Adobe Creative Cloud is pretty much the industry standard in design software. However, the cost of these products may be a major barrier to entry for many budding designers. Others may not be keen on the subscription model of the software. Fortunately, you can use various open source software to create your own free creative suite of software. Admittedly, you will not get all the functionality of Adobe’s flagship products. A lot of the AI powered features may be missing. Nevertheless, this collection of programs may be a suitable replacement for the cash strapped designer or proponent of open source.
The Software
Since these open source programs are independently developed, there is not the tight integration found in paid software suites. On the other hand, these programs are cross-platform and can run natively on different operating systems, including Linux.
GIMP (Image Editing) – alternative to Adobe Photoshop
GNU Image Manipulation Program, more commonly known as GIMP, is a free image editing program with many of the same basic functions of Photoshop and other image editing programs. It allows you to create and edit images and save them in various file formats including Photoshop’s PSD.
Inkscape (llustration) – alternative to Adobe Illustrator
Inkscape allows you to create vector graphics and illustrations that scale well without loss of quality. Utilizing bezier and spiro curves you can create illustrations similar to those you can create in Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape boasts support for a wide range of vector file formats and can export files in raster format as well.
Brackets (Code Editor) – alternative to Dreamweaver
Brackets is a free code editor that is ideal for anyone who is comfortable using the code view of Adobe Dreamweaver. While it does not include the advanced WYSIWYG functionality of Adobe Dreamweaver’s design view, if you only need to edit code it is more than capable. It includes code auto-completion and code highlighting, with support for various programming languages.
Scribus (Desktop publishing) – alternative to Adobe InDesign
Scribus is a desktop publishing program suitable for formatting documents for printing or digital publication. The program can handle colour separations and can save files as PDF.
digiKam (Asset manager) – alternative to Adobe Bridge
DigiKam helps you manage your digital assets by allowing you to preview graphic files, edit metadata and see properties. This is an essential tool for someone who deals with many graphic files. It gives you access to more detailed information than the standard file manager of your operating system.
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