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From: Bill K. <nb...@so...> - 2009-03-05 20:15:50
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On Thu, Mar 05, 2009 at 06:21:50PM +0000, Caroline Ford wrote: > You may actually find inkscape more useful. It's also free software. Good point. Inkscape is a great 'vector-graphics' tool. That is, instead of dealing in little points of color (or 'pixels', like the majority of graphics programs do -- including Tux Paint), it deals mostly in shapes. Lines, squares, circles, and more complicated polygons and curves. (It's often ompared it to the commercial software program "Illustrator", by Adobe.) Vector art often has a particular look and feel to it (kind of cartoony, since you're usually dealing with shapes that are all one color, or perhaps a gradient of shades of a color). A good example I found via a random Google search; http://gould.cx/ted/blog.pix/inkscape-wpg-windmill.png However, much more photorealistic things can be created, too (just as it's possible to use a real paintbrush and canvas, or graphics software that works on bitmaps/pixels, or 3D graphics software, to create photorealistic imagery). See, for example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Inkscape_0.46.png (If you look closely, you can see that it's not a photo. But it's still very realistic!) Using a vector-based program like Inkscape or Illustrator is usually a different experience than using a bitmap-based program like the commerical "Photoshop" by Adobe, or the open source "Gimp" (see below), or our beloved "Tux Paint." It usually involves less 'stroking like a paintbrush' and more (painstaking, I'd say) manipulation of the shapes that you're trying to place in the image. Speaking of more powerful alternatives to Tux Paint, there's always "The GIMP", a tried and true (usually ;^) ) bitmap graphics editor that's available as open source software for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. It's main focus is the manipulation of images (i.e., photo touchup and such) but it's certainly possible to make great original works of art using it. Of course, that's true in Tux Paint, too, in my opinion! http://tuxpaint.org/gallery/vashti/20060120233122.png Links: Inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org/ GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/ Adobe: http://www.adobe.com/ -- -bill! "Tux Paint" - free children's drawing software for Windows / Mac OS X / Linux! Download it today! http://www.tuxpaint.org/ |
