Graphics Design Application

[Drezard]

Hello, Im looking for a graphics design application that can run on the Ubuntu Linux Platform. One that can be used by professional graphics designers (Im doing a school project, im going to try and prove the Linux can rival Mac and Windows)

- Cheers, Daniel

[Magnes]

Test inkscape (vector) and GIMP (bitmap). Maybe there will suit your needs.

[janbockaert]

i hear good things about xara lx (xara xtreme in windows). i don't think it is in a repositorie yet. But you can get a recent build from the website. http://www.xaraxtreme.org/

[airtonix]

yeah i recon this is at the same place as inkscape right now....future plans are to have bitmap brushes in there too...which would mean that we finally have a vector/bitmap editor prog that exists inside one application window worth talking about....

problems
gimp exits in fifty million diffent application windows, niether of which adhere to gnomes usability guidelines.
pixel is not opensource and only one person is working on it, so development is slow....also wants you to pay for the beta versions....with a further cost for the final version.
inkscape - only deals with vector graphics and crashes periodically, otherwise its basically fireworks without bitmap brushes. this is one that i do love.
hopefully it wll progress to the point where javascript timeline animation will be included. so it will be agood replacement for flash movies....possibly even a new way of making
svg based webpages that can still be ascii-text indexable.

[Ben Sprinkle]

I find Krita good, uses same stuff as GIMP and Photoshop, but the output looks better then gimp to me.

[HanZo]

If you try to prove that linux is as good for graphic design as the other big OSes you'll probably have to find out that the way to go for linux is still long.
I'm a graphic designer and illustrator, I have been working with apps like photoshop an indesign for over 10 years now... I work with offset and digital printers on a daily basis... not that I know everything (far from that... unfortunately) but I think I've got some experience by now...
I've tried to see if linux could replace windows on my main workstation, since I'm really not satisfied with microsoft's OS and because I'm really in love with Ubuntu's look and feel, but I must say... I'll have to wait some more for the switch.
Ubuntu (and Linux generally) and the apps I can get to run on it lack some really important functionality, like:
- proper colour management, there are ways to make x handle profiles, but colour management is not implemented in all applications and if it is implemented it's not good enough yet to call it professional standard.
- several colour spaces like duotone or multichannel are not supported.
most applications you can get to run on linux are not good for professional work, apps like scribus, inkscape, gimp sure are nice applications but they all lack important features.
- some scanners, printers or graphic tablets may be unsupported or only have partial support.
- proprietary colour systems like pantone are not supported because they are proprietary (you can get them somehow I guess)
- some windows software may run under wine... like photoshop7, but you'll have to use an old outdated version.
- most oss applications for graphic design (like scribus) are still mostly unusable for real production, and still lag far behind compared to their proprietary counterparts.
and in detail:

gimp: the interface needs rethinking... but we all know that, besides that it's a nice app for home and hobby use, but that's it. Only RGB and greyscale are supported, poor colour management capabilities, still bad for large files (high resolutions), no colour proofing.

inkscape: it feels good, has a nice and easy interface, still it lacks most of the things I mentioned for the gimp, plus it lacks spot colour support and support for many commonly used formats.

xara lx: nice application, has spot colour support, but lacks pantone palettes (I know there is way to get them somehow, though). not as powerful as illustrator, but much faster and leaner.

scribus: needs lot of work, unstable and too slow on some tasks (like placing guides). could be a nice app, once it's finished. colour management still not working well, didn't try pdf export yet.

pixel: no oss I know, but still it runs on linux. looks good, but is still very unstable. has a lot of functions photoshop has. Still no wacom support.

krita: just gave it a quick look... but looks like this could become the photoshop on linux... better than gimp and it's evolving much faster! I'd keep an eye on it!

Xsane: frontend to SANE, really good scan software IMHO, better than most apps that come bundled with low end scanners. the only problem is that it opens in 5 windows... but that's more a usability problem.

nvu: not bad for the home user, nothing compared to dreamweaver. in fact it lacks a lot of functionality, like built in javascript behaviours, the css editor sucks, the site manager is confusing and not really usable (I didn't get it at least), no direct support for flash.
I know there's a lot of text based html editors, but no graphic designer is going to want to use one of those.

processing: that's a really nice app for generative multimedia desing. It's somehow comparable to flash, but based entirely on java and more focused on programming than on animation.

ktoon: nice attempt to create an animation package for linux. still not really usable.
moho: should run on linux, it's another nice 2d animation app, that uses skeletal animation on 2d... I haven't used it myself though. Afaik it saves to swf (flash)
pap: plastic animation paper: classic cell based 2d animation app. has an awful interface, still probably not so bad.

kino, cinelerra: let's sum it up like this, there is no decent video editor on linux. nothing you could want to use for real producion

as far as I know there is no video compositing app like AferFX or Motion.

Maya runs natively on linux (redhat and Suse i think)
Blender3D: has a akward interface and was really unstable on my machine... so I haven't used it a lot.

i think that's all...
sorry for the loooong list
hope this was of some help

[tseliot]

i hear good things about xara lx (xara xtreme in windows). i don't think it is in a repositorie yet. But you can get a recent build from the website. http://www.xaraxtreme.org/

It's in Edgy's repositories

[WinterWeaver]

I just did some research on Xara ^.^

It does have Pantone support. The reason its not with the linux versions, is because the Pantone colors, as well as some of the other plugins, contain Licenced Code from Third Parties.

This is why you pay for the windows version, but the Linux version is free. You can still get these plugins for Linux, but you'll have to pay a small fee :P


As for it's power and flexability.... wow.... it looks REAALLY good. I've been looking for good graphics software on Linux for a while now, and Xara is definatly the future for Graphics on Linux.

I'm gonna download it and test the moment I get home.

xara lx: nice application, has spot colour support, but lacks pantone palettes (I know there is way to get them somehow, though). not as powerful as illustrator, but much faster and leaner.


well... I don't have as much experience as you, and I still need to test Xara, but from the Demo Videos on their website, it seems to compete quite strongly with Illustrator ^.^

(granted, they do a good job of selling the product, which is probably what caught me :P )

ok... I'll give it a bash as soon as I get home, and I'll post my experience.

Ciao

[HanZo]

I think you can do most of the stuff you can do in illustrator, it just lacks the really advanced functions, and I guess thos who are really into vector drawing might find xara a bit too simple and too consumer-like. Yet I found it to be much more productive than illustrator for the stuff I need it (i.e. really seldom since I hate vectors).