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Digital Media: Open Source Software

There are lots of programs that can help you manipulate digital media in a variety of ways. Some of that software is VERY expensive. Try out these open source alternatives that are so good even the pros use them!

• Gimp
  http://www.gimp.org/
  It is a raster editor, which means that it performs operations directly on the pixels that make up the image, and not a vector editor. Other (proprietary) raster editors include Adobe Photoshop, Jasc Paintshop Pro and the humble Microsoft Paint. An alternative free editor is the KOffice project, Krita. Users wanting to edit photographs will certainly want a raster editor like GIMP. Graphic designers and illustrators may prefer a vector editor depending on their tastes.
  
  
• ArtRage
  http://www.artrage.com/
  With ArtRage you can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle sparkling glitter and much more. Stencils and rulers let you create precise shapes or smooth curves and straight lines freehand. Tracing and Reference images let you load photos to recreate as paintings either by eye or by letting ArtRage select colors for you as you paint. For professional users, ArtRage offers Layers, Layer Groups and Layer Blend Modes compatible with the PSD file format.
  
  
• Blender
  http://www.blender.org/
  Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.
  
• Skitch
  http://skitch.com/signup
  Not open source, but free. Super easy screen capture application that works on Mac OS. Let me know if there is a PC alternative.
  
  
  

Last Updated: Tuesday, 19-Oct-2010