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Painting software has come a long way in recent years, and there are now superb programs available completely free that offer a realistic simulation of watercolors, oils, pastels, charcoal, and more. These programs work well with a mouse, but are even better with a stylus or touchscreen for direct control over your virtual brushes and pens.

Some of the latest painting software also lets you work in three dimensions, creating your own models and then applying your own textures and paint effects. You can combine these with 2D sketched elements to create scenes, and even print them in 3D.

Here, weve picked out the very best drawing software for Windows. Some of these tools are designed for serious illustrators, while others are better for keeping children occupied without the mess of real painting. Theres something for everyone the only limits are your imagination and skill.

Top-quality free painting software that gives all artists equal access to the best tools

Krita is professional-quality painting software created by a team of artists with the noble aim of putting top-notch creative tools within reach of everyone.

You can use Krita for any kind of drawing and illustration, but it's particularly great for comics and manga. There are panel templates, halftone filters, and perspective tools in addition to the usual brushes, fills and pens. Each brush is totally customizable, and you can save your bespoke brushes to use again later.

Right-clicking anywhere on the canvas in Krita will bring up a selection wheel that lets you pick a new tool and select a colour in seconds a system that's much easier than trawling through menus and settings

Krita was created by artists for artists, and it shows in the dozens of thoughtful little touches that make it easier to create great paintings. There are handy drawing aids for creating straight lines, vanishing points and smooth shapes. You also get layers, masks, various transform tools, HDR support, and advanced selection functions.

Krita is an incredibly powerful painting program, and it's yours to download and use completely free.

Download here: Krita

A realistic simulation of traditional artistic media, with a huge selection of brushes and tools

Artweaver Free enables you to create beautifully realistic digital paintings by taking your input from your mouse, from a stylus, or if you have a touchscreen PC from whatever you feel like tapping the screen with and applying ultra-realistic brush effects.

In addition to familiar brushes such as conte brushes, calligraphy pens and airbrushes you also get a huge range of patterns and pens, enabling you to produce very complex images with the minimum of effort. Its layer-based too, so you can build up your masterpiece in layers without losing the ability to change anything.

Artweaver Free designed for artists of all ages, but weve found it particularly useful for children. Kids love experimenting with all the different brushes, and we love not having to clean up any mess afterwards.

Download here: Artweaver Free

Make three-dimensional models with this kid-friendly free painting software included in the latest Windows 10 update

Paint 3D comes as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update, and is great fun even if you have no artistic talent to speak of.

Like the classic version of Paint (which still exists, and can be found using Windows 10s search bar), Paint 3D offers a small selection of drawing tools for doodling on a flat canvas. However, the real fun happens when you click the 3D Objects button. Here you can pick a model to import (current choices include people and animals), or better yet, draw your own shape and then inflate it to turn it into a three-dimensional model that can be rotated and viewed from different angles.

You can choose a finish for your shape (options include matte, gloss, dull metal, and polished metal), paint its surface, and apply lighting effects. Theres no way to control the thickness of the 3D effect, so your object will always resemble something created with Puff Paints, but its great fun for kids of all ages.

Multiple models can be positioned at different depths and combined to create a scene, and you can even bring doodles into the real world if you have access to a 3D printer.

Get the Windows 10 Creator's Update, including Paint 3D

Another child-friendly app from Microsoft, with realistic brush strokes and a fun interface

Fresh Paint is another art app from Microsoft this time designed to replicate the feeling of putting brush or pen to paper.

The interface really goes to town with skeumorphism, with a plastic palette of colours that splatter when you dip your virtual brush, showing which shade youre currently using and making a pleasing splat. You can wash the bristles in a cup of water before picking a different color, or use one immediately after another to blend them together on the brush.

Fresh Paint can simulate watercolors, gouache, and all kinds of other material. As the name implies, you can interact with your work as though its not yet dry, smearing it and mixing colors together on the canvas. Experienced artists will be able to achieve great results with tools that behave like their real-life counterparts, while kids and novices will make an equally realistic mess.

Download here: Microsoft Fresh Paint

Open source software for hobbyist artists with the time and patience to master a new tool

MyPaint is the brainchild of artist Martin Renold, who was frustrated by the limitations of his Wacom tablets proprietary software and decided to take matters into his own hands. Today, the open source software is an accomplished tool for artists.

Its background as a Linux app means MyPaint works a little differently to most Windows apps, and itll take a little while to master its interface, but its well worth the effort if youre a hobbyist illustrator and Kritas focus on comics means it doesnt quite fit your needs.

MyPaint works best when used with a graphics tablet, but you can also use it with any other input device, or a touchscreen. Theres the usual selection of customizable brushes, plus support for layers, and a handy scratchpad for creating sketches. You can also download and install additional brush packages created by other users a perk of the source code being publicly available.

Download here: MyPaint

Original post:
The best free painting software 2017 - TechRadar

Tim Hugo, Free File Alliance Executive Director, stated, "This program continues to be a unique and very successful public-private partnership between a nonprofit coalition of industry-leading tax software companies and the IRS to serve the American Taxpayers. Passing 50 million taxpayers served is a tremendous achievement and Free File will continue to work with the IRS to continue to improve this service for the American Taxpayers."

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said, "Reaching 50 million users and achieving $1.5 billion in taxpayer savings mark important milestones for the Free File initiative. The Free File effort shows how the public and private sectors can work together to provide a critical service to the nation's taxpayers. After 14 years, this innovative program continues to break new ground as it evolves to meet people's needs."

With just a few days left until the tax deadline on April 18th, the Free File Alliance reminds taxpayers that free tax solutions are available to all Americans atIRS-Free File Alliance. Taxpayers who earned $64,000 AGI(adjusted gross income) or less can choose from among a dozen, brand-name software products offered by leading private-sector companies for free. Taxpayers who made more than $64,000 AGI may use Free File Fillable Forms, the electronic version of Internal Revenue Service paper forms.

"Every American taxpayer can and should take advantage of the Free File program," said Hugo, "Whether you need to e-file a tax return or an extension, Free File is the fast, safe and free way to tackle your taxes. Free File is also the only place where the industry's best tax software is available at one place and at no cost. Simply visit http://www.IRS.gov/freefile and choose the software offering that fits your tax needs."

Hugo also stated that the Free File Alliance now offers taxpayers the ability to use their smart phones or tablets to electronically prepare and file their federal and state tax returns through the IRS/ Free File Alliance. This new design allows for the use of desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. It can be accessed using mobile devices in two ways: (1) Use the IRS app, IRS2go, which has a link to the Free File Software Lookup Tool or (2) use the device's browser to go to http://www.IRS.gov/freefile to find the software product that matches your situation. The IRS2Go app is available for Android and iOS devices.

Free File Alliance member companies have continually worked with the IRS to strengthen the Free File program, and taxpayers have consistently reported that it is user-friendly and efficient. Responding to a 2009 IRS survey, 96 percent of users said they found Free File easy to use, while 98 percent said they would recommend the program to others.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/free-file-tops-50-million-users-continuing-to-serve-the-american-taxpayers-300439794.html

SOURCE Free File Alliance

http://www.freefilealliance.org

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Free File Tops 50 Million Users Continuing to Serve the American Taxpayers - PR Newswire (press release)

Ubuntu founder has choice words for some free software users calls them anti social and haters

Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworths reappointment as company CEO has been overshadowed by some imaginative language about some people within the open source community.

Shuttleworth was responding (mostly positively) to comments about the ending of Canonicals investment Unity8, its phone and convergence shell, and the shift of its default Ubuntu desktop back to GNOME for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, when he made his admission.

Shuttleworth will take charge of Canonical in the summer as CEO, after part of a planned transition from the current boss of the firm Jane Silber.

When it emerged earlier this month about Canonicals change of direction with Unity8, Shuttleworth took to Google+ to thank the open source community for all your spirit and intellect and energy in the Unity8 adventure.

He responded to a number of comments about the decision, but when the subject turned to the Mir windowing system his tone changed.

The whole Mir hate-fest boggled my mind its free software that does something invisible really well, he wrote. It became a political topic as irrational as climate change or gun control, where being on one side or the other was a sign of tribal allegiance. We have a problem in the community when people choose to hate free software instead of loving that someone cares enough to take their lifes work and make it freely available.

I came to be disgusted with the hate on Mir. Really, it changed my opinion of the free software community.

I used to think that it was a privilege to serve people who also loved the idea of service, but now I think many members of the free software community are just deeply anti-social types who love to hate on whatever is mainstream.

He also said that the haters had targeted Windows when it was mainstream, and are now turning their irrational hatred to Canonical after it went mainstream.

The very same muppets would write about how terrible it was that IOS/Android had no competition and then how terrible it was that Canonical was investing in (free software!) compositing and convergence, he said. F**k that s**t.

Shuttleworth will resume his role of CEO in the summer, after he stepped down from that position in 2009 in order to focus more on specific projects within Canonical, including the move to cloud computing.

Shuttleworth was replaced by Jane Silber in 2010, who was previously Canonicals chief operating officer.

In a blog post,she revealed that she had only agreed to take the CEO position for five years only, but this had been extended.

This is not a sudden decision, Silber wrote. Weve been preparing for a transition for some time by strengthening the executive leadership team and maturing every aspect of the company, and earlier this year Mark and I decided that now is the time to effect this transition.

Over the next three months I will remain CEO but begin to formally transfer knowledge and responsibility to others in the executive team. In July, Mark will retake the CEO role and I will move to the Canonical Board of Directors.

Quiz: What do you know about Linux?

Excerpt from:
Mark Shuttleworth Returns As Canonical CEO, Slams Some 'Free ... - Silicon UK

Bryan is a writer and works as the Social Media Marketing Manager of SUSE. On this blog, he seeks to highlight the coolest things happening in the Linux world.

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My life is filled with conundrums.

One of those conundrums is the fact that I spend a huge amount of my time promoting and advocating free and open-source software. Yet in order to reach a large audience with that advocacy, I end up needing to use social networks (such as Twitter and Google Plus) which arenot free software.

If I'm going to be speaking at a conference about GNU, Linux and other free software-y topics, I announce it on Twitter. And, perhaps rightly so, my freedom-loving friends toss a little (usually good-natured) mockery my way for doing so.

Over the years, a few social networks have sprung up that are a bit more free software-basedor, at least, open source. Yet none of them has really captured the interest of the broader publicsomething necessary for what I do. Diaspora is a great example of one that showed great promise but never really took off. (It still exists, but without the audience numbers and/or growth that is needed.)

Then along comes Mastodon, which describes itself as the following:

"Mastodon is a free, open-source social network. A decentralized alternative to commercial platforms, it avoids the risks of a single company monopolizing your communication. Pick a server that you trustwhichever you choose, you can interact with everyone else. Anyone can run their own Mastodon instance and participate in the social network seamlessly."

Open source (and up on GitHubusing the AGPL license), check.

Decentralized, double check.

And the web UI is actually quite nice looking. Simple, peppy and column-based. In my short testing time thus far, I'm finding Mastodon rather enjoyable to use.

As of this writing, there may not be millions and millions of users, but the number appears to be growing quite rapidly. Articles on this little, up-start social network seem to be popping up on tech websites far and wide.

Getting started with Mastodon is fairly simple. Check out a page showing some of the various instances of Mastodon that are runningpick one that seems good to you, and sign up. Most instances can talk to each other seamlessly, though to my understanding, some can choose to talk only to people on your own instance server.

Then start looking around for some friends to follow. Feel free to take a look at who I currently follow in case any of these folks interest you as well. (Or just start by following meIm downright delightful.)

As far as mobile clients go, many folks seem to be using an Android app by the name of Tusky. I tried it out briefly (I have only one device that uses the Google Play Store), and it seems to work pretty well. However, it would be nice if such an app were available on F-Droid (or directly from the developer website) so I don't need to rely on the Play Store.

Will Mastodon take off and become the next Twitter? Will it fall short of that but still build a significant enough user base to keep itself useful and active? Who knows. But the design looks solid, the approach something I can support. So, I sure hope so.

And, at least for the time being, I'm going to be using it.

Bryan is a writer and works as the Social Media Marketing Manager of SUSE. On this here blog, he seeks to accomplish two goals: 1) To be the voice of reason and practicality in the Linux and Open Source world. 2) To highlight the coolest things happening throughout the world of Linux.

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MastodonThe free software, decentralized Twitter competitor - Network World

The previs software was developed as an internal tool by Artefact after the company couldnt find suitable off-the-shelf software that allowed them to iterate quickly during the production of vr projects. They say:

Storyboard VR works in a similar way to traditional storyboard techniques by creating static frames that roughly block in a scene. Designers and developers can easily import assets from existing drawing tools and position them while inside vr to quickly test and iterate. And, just like traditional storyboarding, users can create multiple scenes to test the flow of the experience. An incredibly lightweight app, Storyboard VR takes only a few minutes to get acquainted with.

Significant interest from the vr community has led them to release the software for free publicly, in the hope that it will promote experimentation across industries and organizations and inspire and accelerate the development of new experiences in this emerging medium.

While the software is available at no cost, Artefact warns it is an unsupported alpha application, so bugs and other issues may exist. Although we use Storyboard VR in our daily work at Artefact, the company further says, we have no immediate plans to continue to update and develop the software. The software is only supported on HTC Vive and requires Windows to run.

A demo of how to build a scene can be seen in the video below:

See the original post here:
Artefact Launches Storyboard VR, Free Software for Prototyping Interactive Animation Projects - Cartoon Brew