Top 20 new creative tools of 2017 so far

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Wouldn’t it be nicer to spend a little less time working and a little more relaxing and enjoying with yourself? Software creators are constantly striving to help you do just that, constantly coming up with new and improved tools to speed up your creative process. 

In this post, we bring you 20 new and newly updated creative tools for 2017, their main headline features, and where you can go to find more about them. 

01. Affinity Photo for iPad

The iPad version of Affinity Photo lets you use all the features of a full image editing program on the move

First launched in 2014, image editing software Affinity Photo has won itself a big fanbase by being both cheaper than its rival Photoshop, and in many ways more powerful (with features such as multi-million per cent zoom). 

This June the tool took another big step forward, launching as a full version on iPad. That’s right, this is no stripped-down version, but a full-featured photo editing tool on Apple’s tablet, and that’s something Adobe is unable to offer at the moment.

02. Google Material Design Colour Tool

Google’s free tool lets you create and share colour palettes then try them out on sample UIs

New for 2017, this free tool from Google helps you to pick the right colours for your apps, in accordance with its Material Design principles. Essentially, it makes it easy to create and share colour palettes, as well as apply them to a sample user interface. Most intriguingly, it assesses how legible your text will be within your colour scheme, according to accessibility guidelines. Learn more about the tool in this blog post. 

03. Calligraphr

Launched this February, Calligraphr is a new tool that lets you make fonts from your own handwriting. You start by downloading a template as a PNG or PDF. Fill it with your handwriting, scan it, and the tool then translates your scrawl into usable fonts. If you’re not happy with them, you can edit them digitally. See it in action in the video above.

04. Sketch 46.2

You can now save Sketch files in a way that anyone can work on them

Sketch has seen many updates since its original launch in 2010. But its big new release in April was a true game-changer. That’s because there’s a new way to save files, with a ‘.sketch’ extension at the end. And that means anybody can now create and modify sketch files, whether they have Sketch or not. You can even open them in a text editor. Learn more about the new file format in this blog post.

05. CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2017

CorelDRAW’s LiveSketch tool uses AI to make your hand-drawn strokes smoother

Released this April, the latest version of CorelDRAW, the illustration and graphics tool for the Windows platform, has brought AI to vector drawing. That’s in the form of the new LiveSketch tool, which interprets your hand-drawn strokes and combines them with existing vector curves, making it easier to produce smooth lines by drawing directly on a tablet. You can read our full review of the software here.

06. Adobe Illustrator 2017.1

In the latest version of Adobe Illustrator, you can now crop an image within the software

The latest version of Adobe’s vector graphics software, released in April, includes the ability to crop an image directly within the software. That means you no longer need to need to switch to Photoshop to crop your images. There’s also a new Colour Themes Panel, which lets you create, save and retrieve colour themes across the different Adobe apps, and some cool new typography tools. Read our Illustrator CC review here. 

07. Autodesk Graphic for iPad Pro

Autodesk’s vector editor is now available for the iPad Pro

Autodesk is best known for its 3D tools, but its vector software, Graphic for iPad, is pretty decent too, and this year it launched a new version for the iPad Pro. Compatible with the Apple Pencil, you can use it to create vector illustrations, graphic designs, technical diagrams or digital art. Features include keyboard shortcuts, quick switch tools and vector clipping paths.

08. Tilt Brush 12

The latest version of Tilt Brush gives you greater customisation options

Google's virtual reality painting app Tilt Brush, which works with the HTC Vive headset, has been around for a while now. But this April saw a significant update which includes a new web gallery for sharing your VR sketches and more powerful customisation options, such as being able to control the colour, intensity, and direction of one shadow-casting and one non shadow-casting light. You can find details of all the new features here.

09. Google Blocks

Google Blocks lets you create art you can walk around in using a VR headset

A free tool for owners of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, Google Blocks lets you create low-poly art within a virtual reality environment. Designed to complement Tilt Brush (above) rather than replace it, Google Blocks lets you export your low-poly artwork to games software such as Unity as an .obj file, or download it as an animated GIF.

10. Gravity Sketch VR

3D drawing software Gravity Sketch has launched a VR app

We’re big fans of 3D drawing software Gravity Sketch, so it’s great news that’s its just launched a spin-off virtual reality tool. Now available on Steam for the Vive headset, and coming to the Oculus Rift soon, it lets you pick and choose between freehand drawing and control-point editing, and once you’re happy with your models you can transfer them to CAD software to refine them.

Next page: 10 more new or updated tools for 2017

11. Project Felix 0.3

Adobe’s tool for compositing 2D and 3D has had an AI-powered boost this year

Project Felix is a tool from Adobe aimed at making it easier to composite 2D and 3D shots. Released this January, the latest update to Project Felix includes an AI-powered feature that will help you realistically recreate lighting inside a 3D drawing. Read our review of Project Felix here.

12. Adobe InDesign 2017.1

InDesign has been rejigged to make it easier to combine with other Adobe apps

The latest version of InDesign has a smart new interface, with updated icons that match those in Photoshop and Illustrator, making it much easier to work across the Creative Cloud tools seamlessly. Or, if you want to knock something up quickly with little effort, the New Documents panel has been rejigged to work more intuitively with Adobe Stock templates. Read our review of InDesign 2017 here.

13. Google Data GIF maker

Google’s tool lets you make animated GIFs comparing two things over time

The Google Data GIF maker is a free tool that does exactly what it says on the tin: let’s you make animated GIFs from raw data. Aimed at journalists rather than creative pros, it’s not especially sophisticated yet; you can essentially only use it to compare two sets of statistics over time (e.g. Mac vs Windows). But what it does, it does well; and this being Google, we’re expecting this might become a more powerful tool over time. Read more about it in this blog post. 

14. Corel Painter 2018

Corel’s used AI to let you apply digital paint in a way that closely mirrors traditional methods

Getting a little ahead of itself, Corel launched the 2018 version of its art software, Painter, this July. And the standout feature is a Thick Paint feature that lets you apply digital paint to your canvas in layers. This new innovation is aimed squarely at artists from a traditional painting background, who want to pull, push, scrape and build up their pixelated paint in a way that’s very close to the real thing. Learn more about the new version of Corel Painter here.

15. Guetzli

Google’s tool helps you condense your web image size quickly and easily

We’ve all tutted and drummed our fingers when a web page has taken ages to load. Often, that’s a problem primarily caused by large images, and Google has found a way to help out web designers struggling with that issue. 

Essentially, Guetzli makes JPGs smaller, without affecting compatibility. In fact, promises to reduce the size of JPGs by a whopping 35 per cent more than other methods. This clever little encoder is both free and open source, and you can learn more about Guetzli in this blog post.

16. CodePen Projects

Coding environment CodePen now lets you build websites within it

Most web designers will know CodePen as a way to test, showcase and critique each others’ code snippets. This year, though, it’s expanded its appeal by launching its own IDE (Integrated Development Environment). 

CodePen Projects lets you build websites within your browser and preview them while you’re building them. You can start from scratch or use templates, and there are some pretty smart debugging tools too. Read more about CodePen Projects in this blog post.

17. Adobe After Effects CC 2017

After Effects now lets teams collaborate on projects in real time

Released in April, the latest version of Adobe’s motion graphics, animation, compositing and video editing tool brings a lot of new features to the table. These include powerful new tools allowing team members to work on projects together in real-time, the ability to create motion templates to hand over to colleagues, and the Cinema 4D Composition Renderer, which gives you more control and enhanced speed when creating 3D objects. Read our full After Effects review here.  

18. Google AutoDraw

Google AutoDraw is an intuitive art tool that uses machine learning and AI software to work out what it is you’re trying to draw, and then creates a more professional looking version. It works by taking your rough doodles, matching them with images in its database, then combining the two to create slick-looking graphics. It’s free to download to your phone or desktop. See it at work in the video above.

19. Style Guide Guide

Style Guide Guide is a boilerplate template for building web style guides

Brad Frost is a well known voice in the web community, not least for his advocacy of what he calls Atomic Design, a methodology that involves breaking a website down into basic components that are then reused throughout the site. This May, Frost took that concept a step further by releasing The Style Guide Guide, a boilerplate template for building style guides for design systems. 

It imports HTML from a pattern library, and you can enter your documentation, usage guidelines, and design principles in Markdown to share among your team. Read more about the tool in this blog post. 

20. Animista

Speed up the creation of your CSS animation with Animista

Starting as a side project of UX developer Ana Travas, Animista is a collection of premade CSS animations that you can customise for your own purposes. Offering a sophisticated dashboard of options, this will save you reinventing the wheel every time you need a web animation.

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