Graphic design tools help people create logos, posters, social media posts, app designs, and illustrations. A small group of software companies make most of the design tools used by American designers and businesses today.

Some of these companies started in a garage or a dorm room in the United States. Others came from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Armenia before becoming popular with American users.

In this article, we’ll discuss the top leading graphic design tools used in the United States, based on their history, ownership, and the kind of designers they are made for.

Quick Comparison

Rank	Company	Founded	Owner / Founders	Headquarters	Core Focus
1	Adobe	1982	Founded by John Warnock & Charles Geschke; publicly listed, led by CEO Shantanu Narayen (Anil Chakravarthy takes over December 1, 2026)	San Jose, California	Professional Design & Photo Software
2	Canva	2013	Founded by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht & Cameron Adams; privately held, led by CEO Melanie Perkins	Sydney, Australia	Easy Online Design for Everyone
3	Figma	2012	Founded by Dylan Field & Evan Wallace; publicly listed (NYSE: FIG), led by CEO Dylan Field	San Francisco, California	App & Website Design
4	Corel (CorelDRAW)	1985	Founded by Michael Cowpland; owned by Vector Capital, led by CEO Prasannaa Ganesan	Ottawa, Canada	Vector Drawing & Photo Editing
5	Affinity (Serif)	1987 (as Serif)	Started by Serif; owned by Canva since 2024	Nottingham, England	Free Drawing, Photo & Layout App
6	Sketch	2010	Founded by Pieter Omvlee & Emanuel Sá; privately held, led by CEO Pieter Omvlee	The Hague, Netherlands	Mac App & Interface Design
7	Procreate	2011	Founded by James Cuda & Alanna Cuda; privately held	Tasmania, Australia	iPad Drawing & Painting
8	Picsart	2011	Founded by Hovhannes Avoyan, Artavazd Mehrabyan & Mikayel Vardanyan; privately held, led by CEO Hovhannes Avoyan	Miami, Florida	Photo & Video Editing with AI
9	Pixelmator	2007	Founded by Saulius & Aidas Dailide; owned by Apple	Vilnius, Lithuania (now part of Apple)	Mac & iPhone Photo Editing
10	Visme	2013	Founded by Payman Taei; privately held, led by CEO Payman Taei	Rockville, Maryland	Presentations & Infographics

Adobe – The Industry Standard for Professional Designers

Image Courtesy: Adobe (Official Website)

• Founded: 1982 
• Owner: Founded by John Warnock & Charles Geschke; publicly listed, led by CEO Shantanu Narayen (Anil Chakravarthy takes over December 1, 2026) 
• Headquarters: San Jose, California

Adobe started in December 1982, when two computer scientists, John Warnock and Charles Geschke, left Xerox to build their own company. They began in Warnock’s garage and named the company after a creek near their homes. Their first big product was PostScript, a language that helped computers print pages clearly.

Adobe later became famous for Photoshop and Illustrator, which many designers still use every day. In 2013, it moved its tools to a monthly subscription called Creative Cloud. Shantanu Narayen has led Adobe since 2007, and Anil Chakravarthy will take over as CEO on December 1, 2026.

What Adobe does: Makes design, photo editing, and video software for creative professionals.

Services: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe Express, and Creative Cloud subscriptions.

Canva – The Tool That Made Design Easy for Everyone

Image Courtesy: Canva (Official Website)

• Founded: 2013 
• Owner: Founded by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht & Cameron Adams; privately held, led by CEO Melanie Perkins 
• Headquarters: Sydney, Australia

Canva began with a yearbook design tool that Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht built while they were university students. Perkins found professional design software too hard for most people to learn, so she wanted to make something easier. After more than 100 investors said no, Canva finally launched in 2013 with Cameron Adams as its third co-founder.

Today, Canva has more than 265 million monthly users in over 190 countries. It bought the company behind Affinity in 2024 and is valued at around $42 billion. Melanie Perkins still leads Canva as CEO, and the company is still private.

What Canva does: Gives people an easy drag-and-drop tool for making designs, even without design skills.

Services: Social media graphics, presentations, posters, videos, and AI design tools.

Figma – A Design Tool Built to Work Like Google Docs

Image Courtesy: Figma (Official Website)

• Founded: 2012 
• Owner: Founded by Dylan Field & Evan Wallace; publicly listed (NYSE: FIG), led by CEO Dylan Field 
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Figma was started in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, two friends from Brown University. Field was only 20 years old and used a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship grant to work on the idea full time. Their goal was a design tool that works in a web browser, so teams could edit the same file together, much like Google Docs.

Adobe agreed to buy Figma for $20 billion in 2022, but the deal was cancelled in 2023 after regulators raised concerns. Figma then went public on the New York Stock Exchange on July 31, 2025, and its shares more than tripled on the first day. Dylan Field still leads the company as CEO.

What Figma does: Provides a browser-based tool for designing apps, websites, and digital products together.

Services: Interface design, prototyping, FigJam whiteboards, Dev Mode, and AI design tools.

Corel (CorelDRAW) – A Canadian Rival to Adobe

Image Courtesy: Corel (Official Website)

• Founded: 1985 
• Owner: Founded by Michael Cowpland; owned by Vector Capital, led by CEO Prasannaa Ganesan 
• Headquarters: Ottawa, Canada

Corel was started in 1985 in Ottawa, Canada, by Michael Cowpland. In the 1990s, it became famous for CorelDRAW, a popular drawing program and an alternative to Adobe’s tools. For a time, Corel was the biggest software company in Canada.

Corel later changed hands several times and is now owned by the investment firm Vector Capital. Besides CorelDRAW, it also makes PaintShop Pro, Painter, and WinZip. Prasannaa Ganesan is the CEO, and the company used the name Alludo from 2022 to 2025.

What Corel does: Makes drawing, photo editing, and illustration software for designers and hobbyists.

Services: CorelDRAW, PaintShop Pro, Painter, and other design and productivity software.

Affinity (Serif) – A British Alternative Now Owned by Canva

Image Courtesy: Affinity (Official Website)

• Founded: 1987 (as Serif) 
• Owner: Started by Serif; owned by Canva since 2024 
• Headquarters: Nottingham, England

Affinity comes from Serif, a British software company that started in 1987 and is based in Nottingham, England. Serif spent almost five years rebuilding its software from scratch before it released Affinity Designer in 2014. Affinity Photo followed in 2015 and Affinity Publisher in 2019, giving designers a one-time-payment option instead of Adobe’s monthly plans.

Canva bought Serif in March 2024 in a deal reported at about $380 million. In October 2025, the three apps were merged into one app called Affinity, which is free to use. Affinity now belongs to Canva, led by CEO Melanie Perkins.

What Affinity does: Offers drawing, photo editing, and page layout tools in one free app.

Services: Vector drawing, photo editing, and page layout in a single app.

Sketch – A Mac App That Changed Interface Design

Image Courtesy: Sketch (Official Website)

• Founded: 2010 
• Owner: Founded by Pieter Omvlee & Emanuel Sá; privately held, led by CEO Pieter Omvlee 
• Headquarters: The Hague, Netherlands

Sketch began in 2010 when Pieter Omvlee and designer Emanuel Sá built a simple drawing app for the Mac. Omvlee had started working on the idea in 2008, while he was still a university student. The app was made for designing apps and icons, and it won an Apple Design Award in 2012.

Sketch grew for its first eight years without any outside investment money. Its main design app still runs only on Mac, and big names like Google, Apple, and Nintendo have used it. Pieter Omvlee leads the company as CEO today.

What Sketch does: Makes a Mac app for designing apps, websites, and icons.

Services: Interface design, prototyping, team sharing, and plugin support.

Procreate – A Tasmanian Drawing App Loved by Artists

Image Courtesy: Procreate (Official Website)

• Founded: 2011 
• Owner: Founded by James Cuda & Alanna Cuda; privately held 
• Headquarters: Tasmania, Australia

Procreate was made by Savage Interactive, a small software company from Tasmania, Australia. James Cuda, a lifelong artist and freelance web designer, started it with his wife Alanna, who is the company’s CFO. After about 18 months of work, they released the app for iPad in March 2011.

Procreate became a favorite drawing app, used for everything from fashion designs to movie posters. The company later added Procreate Pocket for iPhone and an animation app called Procreate Dreams, which won an Apple Design Award in 2024. Savage Interactive released Procreate Dreams 2 in December 2025 and keeps updating its apps.

What Procreate does: Makes a drawing and painting app built mainly for iPad.

Services: Digital drawing, painting, and 2D animation tools.

Picsart – A Photo Editing App Born From a Father’s Idea

Image Courtesy: Picsart (Official Website)

• Founded: 2011 
• Owner: Founded by Hovhannes Avoyan, Artavazd Mehrabyan & Mikayel Vardanyan; privately held, led by CEO Hovhannes Avoyan 
• Headquarters: Miami, Florida

Picsart was started in November 2011 in Yerevan, Armenia, by Hovhannes Avoyan and his co-founders. Avoyan says the idea came after his young daughter shared an illustration online and was bullied. He wanted to build a simple editing app that anyone could use to create and share their own art.

Picsart became a unicorn, worth over $1 billion, in 2021, and moved its headquarters to Miami in 2022. It added AI tools like an image generator in 2022, and it says more than 100 million creators and businesses use it today. Hovhannes Avoyan still leads the company as founder and CEO.

What Picsart does: Offers photo and video editing tools with built-in AI features.

Services: Photo editing, video editing, AI image generation, stickers, and templates.

Pixelmator – A Lithuanian Photo Editor Now Owned by Apple

Image Courtesy: Pixelmator (Official Website)

• Founded: 2007 
• Owner: Founded by Saulius & Aidas Dailide; owned by Apple 
• Headquarters: Vilnius, Lithuania (now part of Apple)

Pixelmator was started in 2007 in Vilnius, Lithuania, by two brothers, Saulius and Aidas Dailide. Their small team built image editing apps for Mac and iPhone, including Pixelmator Pro and Photomator. The apps won several awards from Apple, including three Mac App of the Year awards and two Apple Design Awards.

Apple announced in November 2024 that it would buy Pixelmator, and the deal was completed in February 2025. Pixelmator for iPhone stopped getting updates in January 2026. Pixelmator Pro is now part of Apple Creator Studio, alongside Apple’s other creative tools.

What Pixelmator does: Makes photo and image editing apps for Apple devices.

Services: Pixelmator Pro for Mac, Photomator, and AI-powered photo editing tools.

Visme – A Maryland Tool for Presentations and Infographics

Image Courtesy: Visme (Official Website)

• Founded: 2013 
• Owner: Founded by Payman Taei; privately held, led by CEO Payman Taei 
• Headquarters: Rockville, Maryland

Visme was started by Payman Taei, who had already co-founded a web company called HindSite Interactive. He built Visme to help people make presentations and infographics without hiring a designer. The company is based in Rockville, Maryland, near Washington DC.

Visme has grown mostly on its own money, and one estimate puts its 2024 revenue at about $15 million. Today it offers AI tools that help people create presentations and other visual content. Payman Taei still leads the company as founder and CEO.

What Visme does: Helps people create presentations, infographics, and reports without design experience.

Services: Presentation maker, infographic maker, charts and data visuals, and AI design tools.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which is the most widely used graphic design tool in the USA? 

Adobe is the long-time leader among professional designers, while Canva has the most everyday users, with over 265 million people using it each month.

Which design tool is best for beginners? 

Canva is a popular choice for beginners because of its simple drag-and-drop tools and ready-made templates.

Which tool did Adobe try to buy for $20 billion? 

Adobe agreed to buy Figma in 2022, but the deal was cancelled in 2023 after regulators raised concerns.

Which design tool is free to use? 

Affinity is free to use since Canva merged its three apps into one in October 2025, and Canva also offers a free plan.

Which tool is made mainly for drawing on an iPad? 

Procreate is built mainly for drawing and painting on the iPad, and it is made by a small company in Tasmania, Australia.

Which design tool is now owned by Apple? 

Pixelmator is now owned by Apple, which announced the deal in November 2024 and completed it in February 2025.

Which of these companies started in the USA? 

Adobe, Figma, and Visme started in the US, while the others began in Australia, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Armenia.

Are graphic design tools regulated in the USA? 

Design tools are not heavily regulated, but the companies must follow data privacy and copyright laws, which matter for stock images and AI-made content.

Which company recently announced a new CEO?

Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy as its next CEO, and he takes over from Shantanu Narayen on December 1, 2026.

Why do these ten companies matter to everyday people? 

These companies make the tools behind the logos, posters, social media posts, and app designs that Americans see every day.

Conclusion

America’s graphic design software market is home to multinational corporations, emerging start-ups, and independent developers from various countries. The market sees the likes of Adobe, Figma, and Visme – homegrown US-based design software companies, as well as Canva from Australia, Corel from Canada, Affinity from the UK, Sketch and Procreate from the Netherlands and Lithuania, Pixelmator from Armenia, and Picsart from another country. 

These ten companies offer a wide range of tools that meet the demands of designers and everyday users seeking to create graphics from social media content and apps. These companies will continue to play a critical role in ensuring that Americans can design and share their ideas digitally as artificial intelligence transforms the creation process.