Free/opensource software for simple photo editing and design?

sandy · 2017-12-29T14:11:36.933Z

Gimp is great.
Depending on exactly what you want to do, there’s also Inkscape.
https://inkscape.org/en/

plusch · 2017-12-29T14:14:57.846Z

Yes, I use Gimp for pixel work, and Inkscape for vector work.

steveoath · 2017-12-29T14:15:23.381Z

Gimp is good. Takes a bit of getting used to if you’re familiar with Photoshop.

nuun · 2017-12-29T14:26:05.460Z

thanks a lot! downloaded both and will explore them

jwudel · 2017-12-29T15:10:30.420Z

Seashore is a simple OS X editor that uses native graphics frameworks.

Scribus is oss desktop publishing, way less feature rich than something like indesign, but gets a lot done.

I’ve used both for simple things, and can second Inkscape and Gimp.

andrew · 2017-12-29T15:36:06.986Z

This is an experimental photoshop alternative that’s integrated with a command line, designed for repetitive tasks. The same studio also has a vector drawing tool based on grids. I haven’t tried them out yet but they seems pretty good for simple tasks.

https://hundredrabbits.itch.io/ronin

glia · 2017-12-30T15:34:20.339Z

How’d you find these? Thanks

anon45924993 · 2017-12-30T17:59:43.178Z

Woah, this developer appears to be incredibly prolific. All sorts of tools for all sorts of purposes. Impressive!

DoS · 2017-12-30T18:14:00.265Z

I tried out Ronin, but the GUI seemed incomplete and counterintuitive on Linux (it might be me, though).

I’d definitely recommend Gimp as a Photoshop alternative.

andrew · 2017-12-30T18:18:29.767Z

It’s actually a couple and they run a design studio called Hundred Rabbits out of a sailboat and make games, software, and music. I don’t really use their stuff but I follow their YouTube channel and it’s pretty interesting.

Cryptohelix · 2018-01-03T03:52:41.850Z

Pixlr is good in a pinch, a sort of photoshop-lite with ads, within a browser window:

https://pixlr.com/

I’ve yet to try Gimp, or did years ago and forgot.

tallhouserecordingco · 2020-01-06T18:58:15.726Z

Resurrecting this old thread to ask a question about album design and layout.

I’ve installed both GIMP and Inkscape and have been just starting to look around, reading tutorials etc…

Having not done an album layout in the digital realm for myself in forever, would inkscape be the tool to use for such a task? Can it handle all of the common templates and requirements that printers ask for?

Thanks!
mm

petesasqwax · 2020-01-06T23:50:31.260Z

Inkscape is great for vector work which allows for infinitely resizable images, but lines/curves/shapes rather than photographs. Gimp is for photo editing but as a result such images are lossy when rescaled.

Does that help/answer your question?

anon45924993 · 2020-01-07T00:04:50.495Z

tallhouserecordingco:

Can it handle all of the common templates and requirements that printers ask for?

If your printer can handle SVG, then you can use Inkscape. If your printer expects PNG or JPG, you’ll use Gimp. Best to ask your printer what file formats they expect.

tallhouserecordingco · 2020-01-07T04:15:43.235Z

@petesasqwax yes, that answers part of it.
@anon45924993 I’ve been looking at generic LP templates and don’t see this kind of info.

Here’s are examples of what I’m looking at:
https://www.microforumvinyl.com/templates.php?template=1

microforum.ca

vinyljacket_0001.pdf

118.40 KB

Say I wanted to design an album jacket with a combination of a picture, text, label logo (I have a label logo as a pdf and maybe an old Illustrator file someone prepared for me long ago).

Would it be a combination of GIMP to edit/prepare the photo and Inkscape to handle text, logo and overall layout on one of those pdf templates?

I know these are really basic questions, its just been so long since I’ve done anything like this and before investing too much time trying to learn my way around new software I want to make sure I’m at least working with the right tools.

I don’t think I’ve had Photoshop since Windows XP was new and never really spent much time with Illustrator!

onewayness · 2020-01-07T14:56:20.318Z

tallhouserecordingco:

Say I wanted to design an album jacket with a combination of a picture, text, label logo (I have a label logo as a pdf and maybe an old Illustrator file someone prepared for me long ago).

Would it be a combination of GIMP to edit/prepare the photo and Inkscape to handle text, logo and overall layout on one of those pdf templates?

I routinely use GIMP for all of the above.

papernoise · 2020-01-07T16:05:05.728Z

If you want to make an album cover and have it printed professionally, then I have to warn you, Linux will not get you very far. I keep an eye on it, because I like Linux in general, but it’s really nowhere near usable with print-related graphics stuff.
It lacks on all fronts. Software packages are ok for casual use, but lack some more robust features. GIMP still doesn’t do CMYK for eg.
I could write a whole list of things that just don’t work in Linux, but I’ll spare you the rant.

This said, an ideal Linux based workflow for print graphics would look like this, depending on what you’re after one ore more applications will of coruse be omitted:

prepare all the photo/bitmap material in Gimp
prepare all the vector graphics in Inkscape
prepare any 3D rendered graphics in Blender (which is actually where Linux does have a really great software package!)
then asseble / layout everything in Scribus and produce a final CMYK PDF/X (PDF/X-3 probably) file from there.

Scribus has a horrible UI and does make even simple things super akward to get done, but it might work for you, maybe I’m too biased by 20+ years of working with Indesign.
Also don’t underestimate the impact of colour management on your work.

In general I would advise against sending printers anything but a PDF/X file.

In general my advice is: make some desginer friends and trade some cover design with them!

edit: I was referring too much to a Linux environment in my post, but indeed the title only talks about open soruce software not necessarily the OS.
My points don’t change though. If you’re not on Linux I’d suggest to take a look at the Affinity programs. Not FOSS, but they are relatively cheap and get the job done really well!

onewayness · 2020-01-07T19:27:31.126Z

papernoise:

GIMP still doesn’t do CMYK for eg.

There’s apparently a third-party plugin called Separate+ that will export to CMYK from GIMP?

askubuntu.com

How to convert image to CMYK in GIMP?

gimp, convert, cmyk, colors

asked by edm on 06:09PM - 21 Mar 12 UTC

In my own use, I haven’t (yet) found the lack of CMYK to be an issue…

sam · 2020-01-07T19:32:52.839Z

onewayness:

There’s apparently a third-party plugin called Separate+ that will export to CMYK from GIMP?

Does it handle all the weird CMYK stuff you’re supposed to do with colour alignment and effective use of the black channel?

edit: or maybe that doesn’t mater with raster, it’s been ages since I did any of this stuff…

papernoise · 2020-01-07T19:33:16.757Z

onewayness:

There’s apparently a third-party plugin called Separate+ that will export to CMYK from GIMP?

Yes that’s true, but seems like a bit of a hack to me.

In theory, if Scribus handles the conversion well, you could of course work with properly tagged RGB files (as long as you use a side gamut profile like AdobeRGB or better eciRGB v2). In my workflow I find that doing the conversion directly in the image editing program works better, because you have more control over it.