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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.
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More Articles:1. Going back to the basics Let us talk about going back to the basics of printing. The basics meaning, not using the internet for advertising needs. May seem almost unreal with all these online services at your disposal. But then, think of those who do not have the fortune of owning one. Or those that does not have enough knowledge about the internet to try and accessing your site. If you limit yourself to online advertising, it may be possible that not all are seeing and reading about you. There are other ways of adverti… 2. Increase the Efficiency of Your Web Design Business You know, these days, it's pretty easy to find information building a web site. You can find info on everything from how to create your graphics to what content you should include on your web site. More than likely, you could probably write articles on building web sites with all the knowledge you've gathered.However, there's more to running a successful web design business than being able to build great web sites. First, you have to take care of the logistics of running that business. And that'… 3. Part II - Planning A Website This is the second article I have written about how to plan a website. You can find part 1 at http://keepitsimplewebsites.com/planawebsite.cfm or type in Regina Stevens in the Author Name box at http://goarticles.com.This article is for people who may be thinking about getting a website for their business, but have not done any research to find out if they need one. Below are some ideas to think about before deciding on getting a website:1) Think long-term before you build or have someone build … 4. Web Source Web Design Tips - Cascading Style Sheets The FONT tag is used to display your text in a specificstyle. Using fonts within a table requires you to add theFONT tag to each individual cell. This technique will causeyour page to be larger than necessary.By using Cascading Style Sheets, you can, not only saveyourself a lot of time, but keep your page size down.Place the following code between the and tagsof your HTML page.By using this style sheet, all the text displayed in yourtable will be displayed in your specified font and size.Tip p… |
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