What are some simple/free/open source design software options?
September 6, 2010 3:00 AM Subscribe
What are some low cost / open source software options for having fun manipulating pre-existing images. e.g. scanning a magazine cover and then changing the titles to something humorous. I'm a Mac user.
This is just for fun and doesn't need to provide me with high quality or print ready results. It also needs to be a program that is easy to use/teach myself. I'm really only familiar with Publisher from my PC days.
This is just for fun and doesn't need to provide me with high quality or print ready results. It also needs to be a program that is easy to use/teach myself. I'm really only familiar with Publisher from my PC days.
Heard good things about Pixelmator. I think you can download a trial, and it's $59 to register. It's a native Mac app, looks nice and is pretty easy to use.
posted by derbs at 3:14 AM on September 6, 2010
posted by derbs at 3:14 AM on September 6, 2010
Also just remembered about Acorn. Not used it, but it looks nice and easy to use, and you can run it in free mode, which just disables some advanced features. The full version is about $50 I think.
posted by derbs at 3:18 AM on September 6, 2010
posted by derbs at 3:18 AM on September 6, 2010
Imagemagick. Simple but very powerful command line utilities.
posted by orthogonality at 3:33 AM on September 6, 2010
posted by orthogonality at 3:33 AM on September 6, 2010
Bring out the GIMP, as dazed_one says.
Also, here's a list of open source alternatives to Photoshop, which sounds like what you're going to need.
posted by chengjih at 4:14 AM on September 6, 2010
Also, here's a list of open source alternatives to Photoshop, which sounds like what you're going to need.
posted by chengjih at 4:14 AM on September 6, 2010
Oh, GIMP tutorials here.
Note that if you're only adding text, there's a lot of stuff available, like Imagemagick if you're going to run a bunch through some command line loop, to any random image manipulator you can find on Mac. The wrinkle is that you've said you want to remove existing text and replace it with your own, in which case you probably need something with Photoshop's capabilities. Hence, the GIMP.
posted by chengjih at 4:19 AM on September 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Note that if you're only adding text, there's a lot of stuff available, like Imagemagick if you're going to run a bunch through some command line loop, to any random image manipulator you can find on Mac. The wrinkle is that you've said you want to remove existing text and replace it with your own, in which case you probably need something with Photoshop's capabilities. Hence, the GIMP.
posted by chengjih at 4:19 AM on September 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
Seashore is open source and very easy to use. It's based on GIMP but much more Mac like and stripped down to hide the scary stuff. (I like scary stuff, but Seashore is what I open if I want to do something quickly and easily.)
posted by advicepig at 7:31 AM on September 6, 2010
posted by advicepig at 7:31 AM on September 6, 2010
Pixlr is browser-based and surprisingly capable for an online app.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 8:01 AM on September 6, 2010
posted by hungrysquirrels at 8:01 AM on September 6, 2010
I used to like Seashore, but it is buggy in 10.6 and messes up the colours when you save images. Gimp is worth getting to know.
For really basic stuff (like captioning image macros) try Paintbrush.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 7:35 PM on September 6, 2010
For really basic stuff (like captioning image macros) try Paintbrush.
posted by WhackyparseThis at 7:35 PM on September 6, 2010
Response by poster: thanks everyone, i'm trying a few of the options. Acorn seems best fit so far.
posted by MT at 4:10 AM on September 7, 2010
posted by MT at 4:10 AM on September 7, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dazed_one at 3:07 AM on September 6, 2010