The major developers might not agree with us but the rise of open source equivalents to large, expensive packages has arguably been the most exciting development in the software industry in the last few years. The GIMP and Mozilla Thunderbird are two leading lights of the open source phenomenon and have collectively saved users millions as alternatives to their big-budget rivals.

Artweaver certainly has the credentials to take on the big players and comes stacked with an ample range of brushes, which can be tweaked and customized easily to suit your designs. Just like its more illustrious rivals, the brush selection can be beefed up through plug-ins, although the range of available brushes is pitiful compared with those you can download for Adobe Illustrator. Nevertheless, it's promising to see freeware products embracing extendability in this way.

Other welcome features include a mighty effects selection, layers and transparency functionality, plus support for a range of file formats. You can also add text layers, making it great for creating logos or promotional material. However, it's when you put pen to paper that Artweaver stumbles somewhat. The fact is that the app renders certain brush strokes much slower than its major rivals, and unless you're packing heat processor-wise you're likely to be frustrated by the lag time waiting for the strokes to appear on the page. For such a polished program otherwise, this drawback threatens to stifle its attempts to win over the graphic design market. This said, for a pre-release version ArtWeaver is an impressive piece of kit.

Download Artweaver 0.5.3 in Softonic

PTLens is an excellent application to correct or add distortion to your pictures.

You'll be able to apply a fish eye effect, modify perspective, chromatic aberation and vignetting. PTLens also lets you correct barrel-pincushion distortion on a wide range of camera models. It doesn't seem to allow you to add new models though. Adding effects is really easy thanks to sliders and you can immediately see the changes in the preview. You can also simply disable an effect you don't want by unselecting it.

The program's interface does feel a little clunky, and you wonder why the directory is on the right, instead of next to the preview. We appreciate that a Photoshop plugin for PTLens comes in the installer though, as many photographers prefer working straight in Photoshop. The plugin will work exactly as the standalone application.

Despite the slightly unintuitive interface, PTLens is an excellent tool for correcting image distortion. Recommended for any serious photographer!

Download PTLens 8.7.4 in Softonic

The Gimp is the open source reference in image manipulation. This free application will allow you to retouch, author and edit your photos thanks to a wide set of tools.

Let’s quickly go through what you can do with the Gimp. The painting function has the essential clone, airbrush or pencil tools and a powerful gradient and blend tool. You can also create and save your own brushes and patterns for later use. The program lets you manipulate your photos, adding layers, doing Bezier and polygonal selections or setting text. Load and save animations in a frame-as-layer format and batch process all your photos for quick editing. The multi-windowed interface can be moved around to fit your needs and resized according to your desktop space.

What’s more, the Gimp can be expanded with over 100 different plug-ins and extensions available on the Gimp’s website. These apply in majority for layer effects such as render, distort or blur and make a great addition to the ones already present in the program.

While the Gimp is user friendly, the installation process can result a bit hairy. Because the application works under the GTK Runtime Environment, you will have to install this kit to successfully launch the program. The process is fairly lengthy and some error messages tend to pop up, however if you persist, you will be able to install the Gimp properly on your PC

Despite this fairly hazardous installation process, the Gimp is a program we recommend. Whether you’re out of dough or are looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, the Gimp is excellent image manipulation software with all the tools you’d expect. The friendly interface and expandability make this a program of choice.

Download The GIMP 2.4.7 in Softonic

This cool kit is out of your imagination. You can not only use it to paint pictures, but also handle your digital photos, even use it to teach digital painting and image processing skills. Wizardbrush's new layer feature is a great improvement. Since you can compose a picture with several independent layers, you'll work just as effectively as the professional.

Wizardbrush comes with many painting tools, including pencil, Magic Wand, paint brush, and Chinese brush. It gives you the power to undo and redo, so do not be afraid of making mistakes. Wizardbrush contains a great number of tutorial record clips. You can easily learn how to draw pictures of different styles. If you are a teacher, you can make tutorial record clips conveniently.

Download Wizardbrush 6.7.4.7 in Softonic

If you like art in general and impressionism in particular you can't miss the Paul Cezanne Painting Screensaver.

Paul Cezanne Painting Screensaver includes more than a hundred paintings created by the famous French painter. The selected works belong to his several different periods, showing his artistic growth and his transition between impressionism and cubism.

Some of the paintings included in Paul Cezanne Painting Screensaver are A Modern Olympia, Pyramid of Skulls, The Large Bathe, Card players, House and Farm at Jas de Bouffan, The Blue Vase and others. It's quite a good selection, though the screensaver doesn't allow you to remove transition effects.

Paul Cezanne Painting Screensaver features more than a hundred paintings by Cezanne which you can enjoy on your PC when idle.

Download Paul Cezanne Painting Screensaver 1.1.0 in Softonic

If you fancy designing a new website for yourself, then turn back now, Twisted Brush has not been developed to give clean crisp graphics, and will frustrate you unless you use it for what it was designed for, art. Having established that this is a program for drawing, it follows that the most natural way to sketch anything and in turn to use this software effectively is with a pen and a drawing tablet.

When the program starts, you’re assaulted by the quick-start guide that is designed to gently introduce you to the features. In reality it’s a bunch of screenshots crammed with info bubbles that contain un-detailed information and no links to find out more. That said, how many people stop to read welcome screens anyway?

A lot of effort was put into making TwistedBrush a realistic substitute for actual painting and when you start working with the various brushes you see just how well they interact with the colors to create a convincing portrait. Undoubtedly the greatest strength of this program is the vast selection of brush types and styles that are available to use. From simple fine pens, to wet oil brushes, to progressive 3D designs, you’ll find them all. The beauty of each brush is that they can be used quickly and easily, with stunning effects.

You will also find support for all the major image file formats, including TIFF, PSD, JPG, GIF, and PNG and there is an option to create a script, either to record the steps taken in the painting process, to insert a message, or to insert random dabs of paint, something that doesn’t quite seem to add to the functionality (although any Dadaists out there may disagree about that).

While getting to grips with the program, it seemed that there was one feature that had been unforgettably forgotten, the select tool. After using Photoshop for so long, this seems like a key tool in any imaging software that the TwistedBrush developers have overlooked. Alternatively it could be the very omission of the select tool that sets this program apart with the production process being more of an evolution rather than a construction.

TwistedBrush is a quality painting application that, judging from its interface and features, is aimed at anyone with a drawing tablet. There are tons of great brushes to experiment with but for anyone relying on the lowly mouse and the lack of a selection tool, it may become very frustrating, very quickly.

Download TwistedBrush Pro Studio 15.51 in Softonic

This very basic image editing tool can be used to remove any scratches on your old photographs but that is just about all you can do. In this sense, it is a very specialized program and as a result won’t appeal to many users.

Retouch Pilot’s major advantage is its simplicity. While a lot of people will be frustrated by the lack of functionality, those who are wary of complicated procedures and difficult to use tools will appreciate the minimal approach. Simply open the file you want to clean up, select the scratch tool, (there is only one other tool, the “Undo Brush”) and carefully trace over or click the parts of the image that need to be fixed.

In terms of effectiveness, the program can do an excellent job on obvious flaws when they contrast highly with the surrounding colors, especially when working on monotone photographs. However, for highly detailed images or not so obvious discrepancies, the program stumbles and the desired result is not so straightforward to achieve.

The interface is uncomplicated and there is an extensive undo history although this may be somewhat unnecessary with the availability of the Undo Brush. For someone who has a collection of old, slightly damaged photographs that they would like to scan and clean up a little bit, this is a convenient solution. However, for anyone who is serious about getting great results and having complete control, they should check out Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Download Retouch Pilot 3.0.2 in Softonic

If you haven't been introduced to the official mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, here's your chance.

Unusually, the Chinese have decided to go for several mascots instead of one known as "Fuya". Each of the 5 mascots (to symbolize the 5 Olympic rings) mascot is pictured in a different pose, outfit and colour. Fuwa also apparently embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals - the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow - and the Olympic Flame. The macots are Beibei (gentle and pure), Jingjing (makes children smile), Huanhuan (symbolising fire and the passion of sport), Yingying (swift as an antelope symbolizing China's landscape) and Nini (joyful and innocent as a swallow).

In this Beijing Olympics mascot themed screensaver you've got Jingjing who's supposed to be the cuddly fun one of them all. The lotus designs in Jingjing's headdress, which are inspired by the porcelain paintings of the Song Dynasty (A.D.960-1234), symbolize the lush forest and the harmonious relationship between man and nature. Jingjing was chosen to represent our desire to protect nature's gifts -- and to preserve the beauty of nature for all generations.

Get into the Olympic mood as these fun mascots jump out and grab you in celebrating the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Download Beijing Olympics Wallpaper 2 Jingjing in Softonic

If you're looking for a paint program which both you and your children can enjoy, then you should take a look at Infinity Brush.

It's an easy to use but feature-packed paint program that aims to get you painting with the mouse in no time. It's actually similar to MS Paint but much more advanced with lots more templates and features. Once you've opened the main canvas, simply select a tool on the left such as an airbrush or pencil and hold the left mouse button down to drag and draw.

One unique feature of this particular paint program is that any image or copied shape can be used as a paint brush instead of the boring old cursor. In addition, images can be resized instantly which makes it handy for making thumbnails or avatars. You can apply several special effects too such as mirroring, warping, stretching and rotation. You can even make images transparent and then place them on the canvas so your kids can color them in. If you've got dual monitors, or even just one to work on, there's also a "Swap Screen" option which allows you to work on two images at the same time - a fun way to practice drawing with young ones.

If you're looking for something a bit more fun than MS Paint or a drawing program the whole family can enjoy, then Infinity Brush is a reasonable option.

Download Infinity Brush 5.7 in Softonic

If your kids are crayoning all over your furniture and walls then get them switched onto Magic Whiteboard where they can doodle away for hours without causing any damage to house and home.

Drawing is apparently one of the best way for kids to develop their ability to reason and coordinate along with playing with toys and other creative pursuits. Magic Whiteboard is exactly what you'd expect it to be - a whiteboard which kids can use over and over again to paint, draw and doodle with several different colours. However, this is no ordinary whiteboard because it is designed not only for individual use, but also for collective drawing in a home network with up to 5 computers. This makes it ideal for parents or teachers who want to help their kids draw.

In fact, the program allows a remote user to take the character of a cartoon character who helps them draw. This means you can sit in another room and see what your kid is drawing while you help them from a distance. Once the masterpiece is complete, you can output the image in BMP, JPEG, or GIF formats which is rather limited although it's doubtful that anyone who uses this would need any other particular format.

An unusual and innovative whiteboard that can be as much fun for parents as it is for their children.

Download Magic Whiteboard 2.3 in Softonic

Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for young children (kids ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide children as they use the program. It provides a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help your child be creative.

Download Tux Paint 0.9.20 in Softonic

RGB MusicLab is probably the most strange – or should I say original – music software tool you've ever seen.

Instead of letting you compose music by using your computer keyboard as a music keyboard or writing notes right on the tablature, like you may have seen in other music composition apps, RGB MusicLab creates music automatically from any image you load on the program.

Yes, that's what you read: music out of images. RGB MusicLabs reads any photo you load on it, turns it into a mosaic and creates the music all by itself based on the color, brightness, saturation and other elements from the picture. Being an automatic composition there's not much you can do to change it (and sometimes you do feel like changing it because it sounds really bad). Luckily there are some settings you can tweak, such as the number of tiles in the mosaic, the length of notes and the kind of instrument, which can help you improve your musical piece of art.

RGB MusicLab provides you with a whole new way to create music, where you don't have that much control over the creating process but which proves to be really original.

Download RGB MusicLab 22 in Softonic

I may be good at Photoshop but when it comes to 3D design I'm completely hopeless. This is why I was excited to find a program like 3DVIA Shape, with which I can create basic three-dimensional objects in no time.

Using 3DVIA Shape is a cinch. In fact, I'd say it's even easier than Photoshop and of course, much easier than other 3D tools you may have tested so far. This app could be defined as the "Paint" equivalent for 3D design; that is, a basic, simple-to-use graphic editor with which you can safely take your first steps into 3D creation.

The program includes a tutorial that launches automatically when you run it for the first time and which I strongly recommend you to follow, because it teaches you all the basics of the program in just a dozen steps. After completing the tutorial, you'll be ready to start creating your own three-dimensional figures. Of course they're going to be basic designs combining cubes, spheres and a few lines but hey, that's a start!

One thing I didn't like about 3DVIA Shape is the fact that you must create a free user account to use the program - whether you like it or not - and that you can't save your files to your hard drive, you have to publish them to your account on the 3DVIA website. The trick is, once you've published your 3D model to your account, you can visit your profile and download it as a 3DXML file.

if you want to take your first steps in 3D design but have no idea where to start, try 3DVIA Shape: a basic, easy-to-use 3D editor for beginners which also lets you share your creations online.

Download 3DVIA Shape Beta in Softonic

Vincent Van Gogh Painting Screensaver displays 118 oil paintings of Vincent van Gogh. Vincent Van Gogh is deemed by society to be one of our greatest and most successful artists.

All of the oil paintings in the screensaver are taken from the real masterpieces rather than from art reproductions. PaintingAll Art Gallery Van Gogh Art Screensaver will remind you about the famous oil paintings of Van Gogh like the Starry Night, The Sunflowers and Irises. Just put it on your screen and get the power of art from the picturesque masterpieces!

Download PaintingAll Vincent Van Gogh Screensaver 1.0.1 in Softonic

Photoshop is the World’s leader in digital imaging software. It has been the industry standard design application for years, and with each new iteration it pulls further ahead of its competitors thanks to its huge user base and professional experience.

When digital photography was in its infancy and image editing wasn’t high on many agendas, Photoshop didn’t stand out much from the alternatives such as Paint Shop Pro. More recently, however, the Adobe team has taken the ascendancy, and since version 7, Photoshop has been all about fulfilling users’ requests and prayers for a top quality graphics package. CS3 can be regarded as version 10 and adds more to the mix for photographers, designers, and video editors.

Having nailed the interface in previous versions, CS3 keeps to the same winning formula, meaning that anyone who has used Photoshop before will immediately feel comfortable. Changes come in the form of Adobe Bridge, a replacement for the file browser, more photography filters and the star of the show, the “Vanishing Point”. This filter lets you edit, clone, and retouch images while keeping the perspective; great!

Without going in to too much detail, Photoshop is a program for professionals and as such has a steep learning curve. Anyone who is willing to devote the required time to learn the basics will definitely be rewarded with a much higher degree of control over their images and will also find it easy to tap in to all the great resources throughout the web, be it in the form of tutorials or plug-ins, that will extend the functionality further. The flexibility of the program lets you customize the interface, the brushes, the fill patterns, tool presets, filters, and practically anything else you may find within the software.

With all the power that you get, it’s testament to the Photoshop team that it runs so smoothly on any modern PC, although if you start getting heavy with layers or high resolutions, there will be a noticeable hit to your system’s resources. As you become more accustomed to the operation of the program, you will pick up more efficient habits such as the multitude of keyboard shortcuts. Each one is customizable, and there are key combos for every operation to save you from time spent trawling through menus and toolbars.

Adobe’s Photoshop CS3 is another giant leap forward for digital imaging software and it remains a long way ahead of the chasing pack. It may overwhelm beginners with the sheer quantity of tools and options, but ultimately it will reward anyone that doesn’t mind putting in the ground work to learn the basics. Highly recommended for everyone with time, money and an interest in imaging, particularly photographers and designers.

Download Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended in Softonic

GIF images are most commonly used in banners, buttons and sometimes movies because of their high resolution and sharp on screen quality.

However, they can be notoriously difficult to work with due to their file size and other factors which make them harder to manipulate than something like GIF's. This is especially true when it comes to animation. That's where Advanced GIF animator steps in - a remarkably powerful application which allows you to work easily with GIF images. The program allows you to create high resolution GIF 89a images, manage GIF image frames, create finite and infinite animation loops, set and change frame interchange frequency and convert GIF images from or to Windows bitmap files (*.bmp). This is a tool simple enough for beginners but also with enough power to attract more experienced users and designers. It can be used as a stand alone application or to supplement dedicated design programs such as Windows Paint, PaintShop Pro or Adobe Photoshop. The ultimate aim of the program is to allow anyone to create studio quality animations with very little experience although despite being deceptively simple, it will take you longer to get to grips with than you think.

Breathe new life into your GIF's and animate them in a few clicks with Advanced GIF animator.

Download Advanced GIF Animator 3.0 in Softonic

Neat Image is a digital filter designed to reduce visible noise in digital photographic images. With this program you can easily make your digital images noise free (grain free). It works with images from any digital camera or scanner and gives you the complete control over noise filter settings.

Neat Image incorporates the most advanced noise reduction algorithms in the industry. It uses device noise profiles to make noise reduction custom-tailored to your imaging device. Depending on the edition, Neat Image works as a standalone application and/or a Photoshop plug-in. The plug-in works with Photoshop CS/7/6/5, Photoshop Elements 2/3, Paint Shop Pro 7/8/9, PhotoImpact 8/10/XL, Photopaint, Photoline, and Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

Download Neat Image 5.9 in Softonic

We've gotten used to the perfection of digital photography, but there was a time when photos had dust, scratches, stains and other imperfections that could easily ruin them.

Luckily you can now fix those imperfections with Retouch Pilot Lite, a really simple photo retouching tool that doesn't require any designing or editing skills and can therefore be used by anybody. This Lite version doesn't include the Smart Patch tool available in the trial, but other than that it's a perfectly working tool with which you can easily restore old photos.

That said, bear in mind that Retouch Pilot Lite works best with small flaws such as light scratches, spots and the likes. The more serious the defect is, the harder it'll be to fix it without leaving any trace. Also, I missed having a color picker when using the concealer; it was hard to choose the exact color to paint over certain artifacts in the photo to make them disappear.

Generally speaking, I found Retouch Pilot Lite to be a great retouching tool for newbies, and especially useful to remove small flaws from pictures without having to learn how to use Photoshop or any other mammoth-sized editor.

Retouch Pilot Lite is the perfect tool for a quick photo retouch to fix small spots. More serious imperfections definitely need more editing skills and a more professional tool as well.

Download Retouch Pilot Lite 3.0.4 in Softonic

EarthSculptor is a 3D modelling program that allows you to design the geology of a given place, real or imaginary, thanks to a powerful 3D engine that allows you to shape a defined piece of land. The way you navigate and build mountains on this land is really beautiful. Every movement, zoom in and out or rotation is extremely smooth and well rendered. You'll have to use both keyboard and mouse to fully navigate your creation.

You will probably need some time to learn how to color and apply textures to the forms you have created. As a start, to model hills and mountains, press the wave button with the up and down arrows you find in the toolbar menu on your left. To color them, just press the brush function and choose the tone you want in the palette frame on your right. Also on this side, you find the Terraform and Material controls.

Although EarthSculptor is tricky to learn for newcomers, you can have fun designing the project of your future garden or your ideal resort with this efficient 3D rendering engine.

Download EarthSculptor 1.05 in Softonic

Blender offers a complete range of tools to thoroughly develop 3D animations and design. Its revolutionary, non-overlapping and non-blocking UI delivers unsurpassed workflow. The powerful built-in database system allows instances, scene management, and dynamic linking multiple project files. Anti-aliased fonts feature international translation support.

The modeling aspects of the program are various. A range of 3D object types including polygon meshes, NURBS surfaces, bezier and B-spline curves, metaballs, vector fonts (TrueType, PostScript, OpenType) are available. 'Smooth proxy' style catmull-clark subdivision surfaces with optimal iso-lines display and sharpness editing and mesh modeling based on vertex, edge and/or face selection give you many possibilities. Editing functions such as extrude, bevel, cut, spin, screw, warp, subdivide, noise, smooth complete the modelling aspects.

Animation and rendering include armature (skeleton) deformation with forward/inverse kinematics, auto skinning and interactive 3D paint for vertex weighting. Oversampling, motion blur, post-production effects, fields, non-square pixels are just a few other of the choices you have.

Realtime 3D/game creation, a graphical editor defines interactive behavior without programming. Collision detection and dynamics simulation are included. The program features Python scripting API for sophisticated control and AI, fully defined advanced game logic. It supports all OpenGLTM lighting modes, including transparencies, animated and reflection-mapped textures.

You can save all scene data in a single .blend file. .blend format supports compression, digital signatures, encryption, forwards/backwards compatibility and can be used as a library to link to from other .blend files. The program reads and writes TGA, JPG, PNG, Iris, SGI Movie, IFF, AVI and Quicktime GIF, TIFF, PSD, MOV (Windows and Mac OS X). Native import and export for DXF, Inventor and VRML files, with python scripts are available for many other 3D formats. You can also create stand-alone executables containing interactive 3D content or play back with the 3D web browser plugin.

Download Blender 2.46 in Softonic