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Posted by Rob Hindman on April 3rd, 2007 in Design Resources, INTERNET, SOFTWARE

Adobe recently announced the newest version of their renowned program bundle called Creative Suite. Many people will not be familiar with Creative Suite, but there is nearly universal recognition of its flagship program, Photoshop. Creative Suite 3 will be available soon in various forms that bundle Photoshop with other great programs like Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, and lots more.

Sounds like a great deal for $100, right? A great software package like this would even be worth spending a few hundred dollars to a lot of folks. But that’s not the price. Depending on the bundle you choose, Creative Suite 3 will set you back anywhere from $1600 to $2500. Photoshop CS3 by itself will run $1000.

Give yourself a second to regain your composure and clear your head of those unearthly numbers, and now let’s talk about the real world. You and I can’t afford that. So we need to know about some alternatives. Of course, there are cheaper alternatives to a lot of the programs in Creative Suite, but you could still spend several hundred dollars gathering those together.

Take a look at some free alternatives instead. An editor at CNET’s download.com has done the footwork and tracked down the best free alternatives to help you “roll your own” Creative Suite. Here is a summary, with links to the full text:

• Roll Your Own CS3 for Free, Part 1
  • Photoshop (raster graphics editing) alternatives: Paint.NET, The GIMP
  • Illustrator (vector graphics editing) alternative: Inkscape
  • Acrobat (PDF document creation) alternative: Primo PDF
  • Dreamweaver (web development) alternative: KompoZer
• Roll Your Own CS3 for Free, Part 2
  • Flash (2D animation) alternatives: Synfig Studio
  • Soundbooth (audio editing) alternative: Audacity
  • InDesign (page/print layout) alternative: Scribus
  • AfterEffects (video editing/effects) alternative: Jahshaka