NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, August 2008
More Free Utilities for Desktop Publishing and Photo Editing
By Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director;
Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont, TX; Radio & TV Show Host

Iwilsker@apcug.net
(click to email author)


WEBSITES:
http://www.scribus.net
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=125235 Download SCRIBUS
http://www.flauntr.com Online photo editing and special effects (Free)

With all of the contemporary concerns over high prices, and our ever-tightening budgets, it may be the ideal time to consider free software for desktop publishing, editing photos, and editing digital videos. Some of the free software is open source meaning that the original programming code is available to freely tweak, or for independent developers to create add-ons or updates. Some are lite versions published by well known companies with fewer features than the commercial version, and other versions are advertiser supported with small, typically unobtrusive, ads which support the development and distribution of the product. It is important to note that many of the free titles are as feature rich as their often expensive commercial competitors, and lack little in substance.

One of my personal favorite free programs is the open source desktop publishing program Scribus, available from http://www.scribus.net. This program is a direct competitor to Microsofts popular Publisher. Available for a variety of operating systems, including Linux, Unix, MacOS X, and OS/2 , as well as Windows, Scribus has earned a loyal following of professionals, as well as numerous awards and recognitions from computer magazines and other media. For those who need a printer ready output to go to a professional printer, or those who need to print on their own printer, this program has the power and capacity to do both. Professionals will appreciate the commercial publishing features of Scribus which support CMYK color, color separation, and ICC color management. For emailing or other digital distribution, this program also can be printed directly to PDF format. Typical home and small business users will find this program powerful but easy to use, with an intuitive and user friendly interface that is easy to follow. This program gives the user the ability to create professional quality publications, without incurring any software expense. This program would be ideal for the creation of newsletters, brochures, pamphlets, flyers, menus, or any other desktop publishing output. Whether for home, church, school, or business use, Scribus would be a good choice for virtually any desktop publishing need.

A fairly new trend becoming more common as a method of enabling the user to perform software tasks is referred to as web enabled, where the software is not installed on the users computer, but instead accessed directly online via a browser. As many of us are now taking countless digital photographs, we may have a need to edit them, create special effects, and upload them to any of many online services. One of the most interesting free online photo editing resources is flauntR, available online at http://www.flauntr.com (free registration required). It is notable that there is no software to install, and that access is totally online. flauntR offers a series of modules that enables the user to easily perform a myriad of tasks, each with the ease of a mouse click. The stylR feature offers thousands of special effects, photo frames, filters, overlays, and digital scrapbook styles. Using this feature allows the user to make birthday cards, invitations, holiday cards, or other specialized images from a standard digital photo quickly, easily, and for free. The editR function is a full featured image editor, where redeye can be removed, contrast modified, color depth and saturation controlled, and other tweaks can be easily implemented. One cute feature in editR is the ability to convert a digital photograph into what appears to be a charcoal painting, rather than a flat photo, which is an interesting effect.

Sometimes, we would like to add text to a photograph, either as a description, explanation, or salutation; the textR function does this with ease and power, and is so easy to use a first time novice can easily master the process. Text can be added to a photo in any color, font, or direction, and can be combined with countless available backgrounds. Once entered, text can be faded, rotated, and resized at will, all online without having any special software installed on the computer. On my cell phone, I have a variety of wallpaper and other images from my digital photos; if my wife or kids call, their respective photos appear on the phone. The mobileR function can edit, crop, and resize digital photos in a format ideal for over 250 models of cell phones. Some of us are more artistic than others, and would like to integrate our digital photos into famous paintings; the picasR feature can accomplish that with a mouse click. Hundreds of famous paintings are available in picasR from many genres and famous artists, and when integrated with a digital photo, produces a memorable and impressive image. Social networking is a popular craze, with hundreds of millions of users on such services as MySpace, Facebook, and others. The profilR function can create online profiles for over 30 social networking services, all with a single click of the mouse. Photos are automatically resized to meet the requirements of the social network, making it an easy and fast task to accomplish.

flauntR works well on almost any browser, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, and Safari, and is not dependent on any particular operating system. flauntR also integrates directly and seamlessly with Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, MySpace, Windows Live Spaces, Yahoo 360, Blogger, Digg, and dozens of other social networks and online photo services. Since it is totally online, it can be accessed from home, school, work, hotel, or other location with internet access. While on a trip or vacation, photos can be edited and uploaded, so others can view them prior to returning home. With the thousands of special effects, users of all ages can have fun and be imaginative, creating art from a simple digital photo.

There are many more excellent and free software utilities available; more will be discussed in future columns. The downside risk of using one of these free utilities is zero, as no expense is incurred, and thus there is no financial risk. Features and functionality compare well to commercial software, sometimes costing hundreds of dollars, but without expense. Free software is often a viable (and sometimes superior) alternative to expensive commercial software, and is quite worthy of a try.

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