iCalamus can be used to create beautiful posters, classroom presentation or designer magazines. With this handy tool, you can design a poster or can help your kids in their projects too. From defined measurements to various shapes and sizes of frames, iCalamus is a one-stop shop to fulfill all your needs related to desktop publishing.

The desktop publishing solution “iCalamus” supported by Mac OS X is quite user-friendly. It can import all the PDF documents, text formats and images and process it according to your need. You can even process images imported from the Internet, scanners, digital cameras, iPhoto libraries, etc. Moreover, you can use this tool in the language of your choice, as it has multi-lingual options.

Here, you can choose single or double page mode while editing, and can define the page layout. The RGB/ CYMK color mode helps in color gradation and the user gets a vast palette of colors to choose from for editing. No need to struggle with multiple buttons, as you can also get ‘Drag and drop’ support with iCalamus. After editing, you can get the output in printed form or as a PDF file.

Features of iCalamus

1. Photographer book- The tool (iCalamus) includes a plug-in known as Photographer book, which helps you in designing and typesetting photobooks from your digital images. You can also import images from iPhoto and can design them according to your choice.
2. Multiple virtual copies- iCalamus helps in copying multiple virtual copies from the original/source copy. Even if you like to make a change, you can simply change one of these copies and the rest copies will automatically change.
3. Web page placing and updating- With this magic tool- iCalamus, you can now keep web pages in your document and can update it as well.
4. Editing with different frame shapes- With iCalamus, frame editing has been made easiest. Now you can easily mould the frames according to your choice and can give a full liberty to apply your creative sense. There is a triangle sign on ever object placed, which, while clicked, opens and closes the frames to provide the frame your desired shape.
5. Masking- ICalamus offers various masking effects to choose from, which you can apply on your image easily. Masking means modifying a small part of the illustration or image while keeping the rest intact. You can also design vector masks and create tracer text wrap paths using ‘Create Opacity based Outline’ function provided in iCalamus.
6. Transparent illustrations- From simple texts to multicolored images to lines and frames, every object can be made transparent with effects. You can use these illustrations as a watermark and can make them the background design for your text.
7. Customized mode blending for frames- You can customize the blends of an illustration as per your choice without harming the base image. This may include color modification or inversed color scheme applying. In this way, you can add a dramatic effect to your image.

Download : iCalamus

User can use any browser to organize media files into albums even it’s very easy to add, edit, delete, rotate, rearrange, copy and move media files. no need to reduce or compress your photos before uploading. it will automatically create thumbnail and compress your image when you add your original hi-res photos.

Gallery Server Pro is a free and open source ASP.net based image gallery released under the GNU General Public License .

Features of Gallery Server Pro

1. Easily add thousands of files using one-click synchronize and ZIP file upload functions
2. Powerful user security with flexible, per-album granularity.
3. Integrates with DotNetNuke and other frameworks to provide a superior media gallery.
4. Easy to add links to external media objects, such as YouTube or Silverlight Streaming videos
5. Image metadata extraction. Supports these formats: EXIF, XMP, text, IFD, and IPTC.
6. Search function queries title, caption, filename, and photo metadata.
7. Image watermarking with your own text and/or image.
8. Simple, intuitive Ajax based User interface
9. Web-based installer makes installation a snap! Automatically detects and upgrades previous versions of Gallery Server Pro.
10. Support for multiple databases. SQL Server database engine provides robust and ultra fast performance. Compatible with all recent versions of SQL Server.
11. 100% managed code written in C# and ASP.NET 2.0. Source code is freely available.
12. All web pages are follow XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1 standards to ensure maximum forward compatibility.
13. Silverlight used to play compatible video and audio files
14. Role based security

Demo : Gallery Server Pro 2.3 Demo
Download : Gallery Server Pro

It works with Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and uses HTML, JavaScript and Ext JS on client side and ImageMagick and PHP on server side. it has great features like resizing images, Cropping images, rotate/flip images, easy to apply filters, add text with a text tool, apply watermarks & many more..

Download : Ajax Image Editor
Demo : Ajax Image Editor Demo

DrawIt’s vector tool allow you to create any shape imaginable, and you can convert any text layers to vector as well. it also includes a large number of ready-to-use shapes such as rectangles, ovals and stars. Boolean operations on these shapes can create even more more complex ones.

Built on top of the vector tools, DrawIt support for more then 50 Core Image filters and other effects like (inner) shadow, stroke, bevel and many more. These filters are applied in a non-destructive way which means that you can change both the effects and the underlying vector even after you added the effects. This is because the result will never be rasterized. Filters can be stacked and this too is all non-destructive and live.

Download : DrawIt Lite 3.1
Website : http://www.bohemiancoding.com/drawit

Xara Xtreme combines advanced and powerful vector illustration with integrated photo manipulation and DTP features which offer a very slick, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn approach. User can easily import and export large number of formats, including SVG, EPS, PNG, GIF, JPEG, PDF, PostScript, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and, via plug-ins, even more.

Features of Xara Xtreme

1. Open most XAR files
2. world’s most sophisticated, highest performance vector rendering engine
3. Direct Action Tools allow you to create effects such as transparency, shadows, bevels or gradient fills in an interactive, fast and intuitive way.
4. Intuitive Drag and drop principle for import of files, such as photos.
5. Solid object Dragging
6. vector 3D extrude tool
7. Xara introduced the world’s first vector anti-aliasing to bring maximum screen quality and is still a pioneer with the fastest, highest quality anti-aliasing available in any drawing program.
8. Easy to Select objects with the select tool
9. Use the selection handles to scale and shear objects
10. Use the zoom tool
11. Easy to Group and ungroup (Ctrl-G, Ctrl-U)
12. Unlimited Undo/redo using the toolbar buttons
13. shape editor to edit and create shapes

Download: Xara Xtreme for Linux

If you are Adobe Illustrator user, Skencil allow you to open and work with .ai files – Skencil will import them for you. A somewhat unique (for a drawing program) feature of Skencil is that it is implemented almost completely in a very high-level, interpreted language, Python. Python is powerful, object-oriented and yet easy to use.

Features of Skencil

1. Rectangles, optionally with rounded corners
2. Ellipses (full ellipses, pie slices, arcs and chords)
3. Bézier curves (single and multi path)
4. Support for External images:
   • Raster images: JPEG, PNG
   • Encapsulated PostScript (EPS)
5. All objects, including images and text, can be rotated, scaled, sheared
6. Export Filters allow Skencil to write the drawing to various file formats. Skencil has filters for its own format and for Adobe Illustrator, PDF and SVG files.

Download: http://www.skencil.org/

Here is a list of 8 useful open source information graphics software to create any kind of information graphics.

1. GeoGebra Geometry diagrams tool

   

   GeoGebra is free and multi-platform dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked. It allows you to directly enter and manipulate equations and coordinates. Thus you can easily plot functions, work with sliders to investigate parameters, find symbolic derivatives, and use powerful commands like Root or Sequence.

2. Kig Geometry diagrams tool

   

   Kig is a free and open source KDE application for Interactive Geometry. It’s intended to serve two purposes: Allow students to interactively explore mathematical figures and concepts using the computer and Serve as a WYSIWYG tool for drawing mathematical figures and including them in other documents. Kig supports macros and is scriptable using Python. It can import and export files in various formats, including SVG, Cabri, Dr. Geo, KGeo, KSeg, and XFig.

3. Maxima plotting tool

   

   Maxima is a system for the manipulation of symbolic and numerical expressions, including differentiation, integration, Taylor series, Laplace transforms, ordinary differential equations, systems of linear equations, polynomials, and sets, lists, vectors, matrices, and tensors. It is based on DOE-MACSYMA and licensed under the GPL. Its abilities include symbolic integration, 3D plotting, and an ODE solver.

4. sympy computer algebra system

   

   sympy is a Python library for symbolic mathematics. It aims to become a full-featured computer algebra system (CAS) while keeping the code as simple as possible in order to be comprehensible and easily extensible. SymPy is written entirely in Python and does not require any external libraries.

5. EJS JavaScript Template library

   

   EJS is an open source JavaScript Template library. EJS cleans the HTML out of your JavaScript with client side templates. After EJS gets its rubber gloves on dirty code, you’ll feel organized and uncluttered.

6. jHepWork multiplatform data-analysis framework

   

   jHepWork is a full-featured multiplatform data-analysis framework for scientists, engineers and students. jHepWork is a 100% pure Java package with numerical and graphical libraries for data-analysis applications.

7. FreeMat scientific prototyping and data processing tool

   

   FreeMat is a free environment for rapid engineering and scientific prototyping and data processing. It is similar to commercial systems such as MATLAB from Mathworks, and IDL from Research Systems, but is Open Source. FreeMat is available under the GPL license.

8. GNU Octave

   

   GNU Octave is a open source computer program for performing numerical computations. It provides a convenient command line interface for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically, and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly compatible with Matlab. It is easily extensible and customizable via user-defined functions written in Octave’s own language, or using dynamically loaded modules written in C++, C, Fortran, or other languages.

In this article, you will read about the 8 open source alternative application for Commercial Graphic Applications.

1. cinefx

   

   Cinefx is a suite of open source, cross platform media playback, encoding, visual effects and editing digital content creation tools which offer almost the same features your will find in a any professional/commercial editing suite. Whether it come to painting video, create and edit effects in real-time or perform advanced composition Cinefx is perfect solution for all.

   It support a wide variety of media formats from AVI to Mpeg and QuickTime and has powerful image sequence management with support for JPEG, TIF, TARGA and the latest HDR formats, including EXR and DPX. cinefx open source is a alternative software for Adobe After Effects 7.0

2. Karbon14

   

   Karbon is a scalable vector graphic editor in KDE and part of the KOffice Suite. It allows you to create complex drawings without losing image quality when zooming in on, or resizing the drawing. You can use Karbon to add finishing touches to diagrams created using Kivio or charts created using KChart. Graphic design ideas can be quickly and easily transformed into high quality illustrations with Karbon. Karbon is a perfect alternative software for Macromedia Freehand MX.

3. Kino

   

   Kino is a Open source non-linear video editing tool for GNU/Linux. With excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. it allow you easily imports DV video and detailed editing and transition effect for both video and audio.

   You can load multiple video clips, cut and paste portions of video/audio, and save it to an edit decision list (SMIL XML format). Most edit and navigation commands are mapped to equivalent vi key commands. The movie editing features include fast and frame-accurate navigation for precise trimming – also clips can be Drag-n-drop from file manager. Video effects and filters are also available. Kino is perfect alternative software for Microsoft movie maker 2.1, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Final Cut pro 5, Apple iMovie.

4. Krita

   

   Krita is a Open source bitmap editing and drawing application for Koffice suite for Linux User . With Krita, you can easily create new bitmap images from scratch or work with existing images such as photo’s, scanned images.

   Krita is completely different from other graphics design programs because it use pluggable brush engines which support so many brush resources such as Gimp brush files and other sophisticated simulation of real brushes, and deforming your image or mixing colours. Krita is an open source alternative software to Paint.net 3.36, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Corel Paint Shop Pro X2, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.

5. KToon

   

   KToon is a open source 2D Animation Toolkit specially designed for animators by animators. It provide all features of 2D Animation such as drawing tools, layers, key frames, time line and more like Macromedia Flash have. only scripting language like Macromedia’s Action Script not supported by KToon. but you can export movies in AVI file format and Macromedia flash (swf) format. it’s perfect alternative software Anime Studio 5, Toon Boom Studio 3.5.

6. Potrace

   

   Potrace is a open source multiplatform bitmap converter that allow you to converts bitmapped images into simple vector graphics. It supports the most common vector output formats: EPS, PostScript, PDF, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and more. The output can easily be used for further editing/drawing or directly in a Desktop Publishing (DTP) application. Potrace is perfect alternative software for Corel Trace12.

7. QCad

   

   QCad is a open source application for computer aided drafting in two dimensions (2d). QCad is a specially designed to make more productive, more user friendly, more flexible and increase its compatibility with other products. QCAD works on Windows, Mac OS X and many Linux and Unix Systems. QCad is a alternative option for Autodesk AutoCAD 2009.

8. Seashore

   

   Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X’s based on Cocoa framework. Seashore is a free and useful open-source Mac Application alternatives for Photoshop only for Mac user. It features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It is based around the GIMP’s technology and uses the same native file format.

Also, GifSplitter will create a .gsf file which can be used in Magic ASCII Studio . So, with the help of GifSplitter you can make ASCII Art Animation directly from gif animation file in Magic ASCII Studio now.

Download : GifSplitter

To make it more user-friendly, this application also support for Drag and Drop mouse operation.

key features of "FastStone Photo Resizer"

1. Convert and Rename images in batch mode
2. Support JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF and JPEG2000
3. Resize, crop, change color depth, apply color effects, add text, watermark and border effects
4. Rename images with sequential number
5. Search and replace texts in the file names
6. Preview conversion and renaming
7. Support folder/non-folder structure
8. Load and save settings

Download : FastStone Photo Resizer