59
In todays world there is Adobe, then everything else. This was not always the case.
I'll overlook any "learning curve" issues and assume someone knows whatever app they use well.
The issue with using "everything else" can be directly felt in terms of workflow speed and compatibility.
For layout....
There was a time when you chose between Aldus ...
32
To scoop up all suggestions in the comments and add my own reasons, here goes:
Quality
Paid fonts are higher in quality, on average than free ones. Remember that saying: 'Pay peanuts, and you get monkeys'? It applies to fonts as well. Paid fonts most probably have more features than free ones, just like most other software. Examples are
lowercase;
glyphs ...
29
Why should someone pay for your designs? Because you have talent, knowledge, invested time and you can create something unique that someone else can't. The same is true for type designers and their product.
They don't give away their quality product for free because the invested a lot.
Most free (gratis) fonts are very low quality. Imagine doing an ...
17
Short answer:
you should use the typeface that is right for the job.
Maybe that's a free font. Maybe it's not.
Longer answer:
Disadvantages of (many, not all) free fonts:
limited character set
limited weights and styles
they tend to be over-used and can dilute your brand image because of that
limited range of variety
Advantages of (many, not all) paid ...
17
You can do this with GIFsicle, using the following options:
gifsicle -U --disposal=previous --transparent="#ffffff" -O2 anim.gif > anim_trans.gif
where anim.gif and anim_trans.gif are the source and destination file names, and #ffffff is the hex code of the color you want to make transparent (here, pure white).
(The important options here are -U / --...
15
Tex Gyre Adventor is a really nice replacement for both Avant Garde and Century Gothic. Useful if you also target devices that are not a pc or Mac. It's available as a @font-face kit at FontSquirrel: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/TeX-Gyre-Adventor
13
I know there's an open-source extension to LATEX specifically for chemical formulae - I think it's called chemfig - here's what I just found on quick lookup:
Overleaf - Chemfig
Also, for simple diagrammatic stuff, if you don't feel you need a chemistry formula specific tool, and general graphics / vector drawing works for you, then bear in mind that ...
12
I firmly believe that, in this area at least, as long as your final work has a solid base in planification and reasoning, there is no right or wrong when it comes to software.
To be honest, it doesn't matter if you do your designs in Microsoft Paint, as long as the end result matches what your client needs and wants, or what initially intended during your ...
9
Century Gothic is pretty well-saturated on the Web and has letterforms that are in the same ballpark as Avant Garde. If a Mac doesn't have it on their system, you can put Futura lower down the font stack.
Not sure how scientific these surveys are, but the numbers are in line with what I've read before: Century Gothic is on probably about 87% of PCs (63% of ...
8
but I know nothing about those licenses
You have to read them. :)
But yes, those are but two examples of licenses that often allow you to freely use them. GPL is an open source license. Creative Commons is not, and will have different stipulations based on the type of license.
Crediting in source code wouldn't typically meet the needs of licenses that ...
7
I know this post is a bit old, but I faced this issue today and finally found a GoogleFont alternative : Poppins
Beside some letter width and the letter Q (which is completely different), the font is a pretty good and free alternative.
7
Chemsketch is free for academic use:
https://www.acdlabs.com/resources/freeware/chemsketch/
6
P22 has a font mirrored after these type of toy blocks called Toy Box Blocks:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/p22/toybox-blocks/
6
The quality of your work is judged by your work...not the tool you used to make it. So if your output is good, that's all that matters.
As such, no, what software you use isn't what other designers will judge you by (or at least, isn't what they SHOULD judge you by).
All that said, if you work in this industry, and have to SHARE files, you likely have to ...
6
Is this an arrangement someone would ever possibly agree to?
Only entry level designers who don't know what they're doing.
What you're asking for is a lot of work and for only name mention. You're asking them to gamble time and hard work on the chances that you'll be successful enough to support not only yourself but also their efforts.
You're essentially ...
6
If you only want to draw them by hand, as you were on a blackboard you can use any simple paint program, there are several free ones.
*MyPaint https://github.com/mypaint/mypaint/releases
FireAlpaca https://firealpaca.com/
MediBang https://medibangpaint.com/
Krita https://krita.org/
Gimp https://www.gimp.org/
PaintNet https://www.getpaint.net/
Take a look ...
5
The free Inkscape vector graphics editor contains a vector barcode generator: Extensions → Render → Barcode. It will also generate / verify the checksum for you. You can then save it to SVG, PDF or some other suitable format and open it in your tool of choice.
Here's a sample of the output (exported as PNG):
5
The top answer is still not specifically answering what was asked for. I made a free font which is on FontStruct now: Download
5
This isn't exactly the answer you're looking for, but here are a few thoughts:
Hoefler & Frere-Jones are pretty much the cream of the typographic crop. They sent an e-mail awhile back that showed some really great font pairings (with their fonts, of course), but at the top there's a good rule listed:
...all built around H&FJ's Highly Scientific ...
5
http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Raleway
"Raleway" from google webfonts is very close and easy to use.
5
Your best bet is to look at open source software.
For fonts, take a look at the excellent selection at fontsquirrel
For editing the illustrations, you can take a look at Krita or GIMP
For laying out the book, Scribus might be a good bet.
5
What you are looking for is MagicaVoxel
It's an 8-bit voxel modeling and animating program that's free and open-source.
The software is still in its infancy but there are a small amount of tutorials showing how to create scenes and animate them.
Other options:
There's also a large list of other free programs here.
Notable other options are Aseprite ...
4
I thoroughly recommend this website: http://hellohappy.org/beautiful-web-type/. There aren't so many combinations but they showcase them in such an inspirational way.
All the fonts are available free for commercial use from the brilliant Google Font Directory.
If you want to try your own combinations out to see what you like (as that's the most important ...
4
Select the Move Tool.
In the Control Bar across the top of the screen, tick the "Show Transform handles" box.
4
Krita is another open-source raster graphics editor. It is mostly aimed at digital painting. Among other things, it has features like powerful brush engine, symmetrical drawing mode and warping tools.
4
There's this Photoshop script that is free, called Pixelmeasure. It's not as complete as SpecKing, you will need to first make a selection and then run the script to get the measurements.
If you have ever done site mockups in Photoshop and needed to mark
these with pixel measurements you know what an incredibly tedious task
this can be.
I went ...
4
Try Fiesta Font:
Not identical, but free and close.
4
Ink is a free plugin that will provide spec documentation for your Photoshop document. It provides layer measurements, text formatting, and layer style information with the option of turning any or all of these on and off.
To install, download and run the Ink plugin from the link above.
Once installed, reopen Photoshop and open the extension by going to ...
4
The only free vinyl cutting software that I know of right now is Inkcut for Inkskcape.
Other than that one there isn't a free solution out there. Your best bet for the price could be VinylMaster Cut but I have never used it. I would recommend Flexistarter which is a lighter version than Flexi but that isn't free nor a plugin for illustrator. I wouldn't ...
4
Some of this will depend on the eventual purposing for your produced work. From the standpoint of print production, using mainstream products like the Adobe suite is beneficial in that we (prepress operators) can reasonably edit your work to fit the needs we have for our workflow and end-product quality. Of course, this is mainly applicable to programs that ...
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