To help my students and teachers learn Gravit, I created a few resources. JPG, it works well for output to digital fabrication tools like laser cutters and CNC machines, something we do often at Westside Neighborhood School. Gravit is a simplified version of Adobe Illustrator, not overwhelming but enough to meet the needs for basic graphic design.

There is both a free and a pro version of the program, and the company provides reasonable education pricing upon request. It also provides versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Recently, however, with my school’s 1:1 Chromebook program, I needed to find a tool that worked on the web, or at least had a Chromebook extension. Both work sufficiently well for the needs of middle school students. In years past, the free programs of choice were Gimp (replacement for Photoshop) and Inkscape (for Illustrator). As such, I continue to explore less expensive (or free) programs that students can use. And while I continue to use this professional software suite, it often does not fit a school’s budget when trying to support a 1:1 laptop program. I have always enjoyed the Adobe Suite for both vector and bitmap graphic design.

Gravit illustrator