Useful Freeware Design Software
Designers often find it difficult to come up with the money, especially in the beginning to buy all the many software programs needed to do the job correctly. There is some software you only need on occasion and others you need everyday. Put your checkbook away and get the useful freeware design software you need today.
Software for Editing Images
GIMP – Use this GNU image manipulation program to retouch photos, image composition and authoring of images. Mulit-languages are available.
Picasa – This free software download from Google help organize and locate your photos. Once you find them edit and add effects easily.
Illustration Software
Inkscape – This is an Open Source vector graphics editor. It has capabilities closely related to Illustrator including XML editing. Create shapes, paths, text, markers, gradients, patterns and more.
SmoothDraw NX – This freehand drawing tool is a limited free version of SmoothDraw. Get smooth strokes every time and smooth out the mouse input as well.
Authoring Tools
Project Dogwaffle Free – This freeware design software developed in VB is for creating animation and working in paint.
Animation Software
TouchArt Sampler – Get interactive 2D and 3D animations in this tool to perfect the art of live visuals. Edit visuals in real-time and gain control of lighting, textures, motion and more.
Synfig.org – This vector-based 2D animation program allows you to produce a feature-film quality video. It offers spatial, high dynamic range images and much more.
3D Modeling & CAD Software
LOOXIS Faceworx – This is a freeware used to create 3D head out of 2D photos. You need experience in placing reference points and marking contours to use this correctly. Save final 3D portrait as an OBJ format.
Bryce – Now you can create photo-realistic 3D landscapes with this freeware. Control the look and feel of every aspect of your creation from the lighting, sunset, sunrise and overall ambiance.
Flash Designing Software
Flash Slideshow Maker – Now you can create animated photo slide shows. Use it to transform digital photos into Macromedia Flash File Format SWF.
Sothink SWF Cather for IE – This IE extension allows you to save flash-based games, cards, movies and more with the click of a button.
Other Useful Freeware Design Software
Digital Image Tool – This software help you to batch process images quickly. It features options to resize, rotate, scale, crop, watermark and much more.
JR Screen Ruler – This small adjustable screen ruler measures the distance on your screen in centimeters, inches, pixels and picas. It adjusts to fit any screen.
Quick HTML Color Picker – When doing any kind of design color is of the essence. This freeware design software helps you with just that. This windows-based software allows you to choose any color from your screen, preview it, and get the color in both RGB and HTML format. This makes it easy to get perfect color every time.