Jolie O’Dell presents a great round up of Photoshop alternatives with Free Alternatives to Photoshop With All the Bells, Whistles, Filters, & Layers. Each tool, like Splashup and The GIMP was tested with the same photo and given a numerical rating compared to Photoshop (Photoshop being a 10). The alternatives keep getting better with age!
One can never have enough fonts. FontSquirrel.com is a collection of free fonts that can be used for commercial projects. The collection is diverse, including handwriting, script, type, grunge and novelty fonts.
Photoshop brushes have come a long way since stars and blades of grass amazed us eons ago. More and more independent designers are creating brushes and making them available for anyone to use. Brusheezy.com is a great collection of brushes. Each designer decides on his or her terms of use, so make sure you review the README file that comes with each brush. I’ve got to find a use for the Pinup Girl and Dirigibles brushes. Dirigibles! Talk about creative.
Looking for something a little more exciting than Verdana? Of course you are! UrbanFonts.com and FontEmpire.com are fantastic free font sites.
UrbanFonts.com has a neat preview feature that lets you scroll over a font sample to see how all of the characters will appear. Fun font to try: Gilligan’s Island.
FontEmpire.com has a search feature that lets you search by keyword for fonts. Fun font to try: Monster Party.
