COMPUTER software subscriptions can cost a fortune each year.
But you don’t always need to pay for powerful programs.
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We asked Jennifer Bruton, director at tech security experts Bores.com, for the best safe and free alternatives . . .
WRITE ON: Many use the Microsoft 365 suite for writing documents, at an annual cost of £84.99 per year, but there is a free alternative.
Jennifer says: “Hands down, the best alternative to Microsoft Office applications is LibreOffice (libreoffice.org).
“It’s free, and open source, as a successor to a project called OpenOffice.”
This suite enables you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations fully compatible with Microsoft file formats.
PHOTO EDITS: Adobe Photoshop costs £262.51 annually but Jennifer suggests: “You can try Gimp (gimp.org) and Krita (krita.org), two open-source graphic editors which are well respected and have comparable capabilities to Photoshop.”
Gimp is used for photo manipulation and retouching, while Krita is favoured by digital artists for its paint tools.
For something quite similar to Adobe InDesign, Jennifer suggests Scribus (scribus.net).
She says: “It’s a great tool for desktop publishing, and again free and open source.”
PROBLEM PDFs: Jennifer says: “The hardest program to replace is Adobe Acrobat.
“There isn’t really a good open- source equivalent to edit PDFs, for various reasons including the format not being designed for it.”
But her workaround is simple.
She says: “The best bet is to edit your existing documents, and generate a new PDF.”
This means making changes in the original file, such as a Word document or a Scribus layout, and then using the “Export to PDF” function.
SAFETY FIRST: Downloading free software requires caution.
Jennifer says: “If downloading from the official website directly it’s pretty safe, but at Bores.com, we do not recommend downloading from a third-party site as you have no way to tell if the software has been altered.”
- All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability
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