Free Vector Graphics Program
Need to make a logo or some cool looking text?
For those of you interested in graphics design, there is another open source program out there called InkScape. Inkscape allows you to draw scalable vector graphics (or svg).
Vector graphics are made of points, lines, curves and polygons. They are generally composed of shapes put together. This is different than something called ‘raster’ images, which is shown as pixels (.jpg compressed for the web). For example, digital photographs are considered to be a raster image.
Most logos, most cartoons, a lot of the clip art are all ‘vector’ graphics. The advantage of using a vector graphics editor is that you can resize and reshape the vector image you are working on without losing any quality. You can change the size, shape, and color very easily. In other words, it’s scalable.
As I understand it, Internet Explorer doesn’t yet the ability to display .svg graphics (there is a plug-in available though). Considering most of the world still uses Internet Explorer, it’s a probably a good idea if you are going to be creating .svg graphics for use on the web to convert them to .gif or .png files. Firefox. however, can display .svg graphics.
There are numerous and costly commercial alternative vector graphics editors out there. The most common are Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand.
Inkscape is a good resource for creating logos or custom shapes. Check it out…