Since I'm no longer employed at false hopes and regret printing I no longer have access to any Adobe products. Well, legal access. I just bought a new laptop with windows 10 (sucks balls) and I would like to install something like CC for content creation. The laptop has a nifty wacom stylus that's pressure sensitive so that would be a bonus if the software supported that as well.
I basically need a replacement for PS, indy and illustrator. Are there any free options out there that can produce not utter poop files?
Inkscape = Illustrator
GIMP = Photoshop
Scribus = InDesign
All open source and free.
Not free but cheap...Affinity Photo (Photoshop) and Affinity Designer (Illustrator). Affinity Publisher (InDesign) has been in beta for 194 years now but they keep promising it is coming out this year. Of course they have been saying that for 194 years now.
Have you used affinity? I'd rather an all in one solution.
That being said I'm downloading the free options now.
I did the trial of Affinity Photo. Was very good. Never tried Designer as I rarely use Illustrator.
Don't knock your Windows setup - Affinity and some others are Windows only. Affinity's stuff seems to be received well. Haven't seen any negative response to it except for "it's not Photoshop." Well, duh.
Quote from: Possum on August 15, 2018, 09:14:41 AMDon't knock your Windows setup - Affinity and some others are Windows only. Affinity's stuff seems to be received well. Haven't seen any negative response to it except for "it's not Photoshop." Well, duh.
Affinity has Mac and Windows versions.
Quote from: Joe on August 15, 2018, 09:24:05 AMQuote from: Possum on August 15, 2018, 09:14:41 AMDon't knock your Windows setup - Affinity and some others are Windows only. Affinity's stuff seems to be received well. Haven't seen any negative response to it except for "it's not Photoshop." Well, duh.
Affinity has Mac and Windows versions.
Good to know, they didn't last time I checked.
You can still find legal, free, versions of CS2 from Adobe, and serial numbers to make them work. There are also
Spoiler
*other ways*
I am aware of the other ways but I don't like how connected windows 10 is to the mothership.
Quote from: DigiCorn on August 15, 2018, 10:17:19 AMYou can still find legal, free, versions of CS2 from Adobe, and serial numbers to make them work. There are also Spoiler
*other ways*
About a week or two ago I went looking for the CS2 downloads and it appears they have been removed. At least where I looked they were. Technically Adobe didn't didn't release it as freeware to the masses. They made it so people that had bought it could still use it after they shut down the activation servers by putting out an activation key that works for everyone.
If you know anyone with a student email address or you can become a student of something :laugh:
The Adobe license is way cheaper
Will the University of B4Print work?
Quote from: Joe on August 15, 2018, 11:14:44 AMQuote from: DigiCorn on August 15, 2018, 10:17:19 AMYou can still find legal, free, versions of CS2 from Adobe, and serial numbers to make them work. There are also Spoiler
*other ways*
About a week or two ago I went looking for the CS2 downloads and it appears they have been removed. At least where I looked they were. Technically Adobe didn't didn't release it as freeware to the masses. They made it so people that had bought it could still use it after they shut down the activation servers by putting out an activation key that works for everyone.
I downloaded them a few months ago... I still have CS2 .exes on my NAS at home. I think I used a link found on B4Print for the download, and it downloads the files as install DVDs, so you need to extract them and install them like you're installing from DVD, as separate disc directories. I had to hunt Adobe forums a little bit, but I finally found a serial number that worked. Later, I deleted the install and replaced with CS5 from work. I only use it at home to do some flyers and projects and stuff for my kid's school.
Quote from: Joe on August 15, 2018, 12:04:10 PMWill the University of B4Print work?
Are we accredited, and am I an instructor?
Sure why not. Tell Adobe Joe sent you.
The best replacement I have seen for Illustrator and Photoshop is from Affinity (Designer and Photo). Modern UI and works very fast. They are working on their own version of Indesign. Will be a decent package when it is done though I think it will be a very long time before they can even come close to catching up to Indesign. Would love to be proven wrong on that. I am wary of the free graphic programs, we have had many clients come in with stuff they did on their own in those various programs and they can be a nightmare. The Affinity stuff seems to be more common sense with the basics that we are all used to. I would look at them before anything else, for a couple hundred bucks you will have everything with no monthly fees.
I'm pretty sure I snagged them when they were posted up. I just have to find them. Wonder if CS2 works with the stylus too...
If somebody just needs a Photoshop replacement, I've seen good things about Pixelmator. It's Mac only, though.
Quote from: wonderings on August 15, 2018, 01:17:45 PMThe best replacement I have seen for Illustrator and Photoshop is from Affinity (Designer and Photo). Modern UI and works very fast. They are working on their own version of Indesign. Will be a decent package when it is done though I think it will be a very long time before they can even come close to catching up to Indesign. Would love to be proven wrong on that. I am wary of the free graphic programs, we have had many clients come in with stuff they did on their own in those various programs and they can be a nightmare. The Affinity stuff seems to be more common sense with the basics that we are all used to. I would look at them before anything else, for a couple hundred bucks you will have everything with no monthly fees.
I get files like that from people running the latest version of Adobe CC. <<true but not funny>>
I can't get on the Affinity bandwagon until I see a useable page layout app (Affinity Publisher has been promised for like I said...194 years it feels like). And when I do...I expect Adobe to throw a boatload of cash at them and buy them out and kill them off. Because we can't have nice things.
Quote from: Farabomb on August 15, 2018, 01:20:18 PMI'm pretty sure I snagged them when they were posted up. I just have to find them. Wonder if CS2 works with the stylus too...
If you don't have them, let me know and I'll send you a link to download from my drive at home. You know how to get ahold of me.
Quote from: Joe on August 15, 2018, 01:35:02 PMQuote from: wonderings on August 15, 2018, 01:17:45 PMThe best replacement I have seen for Illustrator and Photoshop is from Affinity (Designer and Photo). Modern UI and works very fast. They are working on their own version of Indesign. Will be a decent package when it is done though I think it will be a very long time before they can even come close to catching up to Indesign. Would love to be proven wrong on that. I am wary of the free graphic programs, we have had many clients come in with stuff they did on their own in those various programs and they can be a nightmare. The Affinity stuff seems to be more common sense with the basics that we are all used to. I would look at them before anything else, for a couple hundred bucks you will have everything with no monthly fees.
I get files like that from people running the latest version of Adobe CC. <<true but not funny>>
I can't get on the Affinity bandwagon until I see a useable page layout app (Affinity Publisher has been promised for like I said...194 years it feels like). And when I do...I expect Adobe to throw a boatload of cash at them and buy them out and kill them off. Because we can't have nice things.
I get garbage files from all sorts of programs, least of them is Adobe software though and it is much easier to fix them in the right app then opening a file that was made in something else and hope things translate well.
Affinity did release a dumb teaser video about their page layout app, they are calling it "Publisher". Worst name ever as every prepress guy in the world has had issues with Microsoft Publisher files. That aside it will be coming out, I think they said a beta would be out next year. I will buy it just to check it out as the software is cheap enough, I have no doubt that I will not be able to replace Indesign with it. Indesign is my main app, Illustrator and Photoshop are useful tools but I barely use them compared to Indesign.
Quote from: wonderings on August 15, 2018, 02:29:08 PMI get garbage files from all sorts of programs, least of them is Adobe software though and it is much easier to fix them in the right app then opening a file that was made in something else and hope things translate well.
Affinity did release a dumb teaser video about their page layout app, they are calling it "Publisher". Worst name ever as every prepress guy in the world has had issues with Microsoft Publisher files. That aside it will be coming out, I think they said a beta would be out next year. I will buy it just to check it out as the software is cheap enough, I have no doubt that I will not be able to replace Indesign with it. Indesign is my main app, Illustrator and Photoshop are useful tools but I barely use them compared to Indesign.
Yeah they have said the beta would be out
next year for a few years now. I had mentioned the name earlier and I agree Publisher was a bad name to use. Might as well have called Affinity PageMaker®. :rotf:
My main app is Acrobat/Pitstop. No one is working on a replacement for that. Or should I say a reasonably priced replacement.