My Blogging Toolbox

by Mia M.

Essential Programs, Sites and Software For Blogging – Most Free

Hello, you gorgeous beast, and welcome to my blogging toolbox!

If you aren’t sure what this page is, it’s basically a virtual toolbox where I share all of my blogging essentials, tell you why they’re essential to me and help you find useful things to make blogging easy for you too. As this blog is new, I’m building this toolbox from the ground up – so make sure to check back for updates! (I’m adding this post to my navigation bar, so it’ll be easy access.)

Graphic creation and editing tools for bloggers – FREE

All bloggers know that images are absolutely crucial. They liven up your posts, capture your audience’s attention and images are how you can get your blog found through Pinterest (which, I’m telling you, is a blogger’s best friend.).

Best free software for creating blog graphics (printables, social images, headers, etc):

Canva.

Canva is by far and large the best online software (paid or otherwise) for creating blog graphics – and it’s free!

There are 1,000’s of free templates available for you to use from everything to diaries and planner inserts to printables to blog and email headers. They make their money by offering premium images at $1 a pop, but the free range is extensive and the service itself is free.

On top of this, Canva makes social media images crazily easy as it has all the social platform’s preferred sizes in the templates for you to edit.

Canva - One Of The Best Free (And Insanely Easy To Use!) Graphic Design Tools For Bloggers. Create Infographics, Featured Images, Posters Etc.
Canva - One Of The Best Free (And Insanely Easy To Use!) Graphic Design Tools For Bloggers. Create Infographics, Featured Images, Posters Etc.

This is an example of a 5-second graphic from Canva.

Although Canva do offer infographic templates (and very pretty templates too!) I prefer Piktochart for infographic creation.

Best free software for creating infographics:

Piktochart.

For pure infographic creation, my favourite software has to be Piktochart. It has a lot more creative freedom than Canva and I prefer their graphic selection.

However, I would argue that Piktochart requires more effort and a little more design skill as they only have a very few (pretty basic) templates, so you’ll need to do the work yourself.

Best free image editing online software for bloggers:

PicMonkey

PicMonkey is one of the best image softwares available for free on the web. I have Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator – but I usually find myself going to PicMonkey first if I want to add quick things like text or overlay effects to my images. Again, it’s such a shockingly good free service!

Best free stock photo websites:

Quick explanation: stock photos are professionally taken, high-quality photographs that you’re legally allowed to use in your own work.

My Essential Websites And Tools For Blogging And Bloggers - Most Of Them Free
My Essential Websites And Tools For Blogging And Bloggers - Most Of Them Free

So you see that background photo? Lovely isn’t it – well, it isn’t mine. That’s a stock image. You can get paid stock images, but there are also sites where you can find them for free. (And stock photos are a great idea for people who don’t like photography or don’t have access to photography equipment.)

I’d say that my two favourite free stock photo sites are:

Pexels

and

Unsplash

The only difference between them, in my opinion, is that Pexels has a wider range and Unsplash has a more arty one. Both are amazing.

Best Free Icons (For Use In Images Etc.)

In case you aren’t quite sure what icons are and what they’re used for, they’re just teeny tiny little graphics that you can use in things like branding and infographics. They’re very cute. If you do want to use them in your blog graphics, you can get them for free from:

FlatIcon.

Graphic creation and editing tools for bloggers – PAID

Best Image Editing Software

Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

I love Adobe Photoshop – but I wouldn’t recommend it (due to the price) unless you’re doing a job or a course that needs it. Otherwise, it’s an absolutely amazing program that I love. Same goes for Adobe Illustrator.

Okay, so I’ve only focused on graphic creation so far because images are the main form of media that I’m using (other than text) on my blog right now – but remember this post is getting updated! I hope you guys found some useful software on here; do you use any of the sites I’ve mentioned? Would you? Let me know your thoughts below!

Peace,

Tags: , , , , ,

About Mia M.

I'm going through a bit of an existential crisis right now, I'll tell you about myself when I figure out if I'm real or not.

Leave a Reply

hey, i’m mia

tattoo lover, plant hoarder, DIY addict and overall stoner grandma

Check out the FREE Gifts. Or latest free DIY eBooks from our best compilation.

Turn off Ad Block to reveal all the secrets. Once done, hit any button: