I’m sure most people have used or at least heard about the Adobe product Photoshop.  In this blog I’m going to be looking at some of the programs that are offered by Adobe (the makers of Photoshop) and find free software that will fill the same purpose.
To get started with I’m going to look at Photoshop partially because of the popularity of the program and partly because it’s the first of the programs I’m going look at on the Adobe launcher.

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is a versatile tool used by photographers and digital artists to make stunning works and come with a wide range of tools and different window set ups for different styles and types of work. All the tools that come in Photoshop are backed up by Adobe’s well-constructed user guides. But at the cost of $31.35 AUD a month it’s a bit steep for a single program if you just need it for the occasional task.  Of course there are packages with multiple apps that bring the price down, but still a lot if you are not using it more than every now and then.

Photoshop Layout Options

Photoshop Layout

Photoshop Tools

GIMP – the Photoshop alternative

The most used free open source software (FOSS) that is equivalent to Photoshop is a program called GIMP, standing for GNU image manipulation program. With GIMP fitting the same market as Photoshop there are a lot of similarities in tool available and layout, however, a big difference is in the open source nature of GIMP. The open source nature of GIMP has given it the added bonus of having plugins being created by the community, this means that if you find something you can’t do that you need to do you may be able to find a plug in to fill the gap in GIMP.

GIMP tools

GIMP Layout

Adobe Illustrator

The second Adobe design tool I’ll be looking at is one I use almost every day, Illustrator.  This program is for digital artists as well as graphic designers and is used for everything from logos, to drawing and working with typography. Illustrator creates Vector images opposed to the bitmap images that Photoshop works with. Vectors can be resized to any size without distortion.  It is because of this that Illustrator is used for icons and logos. As this is an Adobe program there is a good amount of documentation to go with it. At the same price point as Photoshop it’s still at that point of not worth it for the little things.

Illustrator Tools

Illustrator Windows

Illustrator Layout

Inkscape – the Illustrator alternative

The FOSS equivalent of Adobe Illustrator that I found is called Inkscape. Inkscape has a smaller tool set than Illustrator but has all the basic tools needed to do the work you need to do, this is added by the documentation by both the Inkscape creators themselves and the community of dedicated users.  Much like GIMP and other open source programs Inkscape has many users creating extensions that can fill gaps you find in the program.

Inkscape Layout

Inkscape Extensions

Inkscape Tools

Adobe InDesign

Now onto a program I have had only a small amount of experience using, InDesign. Used for layout design InDesign is used to create things such as flyers, brochures, newsletters, books and many other things. As with all the Adobe tools there is documentation to help you find out about the tools and processes. I have used this program very little compared to my time with other Adobe products but I found it easy to get used to and over all very simple to get what I needed out of it.

InDesign Layout

InDesign Tools

InDesign Layout Options

Scribus – the InDesign alternative

The FOSS equivalent I found for InDesign is called Scribus.  This, as with all the programs in this blog Scribus is heavily community driven. Scribus has a lot of documentation to help users get the hang of how the program works. The thing about doing layout work is you should already have all the images and text ready to go so its just a matter of bringing it into your layout program and arrange everything how you want it so there is not the need for a huge amount of tool like in other programs so from my quick overview of Scribus it seems to have all the basic tools you need to get things done.

Scribus Layout

Scribus Tools

Here is where I shall finish for the time being, however with many more Adobe products to go over and more options for FOSS equivalents, I shall carry on with this another time.
For now, go make pretty pictures.
Steven.