Using Open Source Software for a Design Business Pros / Cons

Lately I’ve been weighing up the pros and cons for using Open Source software for my future business. Keeping costs down is really important, although I don’t want to cut corners or hinder my progress unnecessarily.

I’ve been using Blender for years now, and with Cycles and Vray 3, that end is covered. It’s the vector and image editing that is still worrying me. I’ve tried to plan for all eventualities, but who knows what a client may throw at me.

Hopefully I’ll be able to manage with Gimp, Inkscape, and Raw Therapee for most things, I could always use the Adobe subscription for the month if I get something from a client that I can’t read.

So far the missing Features in Gimp are:

CMYK, for Print Shops (I know of some of the plugins, but they may be more hassle than they’re worth).

16 Bit Editing, For wider quality editing (Raw Therapee can cover the camera RAW features), although that does not include 16bit layers for compositing which would br nice obviously.

PSD Import, for importing full Photoshop PSDs with Adjustments etc. It’s not likely that it will be an issue, but it depends on the client.

For Inkscape, I can’t find anything that’s really a deal breaker, although other than Logo ID design and help with my textures, I don’t really need many features with Inkscape.

Although .ai files that don’t have the illustration on the artboard can be cropped off in Inkscape. I’ve never used Inkscape for Print Shops, so I’m in the dark here.

Of course after all this I may find that a large majority of clients will expect me to be organised for Adobe - I have to be versatile.

For the sake of a £1200 quid approx for PS and AI CS6, am I wasting my time with Open Source software?(I’m not interested in renting software full-time yet).

Does anyone here have any knowledge of running a design business with open source software, if so, have you any tips?

Cheers, Jay.

Open source is not fully there yet, for low cost graphic suite could also check Corel Draw Graphic Suite (725€ incl. VAT).

Free and supports CMYK (Mainly aimed at Digital painting though) - https://krita.org/

Free digital Darkroom Software, non destructive 16-bit editing - http://www.lightzoneproject.org/

Article about LightZone - http://petapixel.com/2013/07/09/lightzone-photo-editing-software-is-now-open-source-and-completely-free/

Opening .PSD without photoshop - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-best-ways-to-open-a-psd-file-without-photoshop/

I don’t have knowledge about running a design business on any level really, but i hope these articles and links help you :slight_smile:

burnin, What about specifics on Corel Draws suite? what is it like compared to Inkscape and Gimp? Do you have any experience, especially with Inskcape and Corel Draw?

Jamie B, I have Krita also, which does CMYK as you say. Maybe I can export from Gimp to Krita to get CMYK output. I’ve not tested, but I’m curious though how that would compare with professional solutions sending to a Print Shop.

LightZone seems very similar to Rawtherapee which I use already - that ones sorted.

Opening PSD is easy in most software, but none of them handle Adjustments Layers.

Clients generally don’t care what’s under the hood, they care about deliverables, which means a file they can send off to their favorite print shop. See what your local print shops are set up to handle.

Running Open Source and doing file conversions adds steps to your pipeline for each job. As a one man shop, you get to decide the cost/benefit of sticking with open source (which includes a learning curve for the commercial software you aren’t up to speed on.) As your business grows, that cost/benefit may start leaning toward commercial software as you add people and your volume picks up. This isn’t a deal breaker or maker, just something to be aware of.

I think the CMYK issue is the biggest one you face. If Krita can do CMYK color separations for GIMP produced files, or one of the plug-ins can produce them, then you’re over that hurdle.

Perhaps you want to add Scribus into your Open Source software mix to cover anything prepress related. From what I hear (never tried it myself - went the Adobe route), the PDF/X files created by Scribus are top notch and pass pre-flight without issues.

Well, i believe it is encompassing everything you seek for in a single environment (comparative to AdobeCC). But do check for yourself. They also sell perpetual license per version with cheap upgrades and has fast turnaround even if one only supply small services.
Do check CorelDraw “what’s included”.

I know about it because broader family and majority of graphic production studios are using it.
Small scale businesses & services:

  • engravings (medals, cups, plates, signs, tombstones…)
  • plotting & cutting for stickers & signs
  • embroidery & sawing
  • vector graphics & print
  • web design

… to complete other needs i do use Open Source apps, but some are still too time consuming & not worthwhile in professional env.

English is not my native language, so do ask if smthng still dubious.

This guy does professional prints with krita.

have a read of this article he wrote - https://krita.org/item/meet-danas-anis/

Thanks, I recieved some help from David Revoy, one of the other famous Krita guys. He’s kindly explained a few things that may help me going forward.

Just remember that spot colors can be represented visually but then you can reference a Pantone number for the printer to use when putting that plate down to get the exact match the customer wants. You can even look up pantone colors online to get the components to approximate in your vector work. Any spot color used in a gradient won’t stay a spot color, they end up converting to process anyway.

Vector wise, you are really looking at whether the customer provides you with a file that you need to read or if you need to create a vector. Getting a file in .ai might mean you need something to read it in with to convert to svg, or you can request an svg export from them if they have it. Here are some options for that.

I have used Blender’s curve tools in conjuction with illustrator at work since some things I prefer to trace out manually in Blender and then render shadeless to autotrace in illustrator. This is because the mac I have at work cannot be updated because of our IT Server protocols, and I cannot get inkscape to work on it. I make lots of assets in blender, though, and bring them into illustrator for package design.