I just realized that I have mentioned Inkscape a couple of times fairly recently without actually discussing what it was. There are a couple of different ways of making digital images that I have run into. One is called a Raster Editor where one actually changes individual pixels. Microsoft Paint is one of these as is the GIMP which is my editor of choice. Paint.net is another. These are commonly used for doing photo editing or digital painting or drawing. I’m actually in the process of colouring a strip for the Wondermark Colouring Contest Redux and I’m using the GIMP.
Inkscape is different. It’s used to create things called Vector Graphics. Vector graphics are used for things like logos that need to maintain all their detail when scaled up large or down to something small. When a raster image is scaled up or down a lot of information can be lost and/or the image starts to look blocky. Vectors scale really nicely but tend to be simpler. I made this image for my brother-in-law a while ago using Inkscape:
I also used it to make the upcoming sermon series logo (though I did things like the shadows in the GIMP after the fact):
The most convenient part of vector graphics for me is that they’re really easy to edit after the fact. All the individual elements of the castle up there can me moved and/or coloured independently of each other and have the sizes changed easily without loss of detail. Thinking back on it I probably could have done the shadows in Inkscape as well which I am likely to do next time I do one. I’m intending to do a run down of the process of Idea->Finished product for The Upside Down Kingdom later this coming week.
The other free thing I wanted to share was a live BNL concert that was recorded shortly after Stephen Page left the band. It was available as a download for free for a little while but is now posted on their live page and can be purchased for $7.99. It’s also available to stream and I’ve embedded it below. They do a really good job as a quartet. The inter-song banter is pretty amusing, too.