Replacements For Adobe Creative Suite 3 Apps?

Gilmoure writes "With rumors of Adobe not supporting Creative Suite 3 applications on Mac OS X 10.6, I was wondering what Open Source apps folks would recommend to replace Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver? If the apps can work with the native file formats, all the better but if they provide the same functionality, that's still good. I have several designer friends that are looking forward to the speed boost of OS X 10.6 but don't want to go through the Adobe upgrades so soon after the CS2 to CS3 upgrades. Especially when Adobe's already working on CS5."

Comments

Don't bother

[kryptKnight]

I've been using the Snow Leopard developer preview for the past couple months, and Adobe CS3 is working fine.

There's a difference between not working and not being officially supported.

Re:Don't bother

[mtmra70]

No kidding. I once called Adobe to activate my new version of Premiere on a machine that wasn't connected to the internet. The person that was on the phone kept telling me to go to a website and do XYZ. I kept telling her over and over again I didn't have internet access on the machine. I eventually just hung up on her because she kept repeating the same script over and over and over.

Respectively:

[bcmm]

Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus*, Nvu.

*I haven't actually used Scribus myself.

Gimp and Inkscape can import the native formats of Photoshop and Illustrator, respectively. There are many alternatives to Nvu, it's just the one I've used. However, I usually just write the HTML myself, for which Kate is very useful and user-friendly, supporting syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript and so on (at the same time, if necessary).

Re:Respectively:

[smartr]

I'm a big fan of GIMP. I just set up the GIMP on OS X... It's a mess and since X11 treats the separate windows like separate programs so you have to set up options for X11 to enable click-through (then again X11 is already pretty much violating everything under the sun in terms of how OS X user interface works). I'm surprised it doesn't mention on the front page in big letters to enable this setting. If the GIMP was already inaccessible to those new to it given all the right clicking (a mac favorite), the automatic behavior of click to focus, click to draw, click to focus, click to change to gradient tool, click to focus on layer window, click to add a layer, get a window slightly off the screen, move it, click "ok", click to focus on the drawing pane window, click to draw a gradient... If you aren't knowledgeable enough to realize that this extra clicking isn't normal behavior, then figure out to fix it, the GIMP looks like a flaming piece of junk on OS X. If you have used the GIMP significantly, it still makes for an obnoxious hurdle.

Re:Respectively:

[NaCh0]

Interesting post. I've never noticed all of the clicking because I use focus follows mouse.

Re:Respectively:

[pwnies]

Gimp and Inkscape can import the native formats of Photoshop and Illustrator, respectively.

Be careful with this. While inkscape does a better job than gimp, both can't import the files fully. Gimp only has VERY basic interpretation of photoshop files. It will import layers, raster layer masks, layer effects, and some layer styles. Beyond that you're SOL. If you use any vector based maps, hue/curves/contrast/etc layers, smart objects, perspective, etc, then gimp will interpret the file incorrectly.
Inkscape is a bit better with .ai files, but you'll have to do without any gradient meshes and some other advanced styling.

Gimp needs a lot of work still. It's great for quick fixes, but for larger scale projects/companies it just isn't worth it. Inkscape is fantastic though. It has some VERY nice vector capabilities. I've used it extensively for icon work, and I have to say that for making straight .svg files I prefer it over Illustrator.

Re:Respectively:

[Kamokazi]

Inkscape can have a LOT of issues aith AI and even many EPS files. We have a lot of people who need to view artwork from customers where I work and I tried like hell to get rid of Illustrator...but we had a majority of files that wouldn't work with it.

Other than that, it's a great vector art program.

And if I was doing something wrong witrh Inkscape, please tell me, I would love to give Adobe the boot.

Re:Respectively:

[Fallingcow]

Gimp

Note that if you need to open old PS files or deal with new ones from other people, Gimp does not support all of the features of the .ps format. Notably, it's lacking support for some (all?) layer effects, like drop shadow. They'll just disappear when you open the .ps in The GIMP.

Re:Respectively:

[Miffe]

It's 16 bit per channel, ie 48 bits per pixel.

Re:Respectively:

[Anonymous Coward]

Nvu is old and unsupported.

Which is why he should use its fork, Kompozer.

Re:Respectively:

[Anne Honime]

It's not a question of eye, it's a question of maths. As long as digital photography will create colours by interpolation between RGBG values of a matrix, you'll need empty 'holes' to re-create colours and avoid sampling artefacts. Applying filters (sharpening, border sharpening, USM etc.) also needs room to do their magic, otherwise you're accumulating errors that ultimately show as noise. When your postprocessing is done, then you can downgrade to 8 bits / channel without too much loss for printing or display.

Believe it or else, there's a real difference between a 8 bits and a 16 bits workflow; you'd need to try for yourself to be convinced, but for a pro, it's the difference between work or joblessness.

Re:Respectively:

[RiotingPacifist]

mac supports PAE in 32bit versions so the 3.4gb limit is a windows only limitation!

Re:Not Supported? or Doesn't Work?

[horigath]

John Nack, on his blog which is the original source, says:

[Update: No one said anything about CS3 being "not supported" on Snow Leopard. The plan, however, is not to take resources away from other efforts (e.g. porting Photoshop to Cocoa) in order to modify 2.5-year-old software in response to changes Apple makes in the OS foundation.]

And also things like:

I'd frankly be shocked if people at Adobe & Apple really hadn't tested CS3 on 10.6. I *think* it's just some corporate conservatism at work here, and Adobe doesn't want to over-promise anything.

So all in all: No Big Deal

Re:Not Supported? or Doesn't Work?

[MachineShedFred]

I have 10.6 (build 10A421a) and Adobe Creative Suite 3 installed on this MacBook Pro. It works just fine.

Much ado about nothing.

Nothing to see here, move along.

[MachineShedFred]

I am posting from a MacBook Pro running the latest seed of 10.6, and I have Creative Suite 3 installed and running on it.

"We don't support it" â "It doesn't work, ever." My guess, is that they don't support it now as 10.6 is still a beta until Friday.

Re:Nothing to see here, move along.

[BitZtream]

Like it matters. CS4 still doesn't work on case sensitive file systems, and getting anything that could be considered 'support' from Adobe is slightly easier than walking too the sun.

Try these

[nielo]

Hi,
Firstly if you're looking for opensource app replacements you can always try www.osalt.com.

Personally I'd try:
Photoshop: GIMP or GIMPShop or Krita
Illustrator: Inkscape or XaraXtreme
InDesign: scribus
Dreamweaver: KompoZer or Aptana or seamonkey or Amaya or href="http://net2.com/nvu/">NVU

I also found this website which might help: www.thefreesuite.com

Here are the relevant OSalt links:
photoshop
illustrator
indesign
dreamweaver

Good luck if you are a professional...

[bashibazouk]

And go beyond the web. The problems with good CMYK implementation has been talked about quite a bit but what I rarely have seen mentioned is Pantoneï. Corporate art departments live on pantone colors and swatch books for anything printed, painted or applied. If the program doesn't have Pantone it's too limited to be a professional app in the print arena. Pantone charges for it's technology, therefore is unlikely to be in Open Source apps.

Now if someone would come up with an open source alternative with printed swatch books...

Re:Nice FUD on the front page editors

[im_thatoneguy]

Your OS most certainly DOES make you more productive.

Many applications use the OS for file management and browsing. Finding that photo from a previous project that you need is the task of the OS.

Also most people run more than one app simultaneously unless you're using a turnkey system like Flame. It's the OS's job to manage the various applications you have open and enable the user to exchange data easily.

An application in a bad OS is like a sports car without any wheels. It might have an impressive feature list but interfacing with other applications and data is a big component of many applications-- a component which many applications rely on the OS to make fast and effortless.

Pixelmator

[Confuzzled]

Why has no one suggested Pixelmator?

It's not a complete PS replacement, but it does have enough tools to get the job done most of the time.

sK1

[tonk]

sK1 is an illustration program http://sk1project.org/ that supports CMYK and can import files from Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator.

Re:To edit, or create

[Gilmoure]

Sorry about the late reply; I'm not using them but have some designer friends. One's just willing to check out new apps for new projects while the other was wondering if other apps would be able to open Adobe format files. From reading down below, it looks like there's some compatibility but not enough to totally ditch Adobe stuff without redoing entire projects.

Also, seems the rumors about CS3 not playing nice with 10.6 are overblown and this entire question didn't need to be asked. Ah, well.