5 Best Open Source Graphics Programs
Do you want to create your own promotional materials for your small business? Before you shell out big bucks for Adobe Creative Suite or another set of proprietary graphics software tools, you should think about what open source software has to offer. If you'd like to create professional work without breaking the bank, I've got five open source graphics apps that will get the job done.If your business focuses entirely on graphics work of some kind (Web design, desktop publication, etc.) then you may want to invest in tools like Adobe Creative Suite. Even though I'm a big fan of open source software, there are some jobs that require or at least benefit greatly from proprietary tools -- though in skilled hands I've seen free and open source tools produce results that rival proprietary tools.But if you're not in the graphics business, you can save some cash and provide your staff with all the graphics tools they can eat by choosing open source software instead. Let's look at the best of the lot.Gimp: open source graphics software
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is one of the oldest and most successful open source applications. It's widely used by photography enthusiasts and open source enthusiasts who are looking for an alternative to Photoshop. While it's not quite as full-featured as Photoshop (and enthusiasts can explain in great detail where GIMP has shortcomings for high-end photo editing), GIMP offers just about everything that a small business owner would need for image retouching, editing and so on.GIMP has a rich set of filters and tools to manipulate photos for print or Web publishing. Whether you need to do some simple re-sizing, heavy retouching or creating images from scratch, GIMP is the tool of choice for working with bitmap images.Here's another reason to love GIMP. It has a comprehensive user manual and a fair amount of help online. GIMP is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, and it now runs natively on OS X, without the need to install special X11 libraries.Inkscape: open source graphics software
As GIMP is to bitmap editing, Inkscape is to editing vector graphics. If you're not familiar with the two, see this About.com piece for a good breakdown of vector versus bitmap.Inkscape is similar to tools like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. Editor for writers for mac. It lets you edit and create complex (or simple) artwork -- anything from icons and simple clip art to complex illustrations for children's books. Check out the gallery on the Inkscape Wiki for some examples of what can be done with Inkscape.If you're familiar with Illustrator or another vector graphics tool, it shouldn't be difficult to get up to speed with Inkscape. If not, the documentation provided by the Inkscape community should prove very helpful. Inkscape is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.Scribus: open source graphics software
Need to whip up a brochure for your business, or maybe a PDF that you can send to clients and want something with a bit more oomph than Microsoft Word orLibreOffice Writer can provide? Scribus is an open source desktop publishing tool that can help you create press-ready output.Scribus is similar to tools like Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress. It may not have as many features as those tools, but it is up to the task of creating just about any publication that your small business may need. Like GIMP and Inkscape, Scribus has great documentation.The Scribus Project provides packages and installers for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.LibreOffice Draw: open source graphics software
For simple graphics, diagrams and charts, you might want to turn to LibreOffice Draw. As the name suggests, Draw is part of the open source LibreOffice productivity suite.You can use Draw for very complex artwork, but it's also well-suited for creating charts and diagrams or other simple artwork for presentations and so on.You might not be familiar with LibreOffice, but have probably heard of OpenOffice.org. LibreOffice is a project that spun off from OpenOffice.org to foster better community collaboration. If you're already using OpenOffice.org, you can use its version of Draw, or check out LibreOffice. LibreOffice is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and other operating systems.Blender: open source graphics software
Last, but very certainly not least, is Blender—an open source, cross-platform suite for 3D creation.Blender is capable of stunning 3D work—and not just still images. Blender has been used to create animated masterpieces like Big Buck Bunny and Elephants Dream. (See a list of movies from the Blender Foundation on the Blender site.)Few small businesses will need this kind of power, but Blender is on par with proprietary tools if you have need for 3D modeling and such. If you're running a small art shop, Blender should be part of your toolkit.Blender is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and more. On the download page you'll also find 'regression files' that are meant to test releases of Blender to ensure that updates don't break features artists have come to expect. Unity editor for mac. But you can also use the files to get up to see how things are done with Blender. The application also has lots of docs to get you up to speed.Clip Art Bonus
What's a set of graphics tools without clip art? If you're looking for some clip art, you could start with the Open Clip Art Library. The OCAL has a collection of clip art licensed under the Creative Commons Public Domain license. Essentially, anything in the OCAL should be entirely free to use, royalty free, in any project that you're working on.Most of my graphics work consists of cropping photos in GIMP or using Inkscape to create simple graphics for presentations -- but the tools are capable of much more. Creating your own art to promote your business doesn't have to be expensive or difficult -- the tools are ready and waiting.
You don't have to spend a fortune on expensive, over-powered graphics software to create promotional materials for your small business. We've got five open source programs to get the job done.
Get free tips, news and advice on how to make technology work harder for your business.
Learn more You have successfully registered to
Enterprise Apps Daily Newsletter
Enterprise Apps Daily Newsletter
Most Views Forum Threads
- In a recent article for OpenSource.com, JT Pennington shares his favorite open source tools for photography enthusiasts. He points out that, while most people “scoff at the idea of a professional workflow on anything other than Windows or Mac,” that there.
- The best free open source photo best free open source photo editor software Mac PC. When we talk about photo editing than first things comes in mind Adobe Photoshop because of its most popular best photo editor app and software today.
Disclaimer: Paintbrush is not intended to replace Adobe Photoshop or other high-end image editors. Instead, it aims to fill the need for a basic, streamlined, and Mac-native image editor. Whether you need to quickly crop a photo, add some text to an image, or just have fun doodling, Paintbrush has you covered.
May 19,2019• Proven solutions
You may want to create and edit your images on Mac but don't want to pay for any money. Actually, there are many free Mac photo editors provided but find some really good ones can be hard. Here we list the top 5 free photo editing software for Mac for your reference and hope you can enjoy Mac photo editing with them. Cutepdf editor for mac. Make a comparison and choose the one you like according to your photo editing needs.
Mac Photo Editor: Best Free Photo Editing Software for Mac in 2019
You may have known how to use the intuitive photo editing tool Photos built in on MacOS to edit photos on Mac like a pro. Use Photos app, you can adjust the light, color, sharpness, add filters or crop and remove unwanted part. Besides, you can also use the Auto button to adjust in details. But with the third-party software, you can enhance your photos on Mac further. Thus, we recommend you to try the following free photo editors on Mac.
#1 Best Free photo editing software for Mac: The GIMP for Mac OS X
![Open Source Picture Editor For Mac Open Source Picture Editor For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126179899/378242670.jpg)
GIMP is a popular open-source image editor for Mac OS X and is often considered as the 'free Photoshop' because of its similar interface and features with Photoshop. It is a beta software developed by volunteers, so software updates and stability may be a problem. But many users reflect that the software comes with no big problems and they enjoy using it. Please note that GIMP is compatible with Mac OS X or later.
#2 Free Mac photo editor: Seashore
Seashore is an open source photo editor for Cocoa and is based around GIMP's technology. It uses the same file format as GIMP, but was developed as a Mac OS X application. The developer said it features gradients, textures and anti-aliase text and brush strokes. Besides, it supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing.
#3 Free photo editing software for Mac : Chocoflop
Chocoflop is another great free photo editor for Mac. It is free but is still under development. The great features of this free Mac photo editor is that it can non-destructive, rich text, core image filters, raw support, etc. while edit photos. For people who seldom do photo editing, it may be hard to use. And it's a pity that it now doesn't support Snow Leopard.
#4 Free photo editing software for Mac: Pixen
Pixen is a free graphics editor for Mac OS X and is very good for animation and pixel based editing. Its features include layers capability, title view, animation features, etc.
#5 Free photo editing software for Mac: Picasa
Picasa serves as a perfect photo editor, photo viewer, photo manager and photo sharing tool on Mac. It enables you to eliminate scratches & blemishes, fix red-eye, crop and more, turn photos into movies, collages, slideshows and more. After that, you can upload your retouched photos to Picasa Web Albums to share them with family and friends.
By the way, if you have so many photos, you can make photo slideshow with the photo slideshow software and burn the slideshow to DVD for long-term preservation. Use the movie styles to turn your photos to Hollywood like movies instantly! Or you can make a digital scrapbook with the scrapbook software to make a memory book.
Bonus: making stunning videos with photos and music with fun
Open Source Picture Editor For Windows
It is said that by 2020 80% of Internet traffic will be generated by video content, so it is time to start learning how to turn your memorable photos into video with some cool effects. Here, we recommend you to try Wondershare Filmora9 which is easy-to-use yet powerful enough to make stunning even Hollywood style video with fun. You will enjoy making videos with Filmora9, just download the free trial version below and give it a shot.
Easy-to-use and powerful video editor for all creators.
Bring up your video to a professional level with straightforward tools. Is there a free pdf editor for mac.
Free Open Source Picture Editor
- Choosing Video Editing Software
- Video Editing Tips