This is an extremely powerful drawing tool-has a lot of the same functionality as Photoshop:
Introduction to GIMP
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.
GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
Features and Capabilities
Painting
Full suite of painting tools including Brush, Pencil, Airbrush, Clone, etc.
Sub-pixel sampling for all paint tools for high quality anti-aliasing
Extremely powerful gradient editor and blend tool
Supports custom brushes and patterns
System
Tile based memory management so image size is limited only by available disk space
Virtually unlimited number of images open at one time
Advanced Manipulation
Full alpha channel support
Layers and channels
Multiple Undo/Redo (limited only by diskspace)
Editable text layers
Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip
Selection tools including rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy
Foreground extraction tool
Advanced path tool doing bezier and polygonal selections.
Transformable paths, transformable selections.
Quickmask to paint a selection.
Extensible
A Procedural Database for calling internal GIMP functions from external programs as in Script-fu
Advanced scripting capabilities (Scheme, Python, Perl)
Plug-ins which allow for the easy addition of new file formats and new effect filters
Over 100 plug-ins already available
Animation
Load and save animations in a convenient frame-as-layer format
MNG support
Frame Navigator (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
Onion Skin (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
Bluebox (in GAP, the GIMP Animation Package)
File Handling
File formats supported include bmp, gif, jpeg, mng, pcx, pdf, png, ps, psd, svg, tiff, tga, xpm, and many others
Load, display, convert, save to many file formats
SVG path import/export
You can get Gimp here
Just Zip It!
If you're into digital downloading for your crafting then you'll need an 'unzipper' to de-compress the files and get at your goodies. This is a great wee free programme, simple and straightforward but it does the job.
Some of JustZIPit's Special Features
- Extremely fast ZIP and UnZIP. No-one else comes close!
- Standard ZIP compression -- same as WinZip but free!
- Fast, smart, hassle-free zero-interface means no learning.
- Quick: ESC to cancel and exit
- Full support for all relevant keyboard shortcuts and keyboard navigation
- Complete and easy install/uninstall
- No messy DLLS to install (no OCX, VBX, VB, MFC, Flash, IE etc)
- No bulky runtime libraries required (no VB, JAVA etc)
- Compatible with all 32-bit versions of Windows
- Extremely competitive price - £FREE!
Open Office
OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing,spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
You can get Open Office here
Printmaster Express
is a free downloadable print creativity application that lets you add personality and flair to any occasion! It is modeled after the award-winning PrintMaster brand of software.
With PrintMaster Express you can easily create Greeting Cards, Note Cards, Banners, Calendars, Photo Projects and so much more. Other features include an address book complete with event reminders for birthdays and anniversaries, plus mail merge capabilities that let you send personalised letters, invitations, and newsletters.
The interface is easy enough for children to learn and use, but flexible enough, providing full functionality for creating a wide variety of projects. ALL FOR FREE!
You can get Printmaster Express
Tube-Ex
If you created a picture tube in Paint Shop Pro then it is impossible to use it in other applications. TubeExtractor will convert the Picture Tube to the PNG format (which is supported by all new graphic applications and web browsers)
You can get Tube-Ex here
Textmaker Viewer For Windows
If you've ever been sent an email with an attachment you don't have the software to open or view then this wee piece of software is for you. It's completely free and easy to use install and use.
If you want to...
Supported File Formats:
Paint.net
You can get Paint.net from here
Studio Scrap 2
You can get it fromhere
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/pageplus/index.asp
PIXresizer
PIXresizer is a photo resizing program to easily create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes.
The reduced files are saved in a different folder, so your original images are not altered at all. PIXresizer offers several different resizing methods to choose from and can automatically recognize image sizes to calculate the best fit. In addition, it can convert between image formats (JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and TIFF), rotate images, convert to grayscale and resize multiple images in batch mode. A great companion for webmasters and digital photographers.
Options/Features
Simple Four-Step Workflow
Easy 'Apply recommended' option to make it even more user friendly
Works with single files as well as with multiple files all at once
Option to convert between graphics formats (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, and .tif)
Can be used to create thumbnails (takes one move on a slider)
Smart Ratio Calculation (image proportions can be overruled by the user)
EXIF support, JPEG compression, TIFF compression, DPI settings
Runs on Windows 98/ME/NT4/2k/2k3/2k8/XP/Vista/7
Textmaker Viewer For Windows
If you've ever been sent an email with an attachment you don't have the software to open or view then this wee piece of software is for you. It's completely free and easy to use install and use.
If you want to...
·
open a document created in Microsoft Word, TextMaker, or
OpenDocument format, but you haven't installed the respective word processor
·
send a document but you don't know whether the recipient
has installed the programs to open it
·
quickly view and print documents without editing them
Then you need...
free TextMaker Viewer 2010
·
.docx, .docm Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010
·
sxw OpenOffice.org/StarOf
fice
Text
fice
Text
·
.dotx, .dotm Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 templates
·
.rtf Rich Text Format
·
.doc Microsoft Word 6.0 up to Word 2010
·
.psw Pocket Word (Pocket PC)
·
.dot Microsoft Word templates 6.0 up to 2010
·
.pwd Pocket Word (Handheld PC)
·
.tmd TextMaker 6.0 up to 2010
·
.htm/html HTML documents
·
.odt OpenDocument Text
·
.txt Text files (DOS, Windows, Unicode, UTF-8)
You can get free Textmaker Viewer from here
Paint.net
You can get Paint.net from here
Studio Scrap 2
You can get it fromhere
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/pageplus/index.asp
PIXresizer
PIXresizer is a photo resizing program to easily create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file sizes.
The reduced files are saved in a different folder, so your original images are not altered at all. PIXresizer offers several different resizing methods to choose from and can automatically recognize image sizes to calculate the best fit. In addition, it can convert between image formats (JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and TIFF), rotate images, convert to grayscale and resize multiple images in batch mode. A great companion for webmasters and digital photographers.
Options/Features
Simple Four-Step Workflow
Easy 'Apply recommended' option to make it even more user friendly
Works with single files as well as with multiple files all at once
Option to convert between graphics formats (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, and .tif)
Can be used to create thumbnails (takes one move on a slider)
Smart Ratio Calculation (image proportions can be overruled by the user)
EXIF support, JPEG compression, TIFF compression, DPI settings
Runs on Windows 98/ME/NT4/2k/2k3/2k8/XP/Vista/7
You can download it here
