Open Source Creative Suite (Part 3)

An alternative to the Adobe Creative Suite

Introduction

The Adobe Creative Suite is a Software package used by Art Designers around the world, but unfortunately it's not free. 

In this series we will try to give an overview of the different parts of the Suite and where possible give alternative Software for you to use.

This week we will be discussing:

InDesign

Which is Software that has been built to design prints. 

Think of newspapers and magazines, but also simpler stuff like folders, flyers and posters. Next to printing you could also use InDesign for making a newsletter you want to distribute via mail.

It's pretty much a must for anyone who frequently uses a Desktop Publishing (DTP) program. 

As a free alternative to InDesign we recommend:

Scribus

There are some differences to be found between the two. 
For starters, in Scribus you're going to be opening and closing a lot more menu's than the 'original'. Since for most functions you need to open a menu as opposed to InDesign, which always has the menu's opened. 
A good thing to note though, is that the same functions are available for Scribus, it's just a little bit hidden. 

One way to bypass this problem is to remember the shortcut keys for Scribus. This way you'll be moving you're mouse less and helps you get more work done. 
Even though the Graphical User Interface (GUI) needs some help, please remember Scribus is an open source project. This means it's still being worked on, so it could improve over time. 

Something that might be a nice addition, is that you're able to link it up to the Gimp (covered in Part 1). 
This way you'll only have to right-click on an image and click 'Edit in Gimp'. Lo and behold, the Gimp opens up your image allowing you to edit it instantly. Quite useful, I say.

One minor annoyance would be that you can't 'Print-Preview' without installing a plug-in first. This plug-in is however easily downloaded and installed which might take a few minutes. 
When opening up Scribus for the first time using this plug-in, it might say it's missing 'GhostScript' and that you might want to install it. Following the instructions will make you able to use 'Print-Preview in Scribus. 

If you need help getting started, there's an excellent tutorial in the Help files. For more help, try the Wiki page made by the creators of Scribus. 

Get Scribus here!


Written by: DatAsian

Posted by: Boundless

Open Source Creative Suite (Part 1)

An alternative to the Adobe Creative Suite

Introduction

The Adobe Creative Suite is a Software package used by Art Designers around the world. From designing a logo, to editing a video, the Creative Suit offers a solution for all. Unfortunately it's not free, with a license costing you €60,- a month and an extra €10,- if you're a business. This will cost you more than €700,- a year for a license.

We will try to give an overview of the different parts of the Suite and where possible, give alternative software for you to use. The idea is that you can replace all of the functionality of the Creative Suite with free software that gives you just as much, or more possibilities than the original.

Please notice that we will discussing software compatible with Windows. Free alternative software is available for the Mac, but it won't be covered in this Blog.

We'll start off with one the most used elements of the suite:

Photoshop

Photoshop is perhaps one the most famous pieces of Software on the world. It's classified as a pixel-based editor, which means it works with a grid, as opposed to vectors (which will be discussed next week).

Photoshop can be used to:
- Edit photo's
- Design website concepts
- Making logo's web-ready (usually downsizing an image to 150x150 px)
- Making art with brushes and shapes (the way of the painter)
- Designing posters and flyers (although InDesign is better for this)

Functionality:
- Add filters (blur, sepia, charcoal etc.)
- Re-sizing pictures/logo's
- Edit contrasts/colors- Use of layers

This is only the tip of the iceberg, so you would expect it's quite hard to find a decent alternative. But, there is at least one called:

The Gimp

The word Gimp is actually an abbreviation for GNU Image Manipulation Program (GNU was one the first free operating systems). It features most of the functionality that is also available in Photoshop. 

This document was used to compare the two, the following table represents a summary of that article. A 'V' indicates a winner in the category. A 'D' in any of the boxes means it's a draw.

Counting all the points together, it's close to a draw, which basically means that 90% of the functionality from Photoshop is also available in The Gimp. Sometimes the Gimp developers added even more functionality and options than Photoshop.

Download the Gimp here

Tutorials:
English
Dutch
Starters Tutorial from Your Favourite Gimp Teacher
Introduction about different tools and functions for layers (40 min)
Natural skin and eye retouching (9 min)

Next week we will be discussing Illustrator!

Written by: DatAsian

Translation by: Boundless