Fifteen Top Open Source Design Tools

Posted on January 23rd, 2012. Written by Guest Author.

Graphic designing is a booming field that is no longer limited to freehand logos. Talk about website designing, publications or presentations graphic designers are required everywhere. If you want to enter this field, then you would require some designing tools to work on. Here is a list of some open source programs that will surely pave your way to a successful designing carrier. All these tools are free and there is a community forum for each of them, where you can get help if you face any problem. Read on to know more.

1. Kompozer

This is a fully featured web authoring system, which comes with an integrated FTP client and an intuitive tabbed user interface. It works on all major operating systems including Windows XP, Vista and 7. Kompozer is extremely easy to use, making it suitable for non-technical users who have less or no knowledge about web coding or HTML, but want to create attractive website.

2. Flockdraw

It is one of the seamless real time drawing collaborative tools. Visit the given link, pick a tool, choose a color and enjoy your work. You can start by entering a nickname or signing in with your Twitter account.

3. Aptana Studio

This complete web development program combines authoring tools for HTML, CSS and Java script. It allows you to build an entire web application using a single program. The latest version available for the program is Aptana Studio 3 that you can download from the given link.

4. Notepad ++

It is a notepad replacement and source code editor, which supports many languages. It only works on Windows and is ran by a GPL license. The free editor is written C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL. Most interesting fact about Notepad++-you can translate it into your native language.

5. Paint.Net

This is a free image and photo editing software for computers running with Windows operating system. It features advanced user interface with support for layers, special effects, unlimited undo and variety of powerful tools.

6. Bluefish editor

A fast editor for programmers and web designers that comes with many project management features, useful wizards for HTML documents and powerful search-and-replace option. It is a multi-platform, which works on Windows, Linux, MAC, FreeBSD and Solaris.

7. Inkscape

This is a vector graphics editor similar to CorelDraw, Illustrator and Xara X, which uses W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It supports a number of advanced SVG features such as clones, alpha bending, markers etc.

8. Firebug

A plug in for Mozilla Firefox that allows you to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live on web pages. It makes simple to find HTML elements and gives a lot of information about it.

9. Blender

This is a graphic designing tool to create fabulous 3D projects, which works on Windows, MAC and Linux. It has the ability to shade, render, animate and much more.

10. Quanta Plus

It is a high extensible and robust web development IDE with the ability to run custom scripts. The program comes with an excellent visual CSS editor that has auto completion of syntax and code hints, which makes your work easier.

11. Fontforge

An outline font editor that allows you to create your own opentype, truetype, cid-keyed, cff, svg, bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. It also allows you convert from one format to another.

12. jEdit

This is a cross-platform text editor Written in Java, which runs on Mac OS X, OS/2, UNIX, VMS and Windows. It comes with built-in macro language and supports a number of character encodings such as Unicode and UTF 8.

13. ComparePSD

The program allows you to compare two Photoshop projects side by side, so that you can highlight the problems and fix it. If you work on Photoshop regularly, then this is a must have tool for your computer.

14. Amaya

It is a web editor to create and update documents directly to the internet. Amaya is written in C and works on Windows, UNIX platforms and Mac OS X. The latest version of the program is released on 18 January that is Amaya 11.4.4.

15. 3D Slicer

It is a program for image and scientific visualization. It works on multiple platforms including MAC, Linux and Windows.

About the author: Rebecca is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on environment and technology. Beside this she is fond of books. She recently bought a Wireless Printer. These days she is busy in writing an article on  Choker Necklaces.