Posters are very useful for advertising and even for making presentations, especially in the last few years. They have become both a very popular and effective way for individuals to reach out to audiences with their ideas. You can too, but first, you have to have the ability to design a very persuasive and professional poster to begin with. Here are 7 best poster design software and tools that you should consider.
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Poster Design Software
ArcSoft Print Creations
Arcsoft Print Creations is an excellent and very simple poster making software, which allows you to create your own new signs and posters. With ArcSoft, dozens of templates for posters are ready to go, and you can choose one that fits your style the best. Next, you can simply choose your own photos either from the Web or upload them from your personal collection. You can also adjust and customize your photos, such as adjusting the brightness, saturation and contrast. You can also even customize the people on the photos to remove anything that you don’t like, such as red eyes, pores, or even wrinkles. Following customizing the photos, you can type in your title and any other text as you see fit into the poster, and just like you could the photos, you can customize the text to your specifications as well. Lastly, you can print the poster directly off of the software, or you can also share it on social media sites or e-mail it to your contacts.
Apart from that, you can use ArcSoft Print Creations for other personal print projects such as scrapbooks, greeting cards, albums, and more.
Details: For Windows & Mac – Free with Limited Features, $29.99 to buy
RonyaSoft Poster Designer
RonyaSoft Poster Designer is a very simple to use software program with which you can design and print your own personal posters, signs, and banners. Users are able to begin making their posters immediately as the software already has a wide variety of several ready to go posters and banners already set up. One of the more unique features of RonyaSoft Poster Designer is that even the very minor details of posters can be customized as you see fit. Just a handful of the minor details that you can customize include pictures, the text (such as text box, font size and shape, placement), color, size and style.
Details: For Windows – Free with Limited Features, $19.95 to buy
Poster Genius
Looking for the best scientific poster design software? Here you go. PosterGenius is a powerful and effective poster making software that can help users create professional grade posters in ten minutes or less. Poster Genius works by separating content on the poster, allowing the user to focus only on the research results, while the software will manage the rest of the post automatically. In addition, a wizard on the software guides you through the set up of your poster. While the software manages the appearance, text placement, images, tables, fonts and captions of the poster, the wizard will guide you through defining the dimensions, ordering your sections, etc. Many little, time consuming things associated with poster making is also eliminated with Poster Genius, as it aligns your captions, images, content and text boxes all on its own. Poster Genius is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8.
Details: For Windows & Mac – Free with Limited Features, $139.00 to buy
Free Graphic Software For Mac
Multipurpose Software – Microsoft vs Adobe
Microsoft Word
In case you don’t know, Microsoft Word is capable of creating poster, despite the lack of photo editing features. The basic steps to create a poster using Microsoft Word include selecting the poster size, add background image, add extra images/cliparts, and insert text/WordArt. You can also insert SmartArt and charts, add effects on text and images, etc. Besides, there are plenty of free online poster templates for MS Word available for download. It is actually a very solid tool to make posters, once you’ve discovered the versatility of Microsoft Word especially in the newer versions.
Other Microsoft Office products like Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Publisher are also popular tools to create posters, as they share similar functionality as Microsoft Word.
Details: For Windows – Free 1 month trial, Starts from $6.99/month or $69.99/year (subscription-based) or $139,99 (one-time)
Adobe Photoshop
When you are talking about graphics editing software, Adobe Photoshop is probably the first tool that comes to your mind. If you are looking for an advanced poster maker with maximum customizability, Adobe Photoshop is definitely at the top of the list. However, you will need the budget and photo editing knowledge before you can start creating beautiful and personalised posters with this amazing software.
Adobe InDesign and Illustrator are also capable of making posters, and you should understand the differences between them before making your purchase decision. Here’s an article that compares and explains the differences and their pros and cons.
Details: For Windows & Mac, Free 30-day trial, Starts from $9.99/month or$119.88/year
Online Poster Makers – Faster & Easier, But Less Features
PosterMyWall
PosterMyWall allows you to create custom posters, photo collages, photo calendars, and photo cards for free. There are plenty of free poster background images provided or you can always upload your own. Once you have created a poster background, you can add more photos, text, and cliparts to design your own poster easily. You can even add stock photos using their image search tool, which provides free-to-use photos under the Public Domain Dedication license.
Best Mac Programs For Graphic Design
Details: Web app – Free to download created posters with watermark (registration required), $2.99 (photo quality) or $7.99 (poster quality) to get higher quality poster
Posterini
Posterini is best for creating professional posters and digital flyers for your business events, products, news, etc. There are over 30 templates provided for different purposes such as new opening, conference, festival, concert, and party. Once you have selected a template, you will be directed to the customization page, where you can add text and images, resize, insert shapes, and more.
Details: Web app – Free to download created posters with watermark (registration required), subscription plans available to unlock premium features.