How to Find Free Online Tools to Create a Website

Open Source software is useful.

There are a number of free tools available online that will help you design, create and post a website. These help you make web pages, create graphics, logos, edit images and plan the site. Let's explore some of them.

Things You'll Need

• An Internet connection to download the tools listed here
• A computer

Instructions

1. I've written about many free website creation sites. You will find some of them listed in my article: "How to Have a Website on a Budget" (see Resources below). One of these tools can help you get going with the creation of the web pages.

2. Most of the website creation tools mentioned in Step 1 provide free templates and layouts for you to choose among. If you want to customize and create a layout of your own, you can find many freely available layouts at OSWD (Open Source Web Design). Free downloadable templates are updated frequently on this site.

3. For creating graphics, a great free open source tool is GIMP. GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is software for tasks such as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

4. Another excellent open source graphics tool is Blender. This software helps you create 3D content. It's available for all major operating systems.

5. To use your own photos, try Picnik's online photo editing tools. You can do basic things like crop and adjust, but there are also tools for effects, fonts, shapes and frames.

6. Aviary is an image editing and creation tool that has just about everything in the works: image manipulation, vector graphics, visual laboratory help and more. Not all of it is available as of this writing, but more tools become available at Aviary as time goes by.

7. For designing your logo, try LogoInstant. You can find a new logo there daily. It can be downloaded and adapted or used as is for free.

Tips & Warnings

• Some of these tools are absolutely free. Some provide both a free plan and a paid plan, with the free plan providing only limited services.

Resources

• Have a Website on a Budget
• OSWD
• GIMP
• Blender
• Picnik
• Aviary
• LogoInstant