Open Source Design Tools for Business Owners
As promised I wanted to cover some tips tricks, opinion and on occasion some facts in my posts. This weeks is an arsenal of software every designer and small business owner should have installed on their computer… Little disclaimer I’m a avid PC users and most if not all of my focus will be catered to that platform. So to start off
Gimp, nothing new but a shockingly powerful photo editing alternative that is free! (most of my recommendations will be) I also carry around a portable version on my jumpdrive / phone. Never know when you need to do a quick fix for a client or spruce up your own site. But Gimp gives you the power of the more advanced photo editing without the $$ price tag.
inkscape this application is an alternative to Adobe Illustrator (R) and is also a must for small business owners. When creating your logo, its imperative to make sure its in vector format and not created with paint, photoshop, or any other pixel based editing software. When creating a logo in vector form it allows you to create a file that can be easily changed and scaled to nearly infinite sizes without pixelation or distortion.
Filezilla is an FTP client that allows you to upload/download your site to and from your web-server. I keep this application as a portable app on my phone so again never disconnected for the inevitable melt down.
SyncBack SE is a stable and robust backup and sync software… I’ll admit i’m a tad over-the-top when it comes to backups I’ve got (1) hard dive backing up every time a file is changed, created or deleted. Another back up every thirty minutes. ANOTHER backs up every 14 days and lastly I have syncback set to backup all critical data to a remote server ever 6 months. As a small business owner its your life line, losing it could be a disaster. If you lost a HD what would you do? With memory so cheap and the use of this software you can do what I just mentioned and MUCH more. Without investing in expensive servers and paying IT to setup elaborate RAID systems.
Stay tuned for tutorials and more free – low cost tools that can really make a difference.
