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SOFTWARE - GRAPHICS - 19.10.2017

Free (or cheap) graphical tools

Adobe offers outstanding software for graphical applications: Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. However, if you’re not a professional designer, their price may be too steep for you. Fortunately, there are cheaper or even free alternatives.

Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop ( http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html ) is the undisputed reference in the field of photo editing, but it charges at least £9.99 per month for a subscription (all prices mentioned in this article are inclusive of VAT).

If you need such a graphical tool every once in a while, we previously recommended GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org ) as an excellent, completely free alternative. It comes with a wide range of filters and functions and enables you to work with layers and channels. You can completely customise the interface of this tool. Interestingly, GIMP is available for all computer platforms.

It goes without saying that Photoshop is better in certain cicumstance. MUO ( https://goo.gl/15ckEW ) lists the areas where this is the case and explains on https://goo.gl/xZt4mT which of these tools is right for you.

In addition to GIMP, the newer Affinity Photo ( http://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo ) aims to compete with Adobe Photoshop. The programs costs a one-off €54.99 or £48.25 for Mac or Windows (or £19.50 for an iPad). This tool not only excels in terms of its price but has, in our opinion, a more pleasant and intuitive interface. It has lots of options, although the developers of Affinity Photo deliberately focus on a restricted but unique set of revolutionary functions.

A detailed comparison with Photoshop can be found at Envato ( https://goo.gl/6Nzyo3 ), Fstoppers ( https://goo.gl/THHf9f ) and Photodoto ( https://goo.gl/ETSNQx ).

Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator ( https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/illustrator.html ) is specifically designed for graphic designers, illustrators and technical designers. A subscription costs £23.99 per month. The comparable Inkscape program ( http://www.inkscape.org - for Windows, Mac and Linux) is completely free. Inkscape is a so-called vector graphics editor which allows you to enlarge your illustrations without any loss of quality. It produces SVG files but can handle the AI formats of Adobe Illustrator. An in-depth comparison of both programs can be found at TemplateToaster ( https://goo.gl/1F5g8w ) and Logos By Nick ( https://goo.gl/HqGQCZ ).

InDesign

Finally, there’s Adobe InDesign ( http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/indesign.html ), the desktop-publishing program par excellence to create paper and digital publications. This program costs £23.99 per month. If you’re looking for a free alternative, we recommend Scribus ( http://www.scribus.net - which runs on all platforms).

The Scribus website may not be as attractive and accessible, but the program itself is really good. It supports most graphical file formats, it has versatile drawing tools and offers all kinds of pre-defined “shapes”. Techulator ( https://goo.gl/sW85fW ) gives a detailed review of Scribus.

Tip. This open-source program may not be as user-friendly, but to help you there’s a good manual at https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Help:TOC .

In addition to the free GIMP, install Affinity Photo (£48.25) as a cheaper alternative for Photoshop. Try out Inkscape and Scribus as free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator and InDesign respectively.