| Computer graphics software is any software package that allows the user to create visual images. There are many types of graphics software on the market. There are graphic design software packages, web design software packages, photo editing and manipulation software, animation software packages, and scrapbooking software packages.
Design software covers software packages that are meant to create graphics from scratch. The graphic design software packages allow the user to draw images using freehand tools, pre set shapes and lines, and text. They also let the designer choose colors, add 3d effects through shadows and lighting, and add other effects to the image. Graphic design software ranges from professional grade tools like Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw, to home graphic tools like Paint Shop Pro and even free graphic software like OpenOffice.org’s Draw program
Web design software is for taking text and graphics and assembling them in a way that can be displayed on the Internet as a web site. Web design tools offer a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface that allows the user to insert, drag, and drop object all over the work area. Web page design software will also include an HTML editor so that the skilled designer can go into the web page code and make changes there to fine tune the design of the page. The two biggest names in commercial web design software were Dreamweaver and Front Page, however Microsoft has rebranded Front Page into two different software packages. Sharepoint Designer for creating Sharepoint sites and Expression Web which is a robust web editing and design tool. Dreamweaver, although no longer a Macromedia product, is still one of the top web design tools. On the free end of web design software is the NVU (N-view) tool. NVU is part of the Open Source Software Project and will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Photo editing software allows a designer to take existing graphics, such as a photo or other image, and manipulate them in any manner their imagination sees fit. Professional photo editors like Photoshop contain hundreds of tools for editing images including color enhancements, text tools, opacity tools, scale and rotating tools, paint brushes, and effects packages. Editing photos can be free as well. Although it doesn’t have quite the tool box as Photoshop, The Gimp photo editor costs the user nothing at all and can handle jobs from home touch ups to professional grade airbrushing.
Animation software gives movement and life to still images. Tools like Flash can be used to create entire movies that are used to entertain or train individuals. Flash can also be made interactive with Action Script so that it can be turned into a game design platform. Other tools can be used to give life to gif images so that presentations and web sites have a bit of motion to them rather than just still images.
Scrapbooking software is a newer trend in the arena of graphics software. These software packages stem from the growing popularity of digital cameras and the scrapbooking hobby. Scrapbooking software such as Google’s Picasa allow the user to organize photos in albums. These photos can be touched up and added to with the tools included in the free application. Other packages like Creating Keepsakes and Hallmark Scrapbooking Studio cost a little bit of money but are geared more for the hobbyists who enjoy the aesthetic frills of scrapbooking.
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