A fact of our times, whether we admit it or not, is that we’ve all become a bit more…thrifty– perhaps looking for sales, indulging in the occasional garage sale stop, etc? Generics are products that, I believe, are often overlooked. Made to function like a brand name product but for a fraction of the price, can anything be better? Of course, we’d all like to have the 3 hour loading times of the Adobe Creative Suites programs, but can we afford the nearly $1,000 we have to part with to fix our “brand” habit? Not in 2009. So, what’s to do? Illegal downloading? Folks, if you can’t afford to fork over the $1,000 for the actual software, just think of the lawyer’s fees, bail and the cost of conjugal visits! Trust me, there is a better solution. I like to consider the following options the generics of software. Many of these work so powerfully and similarly that I find myself questioning the popularity of the brand names altogether.

IMAGE EDITING

GIMP – is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. Note: You will need to download both GTK+ Runtime Environment and The Gimp installers. Install GTK+ before installing The Gimp.

GIMPshop is a modification of the free/open source GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop. Its primary purpose is to make users of Photoshop feel comfortable using GIMP.

Picasa – is a free software download from Google that helps you to locate and organize all the photos on your computer, edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks, share your photos with others through email, prints and on the web.

Paint.NET – is free image editing and photo manipulation software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

ColorPic Grab palettes of up to 16 colors at once and use four advanced color mixers to select a spectrum of possibilities. Plus, an attached magnifier.

Magnifier - has the following features: no popup adverts or spyware, easy to use with any other program, resizable magnification area, adjustable zoom factor, overlay a grid.

Easy Thumbnails - creates thumbnails and scaled copies of all your images. Process images individually, in groups, or in whole folders using a simple file selector and built-in image viewer.

FastStone Photo Resizer – is an image converter / resizer intended to enable users to convert, rename, resize, crop, rotate, change color depth, add text and watermarks to images in a quick and easy batch mode.

ImageDiff – allows you to compare two images side by side, and see a difference mask showing you the exact pixels that have changed.

Features include:

· Compare images of different formats, including JPG, GIF, BMP, and TIF, PNG.

· Compare images of different proportions and imageDiff will scale and calculate the difference automatically.

IrfanView – is a fast and compact image viewer/converter. Many supported file formats and features. Features include: multi-language support, Thumbnail option, slideshow, toolbar skins, fast directory browsing, batch conversion/editing, multipage editing, file search, change color depth, scanning, cut/crop, IPTC edit, capturing, lossless JPG operations, effects (sharpen, blur, Adobe Photoshop filters), EXE/SCR creating, many hotkeys, command line options and plugins.

FastStone Image Viewer – is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It includes a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats including BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA.

ILLUSTRATION

Inkscape – is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more.

SmoothDraw NX – is a powerful freehand drawing tool. It’s a limited free version of SmoothDraw. It produces the most smooth and expressive stroke through your tablet. It also smoothes mouse input for who don’t have a tablet.

SPRAY vector generator -is intended to produce helper objects for vector illustration software like Xara X, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop. Generate huge number of circles with random position, fill, outline color; random paths, grids, and rays. Developed for Xara X but also works with Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator.

ParticleDraw – is a novel Windows drawing program powered by a state of the art general system simulation engine. The brushes are dynamic systems of particles with interesting behaviors’, which you can completely customize. Each brush is intricately tune-able with many underlying physical parameters and one can construct arbitrary systems of particles and use these as brushes.

InsightPoint – creates sophisticated illustration and layout for Web and print. When it comes to spell out and share your ideas, in text and in graphics as well, InsightPoint is the fastest and easiest way to get you there. Built on top of XML technologies, comprehensive object-oriented vector design tools, trivial learning curve and smooth drawing experience.

AUTHORING TOOLS

Serif DrawPlus - is a powerful drawing and graphics software. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to create high quality graphics and animations without having to spend hours designing or pay for expensive training.

Project Dogwaffle Free – is a paint and animation program for the PC developed in VB by special fx artist, animator & novelist Dan Ritchie and made available for free downloading and use.

AmitySource Userbar Generator is an easy-to-use program for generating unique and attractive user bars. With it you can create nice-looking user bar within five minutes and without any technical or artistic knowledge.

Terragen – is a scenery generator, created with the goal of generating photorealistic landscape images and animations. It is available for Windows and the Mac OS.

uMark Lite – allows you to add a text or image watermark to your digital photos. You can choose from nine pre-defined watermark placements, set a custom font, size, and color, as well as opacity level. The freeware version can batch process up to 50 images in a single run. The watermarked images are saved in a new folder, so your originals remain unchanged. 50 images at a go, adds uMark Lite watermark.

ANIMATION

TouchArt Sampler – is a great way to learn the art and skills of performing live visuals and VJing. TouchPlayer and 21 interactive 2D and 3D animations (synths) are included in this sampler. Touch lets you manipulate visuals in real-time, giving you control of various parameters like lighting, color, textures, motion, video playback, and composing. Play some audio and you can sync visuals to the BPM.

Synfig Studio is a vector based 2D animation program. It is designed to be capable of producing feature-film quality animation. It eliminates the need for tweening, preventing the need to hand-draw each frame. Synfig Studio features spatial and temporal resolution independence, high dynamic range images and a flexible plug-in system.

AnimPixels is animated movie software specialized in Isometric Pixel Art. Use your own movie components, or download them from the Web, to create a original pixelized animated movie.

UnFREEz -is a high-speed Windows application that will take any number of images, saved as separate GIF files, and create a single animated GIF from those images.

3D MODELING & CAD

LOOXIS Faceworx -is a free Software which creates a 3D head out of two standard 2D photos. You need two well-illuminated pictures; one from the front (mug shot style) and one from the side. The software demands some skills in placing reference points and marking the contours of the face; mouth, nose, ears and eyes. The final 3D portrait can be saved and exported in the well-known OBJ format.

Bryce – is known for creating photo-realistic 3D landscapes and featuring a shallow learning curve for beginners. Start out building or importing a landscape as impressive as the Grand Canyon. Populate it with buildings, people or any other object you create or from the extensive DAZ 3D library. The Light Lab provides you robust control over your sunsets, moonlight nights or high-noon ambiance.

Blender – is the open-source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. It is available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Google SketchUp – is a free, easy-to-learn 3D-modeling program with a few simple tools to let you create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects and even space ships. You can add details, textures and glass to your models, and design with dimensional accuracy. You can place your finished models in Google Earth; share them with others by posting them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies.

3D Canvas – is a real-time 3D modeling and animation tool that incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling. Complex models can be constructed from simple 3D primitives, or created using 3D Canvas’ Object Building Tools. Modeling tools are provided to deform, sculpt and paint 3D objects.

3D Box Shot Maker – is an easy and FREE tool to virtually design quality box shot as your software box cover. It is important to present a professional box shot to attract your potential customers to take a closer look at your products. An impressive box shot will make your software outstanding, and easily defeat your competitors at the start.

Alibre Design Xpress 3D solid modeling software delivers the features you need to get started with 3D design and tackle projects for your business or workshop. Alibre Design Xpress is a rich and capable 3D solid modeler for creating parts, assemblies and 2D drawings.

DAZ Studio is completely free best 3D software; imagine being able to easily create your own professional quality 3d artwork. You don’t need to take any special graphic design software courses and spend hundreds of dollars.

DAZ 3D provides free series of 3d model add-ons and plug-ins for DAZ Studio. Plug-ins as: FaceShop Basic, Bryce 5.5, Photoshop Bridge. Most popular free 3d models: Dystopia City, Michael, Victoria, and etc. the best, most famous, and most widely supported 3D figures on the planet.

Bryce 5.5 is an Award winning, feature-packed 3D modeling and animation package designed to allow new users to quickly produce and render eye-catching 3D environments. Exceptional supremacy with an innovative interface for unbelievable ease of use, add wildlife, people, props and more to your scenes.

Terragen is a free scenery generator, produced for generating photorealistic landscape imagery and animations. There are Beta and Technology Preview software.

Autodesk Maya P. L. E. is a Personal Learning Edition is a special version of Maya free computer software, which provides free of charge access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, professionals, and those interested in computer graphics an opportunity to explore this award-winning software.

P. L. E. Software by Autodesk is a Personal Learning Edition offers almost every feature included in the full commercial version of software. Free Autodesk AliasStudio, MotionBuilder, 3ds Max Design. Autodesk software is known as the premier industrial design tool – used by virtually every car, design, and consumer product companies around the world.

Poser Shareware is One of the most popular human figure software. The easiest way to design with the human form in 3D! Any artist of any level can use the collection of included 3D freebies, tutorials, and powerful rendering capabilities to produce stunning art, fine illustration and breathtaking animation for any graphic design application, best 3d software downloads.

More Shareware by Smith Micro. Download a full copy of the best and most popular software titles, with access to all the features. Try out the best: Shade and Amapi Pro, Figure Artist, Anime Studio, and Manga. Many of the company graphics, animation, and file compression freeware programs are available for you to download for free and use for a trial period.

FLASH

Flash Slideshow Maker is a Flash album creator to make animated photo slide show with SWF file as the output format. It transforms your digital photo collection to Macromedia Flash file format ( SWF ) which you can share your memorial moments with your family or friends on your own homepage, post on your Blog or upload to your own website.

LiveSwif Lite 2 is a free Flash maker that lets you create Flash movies, buttons, or banners quickly and easily. It provides several classic vector-drawing tools, including Freehand, Curve, Shape, Spline, Contour, and an in-place text editor. LiveSwif is a typical, keyframe-based animation system. Based on the capability of drawing tools, it provides a path-motion and transform-motion tool. In setting a new position, angle, size, or color in keyframes, LiveSwif will blend the in-between frames automatically. The setup package contains 500 library components.

Sothink SWF Catcher for IE - is a free and useful extension to Internet Explorer that enables you to save multiple Flash based charts, presentations, e-cards, games and Flash movies in it at one time. The small size allows it embedding in IE by just adding a new button.

FONT

FontRenamer is a tool, that renames truetype font files (*.ttf) to the real name of the typefaces. Simply select a folder of font files and click the Rename button. The program will display a list of the original file name and the renamed name and offer an option to undo the operation.

The Font Thing 0.8 Browse installed and uninstalled TrueType fonts, viewing sample text, individual characters, and detailed font information. Easy font-management functions let you install, uninstall, print, copy, or delete any number of fonts at once. You can even store your own notes with them, filter them according to type (serif, sans serif, and so on), and group them into collections for convenience. This version lets you choose your font colors, set up drop-down lists of standard text samples, rename font files to avoid conflicts, and load fonts temporarily for use without installing them.

FontHit Font Tools is a manager that allows you view, preview, install, uninstall, print in color, customize size and text of the previews, browse your hard drive for fonts, create your own folders that you can drag fonts into, convenient and automatic categorization, drag-n-drop to add font files (even folders and zip files with fonts) to the preview list, and character map.

FontInfo Plugin creates new PDF file which contains font names, parameters and recoding tables ToUnicode and xlatTable. Version 1.1 may include unspecified updates, enhancements or bugs fixes.

EDITORS

Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of “press-ready” output and new approaches to page layout. Supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

DigiKam is an advanced digital photo management application that makes importing and organizing digital photos a trivial task. Photos can be organized in albums, which can be sorted chronologically, by directory layout, or by custom collections, and they can be tagged, commented, and rated. DigiKam makes use of a fast and robust database to store meta-information, which makes adding and editing comments and tags very reliable. Metadata can also be stored inside pictures using Exif and IPTC. An embedded image editor and a standalone application named showfoto have simple but powerful features for editing your pictures with filters and correction tools.

VIPS is a free image processing system. It aims to be about half-way between Photoshop and Excel. It is very bad at retouching photographs, but very handy for the many other imaging tasks that programs like Photoshop get used for. It is good with large images (images larger than the amount of RAM you have
available), with many CPUs (see Benchmarks), for working with colour and for general research & development.

The GLIPS Graffiti editor is a cross-platform SVG graphics editor based on Batik and developed by ITRIS. It features shape tools (rectangles, circles, ellipses, lines, polygons, and polylines), path tools (Bezier curves, conversion to a path, union, subtraction, and intersection), basic text support, and image import (SVG or Bitmap). Supported transformations are translate, resize, rotate, and skew. A property manager is available for each object, and a resource manager takes care of gradients, patterns, markers, and filters.

Album Shaper is a graphical application used to create, maintain and share photo albums using open formats like HTML and JPG. Two-layer albums can be created in a drag-n-drop interface which allows quick and easy arrangement and categorization of photos. A few simple image manipulations such as rotation and flipping are provided to help get photos presentable as quickly as possible.

TundraDraw is a cross-platform ANSI/ASCII drawing program. It features network connectivity to allow artists to draw together over the Internet. It also features a 24-bit color mode to allow users to draw ANSI with a 24-bit color palette.

GLIMPSE is a multi-platform image manipulation package, supporting BMP, PCX and TGA files. It is designed to require very few resources, and provides blurring, sharpening, brightness adjustment, watermarks, embossing, dodging and edge detection.

WebPic is an application used to take a directory of digital cam pictures, and provide a frontend for Web viewing. It allows you to scale the images to different values, add comments, and display them in varying HTML styles. It uses ImageMagick for the image processing, and PerlMagick as the interface. It also requires the use of Tk::JPEG for image display.

GRAPHICS CONVERSION

Xpdf is a viewer for Portable Document Format (PDF) files. (These are also sometimes also called ‘Acrobat’ files, from the name of Adobe’s PDF software.) The Xpdf project also includes a PDF text extractor, PDF-to-PostScript converter, and various other utilities. It runs under the X Window System on UNIX, VMS, and OS/2. The non-X components (pdftops, pdftotext, etc.) also run on Win32 systems, and should run on pretty much any system with a decent C++ compiler. Xpdf is designed to be small and efficient. It can use Type 1 and TrueType fonts.

QCad is a powerful but easy to use 2D CAD program for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. It uses DXF as its standard file format. While other CAD packages are often rather complicated to use, QCad tries to stay comfortable, and even an absolute beginner can create professional drawings with a minimum of effort.

LinPHA is an easy-to-use, multilingual, flexible photo/image archive/album/gallery written in PHP. It uses an SQL database (MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite) to store information about your pictures. It comes with an HTML-based installer, so you don’t need experience in setting up SQL databases. Thumbnails are created
as needed and stored in the SQL DB. It features complete user management, top ten statistics, hidden albums, different themes, slideshow, filemanager, uploader, watermarks, benchmark, printing, and more.

SIP provides image processing, pattern recognition, and computer vision routines for SciLab, a Matlab-like matrix-oriented programming environment. SIP is able to read/write images in almost 90 major formats, including JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, FITS, and TIFF. It includes routines for filtering, segmentation, edge detection, morphology, curvature, fractal dimension, distance transforms, multi-scale skeletons, and more.

PNG2ICO converts .PNG files to Windows .ICO icon resource files. It is a simple tool for creating a favicon.ico for a Web site. It supports transparent backgrounds and multiple icons (usually alternative resolutions) per .ICO file.

view3dscene is a viewer for VRML 1.0, VRML 2.0 (aka VRML 97), 3DS, and MD3 files. It supports viewing the scene in the “Examine” mode and walking in the virtual world with features such as collision detection and gravity.

Gallery Mage is a client side photo gallery management system designed to work with online gallery display scripts such as SPGM. Using Gallery Mage, one can select, caption, rotate, crop, resize, and upload photos taken with a digital camera to an online photo gallery. The rotate, crop, and resize parameters are stored as text data with the images, and the operations are only performed on a copy of the photo while exporting, thus preserving the original picture files.

PRESENTATION

flphoto is a basic image management and display program based on the FLTK toolkit. It can read, display, print, and export many image file formats, and supports EXIF information provided by digital cameras.

DVD-Baker generates a DVD consisting of menus and slideshows from a picture collection stored in a Menalto Gallery G2 Web site or in a locally stored directory tree. Each “leaf” album (an album that does not contain sub-albums) is used to create a slideshow. The slideshows (and any DVD-ready MPEG videos) are made accessible on the DVD with menus that follow the structure of the Web site or directories. Extra features include random or sequential autoplay, and audio support.

Photovault is an image archiving and organization application for photographers. It supports easy searching, annotation, and organization of images, as well as simple image processing operations like cropping and free rotation.

pHoToMoLo is a toolset for managing JPEG images in JFIF or Exif format. Photomolo generates a static HTML 4.01- and CSS 1-based multi-resolution image gallery for a directory tree containing images. Exifiron losslessly compresses and corrects the orientation of Exif JPEG images. Jpegnail removes or embeds thumbnails. Jpegcom lets you edit embedded image comments using any text editor and image viewer.

MinDia is an application for creating, modifying, and presenting multimedia slide shows. A Slide show can contain multimedia elements like images, sounds, and text. In addition to displaying on screen, it can control Rollei slide projectors (Rolleivision 35 twin digital P and Rolleivision twin msc 3×0 P) via a serial port.

GFXIndex creates thumbnails (small representations of the original images) and some HTML-files to make an album that will help you organize your pictures and publish them on a Web page.

MODELING

white_dune is a graphical VRML97 editor, simple NURBS/Superformula 3D modeller and animation tool. VRML97 (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) is the ISO standard for displaying 3D data over the Web via browser plugins (”HTML for realtime 3D”). It has support for animation, real-time interaction, and multimedia (images, movies, and sounds). white_dune can read, create and display VRML97 files and let the user change the scenegraph/fields. It also has support for stereoscopic view via “quadbuffer”-capable stereo visuals, and support for 3D input devices like a joystick, spaceball, or magnetic tracker.

K-3D is a 3D modeling, animation, and rendering system for GNU/Linux & Win32. Features include creation and editing of geometry in multiple realtime OpenGL solid, shaded, and texture-mapped views; unlimited undos and redos; complete extensibility at runtime through third-party plugins; animated procedural geometric effects; all parameters animatable through a consistent control-spline based interface; rendering pipeline to Renderman Interface compliant rendering engines; optimization for use with the Aqsis rendering engine, which features solid modelling, true displacement, and user programmable shaders; and support for background and batch rendering.

Gmsh is an automatic 3D finite element grid generator (primarily Delaunay) with built-in CAD and post-processing facilities. Its design goal is to provide a simple meshing tool for academic problems with parametric input and advanced visualization capabilities. It is built around four modules: geometry, mesh, solver, and post-processing. The specification of any input to these modules is done either interactively using the graphical user interface (based on FLTK and OpenGL) or in ASCII text files using Gmsh’s own scripting language.

Misfit Model 3D is an OpenGL-based 3D model editor. It supports multi-level undo, skeletal animations, simple texturing, scripting, command-line batch processing, and a plugin system for adding new model and image filters. Complete online help is included.

Coin is an implementation of Open Inventor. Open Inventor is the de facto standard API for retained-mode 3D graphics programming. Open Inventor has a highly extensible design, and has been designed to allow for rapid development of highly interactive 3D graphics applications in the fields of CAD, engineering, scientific computing, simulation, VRML, and visualization.

JPatch is an amazing 3D Modeling/Animation tool designed to model and animate “organic” shapes such as humans, animals, aliens, etc. It is a bezier-spline modeler and works with so-called “Coon’s patches”, the same patches that are used by the popular Windows freeware modellers sPatch and Hamapatch and the commercial program Animation Master (they are called Hash patches there). JPatch is written entirely in Java.

SharpConstruct is an OpenGL graphics application that supports real-time sculpting of polygon meshes. The process is similar to painting on a canvas in a traditional 2D image program, but with an added dimension. Depth is simply brushed onto the model, offering an easy way to create highly detailed meshes.

Height Map Editor edits, generates, and manipulates terrain height maps. These can be used in terrain renderers, which are used in games, applications, and demos.

RENDERING

GRASS (the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a software raster-and vector-based GIS (Geographic Information System), image processing system, graphics production system, and spatial modeling system. It contains many modules for raster data manipulation, vector data manipulation, rendering images on the monitor or paper, multispectral image geocoding and processing, point data management and general data management. It also has tools for interfacing with digitizers, scanners, and the PostgreSQL, DBF, and ODBC connected databases.

Drqueue is a distributed rendering queue. It helps manage jobs on a render farm. It works under Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, IRIX, and Windows, supports Maya, Blender, Lightwave, Mental Ray, Bmrt (Renderman), 3Delight, and Pixie out of the box, and can support any other renderer or computing task that can be handled via scripting.

Earth3D visualizes the earth in realtime in a 3D view. One can rotate and zoom the view and fly around. Additional data layers can be added to the view, e.g. country flags and names. It uses data from NASA, USGS, the CIA, and the city of Osnabrück.

Fluxus is a graphical live coding environment for Scheme. Fluxus reads live audio or OSC network messages which can be used as a source of animation data for real-time performances or installations. Keyboard or mouse input can also be read for simple game development, and a physics engine is included for real-time simulations of rigid body dynamics.

Mercator is a terrain generation and management library that handles the data required to handle terrain rendering and physics, including classes to handle vegetation.

SkullyDoo is portable object-oriented software for 3D image segmentation and visualization. The software is implemented in C++, and uses FLTK (for GUI), VTK (for 3D visualization), ITK (for segmentation methods), Tcl (for plugins), and pipeline filters implemented in XML.

Plush is a portable renderer that can render 3D images in real time.

Elmer is a computational tool for multi-physics problems that has been developed in collaboration with Finnish universities, research laboratories and industry.It includes physical models of fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, and heat transfer. These are described by partial differential equations which are solved by the Finite Element Method (FEM). It comprises of several different parts. The geometry, boundary conditions and physical models are defined in ElmerFront. The resulting problem definition is solved by ElmerSolver. Results are the visualized by ElmerPost. An ElmerGrid utility may be used for simple mesh manipulation.

OsiriX is an image processing software dedicated to DICOM images produced by medical equipment (such as MRI, CT, PET, and PET-CT) and confocal microscopy (LSM and BioRAD-PIC format). It can also read many other file formats: TIFF, JPEG, PDF, AVI, MPEG, and Quicktime. OsiriX is able to receive images transferred by DICOM communication protocol from any PACS or medical imaging modality. OsiriX has been specifically designed for navigation and visualization of multimodality and multidimensional images.

VIEWERS

Endeavour Mark II is a file browser/file manager with an image browser, a recycled objects system, and an archiver front end. It features all the common UNIX file operations for all types of disk objects found the UNIX realm. It also supports disk drive mounting, a fully customizable window appearance, a MIME Types system, and interapplication drag & drop support for KDE and GNOME compatibility (although KDE and GNOME are not required).

RoadMap is a navigation program for Unix and PocketPC that displays street maps. Most of the maps are provided by the US Census Bureau, and thus only the US has a decent coverage at this time. A specific area can be displayed by entering a street address (street number, street name, city, and state). It interfaces with a GPS receiver through gpsd or the serial line to track the car position. It has been designed to be usable on a Linux desktop or laptop computer, or on a PDA (Linux or PocketPC).

Exiv2 is an EXIF and IPTC C++ library that makes reading and writing Exif and Iptc metadata easy. It provides full Exif makernote and thumbnail support. The Exiv2 command line utility prints Exif and Iptc metadata including Makernote tags in various formats, adjusts Exif timestamps, renames images according to the Exif timestamp, extracts and inserts Exif and Iptc metadata and JPEG comments, or deletes the thumbnail or a specific type of metadata from an image.

USEFUL TOOLS

Digital Image Tool – was created specifically to batch process images quickly, applying flexible resizing methods, rotation, cropping, scaling, watermarking, renaming and more.

JR Screen Ruler – is an easy to use, small screen ruler that you can use to measure distances on your screen. It supports pixels, centimeters, picas and inches and can be adjusted in length to fit your screen.

Quick HTML Color Picker -is a freeware color picker application designed for Windows OS. With Quick HTML Color Picker, you can easily pick any color from the screen. You can preview the color, use mouse or keyboard to select the color you wanted, and get the color in RGB and HTML format.

LS Screen Capture – captures your desktop in several handy ways. Capture the entire desktop screen, the entire desktop work area, capture using your mouse by creating a rectangle, capture an entire window, the entire window work area, capture any active window with key stroke (Ctrl + F2).

ScreenHunter is a free screen-capture tool for you to easily take screenshots. ScreenHunter can capture a full screen, an active window, the client window or a rectangular area. It automatically saves captures in BMP or JPEG format, so you don’t have to stop each time you capture, and you can capture as many as you like. It also can save captures to the Clipboard to be copied to other programs, such as Motion Studio and Word. ScreenHunter has a selectable hot-key capture (F1 to F10) and delayed capture, and uses virtually no system resources on standby.

CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a “printer subsystem”. This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents with just a push of a button.

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Rena Prizant is a Copywriter, Ad Creative and mammal in the Chicago area, professionally word playing since 2002. Rena writes smart, engaging, dynamic copy for a broad range of mediums and industries; and loves helping start-up’s get their branding feet. Visit www.RenaPrizant.com or Twitter WriteLeft.

Filed under: Illustration, PhotoShop, Product Design, Web Design, graphic design, photography