This is 2021: what’s coming in free/libre software
by Alexandre ProkoudineA look across the full spectrum of digital content creation software
Weekly Recaps
A mostly weekly look at what's new in the world of Libre Arts.
1 February 2021
New releases of BlenderBIM, Shotcut, Surge and liquidsfz, new features in GIMP, darktable, Krita, Blender, ArmorPaint, Olive
25 January 2021
New releases of Zrythm and Guitarix, new features in Krita, darktable, Siril, Blender
9 December 2020
New releases of Krita and Shotcut, new features in Siril, Blender, Olive
Podcast
Conversations with developers and users of free software for creative professionals.
Podcast ep. 003 - Paul Davis on fixing big Linux audio issues
This is a the second part of the interview with Paul Davis. It's time to talk about some big stuff that is relevant to virtually every user of Linux audio applications for music-making.
Previously...
Podcast ep. 002 - Paul Davis on the deep rewrite of Ardour
This is the first part of a long interview with Paul Davis, founder and lead developer of Ardour, free/libre digital audio workstation.
Podcast ep. 001 - Interview with Krita developers
Krita team on funding the development and bringing in new contributors
Tutorials
How to use free/libre software for good honest work
How to use math input in GIMP
How to do simple calculations in the spinbox widgets where you input numeric values
Mastering Inkscape in 2018
What’s best among books, courses, and tutorials on the free/libre vector graphics editor
How to view reference images in GIMP
A fellow darktable contributor asked about the washed-out effect he discovered in one of my pictures. Here is how I do it.
Showcases
Great works of art made with free/libre software
Revolutionizing garment-making in Italy with Valentina
Here is a tailor shop in Sicily actively using Valentina for pattern design
The art of Evelyne Schulz
Growing with Linux and GIMP to become a pro
The art of Philipp Urlich
The art of Philipp Urlich: immersive landscapes and GauGAN in digital painting
Reviews
Hands-on reviews of free/libre software
Optimize PNG and JPEG images on Linux with Curtail
If you don't particularly enjoy using a terminal program to run optipng et al., I'm happy to introduce you to this little gem.
Scribus 1.5.6 and beyond
New unstable version of Scribus is available with several interesting improvements such as PDF-based printing, PDF 1.6 compatibility with OpenType fonts embedding, and more changes.
GIMP 2.99.2 vs 2.10.x: which one do you pick?
Now that the GIMP team is back to releasing both stable and unstable updates, here is the question that a lot of people will be asking. Should they go for 2.99.2? Or should they stick to the stable 2.10 series?
Posts
Other posts about the Libre Arts community.
Going above and beyond with Inkscape 1.0
by Alexandre ProkoudineInterview with Inkscape developers
You'd have to be crazy to rewrite GIMP in anything — Interview with Ell
by Alexandre ProkoudineInterview with Ell, core team developer of GIMP
Introducing enve, free/libre 2D animation tool
by Alexandre ProkoudineNew 2D animation tool enve is shaping up nicely
The making of tubeAmp: don’t moan, write code
by Alexandre ProkoudineInterview with Oleg Kapitonov, developer of the free guitar amp simulator for Linux