GIMP + Inkscape combo is awsome tools in graphic designing

For more than 3-4 years I was almost idle in graphic designing. Being a passionate art lover, I had done many personal stuff print based graphic designing. Occasionally I worked for some friends also. Those days I was an ardent fan of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker etc. before getting into the GNU circle of thoughts. When turned into Free and Open Source (FOSS) tools, I gave up such proprietary software for my personal use. Its a painful feeling when giving up something which you liked most, after you realize there was an evil associated with it. Just like you realize that your lover has a wrong relation with someone you hate. It will take a long time to cop up with the situation.
So was I. I did nothing for 3-4 years. I could not even think on working with GIMP / Inkscape / Scribus etc. Finally in the last days of 2011, I decided to do something and started my self-training with Inkscape. The very first project was a family calendar. Since 2006 onwards, I used to design our family calendar with marked up birthdays and wedding anniversaries of my family members. All were designed with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. On 2009 when I stopped using proprietary software, the calendar project also discontinued. And after a long time, now I am doing the same thing with Free and Open Source alternative software. Started the project in the mid December 2011, I had only few days left to print the final output before the new year.
The maximum paper size my printer supports is 308x446 mm (A3 Express). That's why I chose the calendar size 151x146 mm. So that I will get twelve months in both sides of an A3 express sheet. With this size I can easily get 6x8 mm space for the cutting marks.
Fortunately Inkscape has a default script for making the base calendar. In the top menu you can choose it from Extensions > Render > Calendar. So easy, so simple - Thus the main part of the project was done in the first 5 minutes. The next thing is cropping photographs and other images and files. I had already shot some photographs of my little daughter Maria with my Cannon Powershot A3100 IS digital camera. All the images were taken in Black and White mode, because I really like the preset B&W tone in this camera. The photos were cropped in 15.1x5.013. The time-consuming part was marking the birthdays and anniversaries. All of the ingredients ready, I started cooking.
Just before Christmas, I got the final prints and it was so cute. The prints were taken in 300 GSM normal paper with no lamination and then bound with loop wire binding. I took 12 copies. The cost was just Rs. 76/- ($1.5 aprox.) per calendar.
Post script: You may don't believe, within two days I mastered the software - Inkscape. Truly nice and intuitive graphic software I have ever experienced. GIMP also was far more easy than I expected. The entire design experience was so thrilling. It energized me to stay tuned with Free Software. Just watch some of the png files I have done with these GPL licensed free software, and if you are interested, upon request, I am happy to share the editable svg files too.

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : Flap

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : January

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : February

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : March

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : April

I shot the image of Maria which I placed in April calendar, only with a candle light; there were no other ambient light sources. I woke up her in the midnight from the sleep and took the photo. (My mom scolded me enough to do this midnight madness :-) waking up a little kid and shoot her photo in a candle light). Just notice how I removed the candle light from the center area of the image. If you are photoshop user, you would say "Its easy guy", so do I tell you, "in GIMP also its too easy dude"

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : May

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : June

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : July

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : August

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : September

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : October

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : November

Calendar designed with Inkscape and GIMP : December

External links

1. Inkscape official page
http://inkscape.org
2. Inkscape tutorials
http://inkscapetutorials.wordpress.com/suggest-a-tutorial
http://diwaneayyari.wordpress.com
http://diwan-e-ayyari.blogspot.in/2008/03/how-to-create-valentines-day-hearts.html
http://chrisdesign.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/creating-real-fire
http://troy-sobotka.blogspot.in/2008/04/inkscape-tutorial-2-text-and-simple.html

3. Portable inkscape download
http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/inkscape_portable

4. Other helpful links
http://openclipart.org
Inkscape vs. Illustrator

Manaveeyam Technologies launches Ubuntu powered Dell Laptops and Ubuntu Support

Kochi, India 29 February 2012: Ubuntu powered Dell Laptops with Manaveeyam’s advantage gives you an exciting laptop experience like never before. Laptops are now available to people and business from Manaveeyam Technologies at realistic prices. The range of laptops along with complete support delivers a fast, secure, compatible, accessible and sustainable computing. With over thousands of exciting applications, these laptops enable you to do more than what you do.

Current trends show a decrease in overall productivity due to vluable time being wasted on dealing with viruses and malware. Manaveeyam’s laptops are virus-resistant and lets the user work effectively without worrying about anti-virus solutions and formatting.

“Ubuntu’s founding principle is to remove the barriers of access to computing for everyone”, said Mark Shuttleworth, founder and product strategist at Canonical.

“The Ubuntu powered Dell laptop is a great-looking, easy-to-use, secured, virus-resistant, intuitive and helps you to stay connected and stay ahead of latest technology even on low resources. These laptops are great for social networking and email. Comes with the full featured office suite - LibreOffice, speedy and safe web browser - Firefox, with built-in-security. You can manage your photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, video conferencing, learn from tons of educational software and many more...”

Full feature Ubuntu powered Dell laptops

The essential laptop for every day use, Dell i3/4GB/320GB is packed with full options at affordable price. The latest i3 performance processor, high on RAM with 4GB, large on storage with 320GB HDD, on-demand intel graphics performance, virus-resistant, powered by full feature Ubuntu Desktop with built-in-security, high portability with 2.2kg/ 2.37kg and an IT department for you with 1-Year In-Home Warranty with CompleteCover. The 14.0”/ 15.6” screen starting at Rs. 29,000.

The Manaveeyam Advantage

 The manaveeyam support lets you take complete control of computing. We provide a comprehensive and flexible support package, migration and training to people and business on Ubuntu certified hardware. We let customers take advantage and experience the best and the latest in open-source technology which lets them stay connected and stay ahead.

About Canonical
Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the company behind the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu – an ever-popular and fast-growing open-source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organisation and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks. For more information, visit www.ubuntu.com.
Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open source development tools to ensure that organisations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open-source community. For more information, visit www.canonical.com.

About Dell India
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. Dell OEM Solutions helps its customers find more balance between execution and innovation with dedicated OEM resources, industry-standard hardware and global services and support capabilities. Dell helps its OEM customers improve their time to profit and run their operations more efficiently for increased competitive edge. For more information, visit www.dell.com.

About Manaveeyam Technologies
Technology powered by Values! Manaveeyam Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (MTPL) based in Kochi, India puts people first by delivering an affordable, sustainable, secured, easy-to-use green computing technology to people and business with creativity and innovations of the best of open-source community and companies. For more information, visit manaveeyam.in. Call: Sameer (+91-9995717112), Mathew (+91-8086733733), Sreekanth (+91-9895181906), Manoj (+91-9847446918), Thomas (7736780769)