Good, Free Software!
Graphics, Audio, and Media Players
More good free stuff:
Media Player
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There are all kinds of dueling media players out there, from Windows
Media Player to Apple Quicktime to Real Networks, with plenty in
between. They all seem to gag on various files because of "missing
codecs" (compression/decompression
software) and similar issues. The one that seems to work best across
the board is this nice little open-source project. Try it. Be happy. |
Photo Editing and Graphics
A lot of people recommend GIMP for an open-source graphics editor, but
I'm sorry... I just don't like the interface. I'd rather see developers
stick to the standards everyone knows since the Mac was introduced and
as adopted by Microsoft Windows. For photo and image editing, try these:
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This is a nice little photo editor from France that does all the
essentials very well. |
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Paint dot net adds the capability of using layers to the above. It
loses a little in simplicity, but the benefit is some extra
functionality. Between this and Photofiltre you'll have most of the
features that most people ever use in this type of software. All for
free. |
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There are several commercial programs that
"stitch" together overlapping digital photos into one seamless image.
I've tried them all. They are each fussy in their own way, often
require some manual manipulation, and they take a while to "think".
This one doesn't have a slick interface. It doesn't need it. Pick 2
image files that overlap. Or pick 30 that overlap in whatever irregular
fashion you might have used without a tripod. This program matches them
up, bends, warps, and stretches to fit, and pops out a finished image
in a fraction of the time that the best commercial software takes. |
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Andrea Mosaic lets you create a "photomosaic": what appears from a
distance to be one photo is actually made up of many little photos when
you inspect it up close. Create a directory and load it up with your
mosaic tile images. Then give the program the image that you want to
create, and it will piece together the tiles you provided to produce
the larger photomosaic. Pretty cool. |
Audio
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This is a multitrack audio editor that includes lots of standard studio
effects. You can use this for a multitude of sound recording and mixing
projects, even for multitracking your own music. |
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Take an MP3 file and chop it into smaller sections by viewing and
marking the waveform. This is great for things like recording an album
side and chopping it into individual MP3 tracks. |
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Ever
notice how you frequently have to adjust volume while listening to MP3
files? That's because they're all recorded at different volumes, even
sometimes when you copy them right from a CD. This program "normalizes"
a set of MP3 files. It adjusts the volume on the files so that the peak
volume is all within the same range. |
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This program is great for a quick trim and adjust of an MP3 recording.
You can fade in or fade out at the trim points. |
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