Creative Suite (Free) Alternatives
Creative Suite (CS) is a wonderful suite of software for creative professionals, and it’s the best there is… or is it? Many people know there’s a free alternative to Microsoft Office called OpenOffice, but did you know that many of the Adobe CS applications also have a free open-source equivalent?
Let’s take a look at some…
Adobe: PHOTOSHOP Open Source: GIMP
The Gimp is one of the best open source programs, and certainly the next-best thing to Photoshop for bitmap/raster image editing. Photoshop users will feel right at home with filters, layers, adjustments, brushes, and many of the more powerful unique items Photoshop sports. The Gimp is so good in fact, I almost consider it true competition to Photoshop.
Adobe: DREAMWEAVER Open Source: Kompozer, NVU
Kompozer and NVU have a similar heritage from Mozilla. Like Firefox, Kompozer spun off from Mozilla’s old HTML editor. I will admit that Dreamweaver is an amazing program, but if you have to settle for free - Kompozer can more than get the job done. Similar interface items such as toolbars, insert menus, etc - will make the Dreamweaver web slinger feel right at home.
Adobe: ILLUSTRATOR Open Source: InkScape
I am personally from the Photoshop camp, but many people swear by the power of Illustrator. As far as vector graphic editing goes, InkScape easily covers all the bases. In addition to the obvious support for paths, layers, and such - InkScape also provides niceties such as the warp/tweak tool, text on a path, effects, and more. Not to mention the native support for SVG.
Adobe: INDESIGN Open Source: Scribus
Scribus is an award-winning piece of software that ranks right up there along side Publisher, Quark, and InDesign. As with the other refined Open Source programs on this list, you can expect a solid user experience, all the right tools, and ease of use. Scribus features compatability along with it’s own unique features (scripts, etc). Desktop Publishers will have no problem quickly picking up this powerful page layout program.
But wait there’s more!
As open source software becomes more refined and more popular, we will begin to see even more possabilities emerge. Linux has begun to draw attention for it’s video-editing capabilities which will even raise eyebows on the biggest AfterEffects users. There are open source Flash players, and new standards such as HTML 5 which will quicky become a true alternative to Flash.
And one of the real benefits of OpenSource is there is no real harm in trying, you may even find your prefernece falls with one of the above programs rather than their expensive commercial rivals.