Software Packages Used In Digital Graphics

By Jack Turner

• GIMP is a image editing and retouching tool.• It is free and open source software.• There are many versions of GIMP which work for

various different operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

• Used also for resizing images, change there format, crop them and make photo montages.

• Many other features, such as various layer tools, path tools, colour tools and several photo editing tools for example: crop, rotate, scale and flip.

• As well as this you can create animated images using MPEG files and GIF files.

• Used by professionals and is considered a rival with Photoshop due to its high popularity. But GIMP want it to work with Photoshop and to be a standalone programme.

• You can also pay for extra packages that help graphics designers named paint studio. Comes with various brushes and tools.

• GIMP obviously has an advantage over Photoshop as it is free graphics software where as Photoshop is very expensive. But with GIMP you do have purchase extra packages to get full use of it.

GIMP Software

Corel Draw • Coral draw is a vector graphics editor but you can

get the bundled package which includes Photopaint, which can edit bitmap images.

• It has many features which differ it from other digital graphics software. It also many various editing tools, including crop, contrast and colour balance as well as adding special effects, borders and vignettes to the bitmaps.

• The programme files save under the format of CDR, CDT or CDX.

• The Photopaint suite also allows you to edit bitmap images more detailed. As well as this you can edit several layers and pages at once, all for one graphic.

• Starting businesses often use Vector Graphics as it is very useful for creating advertising graphics for website graphics and for advertising

• Corel Draw is one of the cheaper digital graphics software compared to Photoshop. However, due to popularity of Photoshop it is recognised and easy for users to use.

Microsoft Expression Design Studio

• Microsoft Expression Design Studio has many tools for building and designing digital media and web content.

• It is a Vector Graphics suite• Program will add live effects to any object,

bringing more life to it. • Includes many features such as B-Spline,

Polyline and Bezier which all have full curve control.

• Can Import features from other programs such as Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. But you’ll have to purchase these programs also to do so.

• Good for professional use as you have access to features capable of making large projects which need huge designs and has many tools to do so.

• However, this comes at a heavy price and there are cheaper alternatives to this program such as Paintshop Pro.

PaintShop Pro• Vector Graphics editor that runs on most

windows computers.• Was brought by the software company

Corel.• Program is very similar to Photoshop due

to the similar features it has.• This program includes many various

features, such as; pen tools, colour palettes, brush tools, crop tools, selection tools, filter effect, photo mapping and many more

• Two different versions of Paintshop Pro, one being Paintshop Pro Ultimate which comes with standalone programs and has functions that can extend with Photoshop plugins.

• Good for personal enjoyment as oppose to professional use.

• Paintshop compared to Photoshop is good as it is much more cheaper, but isn’t as easy and well laid out as Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 • Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics designer and is the

most popular graphics editing software out at this moment in time.

• You can edit photos take by a camera or even photos taken by the internet. You can then edit the photo using various different tools such as changing the levels on the photo, colour correction and cloning tools and many more.

• Photoshop help the graphic designer give there photos or images a more professional look and commonly printed in professional places such as billboards and magazines.

• There are two different versions of Photoshop the main version and the extended version which is used to create 3D images, edit moving images and more features than the main version, for the more advanced user.

• File save under file name such as .PSB for larger photos and .PSD for regular files

• Photoshop however is very expensive and there are other cheaper software (Coral Draw) and free graphics software (GIMP). However these have less features compared to Photoshop.

Resources

• http://www.webopedia.com• http://www.howstuffworks.com