There are many well-known commercial software on the market that are not cheap. For example, the monthly subscription fee for Adobe’s full range of software is as high as NT$1,680. For students, newcomers to society, or petty bourgeoisie, it is not so easy to afford. In fact, if you do not specify a certain software to use, many have good free alternatives. This article will help you sort out a few commonly used ones, and those who need it can try it.
（Photo by Timothy Exodus on Unsplash）
Comprehensive list of alternatives to Adobe, Office series and other good “free software”
This article also reminds me that there are some free software alternatives that do not provide Chinese interfaces, so people who are not good at foreign languages may need to spend some time getting familiar with them.
In addition, because there are a lot of them, I won’t introduce them in detail. I only attach the software name and download link. Those who want to know more about it can go to the official website to check it out.
Adobe Photoshop
- GIMP: Available for Windows, macOS and Linux, supporting RAW and PSD format files. (Official website link）
- Pixlr X: An HTML 5 web-based image editing tool that can be used by opening the browser without downloading. (Official website link）
- Krita: Available for Windows, macOS and Linux, with hundreds of built-in brush styles and layer management. (Official website link）
Adobe Illustrator
- Inkscape: Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, it uses open source code, which means that if you have some technical background, you can add new features yourself. (Official website link）
- Boxy SVG: A web-based tool with basic drawing functions and a Chrome extension plug-in for users to quickly activate. (Official website link）
- Vecteezy: It is also a web-based tool. After creating an account, you can save the projects you are currently working on. (Official website link）
- Vectr: A web-based tool that does not have many advanced features and is suitable for beginners. (Official website link）
Adobe InDesign
- Scribus: This is arguably the best free alternative to InDesign, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is open source. (Official website link）
Adobe Premiere
- Kdenlive: An open source free alternative to Premiere, available in Windows and Linux versions, with built-in multi-track editing, support for most music and video formats, subtitle tools, special effects, transition animations, and more. (Official website link）
- DaVinci Resolve: Some of you may have heard of this set. DaVinci editing and post-production software covers everything from video editing, color adjustment, visual effects, to sound tools. It is available in Windows, macOS and Linux versions. (Official website link）
- Olive Video Editor: Available in Windows, macOS and Linux versions, it is also an open source code, but it has not been updated for a while, so the functions may not be as complete. (Official website link）
3D modeling software such as Maya, 3ds Max, SketchUp, etc.
- Blender: A set of functions that are as good as paid professional 3D modeling software. It is available in Windows, macOS and Linux versions. It adopts open source code and supports modeling, animation, skeleton, rendering, video editing, motion tracking and other functions. (Official website link）
- Wings 3D: Only provides 3D modeling functions. It is also an open source code and available in Windows, macOS and Linux versions. (Official website link）
- Bforartists: A well-known free and open source 3D modeling software that provides complete functions and supports Python scripts. It is available in Windows, macOS and Linux versions. (Official website link）
Microsoft Office document software
- LibreOffice: Available for Windows, macOS and Linux (Official website link）
- Apache OpenOffice: Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux (Official website link）
- ONLYOFFICE: Available in Windows, macOS, and Linux (Official website link）
Other good free software recommendations
- Install a variety of well-known free software with one click:Ninite（Introduction）
- Video playback:VLC Media Player
- Application and file finder launcher:Launchy（Introduction）
- Unzip software:7-Zip
- PDF Tools:PDFCreator
- Audio editing tools:Audacity
- Apps and Junk Removal Tools:Revo Uninstaller（Introduction）
- Picture browsing:nomacs
- screenshot:ShareX（Introduction）
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Source: KOCPC Chinese