Adobe Creative Suite is a collection of applications for people who are, lets see….creative? Yes. Its a whole suite of applications that can be used to edit, enhance, beautify photos, create vector art, create vector animation, desktop publishing, website design, video editing, DVD menu designs and so on.
Sounds like tasks you can or want to do? Go ahead, the Adobe Creative Suite is for you.
Did I hear you asking about the cost? Well it can be a couple of thousand dollars or so depending upon the version you choose.
Fear not because here is a compiled list of software that will not only allow you to do all the above mentioned work but it also costs less. Uhmm….actually it happens that they are all free.
So here I present the open source alternatives to the popular Creative Suite applications:
Sumatra PDF aims to create a small, simple and fast PDF viewer. Its main features are showing PDFs and starting up really fast - and it does both just perfectly. Sumatra PDF is very portable since it has no external dependencies - it is just one file, so you can easily put on your USB stick and take it with you.
Download here
No I didn’t write this twice by mistake. Pop Quiz - What’s the difference between Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat? Is there one? Lets see who answers this first!
PDFCreator is an open source printer driver that creates PDF documents. “Printer Driver” means that it allows you to create PDF files from any Windows application. The PDF files can then be viewed with a standard PDF reader. You have options to add security and encryption also.
Download here
Paint.NET is a bitmap drawing and editing application. It is created in C# and is a .NET application. Paint.NET is a simple and easy to use application with an intuitive user interface which in some cases is better than Photoshop even. In addition, it packs features like any commercial program such as: layers, bezier/spline curve drawing and unlimited undo history. On top of that is has many filters that handles everything from blurring/sharpening to color control. Paint.NET requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (which is free but can never be open source!!).
Download here
Kompozer is an open source web development tool built on NVU (another editor but currently not under development). The project strives to fix bugs in the NVU project and add new features to it. Offers WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing mode, a CSS , HTML and all other regular features allowing you full control of layout as you work with your web design.
Download here
Synfig is actually very powerful. You can do much more than you can do with flash. Synfig is an industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing “feature-film quality animation” with fewer people and resources - and its free. So now you can create all those animations that you always wanted to do.
Download Here
Inkscape is an open source 2d vector graphics editor. Supports all of the standard drawing features. Curves (bezier), lines, freehand drawing including calligraphy stroke together with geometric figures can be used to build your drawing. Advanced gradient fill tool, bitmap tracing - and will let you export your drawing as both png and postscript. All normal file handling is performed natively in scalable vector graphics (svg) file format.
Download here
Scribus is a popular open source desktop publishing tool. As a DTP tool it supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Scribus also has additional features not normally found in a DTP tool such as vector drawing tools with SVG support and it even has support for OpenType Fonts. Scribus is available in more than 25 languages.
Download here
Jahshaka brings the power of movie editing and effects to the open source environment. Whether is comes to painting video, create and edit effects in real-time or perform advanced composition - Jahshaka lets you do it. You can even handle HD with ease.
Download here
VirtualDub is an open source video processor/editor. Its not for non-linear video editing, but it has powerful features for processing your video clips. The features include real-time downsizing, noise reduction, support for AVI2 (OpenDML), de- and re-compression of video and audio and an advanced set of filters. These filters include blurring, rotating, image adjustments and more. VirtualDub is a great video toolbox.
Download here
DVDStyler is simple and easy to use - it provides a quick and simple interface for adding DVD menus to your own movies. Adding movie clips is as easy as drag and drop. Menu screens are created by first loading a background - and then adding buttons. Then actions are assigned to the buttons to indicate which movie clips should be played when pressed.
Download Here
Now I am no sound expert, I have installed and used both soundbooth and Audacity and for me Audacity is just fine, although I must say that Soundbooth looks way more complicated and (sssshhh.. does that mean it does more work also?), but frankly speaking for the general user’s needs Audacity is more than enough. I can’t say for Sound Experts here. May be you can enlighten us on this one?
Download Here
There you have it. A Creative Suite Replacement. As a signing off note I would also like to mention Ubuntu Studio here. Yes yes, I know its Linux but then it comes with many of the above preinstalled (and others not mentioned here) and you can add even more, plus it has beautiful theming to give the Studio Look. You could perhaps even run it inside Windows (through virtualization).
Do you agree with my choices? Or would you replace them with something else?
(By) - Varun Kashyap - A tech enthusiast, programmer and a blogger, who almost got mad testing all of the above for this post. Visit his Tech Crazy Blog here
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Filed Under: Cool Software Apps ¦ Lists of tools ¦ Windows
Tags: adobe, better alternatives, creative suite, open source, pdf
Nice list Varun. This will no doubt be a good one to bookmark!
Thanks Travis!
I use
Foxit PDF Reader instead of Sumatra,
GIMP instead of Paint.NET,
and
PrimoPDF instead of PDFCreator.
Good choices Haricharan, although I dont think Foxit or PrimoPDF are open source. And generally I find Paint.NET better than GIMP but its personal preference.
Hey great post… GIMP is really good instead of photoshop too…
Nice List. But my opinion differs on some points.
Photoshop Alternative : Gimp (the best and most loved image manipulation and drawing softwre out there; open source) - http://www.gimp.org
Kompoer is a nice alternative to Dreamveaver, but to be true, its not as good as dreamveaver. I’ve used it myself, its nice, but not the best. You should try it out yourself though and not rely on my comments, maybe you’ll like it.
Synfig Studio - its not as good as Flash; Its better. Truly. Check out some synfig short animations from ( http://www.synfig.com/gallery.php ). I’ve not seen anythong like that being made on flash. Synfig is better in its high, movie-quality animation rendering. Flash is better in being more easy to learn and being able to create games (along with animations).
Jahsaka - sounds like a nice software, but I still dont get what it does. I cannot try it myself due to some problems ( in my computer; or maybe in the software). Can I add explosions and UFOs in my videos ? Please explain in detail as to what can Jahsak do.
For all the other software listed in the post, I agree that they are very nice (though I haven’t tried all of them yet). To sum up, Its a great post.
Jahshaka is used for adding effects kind of things to videos, like fire in some one’s eyes (its in the gallery) or add some other text or image overlays etc. And may be you can add explosions and UFOs who knows I am not too good in such kind of things, will try and let you know though!
I’d use vim instead of Kom****r or Dreamweaver. Down with wussywygs!
/troll
Excellent round-up Varun.
Thanks
Pleasure is mine
Nice list.. I had been searching for an alternative for Adobe Acrobat.. Thanks for telling about PDFCreator.
Going to download it now.
Thanks!
Good list of alternatives…Should be downloading the ones I dont have…
Thanks so much for this list, very useful for me. I’ll try those software soon.
Fantastic list. But I prefer Foxit than Sumatra. Dugg.
Glad you all liked it!!
Paint.NET has a much better interface and is more organized than Gimp. Gimp does have more features though. Check the Paint.NET community for plugins. They are very helpful. They may even develop a plugin for you.
I tried this once. I think GIMP is better than paint.net and photoshop in some regards. However I did not think that the other freeware really offered much. I was very disappointed with ‘Scribus’. My goal was to go completely open source. Linux install, with all the various tools you show here. They work to some degree, but I found that they were very inferior to the Creative Suite.
What are some reasons to use an actual PDF creator, like PDFCreator, as opposed to using Open Office’s word program (write?) As it is now, there’s one less program installed, and also one less to learn — but, are we missing out on something incredibly cool we weren’t aware of?
Nice to see Paint.net up there, it doesn’t get anywhere near the exposure it should, which is odd given that the project was mentoured by Microsoft! I personally never really got to grips with GIMP.
Quite a few pieces of software there that I have previously come across.
Good Post!
Edit typo above, should read, Quite a few pieces of software there I HAVEN’T come across.
Nice list. Couple of suggestion: Paint.NET is a great choice, as it The Gimp mentioned by several people in the comments. If you’re used to Photoshop and want to give The Gimp a whirl, definitely download GimpShop - http://www.gimpshop.com/ - a which will add a Photoshop-like interface (available for win, mac and linux). Besides Kom****r, there’s also the very popular - and related - NVU - http://www.nvu.com - (available for win, mac and linux) you’ll even find them linked on the same page. And while VirtualDub is a great program, as you say, it’s not really for editing. If you need to do that sort of thing, then try out Avidemux - http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/ - which is available for various flavours of win, mac and linux.
Yes I agree that GIMP and Paint.NET have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. GimpShop is an excellent mention have been using it for some time.
Thanks for the list Varun interesting. I must say as a designer, Adobe programs are a necessity for anyone experienced in photo production or graphic design- the PC vs. Mac thing, now that’s debatable.
which one of these can I use to edit EPS or PSD files?
You will have to install plugins for PAINT.NET to open these files
Nice list Varun, and I have been trying to go completely open source for quite a while.. I read the earlier post also with great glee but I had known most of the stuff…
My two cents ….
1. I use Outlook 2007.. I have used Thunderbird for quite a while.. TB has a simple interface and does a great job with showing emails and good granular configurations.. Used it for over a year and half with Lighning.. My take.. Outlook does “my” requirements better.. The planner facilities of Outlook with seamless integration of email,calendar and contacts is truly wonderful.. Something is lacking in TB that the ease is not there beyond just emailing and just calendaring..We use Zimbra email …
2. PDF writer.. I agree that PDF Creator is an awesome product.. I have loved it and adopted it since I discovered it 2 years ago… I have deleted all the acrobat crap from my sys.. ver8 of the reader literally killed my machine with its load… Foxit is fantastic reader thgh not open source.. It has the ability of text viewer which literally bypasses the copy controls !!! Try reading knowledgestorm documents to understand what I mean.
3. While Foxit and PDF creator does a neat job with the spooling and viewing, a good pdf editor is still missing.. I use Foxit Editor / Nitro ( Commercialware).. do chip in if u know of a good OS editor I can substitute with.
Thx.
This list is interesting, and if you were going to buy Creative Suite to do a little design work here and there for yourself and/or for fun then its an excellent list.
However, if you plan on doing design professionally, there is no way you can survive with Gimp, Scribus or Inkscape. They just aren’t up to the task of full time professional work (believe me I’ve tried … and as Creative Director of a small publishing company I get paid better when I can save the company money.)
Glad I read this comment. I’m in the process of returning to graphic design professionally in my twilight years and have Quark 4.1, photoshop etc and distiller 5. Will have to update and as such have been doing research on Adobe Creative Suite or Quark.
Now I know which to get.
Virtualdub? Seriously? There is no comparison of virtualdub and premiere.
What about the “important” tools that are part of Adobe CS? Working in the statements/inserts industry, we are constantly using Distiller (for converting PS 2 PDF), and the Adobe hooks into M$ Office (Save as PDF, etc) to create PDFs from Word/Excel/Acsess/etc.
Yes, there is a freeware (maybe opensource) distiller named “FREEDIST”, which does great on PS2PDF conversions.
Other than that, this was a great article.
Thank you.
Paint.net orr gimp aren`t nearly as good as Photoshop imo