Free cartoon tools are a great way to create cartoon art in just minutes. They're also an excellent way for new artists to practice and improve their cartooning skills at no cost.
As you can imagine, there are many free cartoon tools out there with different features — some a lot better than others.
To save you time, this article will show you our recommendations for the best cartoon tools on the market today.
Disclosure: Although I receive affiliate compensation at no additional cost to you to support this site that compensation in no way influences my recommendations, which are strictly informed by my 10+ years of online business experience consulting for clients large and small. My aim is to always recommend tools that offer the best return for your investment (for more details, read my Affiliate Disclosure).
What are the Best Cartoon Tools?
Best Overall:
1. ToonyTool
ToonyTool is a great canvas to create single-frame cartoons with ease. You can choose from one of their many cartoon images or just upload your own.
The editor is easy to use and you can just move objects around using drag and drop.
Just select a background, characters, props and dialogue bubbles and then use ToonyTool to move, rotate and resize your images as you please.
2. Stripcreator
Best for Comic Strips
Stripcreator is a very simple but useful comic strip builder for beginners, especially if you've never created a comic strip before.
It shows two characters for each panel that you can manipulate by choosing from a category pull-down menu, a character shape menu, two types of bubble (dialog or thought) and bubble text.
3. WriteComics
Best for Templated Cartoons
WriteComics is another free tool to create simple cartoons. Just choose your characters in one of three categories: people, animals or aliens, add a background, add dialogue bubbles and presto.
When you're done, WriteComics will generate a link to your image so you can access your creation.
4. MakeBeliefComix
Best for Parents and Teachers
MakeBeliefsComix is an easy to use cartoon creation tool available via browser as well as an iPad app.
You can create your cartoon by choosing characters, backgrounds and objects from its substantial library, which you can then resize, flip, scale and move to create your comic panel.
In addition, MakeBeliefComix offers a wealth of resources for parents and teachers to help children develop their cartoon storytelling skills.
5. Canva
Best Drag-and-Drop Editor
Finally, you can use the popular online design platform Canva to create cartoons and comic strips using their powerful drag and drop editor.
To make things effortless for cartoon creators, Canva even developed a comic strip maker that's super simple to use, even if you have no prior experience with comic strrips.
Can I Learn to Draw Cartoons by Myself?
Yes, it isn't as hard as some people might think.
There are many tutorials on YouTube or blog posts that provide great tips for beginners. And if you're looking for quick results, you can use image manipulation tools like some of our recommendations above.
What's the Best Way to Make a Simple Cartoon?
If you don't have prior experience, a good way to make a simple cartoon is to use Stripcreator.
This tool has pre-drawn characters that you can manipulate to create a comic strip.
How Can I Cartoonize a Picture?
The quickest way to turn a picture into a cartoon is to use a photo editing software tool like Photoshop and then apply a caricature-style filter.
And if you're looking for an online solution, you could use the photo editor from BeFunky.
With this tool you'll be able to achieve the same result without having to upload software on your computer.
What Should I Look for in a Cartoon Tool?
When looking for a cartoon tool, you should consider the level of customization it offers, the ease of use and the quality of the illustrations.
The best cartoon tools offer a high degree of customization, allowing you to choose the characters, props, and backgrounds that appear in your comic strips.
They also need to be simple to use and have an intuitive interface that makes it easy to create your strips without having to go though a steep learning curve first.
And finally, you'll want to choose a tool that produces high-quality illustrations that look like they were hand-drawn by a professional artist.
Wrapping Things Up
I hope you found this article useful and informative on the best free cartoon tools out there today.
If you're looking for more detailed information on how to develop traditional cartoon drawing techniques, a great starting point is to do a search for "cartoon tutorials" on YouTube.
Happy cartooning!
