Tools

Here’s a basic list of open source creative tools. It isn’t [yet] comprehensive and my focus is on applications that I know and have used. Sorting is almost entirely random. Perhaps sometime in the future, I’ll implement a rating scale of some sort… and maybe add some sort of filters to this page.

Workhorses

• Blender - 3D, animation, compositing
• GIMP - Raster image manipulation
• Inkscape - Vector image creation
• Krita - Digital painting, animation
• Audacity - Audio editing
• VLC - Media playback

Writing/Publishing

• Scribus - Desktop publishing
• Calibre - Ebook conversion and management
• Sigil - Ebook editing
• Pandoc - Document conversion
• Trelby - Screenwriting
• ‘afterwriting - Screenwriting and file conversion
• Freemind - Mindmapping
• Vim - Text editing (bonus: have a look at my .vim config)
• Atom - Text editing (very customizable)
• LibreOffice - Full office suite
• Markdown - Simplified markup for writing
• Fountain - “Markdown” for screenwriting

Illustration

• Krita - Digital painting
• MyPaint - Digital painting (speedy, great for concept work)
• GIMP - Raster image manipulation
• Inkscape - Vector image creation

Animation

• OpenToonz - 2D animation (raster and vector)
• Synfig Studio - Vector animation
• Blender - 3D, animation, compositing
• Krita - Digital painting, animation

Photography

• Darktable - Raw developer
• GIMP - Raster image manipulation
• Hugin - Panorama stitching

Video/Post Production

• Kdenlive - Video editing
• OpenShot - Video editing
• Shotcut - Video editing
• Natron - Compositing
• Blender - 3D, animation, compositing
• VLC - Media playback
• FFMPEG - Command line video encoding and processing
• HandBrake - Video transcoding

Audio

• Ardour - Digital audio workstation
• Qtractor - Audio/MIDI sequencing
• Rosegarden - Music composing
• MuseScore - Music composing
• Hydrogen - Drum machine, sequencing
• LMMS - Digital audio workstation focused on music
• EasyTag - Metadata editing

3D Printing

• MeshLab - 3D mesh processing and inspecting
• Ultimaker Cura - 3D printing slicing and setup
• ReplicatorG - 3D printer and CNC controller
• Blender - 3D editing and sculpting

Version Control

• Mercurial - Distributed version control
• TortoiseHg - Graphical front-end for Mercurial
• Git - Distributed version control
• Gitg - Graphical front-end for Git

Scripting/Automation

• Python - Scripting language (frequently integrated in creative tools)
• Processing - “Software sketchbook” for coding in the visual arts
• FFMPEG - Command line video encoding and processing
• ImageMagick - Command line image processing