[clue] FOSS: Graphics Arts and Designs.

[Darrin Goodman]

On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 8:27 PM, ed <ezedtheamerican at gmail.com> wrote:

> There seem to be a great number of packages to choose from.
> I am at a loss as to which one is the best to create static and animated
> images.
> Anybody else dabble in Graphics arts on their Linux box?
>
>
Ed, it really depends on what you are looking to do.  You've mentioned
creating "static" and "animated" images, and you've also asked "which one
is the best".  There are lots of tools that are freely available in the
Linux world that will allow you to create static images, and probably
animated images too.  Some tools are really good at performing certain
tasks, and are not so good at performing other tasks.

For myself, if I want to create custom graphics that I might be using for a
website's graphical header, for a poster design,  for a publication, or for
some other graphical purpose of a professional nature, (more than just
resizing or removing red-eye), I would prefer to use the Gimp.

There are also some really good online graphics tools that are now freely
available.  You don't have to download/install anything; the tool works
through your web browser.  Tools that readily come to mind are located at:
- http://pixlr.com/
- http://www.sumopaint.com/home/
Another online tool that allows you to create some neat paint effects is
located at http://www.psykopaint.com/

If you are wanting to create custom illustrations, you might want to
explore Inkscape.

As for creating animations, you could probably use Gimp to create animated
gif's, but I've never tried that so I don't know for sure.

In my opinion, there is no one tool that fits the category of being "the
best" because no one tool is necessarily "the best" at completing all
tasks.  Some tools just work better for certain tasks than others.
 However, for me, the Gimp pretty much will do just about anything that I
need it to do.  In my day-job, I will often choose between using Photoshop
or Gimp, depending on which one is a better fit for the task at hand, but
when doing freelance work from home (we're a Linux-only household...), the
Gimp satisfies most of my needs.  Perhaps for running a batch process or
creating a favicon or something, imagemagick might be a better choice.
 Side note: another batch editing tool that I use quite frequently for
resizing multiple images is the nautilus-image-converter tool (read more
about this here: http://www.hilltopyodeler.com/blog/?p=265)

Some tools that you might consider looking at are gThumb, imagemagick,
MyPaint, Inkscape, Shutter (screen capture and basic image editing), and
the Gimp.  For selecting colors, you might consider using gcolor2 (for
specific colors) and Agave (for color palette ideas).  My suggestion would
be to explore all of the wonderful tools that you have available at your
fingertips and see what works best for you, and what works best for
accomplishing a specific task.  Oh, and have fun in the process!

-Darrin
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