A Graphic User Interface (GUI) is a software or a tool designed to simplify and standardize the use of computer programs with the help of a mouse to manipulate texts and images on a display screen. A user can draw directly on the screen to get amazing results and save in .psd or .pdf format. The drawings can be recorded and allow designers to draw on different layers that make it easier to edit later.
The stencil is one such graphic designing tool for bloggers, business owners, and social media marketers to prettify images to create stunning social media posts, content marketing visuals, email images, ad design, and much more. It is a cloud-based graphics creation tool that offers the fastest way to craft and share visual content.
The stencil is built to be a simple-to-learn and easy-to-use application that presents a rich set of features that enables both the tech-savvy and beginner to create graphics for their websites, blogs, and social media channels. The main features include background photos, amazing templates, upload and store logos, quotes, Google web fonts, Upload fonts, easy customization, icons and graphics, and chrome extension.
Overview
The stencil was initially known as Share As Image which began in a super-crowded multi-purpose design tool market. There were hundreds of image editors in addition to desktop image editors but the web and social media were becoming much more visual. Every D-I-Y tool focused on the image editing part rather than the sharing part, so resizing and resampling was a huge problem.
Share As Image focused mainly on creating images for social media and websites which were found to be very time-consuming with creating, deleting with basic website designs. After a surge in popularity, Share As Image was re-branded as Stencil with an expanded stock image and font library along with a better pricing plan.
The stencil is a steadfast application engineered with all graphic designers in mind. The software uses fun, simple, and lightweight ways of creating stunning visual content. Its ease of use is what makes it outstanding even if you do not possess any pre-knowledge about the tool. It just takes seconds to create beautiful looking images faster than you ever thought.
What is Stencil?
The stencil is a graphic designing tool utilized to create digital images for sharing. The key function of the tool is to edit images with clickable layers where you can edit the background, layout, text, color, typography, and visual effects of an image. All of these can be done while resizing it for image sharing.
Stencil maintains its library of stock images, illustrations, icons, and fonts for free usage. They also comprise built-in storage for settings, uploaded images, and custom templates. Unlike other graphic tools, Stencil is focused exclusively on image sharing rather than ad creation, offline images, and many more.
The platform provides more than 1 million royalty-free photos that are dominated by super high resolution and are ready to assist your creativity. They can be used for all purposes whether personal or commercial without any credit. The photos are safe to use and are powered by renowned teams including Pexels and Pixabay.
Stencil permits you to manipulate and maneuver various aspects of your visual content and lets you customize the background, text size, fonts, and more to come up with shareable data. The application offers 38 common presets for ads, blog images, and social posts and comes up with as many custom sizes as you want.
How does Stencil work?
The stencil is simple and intuitive to use. They offer a free plan but with limited features for anyone to try and experience the variable features.
Cost Significance
Once you sign up, you can either use their web editor, browser extensions, or their WordPress plugin. All three locations use the identical tool, it just depends where the tool is loaded.
The tool comes with a clickable image with layers. You click and edit on each layer and all the layers together make up your image. You can save them as a template and/or download the image for use and/or share the image directly to a social media account.
The stencil comes with Free, Pro, and Unlimited Plans.
The free plan lets an ample amount of free usage and the best part since you can upload so many of your images.
The pro plan is slightly limited compared to the unlimited plan. Nevertheless, it is well crafted for users who have a limited schedule of images that they need to create.
The unlimited plan can be considered the best one if you are going to use the tool. The stencil is an absolute productivity tool if you look at how much your time is worth or how much you’d have to pay for this type of design work.
Stencil Features
Royalty-Free Photos
The stencil comes with photos that are super high in resolution and ready to be used for any purpose. It also saves all your photos in one place so that you can use them again. Photos are royalty-free and can be used for personal or commercial use. All photos are powered by partners and safe to use.
Perfect Sizing
This tool instantly resizes and optimizes the size required for social posts, ads, blog images, and many more as it is available with 140+ presets. You can even customize the image size as per your requirement.
Preview and Share
With this incredible feature, you can get instant previews to post image creation and share on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Buffer, and Bitly. That too instantly!
Image Schedule
Scheduling images helps you save even more time. If you have a Buffer account, you will be all set to schedule images right from Stencil.
Abundant Icons
Stencil offers a plethora of icons partnered with the best icon providers to bring you exclusive access to premium icons from world class designers. They are all royalty-free & completely safe for personal or commercial use.
Apart from all the above remarkable features, Stencil comes with yet many attributes for efficient utility.
Benefits of Stencil
- Availability of Free Plan
- Intuitive editing setup
- Useful on-boarding sequence and tour
- Versatile editing feature with multiple uses
- Huge library of graphic assets
- Non-royalty images
- Exclusive product focus
Drawbacks of Stencil
- Unlimited plan costs more
- Free and Pro plans have some hard limits
- Does not have extensive features like palette makers, gradient editors, logo generators, and offline graphic designs
- Subscription is for a single user and no share-ability among teammates and collaborators
- Cannot log in from different IP’s at once
- Cannot share work on one account with another
Conclusion
Social media is phenomenal, but to remain proactive in all channels with accuracy and sustainability can be a challenge. However, with Stencil, you easily get an eyeball to your blog, all social media platforms, and websites with its remarkable features. The application supports the creation of regular posts that help you grow your social media following, increase engagement, and grow your business and service.
Originally Published On: SaasTrac
About The Author
SaasTrac is one of the trusted places where users can find reviews on different Saas Products, Software, and Platforms. Our major goal is to let users know the detailed and the most helpful information possible about every product — the good, the bad, and the ugly in the SaaS space.
