Top 10 Free Design Tools for Eastern Europe

2026. Canva's AI assistant can now create designs in context of website and business apps



Canva has updated its AI assistant, which now uses its proprietary Lucid Origin model to create editable designs in dialog mode and with integrated tools. As part of this update, Canva has added integrations with Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Zoom, allowing AI ​​bot to gather context by reading emails, conversations, files, and meeting details. The AI ​​assistant also gets web search capabilities, allowing it to browse websites and gather context. The assistant now uses layers to create designs, giving users the flexibility to customize various aspects of the final product. The AI ​​code generator can now import HTML, and users can use text suggestions to describe the types of spreadsheets they want to create. The company also claims that the new Lucid Origin model is now 5 times faster and 30 times cheaper.


2024. Microsoft’s AI-powered, Canva-like Designer app lands on iOS and Android



In a move that feels suspiciously like the universe trying to impress us with its digital dexterity, Microsoft’s AI-powered Designer app has finally decided to grace all iOS and Android users with its full, non-previewed presence. Picture it as Canva but with a dash more AI sorcery, allowing users to conjure up images and designs from mere text prompts—be it stickers, greeting cards, or collages, as though that’s just how the universe operates. Available in over 80 languages (because why should Earth get all the fun?) and also free on the web, mobile and Windows, Designer comes equipped with “prompt templates” to nudge you into creative brilliance. But it doesn’t stop there—oh no—you can also craft emojis, avatars, monograms, wallpapers and even give your selfies a galactic makeover. Why anyone would ever return to basic, non-AI-powered tools after this is anyone’s guess.


2024. Adobe Express mobile app now features AI tools



Adobe has added Firefly, an AI-powered image generator, to the Express app for Android and iOS. This significantly expands the capabilities of image creation and editing while away from a desktop. Adobe Express users can create images based on text queries and similarly add, delete, and move individual image elements. The app allows you to apply edits, remove backgrounds, and resize images with a single tap. Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers can import and edit projects from Illustrator and Photoshop in Express.

2023. GIMP - free, open-source image editor.



GIMP is one of the most popular image editing programs due to its extensive functionality, which is comparable to premium applications such as Photoshop and Lightroom. At the same time, it has a simple and highly customizable user interface. In addition to basic image editing functions, it includes professional tools such as color adjustment, noise reduction, automatic image enhancement, retouching, composition, and illustration creation. GIMP can convert between various image formats and supports the following formats: JPEG, .psd (Photoshop), and .psp (Paint Shop Pro). The program's native functionality can be contributed by third-party plugins created with the support of a large community.


2018. Google launched its Paint alternative



Google has released a simple online graphics editor, Google Canvas, which allows to quickly draw by hand (like in Paint - default program on Windows). It's free and available at canvas.apps.chrome. Despite the word "chrome" in the address, it can also be opened in other browsers, such as Firefox. Drawings can be saved to your computer as PNG images. You can also import saved images back into Canvas. The app works with both a mouse and a stylus on tablets. Canvas will likely soon join other online editors in Google Drive and G Suite.


2018. Autodesk unveiled free design app for iPad – SketchBook



Autodesk has released a mobile version of its graphic editor SketchBook for iPad. As is typical of other editors of this type, it features a huge number of brushes, accessed through a simple interface and the ability to pin your favorite tools to a panel. With Dropbox integration and the ability to import and export Photoshop-friendly files, it's a great solution for working on the go.


2011. Autodesk acquires Pixlr, takes on Adobe Photoshop



While Adobe is fighting with Apple and trying to sort out its SaaS-collaboration strategy, it can loose another niche - the online graphical design software. One of the main contenders - is Autodesk. Last week Autodesk, the maker of engineering design software acquired the best online Photoshop alternative - Pixlr. Some people might say that for the design software cloud technologies - are unnecessary, because they require first of all the speed and the rich interface of the desktop apps. But remember, the same thing people where saying about the cloud document editors. Like with the online document editors, the main advantage of online graphical editors - is collaborative features. For example, a designer needs to reconcile a template with a client, and an engineer needs to collaborate with the chief designer on a scheme. In such cases, the real-time collaborative editing is much more effective than sending file via email back-and-forth.


2008. Adobe Photoshop now has a free web version



Adobe's web services aren't really used for any useful functions - they're just nice to look at. The new Photoshop Express, which has been released this week, is totally aligned in this trend. And its launch isn't so much important for the SaaS market as it confirms the general trend of Adobe services – yet another useless service that doesn't even come close to delivering the capabilities of regular Photoshop. All it offers is 2 GB of storage space for photos. One can only hope that this is all a PR stunt ahead of the arrival of truly killer apps from Adobe (or based on Adobe technologies) that will turn the web app market upside down.