Previously we have covered Photo Editing Software that work best with raster graphics. Since this months topic is Design, we will give away free resources and software downloads for the designers. The programs that create and edit such images are called Vector Graphics Editors. But before we take it further we should explain the difference between raster and vector GRAPHICS.
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a dot matrix data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium. Raster images are stored in image files with varying formats which we covered here. On the other side, Vector graphics use geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics.
As we all know the leader of the industry in the photo and graphic editing is Adobe. In their line up of software for vector editing we can find Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Flash, Adobe Fireworks and of course the Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard. In addition Corel has developed CorelDRAW which is a powerful tool do edit vector graphics as well.
If you are not sure you wish to spend big bucks on a VECTOR EDITING SOFTWARE, below you will find links to FREE DOWNLOADS for you to try out and explore your GRAPHIC DESIGN skills.
- Inkscape
- DrawPlus
- OpenOfficeDraw
- VRR Project
- SketchUP
- Jfig
- Magictracer
- Scribus
- SodiPodi
- Idroo for Skype
- Zcubes (web-based)