During my 3 month long part-time job, I was lucky enough to be allowed to learn Macromedia Freehand for work. There and then, I was damning myself for not actually knowing it earlier.
To say the least, it was so fun and useful. That was the first time I was actually tempted to go purchase a legal copy and use it at home.
But thanks to the wonderful folks at Inkscape, now we have a, though not as powerful, equally useful open source vector graphics tool. The best part is, you don’t have to be running on Linux, Inkscape is available on Windows and OS X too. To give yourself more reasons to use Inkscape, go drool on the screenshots.
Anyway, even as a newbie in vector graphics, I found Inkscape 0.42 surprisingly easy to use (or maybe it’s because I’m new). Everything was inituitive, perhaps the only downside being that the floating menus are abit too huge. There’s that sense of unfamiliarity, perhaps brought over from Freehand, but nothing like the shock I got when switching from Photoshop to Gimp.
I think Inkscape 0.42 is a great replacement for Freehand, if you are not really into the more advance features. I’m don’t have much high requirements. Looking from the screenshots, I think I’ll be just happy enough if I can emulate all of the techniques shown. In some sense, a simpler product actually gives more room to the creative mind.
If you’ve never heard of a vector graphics program, Inkscape is a great introduction into this field. It’s the right tool for making signs, designing brochures and posters or just for the very necessary diagram to insert into your word document. C’mon, everyone’s sick of Microsoft Office’s Autoshapes.
It’s the right time to get a bit creative, now that the tools are available for free. Previously, you’ve to fork out a fortune (or break some laws) just to gain access to those prohibitebly expensive tools from Macromeda and Adobe. Now, it’s free. What’s stopping you?
Go download Inkscape now.