Inkscape

There is a really neat alternative to Corel Draw on Ubuntu. Its called Inkscape. I have been using it for quite some time now and have found it to be very useful. If you are into image editing/model creations/vector graphics you must have this application.

Screenshot:

Installation:

Its simple. Go to Ubuntu Software Center, search for Inkscape and install. Thats it!

Equalizer for Rhythmbox

Thanks to Ubuntuforums I came to know of a really cool plugin which enables a 10 band equalizer in Rhyhtmbox.

To add this equalizer, simply copy paste the following code in the terminal (Accessories > Terminal):

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins && wget http://www.lirmm.fr/~morandat/pub/upload/Main/rb-equalizer.tar.bz2 -O- | tar xvjf - -C ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/plugins

To activate this plugin, launch Rhythmbox, go to Edit > Plugins and the check Equalizer. The equalizer's 10 band setting is available from the Plugins menu.

Try it out. Its a really cool feature.



(Source : - http://www.lirmm.fr/~morandat/index.php/Main/Tools)

Creating Image Slideshow

Sometimes we have loads of images which we want to convert to videos with background music and stuff. Create an image slideshow that is. Ubuntu offers quite a few programs in its default repositories itself for this sort of projects. However there is one which I particularly like.

Its called imagination (what an appropriate name!). Its a very user friendly piece of software which will help you create those all important slideshows. It has loads of settings which you can tweak or leave as is, which works just as well. The output formats are .VOB, .OGV, .FLV and .3GP. For any help you can consult the Help file which is quite extensive and is actually helpful.

To install Imagination, go to the Ubuntu Software Center and search for 'Imagination' (obviously!) and Install. Its that simple.

Here's a screenshot of Imagination:



The slideshow creation process is as simple as Add Images and Create Slideshow. You can obviously add music etc. But for that to happen (to add MP3 support etc.) there is one package you need to install. Its called: libsox-fmt-all

So go to the terminal and type :

sudo apt-get install libsox-fmt-all

Thereafter its pretty simple.

Shutter - Screenshot Tool

The default Ubuntu screenshot software isnt really something spectacular. Also, it really doesnt have many options. For example, if you want the screenshot of just a window and not of the entire desktop, you'd be pretty much stuck if you were using the default screenshot app, as you would have to use some image editing software like GIMP to modify the screenshot to suit your needs.

No more... Say hello to Shutter! The perfect screenshot tool. Lets you take screenshots of windows, notifications (and even panels!). Has loads of options and is really useful.

This is how you install it:

Go to Ubuntu Software Center from your GNOME menu and search for 'Shutter', follow the links and install it! Like so:



Alternate method for users who prefer to use the terminal:

Type the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install shutter

And after the installation, you'll find Shutter installed in the 'Accessories' section of the GNOME menu.

Screenshots taken by Shutter can be found here.

Thats it! :)

Install WINE

Wine (Microsoft Windows Compatibility layer) is one of the most loved softwares on Ubuntu. What it does is allows you to run Windows files on Ubuntu. Say you want to play a game which doesnt have a Linux counterpart, or say a software whose windows versions are popular, what do you do? Simple, install Wine and play the game exactly as you would on Windows!

So how do you install Wine? Well thankfully its in the Ubuntu repositories.

First up go to Ubuntu Software Center and type "Wine", you'll get the following search results:



Next select the Wine beta option (its better to select beta since it has loads of bug fixes compared to the stable version, ironically! :) ) as shown in the previous pic and install it:



Thats it! Now whenever you come across a .exe file or any Windows supported file, just right click on it and select the option to open the file with Wine. It will then run exactly as it would on Windows.

Extra Tips:

Here's some really useful info. Wine actually modifies your Firefox tahoma font and unfortunately that will make all your firefox fonts look really really weird! Eg. bold fonts would look like regular fonts etc. There's a way to undo the damage without affecting Wine at all. What you need to do is go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. From there, search "ttf-tahoma-replacement" in the search bar. It will obviously be installed on your system (considering you've already installed Wine).

So what you do is basically select the package and mark for complete removal of it (just the "ttf-tahoma-replacement" package, nothing else). Click on "Apply" to remove the pack.



And once you have removed the font pack, your synaptic should look like this once you search for "ttf-tahoma-replacement" again in the search bar (the pack should be deactivated/unselected):



I had to figure this thing out by myself. I havent found any other tutorial which explains this Firefox font problem solution.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed finding it out!