Has anyone ever gotten any Adobe software sponsored for your team? I have a graphic subgroup that would be wonderful for them to obtain that software like we are able to get software from Autodesk. I recently got our team a Sketchup Pro grant, but didn’t know if anyone knew the process for Adobe or if such a thing existed. Any pointers? We aren’t part of the school, so we struggle getting computers and software.
If your team is a 501c3 non-profit, you can actually be eligible for greatly reduced price Adobe products. Normally for this you have to go through specialized resellers.
http://www.adobe.com/mena_en/education/nonprofit-eligibility-guide.html
Adobe does not give sponsorships or grants. If your team is a registered 501©3 non-profit than your team can get discounted above products. You could also find s local sponsor to pay for it.
Or you could just make use of the Creative Cloud. It is $19 a month for the full package. You just have to download and pay for it when you need it. If you want it just for build for two computers, it is $76. If you want it full year on one computer it is $228. Not too shabby when you look at the near $1k price tag to own the Creative Suites just a few years back.
$228 isn’t very much for most sponsors, and sometimes it feels good to ask for a very specific number like that.
Also check with your local school. If you work in a school and they have a graphics program they will have extra site licenses. They come in packs of 50, we run three labs plus our shop computers with CS6 that way.
Edit to add that I can’t read. Not being part of school doesn’t mean that you can’t partner with the local school system…
While I prefer the Adobe applications, I was suprised at how polished the gimp (raster) and Inkscape (vector graphics) are now. They are free, and pretty close to what you get from Adobe. Definitely capable enough to do everything you would need on an FRC team.
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I can vouch for Inkscape. It’s our go-to program for all our vector graphics work, and we prefer it over Adobe products in many cases.
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I can’t say anything about GIMP, but I will also second Inkscape. It’s one of the better FOSS alternatives to a commercial software.
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You can also try paint.net. You can download it at http://eggplant.net
Very nice polished Photoshop type program for Windows.
I always use Inkscape for anything that I am lasercutting, and GIMP is my go to for image modification.
501c(3) organizations can get donated software for a minimal admin fee through techsoup.org. (You will need to create an account and submit proof of eligibility to register your organization). They currently offer Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements for $22. They also have a note about future offering of Adobe cloud-based products, although I wouldn’t expect this to be much different than what you can currently do through Adobe directly.
Techsoup is definitely worth checking out if your team has its own computers and is in need of things like Windows and Microsoft Office.
Gimp -> Photo editing
GIMP excels at editing pixel based pictures. If you have pixel-based elements in your design (idk., photos, hand-drawn stuff, etc.), then I’d use GIMP to prepare those.
Inkscape -> illustration and logos and simple text layout.
Inkscape does vector graphics, which is great for print media. I use it for making publication quality figures. eg. Setting fonts, doing layouts, or making cartoons.
I used a XP-Pen Star 03 drawing pad , it was the large size. Great tablet lasted me for about 3 years until I got my Artist 15.6 Pro pen display tablet .
Definitely look at https://www.photopea.com/ It’s a great free alternative and always what I use to edit. It has a very similar work environment to Photoshop but you will need a good internet connection.
If anyone still wants to know about Adobe software, if you are affiliated with a school team, you can get the discounted price ($250 per year) with any school email address (can be .org). This has unlimited installs but only 2 computers can be used at the same time.
As pert of the 2021 Kit of Parts, teams can now designate an Adobe Creative Cloud mentor. This mentor will receive a full license to Adobe Creative Cloud, including Photoshop, Illustrator, video editing tools, and more.
The lead mentor needs to invite a mentor to the Adobe Creative Cloud mentor role in the Team Management portal. Once that happens, the mentor will receive access to Adobe Creative Cloud. Please take advantage of this benefit today!
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