Anyone who has ever dabbled in website design has probably needed to use image editing software at one point or another. For many, it may seem like there are only one or two options available. The main option is an expensive Adobe program called Photoshop that costs around $ 300, and a few others like PaintShop Pro and Pixelmator that range between $ 50 and $ 100. However, there are two other powerful options that are completely free.
Gimp
While the name may evoke thoughts from Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”, Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program (GNU is a free software licensing system). The best feature of Gimp is its price … free. This open source software is a powerful alternative to Adobe Photoshop that offers the ability to create graphic designs using image layers.
It has an extensive plugin library that is continually growing and offers new features for manipulating graphic images. Some developer or user can create a plugin that makes a photo look like a velvet painting. You can then download these plugins and use them for free in your version of Gimp.
Gimp also supports the Adobe Photoshop format for brushes. This is a powerful in-app tool that is generally themed and makes it easy to add powerful images to your work. The brushes can be inspired by gardens, Japanese letters, Gothic images, cars, or just about anything you can imagine. They are a flexible and powerful way to take your website logos or images to the next level.
Find this program at http://www.gimp.org.
Inkscape
Another powerful and free image creation program is Inkscape. Unlike Gimp, which is a raster-based image manipulation program, Inkscape is a vector drawing program. While Gimp is designed for editing photos in jpg, png, or gif format and is best suited for handling photorealistic images, Inkscape’s vector drawing is ideal for more cartoony icons, logos, and images.
Vector drawing programs are based on the construction, coloring and manipulation of shapes. Raster programs like Gimp are pixel based and this means that when you scale an image to a larger or smaller size, you risk losing image fidelity. Programs like Inkscape and its expensive cousins (Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw) are the perfect tool when you want to create logos that can be presented in many different dimensions.
Most non-photo-based clip art is created using some type of vector drawing program. Inkscape uses the Scalable Vector Graphic (.svg) file extension, which is an open standard and means that your graphic file will easily transfer to other programs and be usable.
Find this program at inkscape.org.
Is open source for everyone?
Of course! It’s free! That is the whole point. There are downsides to using these apps. While you can find hundreds of books on using Photoshop from Adobe, you will only find a few on Gimp and Inkscape.
Some people love to buy books to learn, but I say it’s actually a disadvantage because, again, you run out of another $ 30- $ 50 per book.
There are many tutorial videos on You Tube that can teach you how to use the programs and become very proficient. So the investment you make will be in time, not money.
If you need a program to help you create attractive images for your website, but can’t afford a copy of Adobe Photoshop, you’d be wise to take a look at these two amazing open source graphics programs. .
