Free alternative to dreamweaver and photoshop

rogue-entity

I use Linux as well as Windows. I use Windows because I need it to run Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Both of these applications are difficult to get working under Linux without CrossOver Office which is commercial.

So what free alternatives to these programs are available while providing almost the same features.

Any suggestions?

watty

I can't see that this has much to do with ICDG.

Paint Shop pro is as good or better for some uses as Photoshop. Much cheaper. VErsion 5 or 7 may be free fwith CDRs, magasine or other products. Corel now sell version 10 about 80 Euro.

Dreamweaver is complex bloated app. There are many, many free or cheap WYSIWG web designer packages that produce better HTML (esp for Dialup browsers) and are easier to use too.

SolarNexus

I hate to say this, but the best alternative to dreamweaver is notepad - or rather TextPad (well, any similar program that only colour-highlights html elements).

HTML is not difficult enough not to do by hand - unless you dont have the time or inclination to learn, but still... dreamweaver is bloated and overrated.

Microsoft are giving away free copies of Visual studio software, which included a an ASP designer (suitable for others languages too, I expect) -- windows only though.

I doubt you'll find many WYIWYG editors for linux as linux by nature is do-it-yourself-and-if-possible-do-it-by-hand

Skrynesaver

Photoshop can be replaced with the Gimp http://www.gimp.org Dreamweaver is slightly harder to replace, and I would tend twoards SolarNexus's position that vi is plenty good enough for HTML, however Quanta is a reasonable replacement and has been integrated into KDE with a range of other tools for web development, look up http://www.kdewebdev.org for more details. But do try vi, once you get the hang of it it's way faster than searching for buttons to push!

steveland?

GIMPSHOP is a Photoshop look and feel for the GIMP.

http://gimpshop.sourceforge.net/

Capt'n Midnight

OpenOffice Writer can edit HTML too.
you can switch between the tags and preview IIRC, was a long time since I looked at it. f

lostinsuperfunk

Mozilla composer is a passable HTML wysiwig editor for either windows or linux.
Html tidy from w3c [ http://tidy.sourceforge.net/ ] is a good postprocessing tool for fixing up nasty HTML generated by composer applications, or, dare I say it, M*******t W**d.

HomunQlus

NVU - for web authoring
www.nvu.com

GIMP, The GNU Image Manipulation Project, free, and nearly as powerful as Photoshop
www.gimp.org

variant

For HTML, learn to code by hand. Better results and faster development will ensue when you get used to it.

Photoshop, gimp - which has allready been sugested is unfortunatly, rubbish when compared to ps. It is nowhere near as feature complete or powerfull as ps.

the gimp devs are a bunch of morons too so dont expect this situation to change any time soon.

Sorry for the overly negative nature of this post but I have had a lot of experiance with gimp and its developers and it just doesnt meet real world needs. No one is as big of a Free Software supporter as myself but that doesnt mean that I will lie and insist that Gimp is as good as or even close to the functionality of PS.

HomunQlus

variant wrote:

For HTML, learn to code by hand. Better results and faster development will ensue when you get used to it.

Photoshop, gimp - which has allready been sugested is unfortunatly, rubbish when compared to ps. It is nowhere near as feature complete or powerfull as ps.

the gimp devs are a bunch of morons too so dont expect this situation to change any time soon.

Sorry for the overly negative nature of this post but I have had a lot of experiance with gimp and its developers and it just doesnt meet real world needs. No one is as big of a Free Software supporter as myself but that doesnt mean that I will lie and insist that Gimp is as good as or even close to the functionality of PS.

You obviously have never used the GIMP to the right extent. If you would have done so, you would simply agree with the vast majority of the open source community which actually has, just by coincidence I guess, the same opinion as I have.

The GIMP differs from the GUI you have in Photoshop, yes, but this simply does not mean it can't do the things Photoshop can.

I guess you didn't try any plugins or add-ons for the GIMP, then yeah, of course, GIMP will never come close to PS.

However, feature-complete or not, looking like PS or not, the GIMP is the most powerful graphic-editing application in the Open Source department out there, and that is a fact no one can deny.

I would always recommend GIMP on Linux. And on the Mac (if you don't have Photoshop for Mac).

variant

I agree totaly that it is the best Free Software graphic editing app but that is the whole point.. its still rubbish! I have used it for at least 5 years right up to the current devel version, and I dont have windows so I can't use ps (except at work) I have made a few nice images from scratch in gimp (which i can show if you want, they are not anything special though ) and I have spent many hours learning its interface and have come to the conclusion that its not good enough.

The interface is different, fine. the blender3d interface is different and some say hard to learn compared to most other 3d editing apps but it is different AND excelent at the same time. the gimp interface is different and not very good at the same time. In this case it certainly _does_ mean that it cant do the same things photoshop can.

oscarBravo

variant wrote:

...its not good enough.

...for you.

variant wrote:

...it cant do the same things photoshop can.

Or, more accurately: you can't do the same things with it you can with photoshop.

I can't get my head around photoshop at all. I'm quite fond of the GIMP.

nollaig

Microsoft are giving away free copies of Visual studio software, which included a an ASP designer (suitable for others languages too, I expect) -- windows only though.

How do you get the visual studio software????

NeverSayDie

nollaig wrote:

How do you get the visual studio software????

They call them Visual Studio Express editions, see here; http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx

Btw, it's free to download, it isn't open souce though.

art

On the graphics front, going back to Linux and open source, perhaps keep on eye on developments here:

http://www.xaraxtreme.org/

dubhthach

Well another option would be to use VMWare and thus have windows along with what ever apps ye need running virtualised in a window. Of course it all depends on what sorta performance ye want. One of main problems with the Gimp as oppose to Photoshop is that it doesn't do CMYK let so it's not a good solution if your in the print industry.

bminish

oscarBravo wrote:

...for you. Or, more accurately: you can't do the same things with it you can with photoshop.

I can't get my head around photoshop at all. I'm quite fond of the GIMP.

Gahh, Meself and OscarBravo have to differ on this one! Photoshop is one of the few Apps that I fire up my windows machine (now a virtual machine in Vmware rather than an actual box ) for

Perhaps it's just stupidity on my part but one of the things I find hard with the Gimp is getting good colour matching between screen and printer

.brendan

oscarBravo

bminish wrote:

Perhaps it's just stupidity on my part but one of the things I find hard with the Gimp is getting good colour matching between screen and printer

That probably explains it - I rarely print anything. I mostly use the GIMP to hack up stuff for web pages or other online purposes.

kyper

HomunQlus wrote:

NVU - for web authoring
www.nvu.com

GIMP, The GNU Image Manipulation Project, free, and nearly as powerful as Photoshop
www.gimp.org

what they said.

plus maybe add inkscape to the list... nice SVG editor.. if you are ued to fireworks it can coem in very handy on linux.

Also the next released of macromedia studio for windows is being developed so that it will run under Linux via wine and eventaully they plan to release natvie linux versions.

Bonzodog

I would also recommend you try bluefish for web authoring. It is a very powerful tool.