There are two very interesting free online applications I started using in their infancy (that is when they were still beta). I really liked the results I got and I planned to write about both of them. Unfortunately, both of them became non-free when their creators realised they could be making money out of it.
The first application was VectorMagic. In short, a great online tool for vectorizing images, yielding excellent results in most cases, especially with complex shapes and multiple colours. Used it, loved it – until it suddenly became non-free.
This is particularly nasty case – free for a long time, published at first at Stanford website, no mentions of any possibility of the application ever going to the market. Then one day, bam, out of the blue it changes website, becomes regular pay-for-use service and starts charging (not just a nickel) its users. Had I seen this coming, I would have scanned some of my art in advance, really. Going from “hey, we’re educational institution and we have this cool free tool for you to use” to “it’s a state-of-the-art professional software, so cough up buddy” was like a slap in the face. Steven Clark wrote a very thorough and detailed justification why he thinks it was a bad decision, so I don’t have anything to add here. I wouldn’t have put it better in word myself. Tsk, tsk. Shame on you, folks.
The second application was Aviary – a promising internet suite of different graphical (and in future perhaps more than that) tools realised in Flex technology. While in the beginnning it was free for beta-users, now it became a commercial service. At least they didn’t promise to be free forever.
Out of these two, I think Aviary has better chances of success, because the folks behind it seem to rely more on community and a wealth of functions than single pay-per-use feature. Restricting access to anything but Phoenix editor and placing watermarks for someone who decides not to pay, however, doesn’t sound like fun, especially since there are many free online alternatives to what really boils down to a little more funky image editor. Maybe the community part will make up for it, I am not sure.
Don’t get me wrong – I am all for authors getting paid for their hard work, but I also am fan of freebies, cheap alternatives and solutions that go beyond “pay or be gone” schema. Additionally, in both cases I felt that the amount of money one would have to pay for functionality at hand is a little too much for a home user – especially when it attacks me out of nowhere (I’m looking at you, VectorMagic).
So there you have it. Two cool applications, but unfortunately not free. Two disappointments for students, users from poorer countries, people that don’t have credit cards, and those still infected with “Linux mentality”. Two approaches – one slightly better than the other, but still not fully satisfying. I thought they were both interesting enough to warrant a mention on Barts News nevertheless, but when it comes to me, I think I’ll stick to trustworthy combination of Gimp, Inkscape and Blender.
Posted by barts706 
