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Design brand visuals and pitch decks on free tools

Sketch ideas, design your logo and web layouts, make images and build a presentation without paying for design or slide subscriptions.

This is for a founder, freelancer or small agency who needs to look professional on a small budget. Excalidraw is for rough ideas, Penpot for proper design, Fooocus and Upscayl for images, and PPT Master for turning your material into a deck.

  1. 1

    excalidraw

    Sketch diagrams, flows and rough layouts quickly before committing to a design

    Instead of Miro. MIT Worth a look

  2. 2

    penpot

    Design logos, social graphics and website layouts, and share them with clients for comments

    Instead of Figma. MPL-2.0 Worth a look

  3. 3

    Fooocus

    Generate original images and backgrounds on your own computer

    Instead of Midjourney. GPL-3.0 Worth a look

  4. 4

    upscayl

    Enlarge and sharpen small or low-quality images so they are usable in print and on large screens

    Instead of Topaz Gigapixel AI. AGPL-3.0 Worth a look

  5. 5

    ppt-master

    Turn your notes or a source document into a draft slide deck

    Instead of Paid presentation and slide-design apps. MIT Worth a look

Before you start

['Fooocus and Upscayl work best with a computer that has a decent graphics card. On an ordinary laptop, expect slow image generation.', 'PPT Master runs inside an AI coding agent, so you need one set up, and the model behind it may charge per use. Check and edit every slide, because the drafts are a starting point.', 'Penpot can be used on its hosted version or self-hosted. Self-hosting means you run updates and backups, and it has fewer plugins and templates than Figma. Check the licence of any generated image or font before using it commercially.', 'upscayl uses AGPL: if you change it and offer it to others over a network, you must share your changes.']