Graphic design can be time consuming and expensive. Web design does not have to be so complex or cost hundreds of dollars. Many of the major software suites used by professionals have alternative open source projects available for free.
Check out these complete solutions that cover all the web development graphic design tools you’ll ever need.
ink landscape
Inkscape is an advanced graphics editing suite that uses the SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics, format. It has an intuitive, friendly and easy to use interface. Inkscape is very similar to CorelDraw and Illustrator, so you can pretty much do all the scaling, node tracking, and alpha blending you need. If you dig deeper into the features, you’ll find clone brushes and blur effects, plus the standard image cropping and resizing capabilities.
Gimp
This neat little image manipulation suite is quite advanced and is available cross-platform for Mac OS X, GNU, Sun, and Windows. The interface may seem overloaded, but it is fully customizable according to the preferences of each user. It performs much-needed cloning and color retouching for all your photos and even lets you modify brushes and bind programmed actions to keys.
phoenix
Aviary.com’s Phoenix is a free online image editor with advanced image manipulation features such as layer filtering and image blending filters. Phoenix allows you to create an image from scratch or edit an existing one. Many tutorials and tips are offered to help you get familiar with the tool and improve your design skills. The interface is a bit basic, and while easy enough to use, it lacks advanced editing features like blending or gauss blurring. It offers brush and dither filters, but it’s aimed at the intermediate photo editor and good enough for some basic photo manipulations in a quick squeeze.
pixlr
A sleek, modern web 2.0 interface greets you when you fire up this online editor. Various modes are available, including Pixlr-o-matic, grabber, express, and Pixl Editor. The Pixlr-o-matic lets you play with motion blur, liquid effects, and instant image layering effects in real time. The capture function allows you to capture directly from external sources such as a webcam. The editor itself is very easy to use and surprisingly easy to use even for the beginning graphic designer. With preset filters to choose from, this is one of my favorite editors for quick editing on the go and it even has a preset night vision layer.
blender.org
By far the most advanced and capable open source 3D graphic design program to date. Blender is just fantastic and rich in features. This is a tool you absolutely need for 3D animation, shading, reflection, fluid simulation, hair strand rendering, and skeletal kinematics. The interface is loaded with huge effects and manipulation options, is customizable, and supports Python scripts. For more features visit the website.