Choosing to fill your IT portfolio with solutions that don't cost a dime makes plenty of sense. However, small businesses face a unique challenge: there isn't always an IT professional with an understanding of software licensing nuances around to help make such decisions. Fear not, small businesses need not miss out on the brave new world of free open source solutions. There are some simple open source staples that don't require a degree in IT to use or understand.　

Graphics gouging

Graphics are a commodity that nearly every business needs some of. Be it event photos for a newsletter, snapshots for a web page, or even the company logo, few can go without. Adobe Photoshop is so dominant within the market place that the "Photoshop" name has become synonymous with image editing. Given the economy's struggle to get out of it's current slump, many small businesses are expressing renewed exasperation at the $699 it costs to buy Adobe Photoshop CS4 from Adobe.com.　

Graphics without the gratuity

How do you keep that $700 in the company coffers? Choose an open source alternative. The benevolent cyber-geeks of the world have been volunteering their efforts for years to match Adobe's world class solution. The fruits of their labor is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, better known as GIMP. GIMP is image editing software with similar tools and functions to Adobe Photoshop. You'll find a cropping tool, scaling tool, rotation, paint brush, magic wand, etc. You can choose to save your work as ".jpg", ".gif", or any of the other industry standard formats. What you won't find is a price. GIMP will meet your graphics needs gratis. So long as you don't try to re-sell GIMP, you have no licensing worries.　

Pricey PDFs

PDFs (Portable Document Format) are a keystone IT solution for many small businesses. Businesses use PDFs every day for communications, publications, invoices and statements. Many use Adobe Acrobat to create these files. Adobe authored the PDF file format, and has long benefited from the perception that the Acrobat software is the only way PDFs can be produced. This is evidenced by the $299 price tag on an individual license for Adobe Acrobat from Adobe.com.

PDFs without paying the piper

It is a little known fact that PDF is an open standard. This means that open source applications such as PDFCreator can also produce PDFs. The price tag on PDFCreator: $0. PDFCreator is simple and easy to use. A downloadable installation is available on SourceForge.net. The PDFCreator installs a printer on your PC. Print any document to this printer and the output will be a PDF file, just like Acrobat would have produced, only this one didn't cost a nickel of your IT budget.

The bottom line: yours

These are just two solutions that will help your business' bottom line by keeping money in its budget. Adobe is by no means the only software provider charging pretty pennies for their product. Likewise, GIMP and PDFCreator are only two in a sea of open source solutions that don't cost a thing. In this market you can't afford not to take a hard look at your software costs. Do some research. If there's a clear leader in the open source market that doesn't require an IT expertise – take the plunge!

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