Free Software

Here is a listing of some of the free software that we have found useful. A number of them provide as much or more functionality as programs costing hundreds of dollars. You will note that some of the links point to sourceforge.net. Sourceforge provides a web site that gives open source (free as in "free speech", and most of the time also as in "free beer") developers a site to distribute their software and maintain collaborations.

NVU

NVU is a web page designer similar to Dreamweaver.

GIMP

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, similar in features to Photoshop.

Photoscape

Photoscape is an image viewer and editor that includes screen capture and animated GIF capabilities. If your image editing sticks to the basics, this program is easier to use than GIMP.

Inkscape

Inkscape is a vector graphics program whose tag line is "Draw Freely". It is similar to Illustrator. Vector graphics differ from bitmap graphics (which are what Photoshop and GIMP deal with) in that they store paths(lines and curves) rather than pixels (every little dot in the picture). This is useful when you are creating items such as logos which you will want to use in different sizes in different places. Vector graphics do not become blurry or blocky when enlarged or reduced.

Open Office

Open Office is a Microsoft Office replacement which can read and write Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. This program is probably the main reason Microsoft decided to completely change its look, feel and file formats for the Office 2007 release.

NOTEPAD++

NOTEPAD++ is a Notepad replacement and programmers' text editor. It allows multiple documents to be open at once, features advanced search and replace functionality, and provides syntax highllighting for many programming and scripting languages.

7Zip

7Zip is a file compression utility similar to Winzip.

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