Bits-n-Bytes Junction

Sue Wood

Well fancy a play with a free Photoshop look-a-like? If you can’t afford Photoshop or Elements, you might like to have a play with Artweaver, a completely free program with a layout and features very similar to Photoshop. It isn’t as fully featured as Photoshop, but comes very close. I would think with all the add-ins that are available for download that it is very nearly as good as free programs get. The Ginp mentioned, in last year's June issue, this is a great free program with lots of downloadable add-ins and brushes, but it was standing alone with its own ‘speak’ and desktop. Artweaver is set up so like Photoshop that it is hard at first glance to tell it isn’t Photoshop when opened up.

It has numerous brushes that you can alter the size and the texture and pattern. It supports layers, all the usual scrapping formats such as png, jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp and even psd.

These are very much like a cross between Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro as it has what it calls hose or in effect tubes. Custom shapes, color sets and gradients make it all feel very comfortable to those who are familiar with Photoshop. There are also a number of filters similar to those in Photoshop, although not as comprehensive. There are add-ons or plug ins available to extend this choice. You can alter almost all of the textures for the backgrounds, the brushes and tubes and use a thick paint or impasto that is useful for paint stroke textures.

 This is just a small taste of what Artweaver can do and of course it is free. Available from here Artweaver :: the artist way. Hope you have fun trying this out.