I love to design and I love free stuff, so today I'm putting together a list of some of the best free web and graphic design programs available now. Why spend hundreds of dollars of dreamweaver or photoshop if you don't have to? I use both paid and free programs in my design work. I've used a variety of titles since I started building sites and designing graphics over 10 years ago. If you are just starting out, you'll find many of these programs easy to learn. You'll be writing html and making logos in no time!

I'm going to start by listing the software I use personally, for all my website and graphic design, then I'll list other programs that I've used in the past and/or have been recommended by others.

What I use:
Crimson Editor - is a free text editor. You have to know code to use this as it does not offer a wysiwyg viewer. I like it because it is a very small program, loads quick (I often multitask), has spell check and helpful color highlighting.
NoteTab Light - The ultimate free Notepad replacement and a handy HTML editor. Handle a heap of files with a simple tabbed interface. Search files, strip HTML tags and format text quickly.
Xara Xtreme Not free, but a fun vector drawing program I keep going back to. Artweaver - is a free graphic design software. I use and also teach with this. Download the extra filters pkg for added fun. This program has good basic photo editing features too.
The Gimp - Another free graphics photo editing software. Search for tutorials online and get started designing. It's fun. :)
I also use an older version of Paint Shop Pro.

Web WYSIWYG, Text & HTML editors:
WYSIWYG stands for «what you see is what you get» and these editors are HTML editors that display the Web page as it will show on the browser. They are visual editors and allow you to edit the page without knowing html. However, the best web page editors will give you both the wysisyg and html code views IMO and here are some to check out.
1st Page by Evrsoft - I used this for a long time.. three modes to choose from - easy, expert and hardcore, with a «preview» panel to check your work as you go.
Kompozer WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor.
CoffeeCup Editor I have this and bring it out to play once in a while. It's pretty and offers a nice WYSIWYG style, for those who aren't yet comfortable with coding.
HTML-Kit - I used this for a while too and was happy with it. Also known as Build 300, the latest version of HTML-Kit is light enough to take on a portable USB drive and heavy enough to manage multiple projects.
Arachnophilia - new to me, but looks pretty good.
Web Design Toy

Free Graphic Design editors:
PhotoPlus 6 Version 6 for photo editing capabilities is free.
PixelToolbox
InkScape

Do you use a free web/graphics design tool not mentioned here? Leave a comment and share it with us.