Free Software and Utilities

Designing your own disc artwork or authoring a DVD for duplication? Here are a few resources to help get you started. All of the software listed on this page is available freely under various open source licenses. We do not host any files on our server; all the links below take you to external websites.

Image Editors - Photoshop Alternatives

SplashUp is a powerful editing tool and photo manager. With the features professionals use and novices want, it's easy to use, works in real-time and allows you to edit many images at once. Splashup runs in all browsers, integrates seamlessly with top photo-sharing sites, and even has its own file format so you can save your work in progress. SplashUp runs right in your web browser, no download required!

GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is available for Windows and Mac.

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format. It supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. (Windows / Mac)

Page Layout - InDesign / Illustrator Alternatives

Scribus is an Open Source program that brings professional page layout to Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X, and Windows desktops with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design. Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and Spot Color support, ICC color management or versatile PDF creation. (Windows / Mac)

Audio Video Editing - Disc Authoring & Burning

DVDStyler is a cross-platform free DVD authoring application for the creation of professional-looking DVDs. It allows not only burning of video files on DVD that can be played practically on any standalone DVD player, but also creation of individually designed DVD menus. It is Open Source Software and is completely free. (Windows / Mac)

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation. (Windows only)

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components. (Windows only)

Burn your files to a disc so you can access them later on. Choose different filesystems so you can share your files with people with different operating systems. Create standard Audio-CD discs with ease. Just drop your audio files in Burn's audio list. Burn can create DVD-Audio discs, which can contain more and higher quality files. Burn can create a wide range of video discs, from VideoCD to DVD-Video discs. And DivX discs to fit more of your videos on a disc. To personalize your DVD-Video disc, burn can create interactive menus. Choose a theme in Burn or create your own. (Mac only)

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

* Record live audio.
* Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
* Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
* Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
* Change the speed or pitch of a recording.