It is often the challenge of the small business to achieve similar results with fewer resources. Just because your marketing budget can’t compete with a larger corporation doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality. Here’s a helpful list of free online tools for creating your next marketing campaign:
Photos & Photo Editors
There are high-quality stock photos out there without high price tags. Hubspot has compiled a list of 20 free royalty-free image resources for creative use.
GIMP is viewed by many as the most sophisticated and best free photo editor out there. You can use this free image editing software to retouch, edit and draw. You’ll have to download the program to your computer before you begin.
Pixlr is a free, advanced image editor that has all the tools a professional graphic designer might need. And it’s totally free! The software has both a mobile and web app and features a sponge tool, brush tool, red eye correction, gradient and more. You can also pay for the Pro version for upgraded features, or stick with the free image editing software option.
BeFunky’s free edition allows users to crop, resize, rotate, and adjust exposure and lighting to your images.
Video Editing
When one thinks of video editing equipment, they usually associate that with a large price tag. Luckily, there are free apps and desktop programs available at your fingertips. iMovie and Magisto allow the user to string clips together and edit elements down, while each one offers its own unique set of features. If you don’t want to download software, check out the online editing program WeVideo which lets you simply upload your clips and start piecing them together.
Colors and Fonts
If you’ve ever struggled for what colors to use with an image, there are several free color palette generators available. Once you upload an image to Pictaculous, it returns a five-color palette based on the various hues in the picture. ColorZilla allows getting a color reading from any point in the browser, quickly adjusting this color and pasting it into another program, such as Photoshop.
There is a wealth of free font databases on the Internet. Google Fonts and Font Squirrel both offer a wide range of fonts broken down into categories such as serif, sans-serif, handwriting and others. DaFont is also a good resource but make sure the font you select is licensed for commercial use.
If you’ve found a font you’d like to use but can’t figure out the name, WhatTheFont can search their collection of font styles and find the best match.
West Press’ talented staff is here to help you each step of the way — from graphic design to printing to mailing services to large format. Contact West Press or your Account Executive at 520-624-4939 today.