Hello DH friends! The semester has begun and we know that you will undoubtedly want to flex those DH muscles in some of your upcoming projects. We know that money can be tight, and that not everyone has access to the same level of digital materials. So, in order to best aid you while you create and explore how the digital can elucidate your ideas, we have put together a list of FREE ALTERNATIVES to the Adobe suite of programs! Try out some of these incredible substitutes that will leave a little more cash in your pocket.
For drawing and design:
Instead of Photoshop, try GIMPshop
Instead of Lightroom, try Paint.net
Instead of Illustrator, try Inkscape
Instead of Indesign, try Canva or Scribus
For making pictures move:
Instead of Premiere, try Davinci Resolve
Instead of Animate/Flash, try Opentoonz or Blender
Instead of After Effects, try Wax, Blender, or Fusion
For website building:
Instead of Dreamweaver, Spark, or XD, try Wix, Weebly, or WordPress.com
Other programs:
Instead of Audition, try Audacity
Instead of Acrobat Pro, try Foxit Reader or PDF Escape
If you need stock photos or fonts:
Instead of Adobe Stock, try Pexels, Unsplash, or Pixabay
Instead of Adobe Fonts, try Google Fonts or Dafont
Also try:
Blender– 3D modeling (Complex)
Sketchup– 3D modeling (Simple)
MagicaVoxel– 3D Modeling (Voxel/Brick)
Sculptris– 3D Modeling (Digital Clay Sculpting)
Google Blocks– 3D Modeling (in VR)
MakeHuman– 3d Modeling (Human Armature)
Krita– Digital Painting/Comics
Make8bitart– 8 bit Painter
Storyboarder– Storyboarding
Unity– Video Game Engine
Fungus+ Unity– Visual Novel Making (no code)
Twinery.org– Text-based game/storytelling
Musescore– Sheet Music Maker
Beepbox.co– 8-bit music maker
BFXR– Retro Video Game Effects Generator
OBS Studio– Sceen/Webcam recording
Streamlabs OBS– Livestreaming
Handbrake– Video/Audio converter
VLC Player– Video/Audio player
Dragonbones Pro or Synfig– 2D Animation
Pivot Animator– Stick Figure Animation
Stop Motion Studio– Stop Motion Animation
Anki– Flashcards
Coolors.co– Color Palette Generator
Make sure to follow along this semester for our critical inquiry series where we will examine some of the questions that we, as scholars and critical readers/makers of digital literature, need to be asking ourselves about the scholarship we encounter.
Until next time, peace, love, and DH!
The Information for this post was pulled from social media posts produced by “Cullen” and “Ghost Malone (@scaredyghost).”
