Mac App Store is the simplest way to find and download apps for your Mac. To download apps from the Mac App Store, you need a Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later.
These days more and more would-be entrepreneurs are taking the plunge by building their own apps, so it’s no shock that we’ve seen a ton of growth in two key areas:
It’s unlikely that you’d wind up on an article about how to create an app without some technical expertise, so let’s focus on the second area in this post, highlighting how some of these pieces of software can help you to design an app using tried and tested frameworks.
In these cases, it isn’t the technical side of things (such as having a bit of coding knowledge) that’s the most significant barrier to creating an app, but the prohibitive cost and time commitments. Here’s a list of apps that address these issues.
Mobile app design software
Get a huge set of top design tools for modern app developers. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!
Before you create a mobile app…
For all of you out there champing at the bit to build your brand new mobile app, the first piece of advice is this: slow down. It’s very likely that you’ve already asked yourself the following questions:
If not, ask them. And make sure you’re answering them honestly.
Originality isn’t necessarily the be-all and end-all of a great app, as long as you’re putting your own unique spin on something rather than cloning it outright, but knowing how to make an app is never going to be a useful skill for you if you proceed with an app that you can’t imagine anyone else using.
Brainstorming and market research
Maybe you’re the type of person who can organize all of their thoughts in a sterile Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Or maybe you rather associate creativity and innovation with the visual medium.
Using an app like iThoughtsX or XMind to generate mind maps can be a great way to get your thoughts down on paper and allow you to hop between threads without having to entirely abandon what you were working on previously.
XMind prioritizes the visual and sharing aspects of mind mapping; it features two presentation modes and you can assign task information directly using its Gantt Chart view.
iThoughtsX, on the other hand, is a better fit for brainstorming projects because it’s so colorful and places more emphasis on planning and goal-setting. If you really want to use it for assigning tasks, it does offer a task management format that’s a little more straightlaced too.
Pick colors for your app
Choosing how to design an app is key and, in a world dominated by flat design and minimalist app icon designs, picking the right color is a big part of that! Like that paint sampling machine at your local hardware store, Sip allows you to upload or scan images with shades to find their component colors:
If Sip doesn’t offer up all the information you’d like to have at your fingertips, then Aquarelo makes it easy to put a name (or at the very least a comprehensive color code) to a face with support for up to 36 standard formats and 46 color profiles (21 RGB, 25 CMYK).
You can also use these apps to build and manage your own custom palettes (Aquarelo, in particular, is great for this), and pull them over to Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator, Xcode, and so on.
Prototype app design
Before you transition to the main part — coding — make sure you create a prototype or at least a few basic mockups to see what your app screens will actually look like. There’s a great app called Flinto on Setapp, which can help you build app design prototypes of any complexity.
It’s not just putting images and text blocks on a screen — Flinto comes with a dedicated Behavior Designer so that you build links across buttons, add scrolling areas, and even design animated transitions between screens. Create your prototype from scratch by combining custom elements, or import files from Sketch or Figma.
Once you’re ready with your prototype, use Flinto to export and preview your app design on iOS. This step is the most essential while it will help you see your app before it’s been created, and therefore avoid many mistakes.
Write code for your app
For a long time, Objective-C was the standard for the development of iOS apps. In 2014 Apple introduced Swift, calling it “Objective-C without the C,” as their coding language and (arguably) made life much easier for developers. Once you’ve picked up some knowledge of Swift, you’re more or less good to go!
When you do start coding, you can make your life easier with a tool like CodeRunner. Getting started is really easy:
How Ot Make App Designs On Macs Computer
In addition to being great for throwing together a quick PHP backend, this app allows you to write, run and debug code in more than 25 languages (including Swift and Objective-C) and boasts useful features like IDE-level code completion.
If you’re using Swift, PHP, or HTML for a project then it might be worth taking a look at TeaCode, which comes with over 70 built-in expanders. You can also create new expanders yourself if there are functions that you’re going to be using over and over (and over…) again.
At the end of the day, anything you can do to make the process of coding a little quicker is worth doing. That’s even more true if you’re working on your app as a side project or are trying to bootstrap things. The quicker you can move, the earlier you can get the app submitted to Apple and move into beta-testing stages.
Building and extending your app
It might seem like running before you can walk, but it’s never too early to start thinking about APIs and making sure that your app can play nicely with others. If your app is popular enough, a paid or freemium API can represent an additional revenue stream that many developers leave untapped.
API development comes with plenty of potential pitfalls of its own, so it’s not something to be undertaken lightly, but an app like Paw is certainly useful for getting to grips with writing and testing parametrizable requests.
If nothing else, considering how your app could make use of existing APIs (or how building one for your own app could benefit you) is a useful exercise because it prompts you to think about features that may be missing in your offering and help to dictate your future direction as you develop an app.
App marketing and more
We’d love to be able to tell you that, once you know how to make an app, that’s the hard part over. Unfortunately, as we’re sure you’ve already figured out, that’s not the truth. Xbox one cast app mac. Successfully releasing and marketing your new app is the next step in the process, and it’s not an easy one.
When it comes to apps, building your product is just the beginning. Whether you’re seeking steady growth or instant virality (the first may be less sexy, but it’s also more sustainable!), you have a long road ahead. However, as we’ve seen above, taking the first step on that road doesn’t have to take months or cost the earth!
But with all the apps mentioned in this article being available for a free trial on Setapp, along with over 200 other top apps, you can be all set and running towards creating your app within record time.
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So you can’t afford the high price tags that come with the paid t-shirt design software?
And now, you’re looking for completely free software or app that has plenty of helpful tools and features to help you come up with professional t-shirt designs for your clients, brand, sports team, family, friends, etc.?
If yes, we’ve got your back!
Below, we have compiled the ultimate list of the 11 best 100% FREE to use apps and software you can use to come up with unique tee designs without spending a cent.
11 FREE T-shirt Design Apps and Software:1. Inkscape
Compatibility: Linux, macOS, Windows.
This is one of the best free to use tee design apps you can use today if you don’t have the cash for the premium apps.
Despite being an open-source vector-based design app, this tool has the power and flexibility of the paid-for tools.
The fact that this software isn’t limited to vector images means you can use it to work on a wide variety of projects. It presents you with everything you need to create as well as edit your tee graphics.
Some of the top features you’ll get from this software include shape tools, pencil tool, calligraphy tool, pen tool, color tools, font and text editing, color tools, and multiple layers.
With Inkscape, you can turn existing bitmap images into vector images (using the tracing function), scale up/down your images, and export it in suitable formats for screen-printing.
The app also provides you with raster image formats like .png and .jpg.
Although this app comes with no t-shirt templates or YouTube tutorials, experienced previous designers have taken it upon themselves to provide you with free guides (like the one below). This makes the Inkscape learning curve easier for you.
2. GIMP
Compatibility: GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and other operating systems.
GIMP is another popular software for a t-shirt design that allows you to create professional-looking designs without spending hefty amounts of cash.
Best free mac apps for photo editing. The open-source software has been around for more than two decades. It has always been regarded as the best free alternative to Photoshop (or the granddaddy of free photo editing and graphic design) by millions of users.
For your tee design needs, this software presents you with plenty of customizable tools, including texts, brushes, arts, etc., to help you quickly come up with fully customized t-shirts.
Just like the paid-for, this app also provides you with free templates and YouTube tutorials for first-time users.
Note that GIMP undergoes regular updating by its team of volunteers to ensure it continues solving your design needs for free.
3. Custom Ink
Compatibility: in-browser designer.
This is an in-browser design, specially made for t-shirts. It’s 100% free to use. It comes with a user-friendly interface, making it one of the easiest to use apps.
When you get down to create your designs, you’ll enjoy using hundreds of images that come with Custom Ink. Keep in mind that these images are organized into categories like animals, nature, tech, people, occupation, music, transportation, etc., so you’ll likely find the image that matches your design needs.
Or you can simply upload your own design with just a click of a button.
It also lets you easily add numbers and names to your t-shirts. This will come in handy when you want to customize tees for your sports team or project group.
Once you’re done creating your designs, this app also lets you easily share them with your friends.
And if you want to order a t-shirt with your customized design, Custom Ink lets you do so. You just create your own design, place an order, and they’ll deliver the tee to your doorstep.
4. Smart Shirt Designer
Compatibility: macOS, Windows, Linux.
If you’re looking for a free to use tee design app for your football jersey design project, you just found the Smart Shirt Designer!
This designer software comes specially designed to help you come up with professional-looking football jerseys, which explains why it comes stocked with a huge list of brand logos (including Adidas, Nike, etc.), shirt designs, and color designs. These free designs will let you come up with your own patterns for your tees.
Best Graphic Design Apps Mac
It lets you create the front as well as back portions of your t-shirts.
Just like the premium software, this designer also gives you the option of using their free patterns or draw and design your own patterns…or upload your own images and logos.
The software will then save your complete design in its own supported format. But it allows you to export the design in popular formats such as png, jpg, and gif formats.
How Ot Make App Designs On Macs Mac5. Get Paint
Compatibility: Windows.
This is another free to download and use image and photo editing software. It also comes with a pretty intuitive and innovative user interface, which makes it quite easy to figure out for those using it for the first time.
Unlike most of the other t-shirt designs apps and software out there, this app takes your design work higher by making your designs look more realistic.
Download Apps For Mac
In other words, it distorts and applies your design, logo, text, etc. based upon the t-shirt surface, just like the final product will look like.
The fact that this software presents you with an ‘undo’ function means you’ll not have to worry about making errors during the design process as you can always erase them.
And oh! Don’t forget that this app has an ever-growing online community, which means you’ll enjoy plenty of help, support, forums, and tutorials easily.
6. Fat Paint
Compatibility: online design software
This is another excellent, free to use online design software, so you don’t have to download or install anything to start using it. Just make sure you have adobe flash installed on your browser.
The free software comes with plenty of helpful design functions to help you come up with stunning t-shirts. These include up to 900 fonts, thousands of vector clip arts, and even 3D templates, which are sure to make your t-shirt come alive!
You can also upload your own photographs and images, and then use FatPaint to crop or resize them according to your requirements. You can also easily combine your designs with other images and texts.
The only problem you’ll experience when using this software is the advertisements that keep popping up. If you find these ads annoying, you can simply subscribe to the pro version for ad-free design experience.
7. Krita
Compatibility: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Krita also made it to our list of the best free t-shirt design apps. It’s an image and painting app that offers excellent competition for commercial apps such as Photoshop.
One of the key features you’ll love in this app revolves around the different brush settings. You can easily change these settings using toolbar controls to meet your design needs. You can easily adjust aspects like size, color, blending mode, and opacity.
Just like Photoshop, Krita also allows you to create shapes using paths!
If you want to use pre-made images, then this app lets you easily import it by dragging them onto the canvas. The app has plenty of filters that you can apply to your pictures or layers to make them look even more amazing.
Mark you, Krita was developed by like-minded designers who have even prepared easy-to-follow tutorials to make it easy to use for everyone.
Imagine getting all these design editing features and functions without paying a dime? This is precisely why Krita makes our list of the best cost-free platforms for you!
8. Flash T-shirt Design Software
If you want to start your own t-shirt printing company but don’t have the money to invest in high-end software like Photoshop, then this design software will be a great alternative.
The free to use features a user-friendly interface plus a bunch of high-quality features to enable you to come up with professional-looking t-shirt designs for your clients.
When you access the Flash interface, you’ll be thrilled by the multiple fonts, clipart, and colors that you can use to make t-shirt designs of your liking. The vector clip arts, in particular, will match your t-shirt colors…and you can always change the colors to suit your needs.
9. Free-T-shirt Maker
If you’re still looking for an easy-to-use free t-shirt design too, this software will also make an excellent choice.
It has such a simple and interactive interface that you even a beginner will quickly get the hang of it. You’ll easily figure out what button or control does what within a few minutes of playing with the interface.
The t-shirt maker is generous with hundreds of clip arts classified into animals, education, abstracts, flower, heart, sports, technology, and more. The software lets you modify these clip arts, resize, and even rotate them to meet your unique design needs.
As with the other t-shirt designs apps and software, this free to use tool also lets you import your own images to create t-shirt designs of your choice.
10. Tee Designer Master
Compatibility: online-based software
Here comes another cool t-shirt design software you can trust to meet your t-shirt design solutions. Being an online-based app, you don’t need to do any downloading or installation to start using it.
You directly run in on your browser, which is easy as ABC.
This is the perfect software for those who wish to design t-shirts as well as other garments like a hoodie.
Despite being a FREE software, it lets you design both the front and back sides of your t-shirt. And in the preview option, it shows you both sides of your t-shirts together.
Customizing your designs and artwork has never been easier, thanks to the multiple editing tools this software provides you with. These include the paintbrush to let you change your t-shirt color, ability to add texts, logos, images, etc. to your design.
Its library stocks over 20 different types of images that you can use in your design work. Alternatively, you can upload your own images from your PC.
11. Alma mater Store
Compatibility: online-based tool
Last but not least, we have this Alma mater store online tool. Like all the other software featured on this list, this one too lets you come up with awesome t-shirt designs.
The website lets you easily create your own designs, save them, and share them with your friends without spending a penny.
Alternatively, they can print the t-shirt for you and send it to you if you chose this option. They offer you all the possible shirt sizes to help you chose one that suits you best.
You’ll enjoy using the many included tools like the text, brush, art, name, note, number, and many more to help you come up with truly unique designs.
What’s more, the tool will let you easily create design print on the back, front, and sleeves of your t-shirt.
Pro TIP: Take Advantage of FREE trials!
If you want to experience the powerful t-shirt design that comes with industry-leading software and apps, you can take advantage of the free trials. These will give you enough time to come up with t-shirt designs without spending a dime.
For instance, you can take advantage of the Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, both of which are products of Adobe a leading industry standard for image editing. Both software offers you a 7-day free trial, which is more than enough time for completing quick t-shirt design jobs.
Verdict
Graphic Design Apps For Mac
See, you don’t need to pay those large sums of money to get a professional-looking t-shirt design. In this list, we have just outlined some of the best free t-shirt design software and apps that you can use to come up with customized t-shirts for your clients, group project, sports team, etc.
All the tools we have features on this list are 100% FREE to use — no subscript need. You simply download/install them and get down to making your customized t-shirt prints.
Despite being free to use, the tools come with powerful features that you’ll find in the paid software as well, meaning they’ll help you create professional-looking t-shirt designs.
Related posts:How Ot Make App Designs On Macs Desktop
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