“Some great deals for designers – open source Web sites and sources”
Linda offers some great deals for designers – open source Web sites and sources that are easy on designers' wallets, because they're free.
Web Design Help
- 960 Grid System: If you want to try building a Web site on grids, try this framework site out.
- Blueprint: Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your development time.
- NVU: This is a complete Web authoring system for Linux Desktop, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver.
- Open Designs: Open Designs is a community oriented site, where users, members and designers can share their free website designs and templates, discuss web design and promote their services.
- Open Source Web Design: OSWD is a site that offers free Web design template downloads.
- Open Web Design: Open Web Design is a community of designers and site owners sharing free web design templates, website templates as well as web design information.
Video Software
- Avidemux: This is a free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.
- AviSynth: This is a powerful tool for video post-production. AviSynth works as a frameserver, providing instant editing without the need for temporary files.
- CamStudio: Record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files. Using the built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).
- Cinefx: Cinefx is a suite of open source, cross platform media playback, encoding, visual effects and editing digital content creation tools.
- CinePaint: Use this option for motion picture frame-by-frame retouching, dirt removal, wire rig removal, render repair, background plates, and painting 3D model textures.
- DVDx: This tool allows you to convert DVD to VCD2.0 or SCVD1.0 or DiVX / Xvid (AVI) or Windows Media (WMV) in one step (including multiplexing, splitting). It produces very good quality movies in AVI / MPEG1 / MPEG2 / WMV format.
- JING: Take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer monitor and share it instantly via web, email, IM, Twitter or your blog.
- Kino: This is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux that features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. It captures video to disk in Raw DV and AVI format, in both type-1 DV and type-2 DV (separate audio stream) encodings.
- LiVES: This open source asset mixes realtime video performance and non-linear editing in one professional quality application. It will let you start editing and making video right away, without having to worry about formats, frame sizes, or frame rates.
- OpenShot Video Editor: OpenShot Video Editor is a free, open-source video editor for Linux licensed under the GPL version 3.0.
Vector Art
- Brands of the World: This is the largest library of freely downloadable vector logos.
- Cool Vectors: The vectors on this site may be used for personal projects. If you require the vectors for commercial use please contact the author.
- Dezignus: The mission behind this site is to improve designers' professional skills by providing useful freebies: vector, ps brushes and shapes, textures and backgrounds, icons etc.
- FreeVectors: This is an online gallery of free-to-use vector graphics for personal use, and most can be used commercially.
- QVectors: Search for free high-quality vector graphics at this site.
- Vecteezy: All the graphics on this site are free to download and, depending on the license, free to use in your projects.
- Vector Portal: "Everything vector - everything free" is how this site bills itself. You can find illustrations, borders, logos, icons and more here.
- Vector4Free: This vector blog publishes new free vector art finds on a regular basis.
Linda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.
