do you guys think gimp is the best FREE web design program out there? or is there better? if so what? im interested becasue i cant buy photoshop which is the best and right now im using gimp, any other better free solutions?

Comfy is horrible and not what he is asking about.

GIMP is a raster image manipulation program. If like me, and you prefer a vector toolset for desiging websites, use InkScape. Personally, I use Fireworks 8. It is unrivaled for it's purpose.

i dont know about "gimp"
i use dreamweaver.. its awesome.. have been using it from 3 years now..

The Gimp is an image editor not really a web design program. You can use it for creating images to use on a web site though

Originally Posted by Mooofasa

Comfy is horrible and not what he is asking about.

GIMP is a raster image manipulation program. If like me, and you prefer a vector toolset for desiging websites, use InkScape. Personally, I use Fireworks 8. It is unrivaled for it's purpose.

There's also Xara Xtreme.
It's basically Inkscape, but with less SVG compliant hoo ha and moew useful features such as independent transparency and feathering.
Xara may not be as well known as Adobe for their graphics editors, but they tend to have features before other companies and their graphics rendering code puts more expensive applications to shame (it's at least 4 times as fast as Adobe Illustrator CS2).

Xara Xtreme is open source under Linux and OSX (I don't know if the OSX port is working yet though), but the Windows version is still commercial, but it's fairly cheap at $79 \ £40 compared to $599 for Illustrator CS3 or $299 for Fireworks CS3.

I used to use Fireworks MX, but I moved to Linux and I've not had the chance to install any graphics software other than Inkscape on my new Vista laptop yet, and Inkscape lacks some of the things that made using Xara Xtreme better (feathering, shadows and a few other things that stop Inkscape from easily creating good looking graphics).

If you can't afford photoshop, then gimp is an excellent replacement. It can do most (not all) of the things photoshop can.

However, the UI is very different and may be a challenge the first time. I'd recommend following on of the online tutorials.

Shoot, try it out, it's free.

I use it but, I'm not a design or graphics guy, it just helps me do what I need. Even I've managed to touch up family photos with it.

oh is inkscape free? or any other programs that you mentioned above? because i really only want free programs.

Hi!

I have heard that the Gimp is the best free graphics program as it is so close to Photoshop and can handle PSD's. You can download Photoshop and use it free for a month if you want to try that. The problem there is that once your 30 days are up, you will be completely lost without it.

Another free program is Paint although I have never used it myself so I cannot comment on it. Personally I would go for Photoshop but if you want free - stick with the Gimp.

- Bayou

nah i wouldnt recommend paint, you cant really do anything on it, no special effects, ive been good so far with gimp im gonna stick with it, is dreamweaver free?

Hi Brett

Dreamweaver is an html editor for creating web pages not a paint program and it isn't free. NVU is a free html editor if you need one.


- Bayou

Well a web design program could be hard to define, the nearest thing to that is Dreamweaver s you can work in a design view. But as far as image manipulation goes, in my experience don't even go near paint (because you'll tear your hair out trying to make something decent), GIMP seems ok but doesn't have a great interface. Photoshop is quite good but Fireworks is unrivalled at what it does. Even though some of tehse programs are expensive it's at least worth checking out a demo.

A friend of mine actually designs the layout of sites in Fireworks before actually constructing anything, not a bad idea really.