Freebyte’s Guide to Free Graphics Software offers an extensive collection of links to sites where free graphics-related software is available. This is free software for download and installation on your computer. (The site does not link to online applications.) The majority of programs listed run in Windows, but there are some for Mac and Linux.

The list of programs is organized helpfully by category, as illustrated in the screenshots below. The quality of the listed titles I am already familiar with is generally high, so I expect it will be worthwhile to explore more of the software listed here.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

The free Productivity utility I’m highlighting today has been around since 2002, but it is still extremely valuable for anyone who needs to create and use screen captures.

MW Snap (downloadable program) This small and completely free program is simple and easy to use, but it is versatile and effective screen capture software. If you have any reason to create a screen shot–for a presentation, as an illustration in a document or on a blog, to create a tutorial, or just so you can show someone else a pesky error message–MWSnap will do it for you.

It’s a snap to take a “snap shot” of your computer’s entire desktop, an active window, a menu, or any other region of your computer screen that you choose. The user interface is intuitive and designed for ease of use. (See screen shot below.) Hotkeys facilitate the use of convenient keyboard commands. The program comes with a useful set of Help files, and it is currently available in 18 languages.

MW Snap also offers some helpful ways of working with your screen captures. You can flip or rotate images with the “Transform” tool. You can add frames, or even use the screen shot to create a button for a web page with the “Buttonize” tool. The “Cursor” tool enables you to add cursors to draw attention to specific places on the screen shot. Other tools include a color picker, a ruler tool, a zoom tool, and a tool to give you detailed info about your selected window. With MW Snap, screen captures can be saved as BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG or GIF files.

The program can be downloaded from the website of its developer, Mirek Wójtowicz’s: http://www.mirwoj.opus.chelm.pl/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

MW Snap runs only in Windows.

Screenshots: (Click to enlarge, and use browser’s “back” arrow to return to blog.)

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

Here is a clipart resource that stands head and shoulders above most clipart sites on the web. This one deserves to be bookmarked! It is currently at the very bottom of my Productivity page, but in terms of value it rates much higher.

WP Clipart (downloadable and online resource) This is a clipart site with some significant differences, and it offers the user considerable flexibility. You have the usual option of browsing online and then downloading an image. Or, you can download the entire collection, along with a very handy viewer, and have the whole collection available on your hard drive. WP Clipart contains an extensive collection, with more than 12,000 images, and the collection is updated regularly. Because all the images are in the public domain, they are truly free and may be used for any purpose, even for commercial purposes. All images have been optimized for use in word processors and for printing on inkjet printers. The collection has also been carefully designed for effective searching. Paul Sherman deserves kudos for maintaining a very practical site of exceptional quality. To download the collection, or to access it online, go to http://www.pcbypaul.com/wpclipart/index.html

The Clipart Viewer operates in Windows and Linux.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

If you do any desktop publishing at all, you absolutely have to have some decent clipart available in order to add pizzaz and flair. (You’ll notice, of course, that I’ve included a great variety of graphics on this blog!) With the site I’m listing here, along with Stock.xchng Photos that I highlighted earlier, I guess I really have no excuse.

Free Educational Clipart from TeacherFiles.com (Online Resource) There are many websites that offer free clipart. Although the collection of clipart here is not huge, this website is a significant cut above the average clipart site. The authors of this site have created and made available some of their own clipart, and they have also combed the web to find and catalogue some of what they consider to be the best that is available from other websites. All the clipart offered here is appropriate for a classroom setting.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.The website highlighted here offers a tremendous online resource that can enhance productivity when you download and use the free photos as clipart in your work. It also provides a forum for sharing creative expression.

Stock.xchng Photos (online resource) This site is offered by a community of photographers who have developed a forum for sharing their work. In the process, they have created an online gallery of over 180,000 photos that are available to be downloaded free of charge, as long as the downloader doesn’t try to sell the photo that is downloaded. Many of the photographs are of exceptional quality. New photographers are welcome to join the community.

Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

Here is an online resource that I’ve put on the productivity page. It could just as well have gone on conent and curriculum because it is a wonderful resource for the art curriculum.

Open Clipart (online resource) Open Clipart is an online community whose aim is “…to create an archive of user contributed clip art that can be freely used”. The library of free downloadable clipart that is available here is extensive. This is also a community that welcomes budding graphic artists and offers a forum for sharing their art.