With the most popular graphics software, such asPaint
Shop Pro and Photoshop and most other image editors being
commercial, paid-for software, you might be forgiven for
thinking there aren't any free alternatives. While they're not
very well publicised, there are plenty of free graphic editing
alternatives if you know where to look.
Here's a rundown of some of the best.
The
Gimp
Despite its daft name, the Gimp is
widely considered to be the best graphics editor you can get
for free many devotees compare its features to those of
Photoshop. While it isn't easy to use as most commercial
offerings, the Gimp is certainly powerful, and has become the
most popular image editor for Linux (which doesn't run
Photoshop).
The Gimp (or GIMP, standing for GNU Image Manipulation
Program) was specifically designed to be an open source
competitor to Photoshop, in much the same way as
OpenOffice.org competes with Microsoft Office and the Mozilla
browsers compete with Internet Explorer.
However, Gimp still hasn't picked up much of a following
outside the open source community, mainly because of its
unusual interface. Gimp is based on the Linux GTK (Gimp
Toolkit) system, and that makes its interface look very
un-Windows-like, since it is broken down into small, separate
components.
This approach does come with advantages, however, such as
the Gimp's useful ability to let you 'rip' menus and sub-menus
away from where they usually appear and use them as toolbars
instead. If you haven't had time to get used to Photoshop, you
might even find that you prefer the Gimp's interface.
In some areas, the Gimp outshines Photoshop by a long way.
For example, Photoshop comes with a rather limited selection
of filters, and there are plenty of companies who make a
business out of selling extra ones at a premium. The Gimp
includes every filter that the open source community has ever
found useful, which is quite a few, and they all come for
free. Essentially, if you're willing to take a small hit in
ease of use, the Gimp provides you with thousands of dollars
worth of functionality at no cost whatsoever.
If you want to download the Gimp, go to
gimp-win.sourceforge.net/ to get the Windows installer
version. There is also a version that has been customised to
have a more Photoshop-like interface you can get it at www.plasticbugs.com.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET
is a recent arrival in the open source graphics world, but has
gained a lot of followers in the year or so it's been around.
It offers a powerful graphics editing program with a
deliberately simple interface, based on the 'Paint' program
that comes with Windows the fact that people already know
how to use that interface has been an important factor in its
popularity.
The program's development is taking place at Washington
University, and is supported by Microsoft, making it likely
that it might be included in future Windows releases.
Paint.NET can currently be downloaded for free from www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net.
SodiPodi
SodiPodi
isn't really an alternative to Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro
it's more like a free version of programs like Macromedia
Freehand or Adobe Illustrator that graphics designers wouldn't
usually use often enough to justify purchasing. It lets you
draw using vector graphics, giving you the useful ability to
create your own artwork instead of sticking with stock
symbols. This is mainly worth mentioning here because it makes
a great complement to tools like the Gimp and Paint.NET,
letting you make something of your own to apply all your fancy
effects and filters to when you're making a logo or a
design.
You can get SodiPodi at www.sodipodi.com, although
you might also like to look at another version named Inkscape
(www.inkscape.org), which
again has a more Photoshop-like interface.
Picasa
Finally, if
all you want to do is organise photos simply and get them
ready for display on the web, you could do worse than Picasa.
Recently bought by Google and made available for free at www.picasa.com, Picasa
makes it simple to organise your photographs and apply simple
effects like red-eye removal to them.
