The Free Software Foundation is a solid place to check for legally free software.  The free software movement aims to provide these tools to help each other learn and benefit.  The programs in this list are free to use, study, share and modify.  You’re bound to find something useful on this list!

Back when I was working at a Fortune 500 IT company, a colleague with industrial-strength geek credentials told me about a great program that had a ton of Photoshop style functionality.  The product, GIMP (which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program — more about GNU in a later installment) is free software, available for many operating systems, that lets you create layered graphics and save them in popular file formats like .jpg, .bmp, and .gif.  You can even save as a Photoshop file (.psd).  Get creating…. : )