When you need to express your point of view, sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words. But if you prefer not to spend a lot of money on heavy commercial software, there are some excellent programs available for the low price of $ 0. GIMP and Inkscape are two popular options, and we can guarantee that they are better than the paint program. which is probably included with your operating system.
Image manipulation: GIMP
If you take a lot of photos, some will be pretty good. Some can be excellent if they are cropped properly, with perhaps slight adjustments to your exposure or clarity. You might even want to completely change a photo, perhaps by inserting Aunt Ida into a family photo or by removing the zit that appeared. "Photoshop" may appear in your mind, even as a verb, but there is a free, open source alternative to the famous Adobe program: GIMP
Related Downloads:
GIMP has the same basic functions that you will find in Photoshop elementssuch as cropping tools and the ability to adjust brightness and contrast. This also facilitates advanced editing, without spending a lot of money. If you've used Elements, this free alternative will look fairly familiar to you, with a fairly small learning curve when you discover the interface and new tools. A note here is that to save a file in JPG format or any other common format, you will have to go to File> Export …
do not File> Save … The latter will save things in an editable format more centered on GIMP, not something Aunt Ida can see directly in her browser.
Regarding the name: GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Included in this is the recursive acronym: "GNU & # 39; s Not Unix". So do not hesitate to call it GIMP and do your editing activities.
Graphic design: Inkscape
Although GIMP is great for editing and creating raster images (pixel grids), it is sometimes better to draw a collection of vectors, that is, curved or straight lines with start and end positions. end defined. If you have never worked with such a system before, the difference is subtle, but powerful, and Inkscape has a relatively high learning curve.
However, what makes such a system interesting is that vector images can be stretched endlessly, while raster graphics ultimately turn into giant pixel points. Vector images also have important uses in automation, as this type of line can be used to specify precise start and end points for tools such as laser cutters. AutoCAD and other 2D computer-aided design programs are based on vector graphics, and if you see the same logo on both the side of a truck and on a business card, that’s is certainly a vector file.
If you're completely new to vector graphics, I recommend watching some YouTube tutorials, like that. Even if you are the type of person who likes to delve into new software, 10 to 20 minutes of viewing tutorials will be a good time investment.
The basic thing to remember with Inkscape is that you are not creating a collection of pixels, but real shapes that you can manipulate later. So you can draw a circle, then make a cut to form a Pac-Man figure, or turn a star into something that looks more like a saw blade by increasing the number of points and their angles. Or you can draw what I did here, combining a star, a spiral, text and a rectangle in a "creative" way.
Because it is important
Beyond the lack of price, the open source descriptor means that you can view and modify the code of each program as you see fit. So if you need Inkscape, for example to work in a certain way, you can change the things around you to get there. This helps the code to improve over time, and in some situations, having the ability to modify the software as you like is much more valuable than just the fact that it is free.