When the question of cost-cutting arises, one area where companies find it tough to compromise is on the licensing cost of the tools.  In most cases, the cost is billable to the client because  requirement is of the client's. Sometimes however, where there is no specific requirement for a particular tool, the cost is borne by the service provider. For companies that are struggling in the current times because of the economic slowdown, an option that might not compromise on product quality is to switch to open-source software.

In this article, I will talk about open-source publishing tools for the writing community.

Recently, I came across several good open-source software that you can use for technical writing and graphic designing. Some of these are:

Dia - Dia is an open-source diagramming tool that is similar to the commercial Microsoft Visio, but less powerful. It can be used with Linux, UNIX, and Windows under the GPL license. With Dia, you can drawing entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other kinds of diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files and using a subset of SVG to draw the shape. Moreover, Dia can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format and in other formats such as EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG.

To try your hand on this tool, visit http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/.

Inkscape - Inkscape is an open-source graphics editor, with features similar to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, or Xara X. It has many advanced SVG features such as markers, clones, alpha blending, and so on. With its streamlined user interface, Inkscape is very easy to use. The Inkscape Web site has knowledge-base resources, documentation, and a Wiki for product support.

To try your hand on this tool, visit http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en.

OpenOffice.org - OpenOffice.org is the leading office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. The product suite is available in multiple languages and can be used on all common computers. The tool is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, and replicates much of the functionality of Microsoft Office Word and Excel. In addition, it reads and writes to Microsoft Office formats and supports the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard. Moreover, with this tool, you can maintain compatibility with Microsoft Office users by setting the document options to be saved in Microsoft Office formats.

To try your hand on this tool, visit http://download.openoffice.org/.

GIMP - GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program.  This tool has features similar to Adobe Photoshop. With this tool, you can run a simple paint program, do quality photo-retouching, run online batch processes, render images for mass production, and convert the file formats of images. The tool is expandable, extensible, and can be augmented with plug-ins. The GIMP Web site has product documentation.

To try your hand on this tool, visit http://www.gimp.org/.

Scribus - Scribus is an open source, award-winning program that creates professional page layouts on Linux, UNIX, Mac OS X, OS/2, and Windows platforms. Scribus has professional publishing features such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation. It has a community that assists beginners and professionals through a mailing list, IRC channel, Wiki, contracted support, and bugtracker.

To try your hand on this tool, visit http://www.scribus.net/.

Eclipse Help System – Eclipse was originally an IBM product but now falls under the open-source category. The Eclipse Help System has a powerful IDE that includes its own help system based on an XML table of contents that reference HTML files. With this tool, you can build easy-to-use and searchable help documentation.

To try your hand on this tool, visit http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-echelp/#resources.

The aim of this article is to spread awareness and promote the use of open-source software among writers and designers, without compromising on the work quality. However, sometimes the software can cost more in terms of time, support, troubleshooting, and configuration