Open Source Software/Resources

[Goblinoid Games]

Here are some free software solutions for publishing-related tasks. These are programs that are "mature," meaning well supported and very functional.

IMAGE MANIPULATION

The GIMP: This can do most of what Photoshop can do, especially if you take advantage of the various plugins available.

Paint.NET: Another replacement for Photoshop, and is supposed to be very good.

Inkscape: This is a wonderful program for working with lines, text, vector art, etc. It has totally replaced Illustrator for me.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

LibreOffice: This is an excellent replacement for MS Word. It is capable of being used as a layout program, though it is not as powerful as other software that is specialized for the task. Having said that, you can get good results for layout.

Scribus: This is a proper layout program, though the learning curve is steep and it has its own complications and limitations. [UPDATE] I've been playing around with this and IMHO the learning curve is not actually that bad. Handling tables is kind of fiddly but otherwise this is a great program.

WEBSITE DESIGN

Amaya: An open source alternative to Dreamweaver.

Weebly can be used to design a simple but clean website to get you started. If you learn to fiddle with HTML you can customize your site based on what you do in Weebly.

Namecheap.com: I use this site for registering domain names.

[knightvision]

I would suggest Google Sitesfor websites as well.

[knightvision]

I also use Google Drive and MS Skydrive for "cloud" storage.

[vagvaf]

Hello all, great topic!

I use LibreCad for dealing with dungeon geometry design. You can import the .dxf file to inkscape and make it pretty afterwards.

Attention: At least for debian gnu/linux and its derivatives, the installation of python-lxml is required as well in order for Inkscape to be able to open .dxf files.

[Goblinoid Games]

Thanks for the link! (I fixed the link in your post since you didn't yet have 5 postings)

I'd never heard of that program before, but it looks really useful.

[jasonmartin]

Yes Google Drive is normally used for Cloud Storage and I have used this till now. I don't want to change this because I am getting satisfactory results with this which I required.

[J.L. Duncan]

New member.

Hello all.

Thank you so much for the links.

I lost my old Cs3 license after a computer crash and this stuff looks very useful indeed!

Great source!

[artikid]

Digital painters/illustrators may be interested in Krita or Mypaint

[J.L. Duncan]

Both look interesting...

Will have to give them a look-thanks for posting them.