To be completely balanced, I have had customer service issues with Canva in the past. I don’t like their policy on paid elements, and they really didn’t react well when I aired those criticisms online. Not a great response, and I was unhappy enough to start looking for Canva alternatives. However those issues have been resolved and Canva made some really welcome changes to how subscriptions work, so it was ultimately a big positive.
Unsurprisingly, that’s what used to hold me back. I just didn’t have the skills or the confidence to make graphics, and even if I was inclined to hire a designer for every single little job that routinely crops up – and when you start taking this seriously, there are quite a few of those – even throwing money at the problem wouldn’t have been sufficient, unless I actually had a full sledding squad of designers chained in the basement.

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SmallPDF – PDF to JPG converter might not be the most obvious choice here, but I need it for one very specific job: fixing blurry BookBub Ads. Sometimes Canva (and other programs) exports a blurry image at smaller sizes, an issue when it comes to BookBub Ads and the small, 300x250px format. Here’s my workaround: export the image as a Print-Ready PDF in Canva, convert it to a JPG using this tool, then reduce the size to 300x250px. That should kill your blurriness. (Note: I heard that Book Brush may have solved this problem in another way, but I don’t know the details – perhaps a Book Brush user can let us know in the comments).

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Sometimes, you need a photo of your website, blog, or Twitter profile with a little polished flair. While you can try manually customizing your screenshot to fit into a stock photo you already have, PlaceIt is an even better alternative. Upload photos directly into Creative Commons-enabled stock photo templates and watch your screenshots come to life.
If you're looking for stock photos to use in your next design but don't want to worry about all that attribution stuff, well, look no further. HubSpot offers a ton of free stock photos that you can use literally anywhere. All you need to do is download the batch and then be on your merry way to create engaging, visual content. Seriously ... just do it. 
Gone are the days of having to memorize image dimensions for every single platform. Once you’ve landed on a design you like, you can easily modify it for any printed need or social network by using Adobe Spark’s handy, auto-magical re-size feature. Duplicate the project, hit re-size, and select the platform you want to adapt it for, and our AI will take care of the rest. Boom. Content for all your channels in a fraction of the time.

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No doubt, the premium graphic design software  come packed with interesting and eye catching features that you won’t get in a free version. But, paid packages don’t fit in everyone’s budget especially when you are running a startup or building a new career in designing graphics. This is when these free graphic design software come to our rescue without putting burden on our pockets.

Marc Sylvester - Laughingbird Software


And in my quest to find alternatives to fancy computer programs, I've come across a lot of free tools that help take my marketing up a notch. In particular, I've adopted a ton of free tools for creating visual content that don't cost my team a dime. From templates to browser extensions to online photo editors, keep reading to see some great, free web design tools to use.

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