Zero Cost Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

The Flipping Book PDF Reader allows you to "Replace the standard Adobe PDF Reader with the nice flip book. The Flipping PDF Reader allows to read PDF documents in user friendly interface with flipping book effect. Good looking and convenient alternative for Adobe PDF Reader" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

If you like WebStunning.com's flip book reader, the free/demo version of The Flipping Book PDF Publisher allows you to "easily add Flipping Book on your website or create CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk with stunning presentation. Just select one or several PDF documents, configure the look of the book and click publish button" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

For a beautiful, simple writing environment, Fountain Pen "has just what you need to write, with none of the clutter. A menubar, a compositions panel, a toolbar with four buttons… all can be hidden. It’s just you and your writing" (OS: Mac OS X; designer notes: "FountainPen 0.7 was made for Snow Leopard, but Leopard will get the job done.")

For those of you who are making your own cover art these days, Fusion "allows merging several images of the same scene in one. You can merge photos taken with the same exposure or images taken with different exposures. When blending together images taken with different exposure, the program creates an image with high dynamic range of brightness (HDR). Subsequent tone mapping to low range (LDR) uses nonlinear algorithms and allows preserving maximum details of the original images. Key features: Automatic alignment of photos; Summation operator (averaging of pixels); HDR operator" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

The Image Collector is "an application that has been designed to allow the quick viewing, categorisation, and downloading of images from a range of web services. TIC allows you to choose the web service you would like to download from, fetches the latest available images and displays their thumbnails in a scrollable grid. You can then left-click an image to download and display its full version; if you want to keep that image, middle-click on it and it will be downloaded to the selected category. Categories point to a location on disk, so you can activate a category and download an image, and it'll be automatically placed into that category's location. This, combined with queued downloading, allows images to be downloaded and categorised very quickly. There is no need to wait for images to complete downloading before viewing and downloading more" [PBW: if you're working on a color reference notebook and want to grab some images from the web, this seems like it might help speed up things] (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

iText Express is a "cute, intuitive, and refined text editor with word processing completely rewritten in Cocoa, and is suitable for Intel Macs. iText Express provides the simplest way to make gorgeous manuscripts on your Mac! Yes, it's Yummy ! iText Express has lots of attractive features it shares with LightWayText, besides giving good vibes by fully complying with Mac OS X. iText Express blends seamlessly into the OS X environment, and will continue to grow with the power of Mac OS X. iText Express perfectly covers every feature of TextEdit basics and Microsoft Word compatibility as well. iText Express even supports still more lovely features including header/footer, footnotes/endnotes, page layout and numbers, multiple columns, hyperlinks, lists, bullets, tables, bookmarks, customizable guidelines, background color, and vertical writing, yet is so much easier to use. You can embed pictures, movies, and other files (e.g. other text files, spreadsheets, or PDF files) or entire applications within a document too. iText Express can also enhance the find features with the regular expression. You will sure find your manuscripts are led to effortless, lightning-quick navigation. iText Express also allows you to open .epub files in RTFD. With iText Express, please enjoy reading a variety of .epub public domain eBooks. iText Express features flexibility in an elegant, intuitive interface. iText Express will definitely make your writing a pleasure. Remarkable for anyone who expect a reliable simple word processor for Mac OS X" (OS: Mac OS - X 10.3.9 or later)

Jet Photo Studio 5 is "a feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photography software. Features: Organizes photos in albums; Manage photos with the calendar and map; Geotag photos with GPS; Create Flash and Web galleries; Publish web albums with JetPhoto Server. New version 5 can also manage video clips and make Flash or web galleries contains videos" (OS: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7; Mac OS X 10.3 / 10.4 / 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7)

LazPaint is a free "Image editor, like PaintBrush or Paint.Net, written in Lazarus (Free Pascal). Includes BGRABitmap, a set of drawing routines. Features: antialiasing; multiple undo; alpha blending; BGRABitmap; selection of any shape; rotation; filters; update checker" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)

Listen N Write freeware "can be used to play and transcribe ordinary WAV or MP3 recordings. Listen N Write has special features simplifying the transcription work as you can control via keys (while using its integrated word processor) and insert time markers (bookmarks). Moreover, the audio stream is automatically rewinded a few seconds when pressing the Stop key." (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2008/7)

TextCast "turns any text — documents, web pages and entire blog feeds — into personal podcasts you can listen to right on your iPod and iPhone. Catch the bus, forget the paper. Bike, bus, foot and rail: Textcast is ideal for commuters. Just sync Textcast and then your iPod or iPhone, and you can listen to your favorite news, articles and blogs on your way to work. Because Textcast works with iPods and iPhones, it seamlessly plugs into iPod-auto integration systems offered by most manufacturers (and third-party solutions). Stay safe by listening over your car’s speakers. Textcast features Alex — Mac OS X’s ultra-high quality voice — to clearly speak any text you wish to listen to. Alex is also optimized for fast rates, allowing you quickly plow through even lengthy texts" (OS: Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard)

Finally, a heads up on a very cool giveaway: Quiltmaker.com is holding an online contest to win a lovely quilt designed by author Jennifer Chiaverini, her newest book and her newest fabric for Red Rooster Fabrics. To enter, check out the contest page here. Deadline: midnight 11/30/11. (Added: Upon further investigation of the entry form I found that the contest isn't international; it reads "Open to U.S. and Canada residents only, excluding Quebec." Sorry about that, guys.)