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Technologies for teaching, learning and research

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InDesign

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Labs | Faculty/Staff | Download
Part of: Adobe Creative Suite
Comparable: Publisher, Scribus, iBooks Author

Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books. InDesign can also publish content suitable for tablet devices in conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Graphic designers and production artists are the principal users, creating and laying out periodical publications, posters, and print media. It also supports export to EPUB and SWF formats to create e-books and digital publications, including digital magazines, and content suitable for consumption on tablet computers. In addition, InDesign supports XML, style sheets and other coding markup, making it suitable for exporting tagged text content for use in other digital and online formats.

Tags: creative suite EPUB

Flash and Flash Studio

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability (Flash Studio): Labs | Faculty/Staff | Download
Part of: Adobe Creative Suite
Comparable: After Effects (animation)

Adobe Flash (formerly called Macromedia Flash and Shockwave Flash) is a multimedia and software platform used for creating vector graphics, animation, games and rich Internet applications (RIAs) that can be viewed, played and executed in Adobe Flash Player. Flash is frequently used to add streamed video or audio players, advertisement and interactive multimedia content to web pages, although usage of Flash on websites is declining.

Flash manipulates vector and raster graphics to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It allows bidirectional streaming of audio and video, and it can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone and camera. Flash applications and animations can be programmed using the object-oriented language called ActionScript.

Adobe Flash Studio is the official Adobe authoring tool for creating the Flash content, which also allows automation via the JavaScript Flash language (JSFL). Flash Studio is included in the Adobe Creative Suite for Windows and Mac OS.

Adobe Flash Player makes the Flash content accessible on various operating systems such as Windows, OS X and Linux, and is available free of charge for common web browsers (as a plug-in) under a few of the major operating systems, some smartphones and tablets, and a few other electronic devices using Flash Lite.

The Flash Player installed in all Windows and Mac labs, and is installed by default on all faculty and staff computers. Flash Studio is a part of the Adobe Creative Suite Design and Web Premium. UNCC has a site license for all faculty and staff computers and it is available for installation upon request.

Lab Availability of Flash Studio

Tags: creative suite flash web design

Fireworks CS6

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Part of: Adobe Creative Suite

Adobe Fireworks (formerly Macromedia Fireworks) was a bitmap and vector graphics editor. Fireworks is made for web designers for rapidly creating website prototypes and application interfaces. Its features include slices and the ability to add hotspots. It is designed to integrate with other Adobe products such asAdobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash. It is available as either a standalone product or bundled with Adobe Creative Suite.

On May 6, 2013, Adobe announced that Fireworks would be phased out. Adobe will continue to provide security updates and perhaps bug fixes for the current version, but does not plan to add any new features beyond what is in Fireworks CS6.

Tags: bitmap creative suite vector

Illustrator CS6

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: CS6 is being replaced by Adobe Creative Cloud
Part of: Adobe Creative Suite
Comparable: Fireworks, Inkscape

Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Vector graphics is a technology that allows objects to be infinitely scalable to either very large or very tiny sizes without degradation in quality. Often when an image is expanded to a large size the image distorts with rough squares and sharp edges, known as pixels. This is a raster image which is based with a particular size in mind. Vector images are based on geometry and relative location and angles, so its proportions can be scaled in any direction without pixelation or distortion. Illustrator also includes 3-dimensional capabilities allowing users to extrude or revolve shapes to create simple 3D objects.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 is being replaced with Adobe Illustrator CC.

Tags: creative suite

Acrobat Pro

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Labs | Faculty/Staff
Part of: Adobe Creative Suite
Comparable: Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and web services developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Acrobat Pro can create, edit, convert, digitally sign, encrypt, export and publish PDF files. Acrobat.com complements the family with a variety of enterprise content management and file hosting services.

Acrobat Pro is available to UNCC by request as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design and Web Premium package or separately.

Tags: creative suite pdf

Photoshop CS6

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: CS6 is being replaced by Adobe Creative Cloud
Part of: Adobe Creative Suite
Comparable: GIMP

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X.

Photoshop has become the de facto industry standard in raster graphics editing, such that the terms “photoshopping” and “photoshop contest” were born. It can edit and compose raster images in multiple layers and supports masks, alpha compositing and several color models including RGB, CMYK, Lab color space (with capital L), spot color and duotone. Photoshop has vast support for graphic file formats but also uses its own PSD and PSB file formats which support all the aforementioned features. In addition to raster graphics, it has limited abilities to edit or render text, vector graphics (especially through clipping path), 3D graphics and video. Photoshop’s featureset can be expanded by Photoshop plug-ins, programs developed and distributed independently of Photoshop that can run inside it and offer new or enhanced features.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 is being replaced by Adobe Photoshop CC.

Tags: creative suite image raster

BlueGriffon

November 19, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: Dreamweaver

BlueGriffon takes a straightforward WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) approach to web editing, but also manages to include plenty of more powerful features. It is based on the rendering engine of Mozilla Firefox.

You could just use it to type text, insert images, tables, audio files, videos and so on. But there’s also an SVG editor, form design tools, some CSS support, an accessibility checker, DOM Explorer, and more.

BlueGriffon is free but does utilize commercial plugins, so you may find that some features link you to a web store to purchase these plugins.

Tags: html web development

Dia

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free download
Comparable: Visio

Dia is free and open source general-purpose diagramming software, roughly inspired by Microsoft Visio. Dia uses a controlled single document interface (SDI) similar to GIMP and Inkscape.

Dia has a modular design with several shape packages available for different needs: flowchart, network diagrams, circuit diagrams, and more. It does not restrict symbols and connectors from various categories from being placed together.

Dia has special objects to help draw entity-relationship models (obsoleted tedia2sql or newer parsediasql can be used to create the SQL DDL), Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple electrical circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to draw the shape.

Dia loads and saves diagrams in a custom XML format which is, by default, gzipped to save space. It can print large diagrams spanning multiple pages and can also be scripted using the Python programming language.

Dia is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux and is available to download at no cost here.

Tags: flowchart uml

GIMP

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: Photoshop

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, re-sizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks. GIMP is commonly seen as a free competitor to Adobe Photoshop, part of the Adobe Creative Suite. It carries much of the same functionality, but open source software is subject to less stability, less support, and erratic development cycles. That being said GIMP is one of the most famous and popular open source replacements, and has been consistently in development for 18 years.

GIMP is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. GIMP is also available on the Chrome App store and can be used within the Chrome browser to edit files from Dropbox and Google Drive.

Tags: graphics photo

Inkscape

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: Illustrator

Inkscape is professional quality vector graphics software which runs on Linux, MacOS, and Windows. It is used by design professionals and hobbyists worldwide, for creating a wide variety of graphics such as illustrations, icons, logos, diagrams, maps and web graphics. Inkscape uses the W3C open standard SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) as its native format, and is free and open-source software.

Inkscape has sophisticated drawing tools with capabilities comparable to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Xara Xtreme. It can import and export various file formats, including SVG, AI, EPS, PDF, PS and PNG. It has a comprehensive feature set, a simple interface, multi-lingual support and is designed to be extensible; users can customize Inkscape’s functionality with add-ons.

Tags: graphics vector

Scribus

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: Microsoft Publisher, InDesign

Scribus is a cross-platform (available on Linux, MacOS, and Windows), open source desktop publishing program that features professional page layout, press-ready output, and new approaches to page design. It was loosely modeled after Microsoft Publisher.Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation.

Tags: desktop publishing

Blender

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: After Effects, Sketchup

Blender is a free and open source 3D animation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation. Advanced users employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customize the application and write specialized tools; often these are included in Blender’s future releases. Blender is well suited to individuals and small studios who benefit from its unified pipeline and responsive development process. Examples from many Blender-based projects are available in the showcase.

Blender is cross-platform and runs equally well on Linux, Windows and Macintosh computers. Its interface uses OpenGL to provide a consistent experience. To confirm specific compatibility, the list of supported platformsindicates those regularly tested by the development team.

As a community-driven project under the GNU General Public License (GPL), the public is empowered to make small and large changes to the code base, which leads to new features, responsive bug fixes, and better usability. Blender has no price tag, but you can invest, participate, and help to advance a powerful collaborative tool: Blender is your own 3D software.

SketchUp

October 30, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download | Pro Download
Comparable: Blender, Solidworks

SketchUp (formerly: Google Sketchup) is a 3D modeling program for applications such as architectural, interior design, civil and mechanical engineering, film, and video game design. A freeware version, SketchUp Make, and a paid version with additional functionality, SketchUp Pro, are available.

The program claims to be easy to use. There is an online open source repository of free-of-charge model assemblies (e.g., windows, doors, automobiles, etc.), 3D Warehouse, to which users may contribute models. The program includes drawing layout functionality, allows surface rendering in variable “styles”, supports third-party “plug-in” programs hosted on a site called Extension Warehouse to provide other capabilities (e.g., near photo-realistic rendering), and enables placement of its models within Google Earth.

A free version of SketchUp is available here. A heavily discounted version of SketchUp Pro is available for students and educators here.

Stata

October 03, 2014 by Alex Chapin

Availability: Labs | Faculty/Staff | Download
Comparable: SPSS, SAS, MiniTab

Stata is a general-purpose statistical software package. Stata’s capabilities include data management, statistical analysis, graphics, simulations, regression analysis (linear and multiple), and custom programming.

Tags: graphics trm

Expression Encoder

September 18, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: Camtasia Studio, Screencast-O-Matic, ScreenFlow, BB FlashBack Pro

The Microsoft Expression Encoder is a screen capturing tool that allows the user to record portions or all of the screen, accompanying audio, and export it into an editable video. Expression Encoder is very similar in features to the PC version of Camtasia Studio. Unlike Camtasia, Expression Encoder is only available for Windows.

There are two components to Expression Encoder. The first is the “Screen Capture” application, which sets the user up to record the screen. Options include recording with a microphone for narration, recording a webcam with the screen, and selecting the area you want to record. Once the recording is complete the result is handed off to the second component titled “Expression Encoder.” In the Encoder, the user can edit the video in a timeline layout. The user can add the webcam as a picture-in-picture, set it to full screen, turn it off, or vary between the three in the end result of the production. The Encoder also allows the user to add background audio, insert other video clips, and rearrange content.

One difficulty with using the Expression Encoder is that it prefers to export video in the proprietary WMV (Windows Media Video) format. This format does not read well across platforms (mac and linux) and does not work well with websites. Changing formats can be a difficult procedure without the right software.

The free version of Expression Encoder is available at no cost, but it does have a recording limit of 10 minutes.

Camtasia Studio

September 16, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Contact CLAS IT
Comparable: Expression Encoder, Screencast-O-Matic, ScreenFlow, BB FlashBack Pro

Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac are software suites, created and published by TechSmith, for creating video tutorials and presentations directly via screencast, or via a direct recording plug-in to Microsoft PowerPoint. The screen area to be recorded can be chosen freely, and microphone, audio, or other multimedia recordings may be recorded at the same time or added separately from any other source and integrated in the Camtasia Studio component of the product.

Camtasia Studio v8 for Microsoft Windows consists of two major components:

Camtasia Recorder – a separate tool for capturing screen audio and video. This can be used to easily capture a screen or portion of a screen while capturing audio from a microphone. Most people use this to show something on the screen, such as a document, website, video, or presentation, while describing it.
Camtasia Studio editor – this suite allows a user to edit the capture they just performed. Users can add audio, insert video, cut and paste portions, and zoom in to more specific regions of the screen to produce a more professional video.

Tags: tutorial

Windows Movie Maker

September 04, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Free Download
Comparable: iMovie

Windows Movie Maker is a freeware video editing software by Microsoft. It is a part of Windows Essentials software suite and offers the ability to create and edit videos as well as to publish them on OneDrive, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. Movie Maker is a simplistic tool to edit basic video files. Some features include trim, cut, add narration, add webcam picture-in-picture, add credits, add title, pan, zoom, basic transitions, and basic color effects.

Snipping Tool

September 04, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Labs | Built in to Windows
Comparable: Grab

Snipping Tool is a screenshooting utility included in Windows Vista, 7 and 8. It can take screenshots of an open window, rectangular areas, a free-form area, or the entire screen. Snips can then be annotated using a mouse or a tablet, stored as an image file (PNG, GIF, or JPEG file) or an MHTML file, or e-mailed. Snipping Tool allows for basic image editing of the snapshot, with different colored pens, an eraser, and a highlighter.

To access the Snipping Tool, click the start menu and type “snip.” The search should find the utility and you can press enter to launch. If it does not find anything you can launch a file browser and navigate to C:\windows\system32 and double click on the SnippingTool.exe file.

Keynote

August 21, 2014 by Andy Voelker

Availability: Download
Comparable: Google Slides, Prezi, Powerpoint, Sway

Keynote is slide based presentation software designed by Apple keynote , Inc for MacOS computers and iOS devices. Keynote offers a similar feature set as Microsoft PowerPoint, but it differs stylistically by using a different set of transitions, themes, fonts, animations, and backgrounds.

Keynote is available for free with any computer running MacOS 10.9 Mavericks. Keynote can also be purchased for older Macs through the Apple App Store for $19.99.

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