One of the most helpful things about Gravit Designer is that you have instant access to every single font in the Google Fonts library. So if we grab the Text tool from the toolbar, all we need to do is just click where we want our text to appear, and we get a text box with some dummy text that we can fill in with anything we want.Īnd then we can select our text and start taking a look at the options on the right-hand side. Subscribe to my Youtube Channel to view all current work and to receive notification on future videos.We'll start with the basics, and that is the default way of creating text. They are designed for the middle school mind, but I hope learners of all ages will benefit from the content. These videos are short and generally cover one or two concepts at a time. I plan to add more topics in the coming weeks. I move on to converting shapes to paths, using the Pen Tool, and modifying text. Secondly, I developed a series of instructional videos, starting with basic navigation and working with primitive shapes.

The first is a Table-Top Tips handout, which I place on tables during lessons and professional development workshops so that learners can access additional information or refer back to concepts taught during the day. 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 designer