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ArtWeaver: a Viable, Free Photoshop Alternative?
You won't find the same multitude of tools Photoshop offers, but ArtWeaver is a promising option for people wanting a slimmed-down alternative that offers the functions that beginning and intermediate users want.
Artweaver's interface is uncomplicated and should be comfortable for anyone who's used Photoshop before. The included help file is very detailed, and provides tons of information and useful tips to get you started.
So, what kind of tools does Artweaver offer?
- Selection tools: Rectangular and eliptical selection, freehand and polygonal lasso, magic wand
- Brushes: standard, airbrush, cloning, and a ton of "artist" brushes (like charcoal, chalk, felt pen, pencil, impasto)
- Shapes tool: rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, polygon, and custom shapes
- Eraser, paint bucket, stamp, crop, and move tools
- A nice set of color palettes (Windows, Mac, Web, etc.)
- Filters
- Grid and perspective grid overlays
Couple Artweaver's core functionality with the fact that it can be extended by plugins, it certainly has the potential to be a very competent Photoshop alternative.
Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsJaymoonSep 14th 2008 5:41PM
Biggest problem I've had with ArtWeaver so far is that any previously saved PSD files through Photoshop will open, but they will be flattened.
What's the point of opening a PSD if it can't read the layers?
It seems to be a nice quick program (wine-compatible too for Linux users), for make a simple edit. But anything more than that, I'll stick with Photoshop.
DavidSep 14th 2008 5:50PM
Can you watermark on it easily?
GregSep 14th 2008 6:04PM
What can it do that http://www.paint.net or http://www.gimp.org/ can't? Both of which seem to already do everything show, as a matter of fact it looks almost like paint.net clone.
Fred ThompsonSep 14th 2008 7:44PM
Active Pixels is a good option, too. http://idea-systems.net/
I found paint.net to be too limiting and Gimp too awkward. YMMV. I still use an old version of Paint Shop Pro because it's so hard to find a color replacer brush in the free apps. Don't forget PhotoFiltre http://photofiltre.free.fr/frames_en.htm
GAMSep 14th 2008 8:09PM
Maybe you should read your first sentence slowly...
"Before the shouting beings..."
:-)
Anyway, thanks for bringing ArtWeaver to our attention, I believe it is the first time I hear about it....
Lee MathewsSep 14th 2008 8:09PM
Nice catch, thank you, cookies in the mail! :-)
FyrewerxSep 14th 2008 8:31PM
Its "almost" PaintshopPro, circa mid-80's, all over again. Not bad for the small, quick work.
oboSep 15th 2008 12:30AM
It's a Photoshop SE clone?
LeeHSep 15th 2008 9:40AM
This appears to be a *painting* program *not* a photo editing program so it's more of an alternative to Corel Painter than to Photoshop.
Lee MathewsSep 15th 2008 9:42AM
Well, I used it quite a bit. It seems to edit photos just fine. You'll have to clarify the issue for us!
Ross EamesSep 15th 2008 2:22PM
"GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages."-gimp.org
"Artweaver is a simple Freeware program for creative painting,..."-artweaver.de
I have allways thought that GIMP kicked ass, and the strong development community has added features that don't exactly clone those of Photoshop, but provide unique scripts, filters and other great stuff.
I've used Gimp on windows since 2003, and its a great Photoshop alternative. Maybe not the best at creating original art, but i rarely "paint" with my mouse.
(also try Inkscape as a Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator alternative.)
SuperevilSep 16th 2008 1:51PM
MSPaint has worked fine for me for years. :)
Ek kianSep 20th 2008 10:04AM
If you search for free Photoshop alternative then maybe you can consider to use GimPhoto. (http://www.gimphoto.com)
actually GimPhoto is GIMP modification with new menu layout and shortcut, packed with many great plugins, such as: separation, save for web, batch process, noise removal and photography filters, and also improved with new brushset, new gradientset, every aspect is tweaked to improve user usability.
available for Windows and Linux (all distro).