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A bit of an unusual article this one as it doesn’t actually contain any glass painting. Instead we look at 3 pieces of software for glass painters. None of them are specifically for glass painting but each is useful in it’s own way. Perhaps more importantly than that they are all free to use, well 2 are completely free and one is free for personal use.
I use all 3 of these pieces of software. In fact the first one, GIMP I use most days, not only for my glass painting designs but for papercraft work, photography and my watercolour painting as well.
Please Note:
The links we have given in this article are to each piece of software’s official site. Never download software via 3rd parties when you can possible avoid it. Ensure you download the correct version of the software for your opperating system and computer.
As normal, we are in mo way responsible for the content of other web sites.
3 Pieces of Software for Glass Painters.
GIMP.(GNU Image Manipulation Program).
GIMP is a fantastic program and I can hardly believe it is totally free. It’s been around for over 20 years, it is well supported and continually updated. It easily rivals all other graphics programs out there including the really expensive ones. Some people may be put off by how complicated/powerful it is but if you stick to the basic tools, at least to start with, you shouldn’t have too many issues. (There are odd quirks, like to save an image in anything other than it’s native format you need to “export” it). There are all the common items you find in a graphics program, a paint brush, rubber (eraser), selection tools etc. If you want to really dive into it there is much much more to it and, if that isn’t enough, there are 1,000 of plugins available to make it do even more!
I really couldn’t do without this program. It is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS and more.
XnViewMP.
This isn’t the sort of program where you shout “Wow isn’t that fantastic” but after a few weeks of using it you will wonder how you managed without it. It’s great for sorting and keeping track of you designs and images (in fact it can handle over 500 file types but we won’t go into that. You can read about it on their website). It can label images allowing you to put them into categories (other than the folders), you can rate them and even do basic image manipulation on them. It also has a “batch mode” if you want to convert multiple files.
I find it a very useful program to help me keep track of all my images. Remember it’s only free for personal use. Other than that you will need to buy a license. Once again it is available for Windows, Linus and MacOS.
Knotter.
I really like this little program. I do find it a bit difficult to get it to do exactly as I want and some of the designs I have produced with it have happen be chance rather than design. To be honest I think I just need to spend a little more time on it and work out exactly what each button does!
It’s use to produce Celtic Knot work. You have (or should have) complete control over it’s size, the number of “nodes”, the colours, thickness of lines and much more. The best I can suggest is to download it and have a play. It’s quite fascinating to see what you can come up with!
I hope you find this article useful. I’ve done it partly in response to people asking what software I use and partly because having the right tools for the job can make our “work” a little easier.
Happy Crafting.
Bob
Hi, Can I recommend a free online bit of magic called Rapid Resizer (https://www.rapidresizer.com/)? The most brilliant part of this is the stencil maker which will take any picture and turn it in to a line drawing which you can play with to get the best outline for your project. You can then either print it or, as I do, download it as a .png file. For me, it’s been invaluable.
Thanks