Money For Nothing and Your Software For Free

Answer this: how much a year do you spend on software?

Software makes the world go around. Traditionally, there are two ways people get it:

1) They buy it.
2) They steal it.

Don’t worry – I’m not even going to ask. Let’s put all this aside for a moment.

A Better Way To Source Software

What if I told you this:

a) You can get most of your software for free.
b) You can buy everything else for under $100.
c) You won’t use pirated software ever again.
d) You can start supporting independent software developers today.

Would you be interested? Great! By the end of the article, I’ll prove that there really is enough low-cost, quality software out there to use for your day-to-day work and play.

Introducing The Creative Sweet: Creativity Should Be Free

The Creative Sweet from Put Things Off answers a simple question:

What if you could use free software to make money and have fun?

The Creative Sweet is a list of free (or very cheap) software compiled into two categories: Web Edition (browser-based) and Desktop Edition (Mac, PC and Linux). From there, it’s split further into sub-categories: Photo, Video, Illustration, Office, and Utilities.

Instead of going into debt by spending money on high-end software (or pirating it), just pick-and-mix from the list below to make your own Creative Sweet.

Dodgy Software? No thanks.

It’s a tricky subject, so I’ll say it simply:

If you use pirated software, stop today.

You might think that the companies you’re stealing from are faceless, but the people in them work hard and have families to look after. They deserve your money and support.

If you can afford it, pay for software. If not, find a free alternative from The Creative Sweet on this page.

(If you can’t pay for software or find free stuff that you like, subscribe to PTO and stay tuned – later in the week I’ll have an article just for you).

The Creative Sweet: Web Edition

The Web Edition of Creative Sweet is browser-based. The following yummy web applications are what I consider to be the best in their fields. They should tickle your taste buds, whatever you do for a living.

Online Photo Editors

Tweak, crop, rotate, adjust and play with your photos online using these handy tools:

Shrek Picnik (picnik.com) is fantastic. With a full screen mode, histograms, curves, effects and more for free, it can’t fail to impress. If you want access to additional fonts, shapes, effects, frames and touch-up tools, you can upgrade to their premium version for just US$24.95 a year.

Splashup (splashup.com) is a powerful free web-based image editor featuring layers and much more. If you’ve used Adobe Photoshop, you’ll be at home here. Splashup is feature-rich and improving fast.

Snipshot (snipshot.com) is more limited in functionality than Picnik and Slashup, but is a joy to use and will please anyone who wants a quick tweak of their images for free. The Snipshot Pro paid version with RAW mode editing and additional effects looks very promising too.

Online Video Editors

Dice and splice video in your web browser:

Jumpcut (jumpcut.com) rocks the online video boat. With the ability to upload, cut, reorder, transition and save video from the comfort of your browser, Jumpcut represents a giant leap ahead for web applications, proving that tasks once assigned to speedy desktop machines really are possible on the web.

Motionbox (motionbox.com) is technically a video hosting and sharing site like YouTube, but its simple editing features make it worth mentioning here. If you want to edit video online but need a place to store and share your video memories too, check it out.

Online Illustration Apps

Bad news! To my knowledge, there isn’t a web-based vector illustration app that’s ready for prime time. (If you know of one or have something in the works, email me or leave a comment below.)

LithaPaint (view demo) is the most advanced proof-of-concept I’ve found, but its future seems undecided and it still needs some work. For the time being, check out the desktop offerings further down this page.

Online Office Apps

If you’re not using one of the online office suites for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, why not? They’re free, and they make document sharing easier than ever.

Google Docs (docs.google.com) is my online office sweetie of choice. It’s fast, free, reliable, easy to learn, and printing is a doddle.

If you already use Gmail, Google Docs is a no-brainer. The two integrate wonderfully – you can open an attachment in Google Docs direct from the Gmail web interface. With tools like these, who needs desktop apps?

Zoho (zoho.com) offer a range of web applications that form one of the most complete business suites on the web. As well as word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, the Zoho family includes a planner, customer relationship manager, web conferencing, project management and more.

Thinkfree Online (thinkfree.com) is a free web-based word processing, spreadsheet and presentation package that’s cleanly-designed and reliable. It comes with a tasty 1GB of free storage. Check it out.

Buzzword (buzzword.com) from Adobe is hot stuff, even in beta. It’s free! As the only Flash-based word processor I’ve used and loved, it really stands out from the rest. If they had a spreadsheet and presentation app too, I’d consider dropping Google Docs for this like a hot potato. Hopefully we’ll see more from Adobe like this.

Online Utilities

Handy web-based utilities for creative folk. If you use any more, add a comment at the bottom of this article.

PDFHammer (pdfhammer.com) PDF Hammer lets you reorder and delete pdf pages, or combine multiple pdf documents in your browser. It’s fast, easy-to-use and free! (Currently in beta – I don’t know if the developer intends to charge for the final version.)

Zamzar (zamzar.com) is an excellent web app to convert files from one type to another. It supports an impressive array of audio, video, document, image, and compression formats and has got me out of trouble several times.

The Creative Sweet: Desktop Edition

Prefer to work on your desktop? No problem – there are plenty of quality free or cheap Mac, PC, and Linux apps too.

Desktop Photo Editors

GIMP (Mac, PC and Linux – visit site) is an unfortunate name for any application. If the site language wasn’t as unfriendly for non-technical users, GIMP would probably be much more popular by now. Installing it on the Mac is a bit of a pain, but it’s free, well-maintained and it works well – it got me through university.

Pixel (Mac, PC and Linux – visit site) is remarkably similar in many ways to Adobe Photoshop, with the added benefit that it works on almost every platform and costs just $38 (introductory price only).

Acorn (Mac only – visit site) costs just under $40, features layered image editing, basic vector functionality and more. What a bargain.

Pixelmator (Mac only – visit site) at $59 is beautiful to work with. With over 15 years of development, it makes for a powerful and cheap alternative to Adobe Photoshop. If you’re a Mac user then visit the website today and download the demo. Spend some time with it and I guarantee you’ll be impressed.

PhotoPlus 6 (PC only – visit site) from Serif is free and offers the majority of features you’re likely to need. PhotoPlus 8 with extra features is just $9.99.

Ultimate Paint (PC only – visit site) from $34.95 is an offer worth considering for PC users – with features that Photoshop has only added fairly recently (such as the effects browser), you’ll be right at home here.

Desktop Illustration Apps

Check out this vector-based artworking software that’s sure to impress.

DrawPlus 4 (PC only – visit site) is an excellent offering for PC users that’s worth checking out. The updated DrawPlus 6 offers much of the functionality of Adobe Illustrator (such as auto-tracing of bitmap images) at only $9.99.

Lineform (Mac only – visit site) at $79.95 is the best affordable illustration tool for the Mac that I’ve found. Once you’ve spent some time with it, it’s a terrific application that could comfortably remove Adobe Illustrator from your creative arsenal. At this price, it’s hard to find anything better.

Desktop Office Apps

OpenOffice (PC and Linux – visit site) is probably the best-known free office suite for the desktop. It’s free. It does what Microsoft Office does. What more info could you possibly need?

NeoOffice (Mac only – visit site) is a free port of OpenOffice for OSX. I used this for a while before discovering Google Docs and found it excellent. You are spoilt for choice on quality desktop office options as a Mac user, but NeoOffice is a strong competitor from a functionality (and price!) perspective.

Thinkfree Desktop (Mac or PC – visit site) at $49.95 offers outstandingly good value for money. If you don’t mind paying just a little for an office suite that’s well-maintained, bug-free and reliable, visit the site today.

iWork ‘08 (Mac only – visit site) at $79 is Apple’s desktop office suite. Keynote continues to be the best presentation application I’ve ever used, Numbers is a welcome addition, and Pages has the cleanest stationery templates I’ve seen. If it was just a little cheaper, every Mac user might have it. It’s still excellent value for money and I recommend you check out the demo.

Desktop Video and 3D Apps

Distinctly lacking from my search in this section was a free or sub-$100 video editor for the PC. If you use a good one, leave a comment on this post and I’ll add it here.

iMovie ‘08 (Mac only – visit site) from Apple is part of iLife ‘08 at $79, and is terrific value for money. With iMovie becoming ever-more popular at film festivals and amongst indie directors who make it to the big screen, what’s to stop you?

Blender (Mac, PC, and Linux – visit site) is a powerful open source 3D application with a healthy community of evangelists and experienced users. I bought the Blender book last year and worked through it – it has an astonishing feature set for free software.

Google Sketchup 6 (Mac or PC) is a fantastic free 3D package. I’ve used it several times for doing interior mockups, and I think it’s great. When combined with their community-built 3D Warehouse featuring just about every model you can imagine, it’s a powerful tool. Sketchup Pro is a paid version with a nifty feature called Layout that lets you manage 3D models alongside 2D graphics over multiple pages.

Desktop Utilities

There are thousands of great desktop utilites. I would write an entire article on this category alone if I didn’t think it would bore your socks off. Instead, I’ll just share two solutions to a common problem – compressing your files. If you need anything else, just search VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

Yemuzip (Mac only – visit site) is a great alternative for zipping files on the Mac if you prefer a drag-and-drop approach over the compress option from the contextual menu built into the latest two releases of OSX.

Zipgenius (PC only – visit site) lets you zip up your files in over 20 formats. For free!

Make The Most Of The Creative Sweet

To get the most from The Creative Sweet, follow these simple instructions:

Step 1: Pick-and-mix from the list to make your perfect Creative Sweet.
Step 2: Bin all the software you haven’t paid for, right now!
Step 3: If you’re using the Web Edition, create a folder in your bookmarks called “Creative Sweet” and add all the web apps you like. If you’re also using the Desktop Edition, create a folder called “Creative Sweet” and add the shortcuts to all the free and cheap apps you’re using.
Step 4: Enjoy making money and having fun with your fully-licensed, money-saving software.
Step 5: Tell your friends and family!

Enjoyed Reading?

Want to help spread the word about all the free and cheap software out there?

Tell everyone you know about The Creative Sweet!

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The link to this article is: http://putthingsoff.com/index.php/the-creative-sweet/

What Sweets Do You Like?

So, have you chosen your Creative Sweet? Or is there something I’ve missed out? What online and offline applications do you use in your daily work and play? Or do you need help finding a low-cost equivalent to something pricey?

Get involved – help to develop The Creative Sweet by adding your comments below. I’ll be adding to this page based on your comments and suggestions.

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