I am always looking for free resources for graphic and web design. I remember when I first discovered the world that is known as Open Source. I was blown away – very figuratively. Open Source is fun, and I prefer to download from those hidden geniuses. But I am not picky. I will download anything that is free, trusted and legal. Here are a few that I think everyone should at least know about. Comment, and tell us what your favorites are.
1. The biggest award goes to Open Office.
OMG LOL ROTFL TTFN! Umm… just kidding. I hate internet abbreviations, but I do get some of those emotions when thinking about how much this group of people offers for free. Download their newest office suite, and donate to them so that I don’t have to. They offer an almost complete replacement of Microsoft Office. You can download it here. The only program from it that I regularly use is Draw. It offers a really nice user friendly method of drawing with shapes. I recently made the shell of this logo in Draw.
2. Stripe Generator by Binary Turf
This is a very simple online tool that will generate stripes for you. The name throws some people off. They’re all, “I’m so confused, man. I was expecting an interstate paving company,” or “I’m a big moron. Please take away my internet and conversation privileges.” I recently used it for a simple background on a website. I may have even used it for this site. I can’t remember. You can access it here.
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3. WordPress
I couldn’t resist this. If you haven’t discovered WordPress email me. I will weep with you over the time you’ve wasted using FrontPage or something else expensive. It’s getting to the point where like one in four sites I visit are powered by WordPress. It’s a free something that allows people to have fancy sites without doing much work. You have to be able to host the site, but you can just pay me to do that for you. Duh. If you already are paying for hosting, delete your current site and upload WordPress to it. It will change your life. In fact, everything you do changes your life, but that’s called philosophy. Avoid philosophy. Download WordPress here, and upload it there – where ever there is for you. If your host uses cPanel, then you can install WordPress with no effort at all. Here’s a site I made with WordPress. Of course, PhotoShop helped. If you hate the design, don’t worry. WordPress offers thousands of free user made themes.
That’s it for tonight. I’m tired. Post your favorites. I’ll have many more to tell you about in the future. If you can’t wait then go to google.com and type in “free programs” or “awesome open source things” or anything similar to those phrases. You will be amazed.
