app to turn into tools you can use elsewhere.
This app is a game changer for creating color palettes, patterns, and graphics from the real world. It auto-generates extra themes and images, and offers RGB, CMYK, HSB, and LAB colors to save you a ton of time and energy in creating those yourself.
While you can create most of the same things in Adobe programs like Illustrator, InDesign, or Photoshop, using the free Adobe Capture app is quick and easy and provides results you may not create organically.
Download Adobe Capture for free from theApp StoreorGoogle Play Store.
You might think you’re getting less because an app is free, but after testing these seven apps, I’m impressed with most of them. Adobe Express is a fantastic free way to design for digital and social marketing. Adobe Fresco is like using a free version of Procreate, but with its inclusion of vector drawing, it surpasses Procreate in that aspect alone.
I’ve mostly enjoyed using Adobe Capture, something I hadn’t heard of before. The palettes and patterns it generates would take me so much longer to create myself, and its ability to add to the Adobe Library so I can use assets in other Adobe software is very convenient.
