Libre graphics

Open source software is licensed to anyone who wants to use, copy or change the software in any way. People such as students can access software freely and can improve the software for future users. Communities such as Inkscape, Gimp, Krita, SK1 and open font library are some of the open source software providers. They believe that open source software is good because it enables everyone equally to access professional standard design tools. Adobe charges yearly fees for all their programmes and some designers think this is not the point of having this software, and that it should be shared with everyone in the community.

open source software provides an alternative to applications such as photoshop and indesign. some argue the quality of the programmes are not as high as those of the adobe programmes, but for open source software that is widely available for free the outcomes that can be created from them can be just as good.

Gimp is an open source piece of photo editing software that is free to download onto any computer and is widely used by students, designers and professionals to create new and interesting visual art.