Free Graphic Design Programs

I recently met a woman, graphic designer by education, daycare provider currently. She is making pennies now but has not much luck getting hired as a graphic designer, even though that is her true calling. I asked her why she simply didn't open up her own graphic design business; she said she would love to; she simply couldn't afford the really expensive graphic design programs- Photoshop, Illustrator, and Publisher.

It was a shame that she hadn't known earlier that there are free, open source alternatives for all of these.
Open source means that instead of one company having a monopoly and making  a program and selling it for hundreds, the software is written via team effort of people around the world. These open source software programs are available completely for free on the internet.
Gimp is a completely free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It is what I used to try to make my own graphics for my new layout for this site.
Inkscape is a vector image program, an alternative to Illustrator. It is what I used to tweak the banner I ended up getting from my graphic design friend.
I haven't yet tried Scribus, but I've heard great things about it as a layout editor, an alternative to Publisher.

Tutorials are available for all online. With a little time and energy, you can even learn graphic design completely on your own.
Gimp Tutorial
Inkscape Tutorial
Scribus Tutorial

Have you ever used any of these free open source programs?

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