joshdowning
April 30th, 2009, 03:04 PM
Adobe's bundles are great, no doubt about it. But if you're not a designer, or simply don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on software, you might want to consider going open source. Sometimes Free Software is considered of lesser quality than proprietary software: nothing further from reality. Truth is, nowadays, open source alternatives are as good as the other, with the additional benefit that most of the times, these programs are absolutely free, and a lot lighter. You can just download them from the web, take up less hard disk space, and they can be installed in a couple of minutes. Open source image editing software is abundant: in this article, we'll cover some of the best alternatives.
2D Vectors and Raster Software
The most popular proprietary software for vector graphics are Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Vectors are useful for logos or icon creation, and their main advantage is that they don't lose quality when enlarged or changed resolution. The open source alternative is Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org). It has pretty much all the same functions as the ones mentioned: you can work with paths, export to different formats and work with layers. If you're looking for something yet simpler to use and that doesn't require any hard disk space at all, then you should go for Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com). This is a web-based image editor great for creating simple vector images.
When it comes to raster images, Photoshop is the ruling software. But are you ready to pay almost 700 dollars to use it? If you'd rather not, then you have some very decent free variants, such as Gimp (http://www.gimp.org). This is the Gnome Project's editing software, great for photo and picture tweaking. Supports most of Photoshop's functions, and you can export your work to different formats. A little tip: if you are used to Photoshop's environment, you might want to try Gimpshop (http://www.gimpshop.com), which imitates Photoshop's interface on Gimp.
3D Animation and Modelling
On this subject, the most complete open source software is Blender (http://www.blender.org). This powerful 3D modelling and animating program lets you create professional 3D images and it's incredibly easy to use. The best thing about it is there is abundant documentation and forums on the Web to learn how to use it, so you'll for sure become an expert in no time. With Blender you can do everything you can do on other software that you have to buy like 3D Studio, C4D, Maya or others. Another excellent modelling and animating software is DAZ-Studio (http://www.blender.org), with which you can create high performance three dimensional animations. It integrates nicely with Poser, an application to create realistic human figures.
For quality rendering, try POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org). You can get photographic quality out of your 3D models, ideal for professional presentations and high quality works. You can also add several plug-ins to this software, making it one of the most powerful rendering applications available.
With these free and open source tools you can create websites, animations, logos, icons, posters, edit images, tweak them, change their format, print them or share them on the web. The possibilities are enormous, now it just depends on you to take them.
Feel free to publish this article on your website or blog. If you do, please add this info about the author: "Written by Josh Downing. You can find more of his articles at www.englishlci.com (http://www.englishlci.com)"
Josh Downing
2055 S. Oneida St. - Suite 390
Denver - Colorado - 80224
www.englishlci.com (http://www.englishlci.com)
joshdowning09@gmail.com
(001) 303-756-0760
2D Vectors and Raster Software
The most popular proprietary software for vector graphics are Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Vectors are useful for logos or icon creation, and their main advantage is that they don't lose quality when enlarged or changed resolution. The open source alternative is Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org). It has pretty much all the same functions as the ones mentioned: you can work with paths, export to different formats and work with layers. If you're looking for something yet simpler to use and that doesn't require any hard disk space at all, then you should go for Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com). This is a web-based image editor great for creating simple vector images.
When it comes to raster images, Photoshop is the ruling software. But are you ready to pay almost 700 dollars to use it? If you'd rather not, then you have some very decent free variants, such as Gimp (http://www.gimp.org). This is the Gnome Project's editing software, great for photo and picture tweaking. Supports most of Photoshop's functions, and you can export your work to different formats. A little tip: if you are used to Photoshop's environment, you might want to try Gimpshop (http://www.gimpshop.com), which imitates Photoshop's interface on Gimp.
3D Animation and Modelling
On this subject, the most complete open source software is Blender (http://www.blender.org). This powerful 3D modelling and animating program lets you create professional 3D images and it's incredibly easy to use. The best thing about it is there is abundant documentation and forums on the Web to learn how to use it, so you'll for sure become an expert in no time. With Blender you can do everything you can do on other software that you have to buy like 3D Studio, C4D, Maya or others. Another excellent modelling and animating software is DAZ-Studio (http://www.blender.org), with which you can create high performance three dimensional animations. It integrates nicely with Poser, an application to create realistic human figures.
For quality rendering, try POV-Ray (http://www.povray.org). You can get photographic quality out of your 3D models, ideal for professional presentations and high quality works. You can also add several plug-ins to this software, making it one of the most powerful rendering applications available.
With these free and open source tools you can create websites, animations, logos, icons, posters, edit images, tweak them, change their format, print them or share them on the web. The possibilities are enormous, now it just depends on you to take them.
Feel free to publish this article on your website or blog. If you do, please add this info about the author: "Written by Josh Downing. You can find more of his articles at www.englishlci.com (http://www.englishlci.com)"
Josh Downing
2055 S. Oneida St. - Suite 390
Denver - Colorado - 80224
www.englishlci.com (http://www.englishlci.com)
joshdowning09@gmail.com
(001) 303-756-0760