Marketing with Mandy: Photoshop Alternatives
Hey lady… you told us to make our jpegs and gifs 72dpi (resolution for web) but did you tell us what to make them in? No. *big sigh* Yes, this information would have helped greatly. If you’re like most everyday non-design folk, you don’t have an array of graphics programs at your fingertips. My fav is Photoshop. I’ve been working with the program way back when it was just about brand new. The downfalls to it are the price and the fact it can be a bit much to try to learn to use especially if you only need to do a few things on it. Don’t fret. There are alternatives to Photoshop and I’m here to tell you about them.
I’ll start with open source ones first (free).
–Paint.NET is free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
Krita–is a painting and image editing application for KOffice. Krita is part of KOffice since version 1.4. Krita contains both ease-of-use and fun features like guided painting (never before has it been so easy to airbrush a straight line!) and high-end features like support for 16 bit images, CMYK, L*a*b and even OpenEXR HDR images.
GIMP- GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
Film Gimp, the original CinePaint architecture, first released in 2002. Glasgow, a new architecture, is the next generation of CinePaint.
Do you want to buy a program but don’t necessarily want to spend what Photoshop charges? Here is a link to a great write up on cheaper alternatives.
This is all well and good but where so I get pics to even bother manipulating?
That’s easy. Start with your covers or your theme and go from there. Here are some links to royalty free stock photo sites. (I’ll talk a little bit about branding and setting a look for yourself in future Marketing with Mandy posts)
This should help you at least get started. Be sure to post any questions or suggestions you have. Good luck and have fun playing around with them!
omg I NEED that one *dying of laughter*
March 18th, 2007 | #