{"id":36,"date":"2009-02-18T11:51:24","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T15:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/?p=36"},"modified":"2009-08-25T10:28:20","modified_gmt":"2009-08-25T14:28:20","slug":"free-or-almost-tools-for-digital-signage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/articles\/free-or-almost-tools-for-digital-signage","title":{"rendered":"Free (or almost) Tools for Digital Signage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Digital signage takes a certain level of work and care so that everything goes off without a hitch. A number of the tools used to construct and maintain a digital signage network can be a little pricey, but we&#8217;ve found quite a few software tools &amp; services out there that are free (or relatively inexpensive) that can benefit digital signage operators, big and small.<\/p>\n<p>Slowly but surely, we&#8217;ll be publishing reviews on our favorite inexpensive tools. Here&#8217;s our initial list of tools, which we&#8217;ll be adding to as we encounter more:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24948624_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gimp.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>GIMP<\/strong><\/a>: Image manipulation and compositing for PC, Mac &amp; Linux <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24948465_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.inkscape.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Inkscape<\/strong><\/a>: Software Vector Graphics creator and editor <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_26452676_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\/downloads\/macosx\/imaging_3d\/drawberry.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>DrawBerry<\/strong><\/a>: <\/span><\/span><span id=\"list_4382776_item_26452676_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\">Mac OSX <\/span><\/span><span id=\"list_4382776_item_26452676_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\">vector editor <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_26021940_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pixelmator.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Pixelmator<\/strong><\/a>: Mac OsX image editor <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_25125840_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/audacity.sourceforge.net\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Audacity<\/strong><\/a>: Sound editor\/recorder <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_25125840_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/aviary.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Aviary<\/strong><\/a>: A full suite of creative RIA&#8217;s, including image manipulation and vector editing<\/span><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/aviary.com\/tools\/phoenix\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix<\/a>: Image Editor<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/aviary.com\/tools\/raven\" target=\"_blank\">Raven<\/a>: Vector Editor<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/aviary.com\/tools\/peacock\" target=\"_blank\">Peacock<\/a>: Visual Laboratory&#8230;a modular image FSUpper<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/aviary.com\/tools\/toucan\" target=\"_blank\">Toucan<\/a>: Color Palette Editor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_25125840_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xara.com\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Xara<\/strong><\/a>: Low cost graphics software <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_25125840_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blender.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Blender<\/strong><\/a>: Open source 3D application <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24948155_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.erain.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Swift 3D<\/strong><\/a>:\u00a0 Make 3D SWF&#8217;s <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24989076_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.photoshop.com\/express\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>PhotoShop Express<\/strong><\/a>: Stripped down Photoshop RIA <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24949877_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualdub.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>VirtualDub<\/strong><\/a>: <\/span><\/span><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24949877_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\">Simple video (AVI) editing <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_24956666_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.toufee.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Toufee<\/strong><\/a>: RIA for creating Flash <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sumopaint.com\/web\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Sumopaint<\/strong><\/a>: RIA image editor <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.splashup.com\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Splashup!<\/strong><\/a>: Another RIA image editor <\/span><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.splashup.com)\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/logmein.com\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>LogMeIn Free<\/strong><\/a>: Remote control<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.avs4you.com\/AVS-Video-converter.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>AVS<\/strong><\/a>: Video converter<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.yammer.com\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Yammer<\/strong><\/a>: A Twitter clone but more &#8220;closed&#8221;, targeted to companies that want to modernize their corporate communications&#8230;why not use the feed in your digital signage?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a title=\"Bluff Titler DX9 - 3D Effects\" href=\"http:\/\/www.outerspace-software.com\/blufftitler.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Bluff Titler DX9<\/strong><\/a>: An inexpensive Windows app that uses DirectX to generate preset 3D text effects, backgrounds and other 3D animation.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a title=\"Online image \/ photo editor pixlr free\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pixlr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Pixlr<\/strong><\/a>: Yet another online image editing program&#8230;so many of these! Who will win the war?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><strong><a title=\"Adobe Kuler\" href=\"http:\/\/www.adobe.com\/products\/kuler\/\" target=\"_blank\">Adobe Kuler:<\/a><\/strong> An AIR app that until recently was online only used to explore and share color schemes. Great for inspiration or finding matching colors.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a title=\"Seashore - Mac OsX Image Editor\" href=\"http:\/\/seashore.sourceforge.net\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Seashore:<\/strong><\/a> An open source image editor for Mac OS X with Cocoa framework that enables the use of gradients, textures, text anti-aliasing, brush strokes, and other essential and basic image editing needs.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span id=\"list_4382776_item_29698472_text\" class=\"content hover_target\"><span style=\"background: #ffffcc none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;\"><a title=\"Daz3D - Free 3D modeler\" href=\"http:\/\/www.daz3d.com\/i\/software\/studio?_m=d\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Daz3D<\/strong><\/a>: A free, feature rich 3D figure design and 3D animation tool that enables anyone to create stunning digital imagery.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital signage takes a certain level of work and care so that everything goes off without a hitch. A number of the tools used to construct and maintain a digital signage network can be a little pricey, but we&#8217;ve found quite a few software tools &amp; services out there that are free (or relatively inexpensive) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/articles\/free-or-almost-tools-for-digital-signage\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Free (or almost) Tools for Digital Signage&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75,71,44,78,72,74,170,45,79,76,77],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-3d","tag-compositing","tag-design","tag-graphics","tag-motion-graphics","tag-photo-editor","tag-software","tag-tools","tag-vector-editor","tag-video-conversion","tag-video-editing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202,"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.miradamedia.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}