I have tried LibreOffice, NeoOffice, and Graphic, but with my photosensitivity, I need something less flashy.
I am a tabletop game designer, and need good drawing software, for counter design.
I need to be able to align objects. I need to be able to easily add and align text. I need to be able to assign distinct colors to each of 20 factions.
I also need to be able to do this without severe migraines. Unfortunately, flashing triggers my migraines. In LibreOffice and OpenOffice, both text cursors and object selections flash. In NeoOffice, I can use a hack to keep text cursors from flashing, but I canāt keep object selections from flashing. In Graphic, object selections donāt flash, but I canāt keep text cursors from flashing. So with my photosensitivity getting more severe, I canāt use these apps.
I also need to be able to do this despite coordination problems. Fortunately, most apps contain alignment tools which help.
I want to be able to ensure that the color combinations wonāt be problems for colorblind players either. Unfortunately, I need to use some red pieces and some green pieces.
I use GIMP and (briefly) Paint.NET. GIMP suffers from load times and has a loadbar animation. Iāll have to give Paint.NET a spin again before I can confirm itās photosensitive-safe
It might be easier to control the cursor behaviour from your operating system. There should be a setting or plug-in to make it behave consistently across the board. I know Windows has this; Iām not sure about other operating systems.
Iām using a Mac, after a lot of hardware and driver issues using Windows machines with Linux.
There should be. Perhaps surprisingly, there is not. I canāt install wider scrollbars. Apart from the Dock, I canāt move menus to the sides of the screen. I can only disable blinking cursors in NSText-- and apparently NeoOffice text cursors are NSText so writer is usable while other blinking objects are not so the other tools are largely unusable-- LibreOffice blinking cursors arenāt NSText, making LibreOffice writer unusable too.
Could you expand on what isnāt readable about those docs? They look rather complete, while having very plain-language section headings covering specific potential needs.
There are also tutorials available through the main documentation page, as well as links to books, man pages, etc: https://www.gimp.org/docs/
Itās a web page. Itās a web page with orange text on a black background. I have a lot of fixes to make them more readable, but theyāre all kinda unreadable, even this one. Even pdfs are more readable.
And the secnd link just leads back to the same web page. I canāt find a downloadable version.
Gimp is intended for image manipulation. I canāt find much about whether it supports graphic design, but it would be a secondary function, or whether it supports my accessibility needs. The preferences allow users to change the speed of MARCHING MIGRAINE ANTS, but thatās no guarantee they allow users to kill the accursed MARCHING MIGRAINE ANTS, and itās a bad sign that the application includes MARCHING MIGRAINE ANTS.
Conversely Inkscape is intended for graphic design. I canāt find much about whether it supports my accessibility needs.
Can confirm that āmarching antsā canāt be completely killed (at least not through the preferences, Iām not sure if a gimprc edit would have more flexibility). The speed control is in milliseconds, and the maximum is 10000, which causes them to only move by one pixel every 10 seconds.
On graphic design, Gimpās a full-featured paint program, similar in toolset to Photoshop. But if you have needs that canāt be done in a paint program like Photoshop, thenā¦
Perhaps Iām misunderstanding you, but these kinds of programs are made for image creation, color management, digital painting, etc. Image editing is just the thing most of the masses use them for. For example, hereās a tutorial showing techniques for creating icon images in gimp.
I thought I was clear that I personally need drawing software, not painting software. I figured if other people want to ask about painting software, I should leave the door open for that. But Iām getting a lot of answers about painting software, none about drawing software.
I created these game pieces using LibreOffice and NeoOffice. I need to be able to create other readable game pieces.
1st 2 of 4 pages, exported from odg.
P.S. Iām waiting for approval from the Inkscape forum. Then Iāll be able to ask my debugging questions there.
It might help if you try to provide some specific differences you see between ādrawingā and āpaintingā software. I use gimp frequently with my tablet, with its pen tool, to ādrawā. I can also use the spraypaint or other tools to āpaintā. In the definitions I commonly use, there isnāt much difference between the two.
Based on your mentions of libreofficeā¦ are you specifically talking about diagramming, presentation, or layout software? Because thatās a completely different kind of beast.
Iām pretty sure the game pieces youāve shown here could easily be created using any of the software thatās been suggested so far. If I were making these in gimp, for instance, I would mostly just use the square selection, flood-fill, and text tools for most of them. The small handful of more complex shapes look like they could also still be done with either multiple applications of the square select, or possibly using the free select tool for the triangles. Alignment would be done using the draggable guidelines that you can place at precise positioning on the rulers at the top and left of the image.
However, it sounds like youāre more wanting something that follows a specific workflow that youāre familiar with, rather than just general software that can do this.
[edit] If youāre just wanting something more akin to diagramming/presentation software, thereās also google docs slides available, which doesnāt appear to flash selections, though the text cursor will blink in it if you have a text object in edit mode.
I create one counter. First, I create one box with the background color. I may add symbols. I will add text, sizing the text boxes to fit the background color, often giving the text boxes their own color, and aligning everything background box. I create one group for that counter, so all the parts stay together and stay aligned.
I copy that counter, as needed. I may switch in different symbols. I may switch the colors. I will probably need to change the text.
If I have to create everything from scratch, thatās a problem.
So I need to be able to work with separate objects, arrange them, group them, and arrange groups. I need to be able to snap objects to grid lines, and I need to be able to match colors to specific pallette options.
The way I learned it, drawing software usually used vector graphics, and separate objects, with tools for precise alignment and the like; painting software usually used raster graphics, and treated the whole project as one object, with tools for spraying stipples and the like.
I can usually deal with the occasional blinking text cursor, but not hundreds of blinking text cursors in the course of each project, and not the blinking text cursors in Inkscape.
