Hobby & Craft Forums

Does anyone know of any low cost Image or logo software that is pretty easy to learn and use? As I'm going to need to create several Images and logos that look professional for a new project I am working on.

Thanks

You could use GIMP which is free to download- it's image manipulation software but I believe it's good! Alternatively you could dowload the trial version of the Adobe Creative Suite from the Adobe site- it lasts for a month and it might prove a little harder to get your head around but well worth it IMO Shane!

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soapitup

I am not aware of any software specifically for Logo creation.. though there may well be some out there!!

Most of the low cost image manipulation packages will offer some degree of creativity that should meet your needs.. but "easy to learn and use" is the tough bit..!!

My first reaction would be to say Photoshop Elements (the stripped down and affordable version of Photoshop) - it will allow you to do simple assembly of components, change colours, hues, shading, add pattern and texture, modify hue and saturation and so on.. each tool is simple to use.. the "problem" is the number of tools and knowing which one does the "thing" you have in your head!!

As an example, the sparkycard image is a composite.. I had a pic of sparky, a pic of a red bauble, and a clipart santa hat.

First I made copies of the bauble, set the hue and saturation to create the 8 colours, next I assembled a cut out of sparkys head, and a resized santa hat with some artifical shadows and highlights to make the result appear a little more realistic.. and then used 3d render to insert a little curvature so the image looked more like it was applied to a sphere rather than flat.. I then modified the origin of light sources to create new highlights..

I fully admit that even after years of plittering, I still work very slowly, and while I am happy with the results, they are far from the level a professional would churn out in a tenth of the time.. I dont find the program "intuitive" but it is very capable and not difficult once you understand the tools.. the help section is good, and there are so many online tutorials you can look at too..

One thing in its favour is that there are so many built in predefined options like shadows, drop shadows, bevels, edging, graduated fills, pattern fills, and the ability to infinitely tweak a colour you could just use these with the text editor and create something very quickly.

photoshop also allows you to save each part of an image in layers.. so you can format one element, or the whole image, this makes adjusting really flexible.. and also means you can copy layers from one image to another and reuse them time and again in different ways..

If you do go this route, the latest version of elements is around £80 maybe a bit less.. but I use version 4 which is about 5 years old.. it is more than adequate for a beginner, and includes some useful updates and facilities from the earlier versions.. I have seen V4 on sale for as little as £20.. which is a modest investment for such a fantastic piece of software.. if you can devote the time to play and learn!

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Nickie, soapitup

Thanks,

I already have adobe photoshop elements 4, (no Idea where I got it, definatly didn't pay for it) though have never really learned how to use it properly, so think I may look for a few tutorials and see If I can create what I want using that. Might as well use what I have, especially as I will have to learn any other software anyway.

Thanks again.

PS thanks for your suggestions as well Nickie, though free trials for expensive software are no good as whatever I use will hopefully get a lot of use as need to keep costs low if I have any chance of succeeding with my new project

Have just found and downloaded PhotoFiltre which seems to have some great reviews and is supposed to be a simplified version (and free) of Photoshop so will also have a play with that, it actually looks a bit like paintshop pro at 1st glance, will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.

Oh brill! Glad you found something- yes, let us know how you get on with it!

Xheader is absolutely fab and free to use the basic package. I create all mine in it - always have. Its just drag and drop - take 5 minutes to get the hang of.

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soapitup

makeitbig wrote:Xheader is absolutely fab and free to use the basic package. I create all mine in it - always have. Its just drag and drop - take 5 minutes to get the hang of.

Hi Karen,

I have now downloaded that, and the extra header templates, (looks very promising) so will spend some time learning it and seeing what I can do with it.

Thanks

Its really great, I especially like the fade feature which allows you to fade images or text to overlay it etc. I think you will enjoy using it, I do. Its simple enough for me, as I am not good with stuff like photoshop, too much for my little brain.