Best Online Drawing Software

Clip Studio Paint is my software of choice for digital art and illustration. Although you can add custom tools to your setup, the standard pencils, pens and brushes bring the feel of traditional drawing to the digital space. In short: very few tools feel as natural as this one. Design interactive animations for games, TV shows, and the web. Bring cartoons and banner ads to life. Create animated doodles and avatars. And add action to eLearning content and infographics. With Animate, you can quickly publish to multiple platforms in just about any format and reach viewers on.

Artists and illustrators have a new super-tool in their arsenal - Drawing Apps. Tech-savvy creatives are making the switch from paper to digital and reaping the benefits that drawing apps and art apps offer - powerful drawing tools, special effects, ability to create vectors or raster images and even 3D models.

There are a ton of drawing apps, art apps, painting apps, and sketch apps available now to creatives, each with their own USP. Some excel in vector drawings, others in graphic illustrations. There are dedicated apps for image manipulation, mimicking hand drawing, and 3d modeling. While several apps come only in paid versions, there are plenty of free drawing apps available as well.

What are the best drawing apps?

Here is a list of the best drawing apps and art apps in 2020 to express your ideas as digital art.

Adobe Photoshop

No list of creative apps would be complete without listing offerings from Adobe. Adobe has led the pack for decades, and Adobe Photoshop is still the professional's choice for raster art creation. Photoshop is one of the best drawing apps for Mac and PC; they also provide accessory apps for mobile devices and tablets.

The biggest drawback of Adobe’s offerings, especially for beginners, is that you now must purchase a subscription to use these apps. For established pros with stable cash flow, this presents little problem, but for aspiring amateurs and beginners, there are plenty of apps that offer as good functionality at a fraction of the cost.

Adobe Photoshop Sketch

If you’re looking for an app that combines the ease and simplicity of drawing on your mobile device with the power of Adobe Photoshop, check out Photoshop Sketch. When combined with your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, Photoshop Sketch allows you to fine-tune images created on your tablet later on your computer.

Adobe Illustrator

Just as Photoshop is the industry standard for raster pictures, Illustrator is the go-to for vector art. Illustrator is used to create everything from basic graphic design tasks like logos to elaborate and beautiful landscapes and portrait photos. With a little practice, you can make nearly anything into a vector in Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator Draw

Similar to Photoshop Sketch, but for vector drawing, Illustrator Draw allows you to create vector drawings on the go easily. You can then save them to your creative cloud account and fine-tune them in the full program later. Both Photoshop Sketch and Illustrator Draw are free downloads, but if you want to export the images for later editing, you’ll need a Creative Cloud subscription.

Autodesk Sketchbook

Sketchbook from Autodesk is one of the most robust raster drawing programs you will find. Compared to Photoshop, Sketch is a purpose-built platform for artists on the go. It’s not meant for photo editing or other tasks, so the program focuses on just what you need to draw on your tablet easily. The program is available for Macs, PCs, iOS, and Android devices. Unlike many apps that stick to proprietary or generic formats, Sketchbook conveniently has the option to export to Photoshop PSD format with layers intact. The best part? Autodesk has now released the full-featured drawing program for free.

Astropad Studio

The Astropad Studio is a different sort of app that can be a great help to folks looking to create digital drawings. For Mac and iPad users, Studio allows you to connect your iPad wirelessly to your desktop and use it as if it were a drawing tablet. The interface is pretty smooth, but make sure you have a clean system with plenty of free memory to avoid lag. You’ll also want a great stylus like the Apple Pencil.

Affinity Designer

The Affinity set of art apps is poised to take a significant bite out of Adobe’s market share. These programs are full-featured to the point of having things you have to buy aftermarket in Adobe. Designer is Affinity’s answer to Illustrator. It is a desktop vector art program with every feature you could ever want. Designer is available for Mac desktop or iPad.

Affinity Photo for iPad

Affinity is also ready to answer your raster art needs. Photo by Affinity is analogous to Photoshop. Its user interface is a bit smoother, however, with cleaver skin changes based on the type of task you’re looking to complete.

Both Affinity apps are inexpensive when compared to Photoshop and Illustrator. If you’re looking for a great program to learn photo editing or raster drawing with, look no further than Photo and Photo for iPad.

Inspire Pro

For all the painters out there, Inspire Pro turns your iPad into the ultimate painting canvas. This is one of those simple raster drawing apps that can produce some really fantastic artwork thanks for super realistic brushes and massive canvas sizes. You can download Inspire Pro from the Apple App store.

MediBang Paint

A few key features make Medibang’s apps the best drawing app for some artists. The app is available on any platform you can think of, from Windows and Mac desktops to Apple and Android tablets. They all have a cloud feature, which allows you to easily store, share, and open your work from any device. This is one of the free drawing apps you really should check out if you want to start drawing today easily and cheaply.

Procreate

Procreate is an iOS-only app designed to fully harness the power of Apple’s popular iPad Pro and Apple Pencil combination. More than just a drawing app, Procreate combines many of the powerful tools you’d expect to find in a much more robust program like Photoshop. Layers, custom brushes, and all sorts of special effects are available on your tablet. You can export images, with intact layers, straight to PSD format to open in Photoshop. For on-the-go art, check out their iPhone version as well.

Zen Brush 2

Zen Brush is a simple ink brush app for mobile devices. Of the drawing apps for free, it’s super inexpensive and fun to use, but it is pretty limited. But then, ink and paper are pretty limited too, but that hasn’t stopped artists from making amazing artworks with them for the last thousand years.

Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is a Mac OS app that combines many features and functions of other apps all into one tidy app. Pixelmator features many of the best features for drawing and the standard photo editing functions of other editors. It also features a 'layouting' mode for publishing and graphic design work. Their iOS app for mobile is really more of a photo editor rather than an art app.

Assembly

Those in the graphic design world know that there’s a lot more to digital art creation beyond hand sketching. Illustrator and other vector programs use shapes to “assemble” designs, and this is the idea beyond the Assembly app. By simplifying this process, the app allows users to create logos and design elements with ease quickly. Assembly is made for iOS devices.

Graphic

Formerly iDraw, Graphic is a full-featured vector design program for Mac, iPhone, or iPad. The program has all of the features of its more popular competitors, and it allows for the creation of anything from portraits to technical layout and CAD style drawings.

Inkist

Inkist is a super basic drawing app that is available for Mac computer and iOS devices. The mobile app is currently free. It’s not flashy, but it has all the right feature to make your artwork pop.

ArtStudio

Luckyclan’s ArtStudio is a full-featured raster art app for iPad or iPhone. It features multiple canvas sizes, layers with masks, over 400 brushes, unlimited undo/redo, and even over 40 filters.

Pixaki

Rizer’s Pixaki has a bit of a limited audience, but if you’re into pixel art, you’re going to love it. Export your creations to GIFs and other simple animation formations. The program can open and save to all the popular formats, including Photoshop, PNGs, and ZIP archives. Start with a sketch or photo, and soon you are rocking it retro style like it’s 1990.

Infinite Painter

Available on Google Play for Android tablets, Painter is a user-friendly drawing app that you’ll love. Organized workflows make navigating the screen easy and keep the workspace less cluttered. Powerful tools like 3D rendering and over 80 brushes make this one of the best full-featured art apps for Android devices.

ArtRage

If you’re looking for great drawing apps that can work on nearly any computer or tablet, you’ve got to check out ArtRage. ArtRage is available in multiple versions, including their free drawing apps called ArtRage Lite for Windows and Mac computers. This program and a loyal following of users, with many fantastic tutorials and inspiration available from other artists.

Concepts

The Concepts App is an interesting program aimed at professional designers that work on Apple, Windows, and Google devices. It uses vector drawings to store ideas; it is very much like a pocket notebook that has gone entirely digital. From brainstorm to “exploring happy accidents,” as the company puts it, to rendering captivating color illustrations and sharing them with the built-in presentation mode, Concepts has your creative brain covered.

Comic Draw

If drawing comics is your beat, Comic Draw is worth checking out. The app is tailor-made for creating single panel cartoons on your mobile device. You can pair it with the company’s Comic Life app for desktop on either Windows or Mac. Put your frames together into a full-featured comic spread with these art apps.

Paper by Wetransfer

If you’re looking for a doodle and sketchbook app to collate your ideas and let your creativity go on a walkabout, you’ll love this app. One of the best free drawing apps we know of, it's super simple and yet powerful. With a simple toolset and a blank page, let your mind go creative in Paper.

Tayasui Sketches

Available for Mac desktop, iOS mobile devices, and Android, Tayasui’s Sketches app is an artist favorite for many reasons. The user interface and app functions are some of the smoothest on the list. The clean look of the sketch space can’t be beaten. Color blending and gradient tools, along with patterns and the most realistic brushes you can find, round out this fantastic app. Not many free drawing apps offer so many great features. If you really like what you see inside of Sketches, there is an upgraded Pro version available with even more brushes and tools. The community is an excellent source of both advice and examples.

Sketch Club

As the name suggests, one of the best parts of Sketch Club is the club. The first rule of sketch club: everyone talks about Sketch Club. Combining social media inside the app, you can share your creations and comment on others. Who doesn’t love browsing an art gallery on your tablet? The community features daily themed challenges and lots of featured artists whose works you can browse for inspiration. The Sketch Club app is available for Apple iOS in the App Store.

Artflow

If your Android tablet isn't feeling the love with all of these iPad apps in the running, don't lose heart. Artflow is a beautiful drawing app for Android that features a clean user interface and lots of pro features like layers and custom brushes. It is the perfect drawing and painting app to create paint your dream.

Art Set 4

Art Set app for Ipad features tools which look very similar to ones in real life. Art Set 4 is the redesigned and upgraded version of Art Set with more advanced tools for digital painting. This paint program now also has a 3D paint feature along with a workspace which adjusts according to your needs. Although it is a free drawing app for iPad, the pro version gives a ton of features which are essential like setting canvas size of any resolution, auto backup, layers, and 150 more brushes than the free version.

iPastels

This app also features pastel tools which give the feel of real pastels. You can also blend colors on the app using your fingers. iPastels is a free drawing app which is especially useful when you want something to improve your skills when you are in the early stages of your learning. This iPad Pro drawing app has features like layers, apple pencil support, high accuracy which is done by 'floating point accuracy.' The blending of pastels also can be done without much effort in this art drawing app. One unique feature of this easy drawing app is that you can show the pictures as tiles alongside each other; this feature is called the seamless pattern editing mode. Don't have an iPad? Don't worry, iPastels is also a drawing app for the iPhone.

Brushes Redux

Brushes Redux is a free open source painting app which is used both in iPad and iPhone and the work syncs between the two. Other features of this iOS app are the ability to autosave, unlimited undo and redo, adding layers among others. This digital drawing app is quick and easy to use with openGL based painting engine and offers 64 bit paint. On their 3.2 version of the app, they are now providing experimental apple pencil support and started iTunes file sharing option.

Clip Studio Paint EX

If you are looking for an iPad drawing app which has dedicated tools to create manga and comics, this might be the perfect app for you. Not only this, but you can also do illustration, drawing and painting on this art app. To get six months free subscription a user has to sign up for the EX version of the app. This online drawing app is specially designed for professionals as it has a different exporting option like a movie or animated GIF's, it supports apple pencil, and Wacom bamboo sketch. One can draw moving illustrations as well in this drawing app for iPad.

uMake

An award-winning app, uMake is an iPad Pro drawing app for 3D design. Its website claims that uMake is the first 3D design app created for iPad. This 3D modeling and design app gives the features of desktop CAD software on the iPad. An excellent tool for those who are learning 3D modeling and the ability to do so in iPad opens the door for more creative work on the go. They also provide video tutorials on different topics so that it gets easier to learn how to use the app and to create desired results. Some of their best features are 3D tools to pull and push, augmented reality features and complex surface creation making it one of the best drawing apps for iPad pro. They offer a 14-day trial and then you can subscribe monthly, quarterly or yearly based on your requirement.

Paper Colour (Paint Draw Sketchbook, Paint Draw)

This android drawing app is suitable for those who want to learn drawing or painting. It has a feature called basemap which helps a user to set a photo as translucent and draw over it. This Android painting app is very similar to someone tracing on a paper and drawing over the original. This free app is suitable is more amateurs and has additional features on the pro version which can is through in-app purchases.

ibisPaint X

ibis Paint is the of the best drawing apps for Android out there. It has some unique features like recording your drawing as video, and SNS features where you can see and learn from videos other users have made. Other features like fast open GL technology, 142 brushes, 37 filters, and 700 fonts makes it an obvious choice for people looking for an android drawing app with lots of plus points. Apart from this, there are separate features for those artists who are interested in creating manga. To get more features like lesser ads, additional fonts, and materials, gradation map filter, etc. one has to purchase through in-app purchases.

Dotpict

Dotpict drawing free app is available on Android, iPhone, and iPad. This drawing app is only designed to create pixel arts. Some features of the dotpict app are different sharing and exporting options, zoom of canvas to see fine details and display of grids among others.

RoughAnimator

As the name says, RoughAnimator is used to create animations. RoughAnimator drawing app lets you create hand drawn frame by frame animations on multiple kinds of devices like Android, iOS and desktop as well. This animation app offers essential features like unlimited layers, onion skinning, audio, and video import, apple pencil and Wacom stylus support and more but at a price. What better way to start learning animation on your mobile?

Sketch by Sony

Sketch by Sony is a simple Android and iOS sketching app in which brushes and other tools are used to create digital art. The drawing can be done using a finger or a stylus, and the user can create layers in this application. Sony has provided with a big community in this app where people can explore other works and showcase their work as well. One can also personalize their feed and collaborate with other artists to create new work. The in-app purchases can access some additional features.

Pigment

Pigment describes itself as adult coloring app, but it looks like kids will also have a lot of fun with it. It is an app to color already drawn pages by professionals and many exclusively by Disney. There are more than 4000 pages to choose from and its drawing tools like pencils, markers and paint brushes give you the feeling like you are using natural colors and tools. There are unlimited colors to choose from the color wheel, sounds fun right? To get features like premium brushes and entire library you have to subscribe to the premium version.

Hexagon

Hexagon is a software for creating 3D models. It has all the tools a graphic artist would need. Some of the outstanding features are DAZ Studio Bridge, freehand modeling brushes, micro displacement modeling tools, comprehensive UV mapping modules, and more. In Hexagon, you can see real-time shadows and instant ambient occlusion. With this modeling software, you can create 3D models for game development in high quality.

Sculptris

An excellent platform for someone who wants to make a foray into the world of 3D drawing. With Sculptris, you can create base models which can then be refined in other software like ZBrush. The 3D software can locally redefine the internal structure of the model you are working with. Sculptris has tools that will make you feel like you are working with real clay. You can also paint a wrapped texture on the mesh surface with this software. (Please note that sculptris was last updated in 2011 and may not function in newer systems)

Blender

Blender is an open-source, free 3D software, which supports modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, composition and motion tracking, editing video, and 2D animation pipeline. Developed by experts from multiple fields around the world, Blender has a built-in powerful path-trace engine which offers real results. It has advanced sculpting and other tools through which you can create and transform the models with ease. Blender has a flexible interface in which you can adjust the layout, colors, fonts, etc. There are a lot of add-ons created by users which can be used by anyone using the software.

ZBrush

ZBrush is one of the best software for digital sculpting. With the customizable brushes, you can create shapes, textures, and paint virtual clay. The advanced tools offered by ZBrush is the same as the tools used by designers and artists worldwide. The software has a Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR), which enables you to see the artwork in a whole new way. You can convert the 3D artwork into 2D drawing and transfer the sculpted artwork into a comic book. Through ZBrush, you can add overlaying textures, draw outlines, and apply various effects from built-in presets.

Krita

Krita is an open-source painting program, made by artists to provide affordable art tools. This free painting app can be used to create conceptual art, texture and matte, illustration, and comics. Krita, designed for both amateurs and professionals, provides an intuitive interface. This interface can be customized according to your workflow. The dynamic brush tool in Krita can be used to create drag and mass and you can smoothen and stabilize your brush strokes. There are more than nine different brush engines like color smudge engine, shape engine and more through which you can customize your brushes, to suit specific requirements.

Aseprite

Aseprite is a program through which you can create 2D animations. Through this program, you can also create sprites, pixel art, retro-style graphics, and everything related to the 8-bit and 16-bit era. Aseptrite can work on Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu. The program can organize layers, create animations, and custom brushes. The work can be saved in GIF, PNG, and JSON format.

Marmoset Hexels 3

Hexels is a grid-based painting, animation, and design program. With Hexels, you can create complex designs and stunning drawings. With the combination of digital art tools and geometric grid, through which you can paint in free form with the precision of vector art. Powerful software for a pixel artist who can keep track of the colors and gradients with the palette. The canvas can be turned into animation, and a sprite sheet can also be exported easily. This program can be used on Windows as well as Mac devices.

Things to consider when choosing a drawing app:

Platform Matters

If you're serious about taking up digital drawing, consider your hardware choices carefully. Ideally, you'll want to sample the exact tablet and computer setup with the stylus of your choice. In short, some are glitchier than others and creating art requires more finesse than some can deliver.

If possible, consider a tablet with a stylus made by the same manufacturer, for example, the Apple iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil. This ensures the two pair perfectly for the smoothest possible drawing experience.

Also, look for pressure sensitivity. Different styluses handle the task differently. The feedback provided with pressure sensitivity adds an extra realism that makes drawing on your tablet as close to analog pencil and paper as you can imagine.

As with all apps, be sure to check the operating system used by the app of your choice. The most popular platforms are Windows, MacOS, Apple iOS, and Android, and unfortunately, very few apps work on all of them.

Raster vs. Vector Drawing Apps

In the digital world, there are two sorts of images you can draw. Raster images, like JPG or PNG photographs, are drawn pixel by pixel. If you zoom in or enlarge the picture, it will get blurrier and blurrier if it exceeds the pixel size of the image. Think of this as drawing on paper, and you are limited by how large your paper is. You cannot expand the paper size like you cannot expand the pixels. Drawing a raster image is as simple and reasonably intuitive, depending on the app.

Vector drawings solve this problem but unfortunately, add much more complexity. Vector images, like AI or EPS formats, are the world standard in the printing industry. These pictures are made more like computer programs than photographs. In vector drawing applications, you make many paths (lines or shapes) that make up your image. It takes a bit more practice. Some vector apps make the process super simple, but the professional programs with all the bells and whistles take a bit of getting used to.

3D Programs

No discussion of online drawing apps would be complete without a word about three-dimensional drawing apps. If you're looking to create 3D modeling or going for that other-worldly feel that is everywhere, you'll want to make sure to pick the best drawing app that is capable of producing 3D images too. And don't feel left out if you got your drawing apps for free, some of these include 3D rendering also!

Conclusion

Now that you have an idea of how many free drawing apps are out there to choose from, you may feel a bit taken back. But remember, the most fun part of finding the best canvas for your project of choice is the adventure in trying them all out! So which do you think is the best drawing app?

Do check out our list of the best Drawing tablets for Graphics, Art and Illustration for 2020.

Disclaimer: The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the final product. All images are copyright to their respective owners.

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What is the best free landscape design software?

The best free landscape design software is SketchUp Free. This lite version of SketchUp comes with the essential tools for creating stunning landscape designs. It has a 3D modeling tool you can use straight from your browser. Apart from that, it can also import and export different types of image files that you can manipulate on the interface.

If landscape design has to be done manually every time, the world would be filled with plain-looking yards. Gorgeous lawns would be a rare sight to see. Can you imagine having to create a diorama of a garden with miniature ponds, trees, and plants or worse, actually constructing fences, plots, and sheds just to see how they would look in your outdoor space? Don’t bother. This is why in this field, planning is of utmost importance. And on that note, landscape design software is your best friend.

In this article, we have compiled 12 of the best free landscape design software we could find on the market to cut time off your search for one. They’re different types of free: completely free, a free version with pro upgrades, free trial, and separate tool from the main premium product and thus is free. Whether you’re a homeowner, professional, hobbyist, or a business looking for a decent way to test the waters before possibly committing to a purchase, the ones on this list allow you to do just that.

What are the 12 best free landscape design software solutions?

Landscaping isn’t new. It is, in fact, an art that dates way back in human history, although it’s worth noting that the term landscape architecture wasn’t used until the 18th century. In the Roman Era, houses of notably rich and powerful families have manicured gardens and lawns and Japanese estates have their famous Zen garden. During the Renaissance period, the scope of art has extended beyond painting and literature. It also spread into the field of architecture, extending into lawns and gardens. Thus, landscaping as we know it was born. This practice had endured until the very day.

But unlike before, landscaping can be observed in most houses today and not just in luxurious celebrity homes either. In fact, it is a lot more common for modern households to have landscaped yards instead of plain ones. One reason for that is how beneficial this practice is. Landscaping has many ways of improving the overall appearance of a place. And in practical terms, homes with good landscape design enjoy a 5.5% to 12.7% higher selling rate than otherwise. If the property costs $300,000, this means that homeowners would be able to enjoy a bump of up to $38,100 in value.

There are other practical benefits to doing landscaping as well. For example, having plenty of trees, plants, and other vegetation in your home can help control flooding. On top of that, you can have plants surrounding you that release oxygen and curbs greenhouse gases. To enjoy these benefits and more, you need a proper landscape design, which you can achieve with the right software.

12 Best Free Landscape Design Software

1. SketchUp Free

Our pick for the best free landscape design software is SketchUp Free, the lite version of SketchUp solution perfect for personal use. This 3D modeling tool will run straight from your browser–no download is necessary and there are no strings attached. It’s available on the Trimble website. Here, landscape designers are given a room where they can draw their ideas and bring them to life.

Upon registration, you are granted access to your own repository on Trimble Connect, a building information management software or BIM software. This storage can hold up to 10 GB of images, plans, and any files that you need to keep. This means that your progress is safe and backed up. This is especially useful when creating a design that needs more than one session to finish. Not to mention that since the app is browser-based, you can access everything from anywhere; creating from one device and finishing it on the other entails no problem.

One of the most notable features of this app is being able to access Trimble’s 3D Warehouse. This is a huge library of shared 3D models from both vendors and users. Aside from that, SketchUp Free has a basic, but mostly sufficient, interoperability support. It’s capable of importing PNG, JPG, SKP and STL files and can export SKP, PNG and STL files as well. Finally, this version supports the use of SketchUp Viewer which allows you to view your design right from your iOS and Android devices.

Key Features of SketchUp Free

1. It runs straight from your web browser; no need for download nor credit card, just an internet connection.
2. It offers cloud storage capable of holding up to 10 GB of data.
3. It provides a degree of interoperability by being able to import PNG, JPG, SKP and STL files and export SKP, PNG and STL files.
4. It can connect with Trimble’s 3D Warehouse which is one of the biggest 3D model libraries in the world.
5. It can, through the SketchUp Viewer, display the created models on Android and iOS devices.

2. DreamPlan

Another great free landscape design software worth looking into is DreamPlan. Because of its ease of use and handy design tools, novices can comfortably utilize this in no time at all. It’s not only good for designing landscapes and gardens, but it is also capable of interior, room, home, and floor plan design and remodeling. It can be used for building models of pools and decks, as well as gardens, backyard, and more.

When dealing with outdoor landscaping areas, DreamPlan can do more than just place objects on them. It can actually reshape the terrain itself. You can level, raise, or depress the land as your design see fit. Aside from that, this landscape design tool also displays grid lines while in 3D view. This is mostly useful for easily determining whether something (walls, objects, rooms, etc.) can fit into the space available.

Do you already have a floor plan for your dream house? Great! Simply import the image/s into the system and wait for it to convert it into a 3D model. The converted model, of course, can be updated in the system if necessary. Moreover, expansion packages can be downloaded to gain additional content that could be used to improve outdoor living space.

If you are a homeowner or a hobbyist, DreamPlan has a free version that’s offered for non-commercial use.

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Key Features of DreamPlan

1. It is an easy-to-use tool that both professionals and beginners in the field of landscaping can truly enjoy.
2. It is capable of changing the shape of the terrain of outdoor areas to landscape.
3. It can show gridlines not only in 2D but in 3D mode as well.
4. It sports trace mode which converts imported images of house plans into working 3D models.
5. It offers additional content by downloading expansion packages.

3. Plan-a-Garden

Plan-a-Garden of BHG (Better Homes & Gardens) allows the creation of any type of garden design, whether it’s as big as your whole yard or just a small patio-side plot. It’s easy to utilize as well because you can simply drag and drop elements around. It has dozens of structures to choose from such as decks, fences, sheds, buildings, gazebos, ceramic pots, basketball hoops, and even ponds. There are pre-made templates where you can pick the background scene you can use for enhanced visualization. This app also provides a selection of textures like gravel walkways, meadow sceneries, and red brick patios.

There are over 150 flowers, shrubs, and trees to fill your garden with. And of course, it has no shortage of plants you can select from. With over 900 types available, your garden landscaping possibilities are practically endless. You can also choose the lighting for an area and Plan-a-Garden features a search filter where you can find the right size, type, and light of objects you’re looking for.

Progress is saved online so all your efforts and ideas won’t be lost. When satisfied with the outcome, an image of the garden can be saved and a list of all the plants included within can be exported as well.

BHG offers a browser-based app that you can try just by signing in with Facebook or filling up a short form. Oh, and it’s free.

Key Features of Plan-a-Garden

1. It utilizes convenient drag-and-drop functionality to move things around.
2. It provides background sceneries to choose from that can improve the overall visualization of your garden.
3. It has 900+ plants available for use including shrubs, perennials, and trees.
4. It features a series of textures, such as bright-blue water ponds, gravel walkways, and red brick patios, which upgrades the quality of the landscape being developed.
5. It allows the addition of structures like gazebos, fences, basketball hoops, and sheds to spruce things up.

4. Garden Planner

Garden Planner is a simple and easy-to-use landscaping and garden design tool which employs a drag-and-drop interface for arranging objects, buildings, plants, and trees. This app has a library of more than 1,200 objects and plant symbols to choose from. These are customizable so you can easily change their style, color, and size. Thanks to this, you can represent virtually any objects or plants for your landscape. With this tool, you can create the garden layout you want in minutes.

The app’s most recent version now includes the capability to view plans in 3D as well, instead of just an overhead 2D view. Also, Garden Planner has a new feature where you can stroll around your garden in 3D. Another feature worth mentioning is the Vegetable Patch Builder that uses a simple grid to easily create a layout of planting beds for your vegetables and herbs.

When done, you can print the plan, including a list of all the objects used in your garden. It also uses a coded system that can match the items in the list with the objects shown on the plan. This way, you’ll easily know where each item in the list is placed in your layout.

Garden Planner has a free browser-based application that you can try. Take note, however, that this online demo is an older version of the app (Garden Planner 3.0). Also, while you can still design your garden and print it out here, changes aren’t saved so all your progress is lost when the browser closes. There’s a trial version offered, too and a free license is given to charities/non-profit organizations, pre-school/primary school, or a community group. When you choose to buy the software, however, it would just be a one-time payment and all future updates are free.

Key Features of Garden Planner

1. It has a library which contains 1,200+ object and plant symbols to choose from.
2. It allows each of the created symbols to be customized in color, style, and size, which enables them to represent a vast range of objects in the real world.
3. It is capable of easily creating a layout for herb beds and veggie patches.
4. It provides a virtual tour where you can walk around the garden in 3D.
5. It has a simplistic approach and tools that enable the creation of solid landscape and garden design within minutes.

5. Marshalls Garden Visualiser

Marshalls Garden Visualiser performs a sophisticated task in a simple way. It’s a free visualization software that allows the creation of garden designs in 3D and then taking a walk around it, just like in video games. The virtual tour can be done during the building process which is helpful in making better decisions along the way.

With Garden Visualiser, you can specify the size of your garden as well as change the ground’s shape to ensure a more accurate design and layout. You can add an image of your house which is helpful in making sure that your garden looks good at your place. This free landscape design software also allows the creation of your own custom features such as garden paths and garden walls with pillars. And to further spruce up your design, the tool offers a vast selection of items that you can add such as walling, paving, summerhouses, edgings, paths, block paving, and planting.

Your design can be saved on your account online so your progress won’t be lost. Abba songs mp3 free torrent. When you’re done and satisfied with the design, you are also given the option of requesting information from Marshalls to help you order the products used in your layout. Thus, you can build the actual garden yourself, or hire a professional to do so.

You can find and run the tool straight from your web browser. However, Marshalls Garden Visualiser requires Unity Web Player to run so if you can’t get it to open, then try using a different browser such as Firefox or Opera.

Key Features of Marshalls Garden Visualiser

1. It allows 3D visualization and a virtual tour of your garden design while building it.
2. It can set the garden size for more accurate design.
3. It provides themes to choose from in case you don’t want to start from scratch.
4. It allows you to request Marshall for information about the products used in the design to help you in ordering them.
5. It offers a lot of objects and products to choose from.

6. Terragen

Terragen from Planetside is a comprehensive design tool that enables the creation, animation, and rendering of natural environments in a photo-realistic and high-quality fashion. The terrain can easily be created and manipulated with highly realistic aspects. In fact, real-world terrain can be replicated and altered through the third-party terrain editor. Digital elevation data can also be georeferenced in a snap. This software is not only good for designing your landscape but it can also greatly enhance the visuals through flexible lighting, gorgeous shading models, and complex atmosphere control.

One of the most useful aspects of Terragen when it comes to landscaping is its powerful functionalities for creating and manipulating objects. Fully-textured and complex objects? Not a problem. It’s easy to add life to your design by placing models of trees, houses, rocks, and others. You can use whatever object you had rendered and populate the environment with it by placing thousands or millions of them in the scenery. It has many advanced object manipulation capabilities as well such as instancing, granular-level customization, and procedural shading.

Terragen has a free version available for non-commercial purposes or as a 30-day trial for commercial evaluation.

Key Features of Terragen

1. It can create and alter the terrain to make it look exactly like what you had in mind, or better.
2. It features advanced rendering capabilities on atmosphere, clouds, objects, etc.
3. It has lots of sophisticated shaders that can be applied to many items in the design.
4. It can build, render and manipulate any type of object to make a detailed environment.
5. It can render natural environment or landscape in realistic quality.

7. Kerkythea

Kerkythea is a freeware solution capable of producing high-quality renders by using physically accurate lights and materials for the best quality outcome within an efficient timeframe. The software simplifies rendering by giving users every essential tool for automating the scene setup, such as material editor, GL real-time viewer and general render settings in one common interface.

Kerkythea is a powerful engine for Global Illumination rendering that follows real-world physics to accurately represent the design when it is actually realized. It also uses a real-life scale model, which means you should think of the actual size in making your design.

The software holds the effect of material on the rendered image in high regard which is why it features Material Editor System. This gives you great control over many aspects of the materials created. The materials produced in Kerkythea are very accurate because they’re based on the physical laws of the real world.

While it was created as a plugin for SketchUp, it is a standalone application and can be downloaded for free after filling out a form.

Key Features of Kerkythea

1. It features a powerful material editor that provides great control over the quality of the final material.
2. It contains all the necessary tools needed for automating scene set up in a single interface.
3. It provides a physically accurate scaling of materials.
4. It applies the physics of the real world for global illumination rendering.
5. It is capable of rendering your 3D models in photo-realistic quality.

8. PRO Landscape Home

PRO Landscape Home is the lite and free version of PRO Landscape. It can be used on mobile devices like phones and tablets to give your place a beautiful landscape makeover in a quick and easy way. You can start by taking a picture of your house with your device. From there, you can go ahead add objects such as plants, mulch, grass, furniture, pavers and many more to complete your design. To see how much you have improved (or worsen) your place, you can use the “before and after” view. You’re able to save the design you created and edit it later if you like. When everything looks good, you can share your work with your friends and families, or to strangers, on social media platforms. The design can also be printed or emailed.

The app contains a library of images that you can use for your design. There are plenty of items available but it’s easy to find something because they’re categorized and there’s a search function if needed. The images are also organized through climate zones which is helpful so that you only get to select the plants that would actually grow in your area. And to top it off, each plant has corresponding detailed information about it, such as description, mature height & width, botanical & common names, climate zones, and color. So if anything else, you learn more about nature.

One of PRO Landscape Home’s most notable features is its capability to find a nearby professional who can transform your design idea into reality. These are landscape contractors whom you can ask to bid for your work. If you, however, fancy on doing it by yourself, then you can consult the local garden center for helpful advice in picking out the needed landscape materials.

PRO Landscape Home is available for download on iPhone & iPad, Android phone & tablet, and Amazon Kindle Fire phone & tablet.

Key Features of PRO Landscape Home

1. It is available for your Android, iOS, and even Amazon Kindle devices.
2. It allows the creation of stunning landscape design in a matter of minutes.
3. It enables you to share your design ideas on social media sites.
4. It helps turn your designs into reality by finding a landscape contractor for you or aiding you in building it yourself.
5. It features a customizable library with loads of images for you to choose from.

9. iScape App

iScape App is a tool for iOS devices used for designing outdoor living space through the help of augmented reality. This app aims to let you have a solid visualization of your project before spending actual money for bringing it to life. It has a series of design tools, which are all easy to use so that you can quickly create a solid design even if you’re not well-versed in this kind of activity. Examples of these tools include cut-out & clone, duplicate, textures, favorites and spin/rotate.

There are no shortages of design elements in the system as well. In iScape App, you can find all the essentials such as plants, trees, fences, and bricks as well as the unique enhancements like fire pits, water features, and brick pavers. And the amazing part is that all the items used in your design are in the iScape inventory. This means that if you want to buy them, you can simply order from the app.

Moreover, you can share your design ideas with others where you can collaborate on a project for a better outcome. The app also empowers you to hire a professional landscape designer if you want to take your project to the next level.

You can download iScape on your iOS device from the App Store. The tool is free and there are in-app purchases you can avail if you want to upgrade your designing capabilities.

Key Features of iScape App

1. It is a simple tool with powerful features that are easy to use even for novices.
2. It features thousands of design elements you can incorporate into your project.
3. It has an inventory of all products in the system which allows a smooth and easy order process if you choose to.
4. It allows the sharing of ideas, images and projects, useful when collaborating with someone.
5. It provides you with an avenue for hiring professional landscapers in case you decide to take your design very seriously.

10. Lands Design

Lands Design is an all-inclusive landscape design software that covers all the phases involved in the development of landscaping projects. From generating technical plans in 2D, to realistic production of images in 3D, to the virtual walks throughout the green area design. It’s a handy tool capable of streamlining many of the tedious processes involved in CAD design such as generating terrain, creating 3D elements, designing planting layouts, preparing dimension plans, etc.

It has a huge database of objects that can be used for landscape design such as the 1,800+ plant species, civil work elements, vegetation, and urban furniture blocks. There are also about 500 drawings of 2D and 3D plants that are available in DWG format. It includes extensive features for terrain modeling and watering system. And another impressive functionality is the rich documentation feature which automatically updates when adding or deleting elements.

Lands Design has a free 30-day trial edition. It has the same functionality as the commercial edition except for the absence of nXt Plants, which are essentially the species of plants included in the “favorites” group, and the full access to the objects in ModelCAD, a vast library of design elements.

Key Features of Lands Design

1. It is a complete software solution for landscaping projects and landscape design.
2. It streamlines the laborious CAD design processes like producing documentation tables, designing auto sprinkler systems, and many others.
3. It has a vast database of design elements. (1,800 plant species, 500 2D and 3D plant drawings, urban furniture blocks, civil work objects, etc.)
4. It features walk mode, which allows you to walk around the rendered field to check how the 3D models in your design would look when implemented.
5. It can render photorealistic images for enhanced visualization through the nXtRender plugin.

11. Arborgold

Arborgold itself is a comprehensive CRM software that caters particularly to the needs of businesses involved in the green industry. But what you’d be more interested in is that Arborgold has released a free, online CAD tool for making stunning landscape drawings. It was initially made for businesses so that they could win more projects by first showing their work on clients but this tool is completely suited for homeowners wanting to design their outdoor space as well.

It has several unique features such as its capability to import some geo-satellite photographs of job sites and the freehand tool, which can be used to draw shapes without the usual restriction. There are also several fill patterns available ranging from grass, wood, to patio. Moreover, Arborgold’s free landscape design software can use images from your gallery or you can take photographs with your device. It also involves a layering process for images so that you can choose which image is on top and which are beneath it.

It must be noted that this is a separate tool from the Arborgold suite and thus, is free. You can try it by requesting a free account from them via sales@arborgold.com.

However, if Arborgold does not provide you with the powerful CAD tools you need, you can look at the best CAD software that professionals favor.

Key Features of Arborgold

1. It has a vast collection of hardscapes, lightening, houses, plants, irrigation, etc.
2. It can import images of geo satellite shots which can be used for the markup of job sites.
3. It has a variety of fill patterns such as mulch, grass, wood, brick, patio, and more.
4. It is capable of making shapes using freehand drawing tool and filling them up with patterns or color.
5. It utilizes layering concepts for images so they can be moved up and down in stacks.

12. Showoff.com the Visualizer

Showoff.com the Visualizer is an application that assists you in your home projects by helping you design and remodel the interior of your house and aiding you in embellishing your outdoor living space. You can upload a photo of your house, or of anything else, to be able to visualize how the completed project would be like even before starting the actual job. The design idea can then be offered to the community in Showoff.com for feedback, comments, and consultation.

The design process is pretty straightforward as well. First, you only have to upload a picture (your house, not your house, just a blank image, etc.) and then you can start adding the design elements of your choosing. The user interface is mostly dominated by a big screen for editing with buttons on the edges. There is a catalog of images that are organized into seven main categories and various subcategories that contain all the objects you can choose to place and arrange on the image you uploaded. Several options are available for manipulating each picture, including resize, flip and rotate.

Showoff.com the Visualizer is a free landscape design software for Windows and it can be downloaded from the site.

Key Features of Showoff.com the Visualizer

1. It allows you to submit your design to the Showoff.com community for tips and consultation.
2. It is an easy and straightforward tool to use.
3. It features a wide variety of plants as well as non-plant objects.
4. It is good for visualizing how a project would look like before starting the actual job.
5. It can help enhance your design by reading the design and layout tips on the Showoff.com website.

Start with Free then Move Up to Premium with a Landscape Design Software

And that concludes the list of the best free landscape design software we have chosen for you. Hopefully, you found the right one that can help you create the landscape of your dreams and bring it to reality.

If you weren’t able to pick one then we highly recommend trying the top product on our list, SketchUp Free. There’s no risk involved since it’s completely free and doesn’t require a download because it runs directly from your web browser. You even get big storage for your designs and other documents. Plus, you’re granted access to a database that houses a vast amount of design elements to choose from. There’s also no credit card involved in the registration so you can be sure that there are no payment commitments. Of course, if you want to take your landscape design to the next level, you can go for their premium edition.

Likewise, if you want to render and import image files to enhance the landscape design, you have plenty of top graphic design software that can work hand in hand with these free landscape design solutions. Taking it one step further for freebies, if you’re a landscape provider and want to showcase your designs on the internet, there are free website builders, too, that let you create a gallery of your work.