Libre Graphics Meeting 2014 and Open Source Graphics Programs

   

     Next year in April the Libre Graphics Meeting will be hosted in Leipzig, Germany for a weekend dedicated to interaction between artist and developer. I became pretty excited to hear that these conferences have been going on for the past few years, because it means a growing interest in and use of open source or 'libre software.'

     With more interest in these programs, and with the communication between user and developer, the fight to push libre software into the mainstream art and design world is no longer too far from reality. It's hard to compete with the likes of software giants like Adobe, but they are no longer the only option for small design firms, independent artists that are trying to start something from the ground up, or even high school and college students.

After buying a few versions of Adobe CS, it feels like throwing money down a pit every year.

     On the Participating Projects page of the Libre Graphics Meeting website, there is a nice list of open source graphics programs/projects to try out and check out. Below is the list from that website with a few extra programs I have found over the years added in. Check some of them out, why not, they're free! The descriptions are taken from the Libre Graphics Meeting website.

• darktable - An open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
• FontForge - From the FontForge website: "An outline font editor that lets you create your own postscript, truetype, opentype, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. Also lets you convert one format to another."
• GEGL - (Generic Graphics Library) is a graph based image processing framework. GEGL’s original design was made to scratch GIMP’s itches for a new compositing and processing core. This core is being designed to have minimal dependencies.
• GIMP - A versatile free bitmap editing tool that accelerates your ability to perform photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It may be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing.
• Inkscape - an Open Source drawing tool with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, that uses the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.)
• Krita - A sketching and painting program that offers an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch. Krita explicitly supports concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering. Modeled on existing real-world painting.
• Laidout - Desktop publishing software, particularly for multipage, cut and folded booklets, with page sizes that don’t even have to be rectangular. You can create layout signatures by folding paper right on screen.
• Libre Graphics Magazine - A printed and web publication intended to give voice to the libre graphics user community.
• Manufactura Independente - A design studio focused on free and open source software, libre culture and critical engagement with design tools.
• MyPaint - A fast and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters. It lets you focus on the art instead of the program. You work on your canvas with minimum distractions, bringing up the interface only when you need it.
• Open Clip Art Library -A library of user-submitted, royalty-free, and free-to-use clip art.
• Open Font Library - A sister project of the Open Clip Art Library. The goal of this project is to collect free software fonts – those that may be used, changed and shared freely.
• Scribus - An open-source DTP application with a modern and user-friendly interface. The program’s main goal is to provide flexible layout and typesetting together with ability to prepare files for professional quality imagesetting equipment.