Inkscape

Today, I revisited another program which I haven't been on for a while. This program may be familiar to some of you graphic designers.  It's called Inkscape.  Inkscape is a great free software that is a vector editing program, and can be considered a simpler Adobe Illustrator.  A vector image by definition is an image that is not limited to being sized in a rectangular box, and can be resized easily without becoming pixelated.  Vectors are composed of paths, not pixels.  This can be helpful if you are making or printing something large sized, so as to make sure the image is not fuzzy.  Unfortunately, most images that you find on the web are bitmap images, which must have a rectangular shape and can not be resized largely, but you can shrink the size down.  Fonts are an example of a vector.

Vector Example

Above, is my vector which I created in Inkscape.  It didn't take too long.  As you can see the program is very simple.  It has a sidebar with tools, (just like Illustrator) and to the bottom is the color palette.  The top has tons of options, (just like Illustrator) and to the right are even more options for your vector editing.  It has so many options, you could spend a whole day trying to learn each feature.  Click on the image to enlarge.