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Why design the
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Open Source way?
Open Source is a form of licensing agreement that allows users to freely modify an existing project, generate a new project, or even derive a larger project from an existing one, enhancing the original work. Works which use these licenses are often made collaboratively, and over time a culture of practices and norms have developed to facilitate this process. At its best, this open source Open Source culture enables the equal exchange of ideas within a community to harness group creativity, ease of use, and flexibility. Open source Source software is typically free of charge, and often so too is support, provided on a community-driven and best effort basis. Using (as opposed to making) open source Open Source software often incurs a lower total cost of ownership than its closed source and proprietary alternatives.
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These guidelines are intended to be used as recommendations and inspiration as opposed to fixed requirements. If you have questions or are not sure about something, the best thing to do is file an issue on our Jira Service Desk to start a conversation with other openIMIS contributors. |
Open
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Standards
In a world where paper documents are being rapidly supplanted by electronic records, long term access to the data becomes critical. This is especially the case for legal contracts and government documents that stay valid and relevant over decades. GIZ is also facing this challenge. Just as pens and pencils are available from many manufacturers and vendors , document file formats and the applications which use them need to be supported by and available from multiple vendors. This guarantees long-term access to data, even if individual vendor companies disappear, change strategy, or dramatically change their prices. The digital format in which information is stored can either be “open” or “closed”. An open format Open Standard is one which is available for everyone to use, free of charge, and capable of being built upon – for example into new software products, without any limitations. Developers can use these to produce multiple software packages, services, and products by using these formats.
In short: A file’s format – the way that it’s saved and encoded – determines what data it can store, what you can do with it, and which programs can open it. You can read more about the definition of Open Standards on OpenSource.com.
A “closed” file format is one that is proprietary. Usually this means that the technical details of the format, including its specification, are secret and known only to its original creators. It may also mean that the format is protected by copytight, trademarks, or patents, and therefore only usable by those who have obtained the necessary rights – even if the specification has been made public.. Using proprietary file formats for which the specification is not publicly available can create dependence on third-party software or file format license owners. The latter type of closed format can cause significant challenges to reusing the information stored in it. Additional software or licensing may be required tomorrow in order to continue to access data which you create today.
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These are some of the most popular file formats:
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The openIMIS project will be primarily focused on image and text documentation purposes. This includes branding assets, marketing materials, and communication kits. Vector files should always be stored as .svg instead of the proprietary .ai (limited to being used only by Adobe Illustrator). In this case, .svg is the open format Open Standard that can easily be read and modified without vendor lock-in or being inaccessible due to license losses. As it is, at its essence, a subset of another open format Open Standard called XML, it can be modified in a text editor, without a graphica user interface.
Converting proprietary formats to
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Open Standards
Often applications used to create data files support multiple data formats, allowing you to choose between them. If, for example, you’re viewing a document online in Google Docs, you can click File and Download to bring up a list of formats to which you can convert the document. These include Microsoft Word, PDF, and plain text.
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When selecting file formats for archiving the format should be:
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There is no standardized process for converting proprietary formats to open formatsOpen Standards. It always depends on the complexity of the format and the files, and varies from format to format. For example, converting a file from .ai to .svg using Adobe Illustrator may be as easy as exporting as .svg from the software, but sometimes something can go wrong in the process, which may go undetected until the results are closely inspected. These edge cases are the hardest ones to work around – usually an error in an .ai to .svg conversation may require rewriting or recreating the assets and then export them as .svg to ensure maximum compatibility.
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There are many downloadable tools and online platforms which can help you to convert open formatsOpen Standards. In this section, we will present some ways to convert open formats Open Standards in desktop software, online platforms, and finally in a command line terminal.
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You're not just limited to straight conversions. You can, for example, add a table of contents, typographic quotes, custom headers, and syntax highlighting to the resulting file. Take a look at Pandoc's documentation for details and the open formats Open Standards it allows you to convert.
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Zamzar is an online file conversion platform that lets you convert documents, images, videos, sound, and many more open formatsOpen Standards. As you are not required to install it, you can use it from any browser, even mobile.
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There are lots of tools available to create visual assets (graphics) for any need. While the current industry standard is Adobe Creative Cloud, we try to keep proprietary software to a minimum. When this was not possible or difficult, the minimum we aim for open formatsOpen Standards. In the following, we will go through recommended tools, the various file formats they support, and limitations they pose in different conversion settings.
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GIMP is the first alternative software to Adobe Photoshop, recommended for creation of raster graphics for the openIMIS project. It outputs open format Open Standard files, it's extensible, flexible, and easy to use. The latest version of GIMP provides several new features with an easier-to-use user interface. GIMP can also open and work with PSD (Adobe Photoshop files), but with a reduced feature set and less-than-ideal end results. GIMP may not preserve all text information or layer styles but if you have no access to Photoshop it might be a good enough solution. We recommend outputting to XCF (GIMP files) so they can be shared and reused easily in the future.
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Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor. This multi-platform application can be used to create and edit vector graphics such as illustrations, diagrams, line arts, charts, logos, icons, and complex paintings. Inkscape's primary vector graphics format is the open format Open Standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG); however, many other formats can be imported and exported. It is licensed under the General Public License (GPL).
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LibreOffice Draw is a free and open source Open Source vector graphics editor. Draw lets you produce anything from a quick sketch to a complex plan and gives you the means to communicate with graphics or diagrams, flowcharts and even technical drawings.It supports open formats Open Standards that allow you to use documents from other programs so you don't have to isolate yourself or your workflow into a LibreOffice world.LibreOffice Draw uses Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF) (.odg graphics extension) as its default output format as an international standard file format.
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Diagrams.net (formerly draw.io) is an open source Open Source online platform created to help you design flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, UML, ER diagrams, network diagrams and much more. You can create your own custom shape libraries or use their large collection of shape libraries which offer hundreds of visual elements, making it plain and easy working with metadata to pack more useful information into your diagrams. With numerous shape libraries offering hundreds of visual elements, Diagrams.net covers every use case you can think of for creating diagrams by embedding them within Atlassian Confluence and Jira software.
Draw.io lets you import and export files into open formats Open Standards such as .svg, .png, .jpeg, .pdf, and .xml.
We recommend using diagrams.net together with its native Confluence integration. Especially in situations where you might be unable to install software on your device. It can be used from the web browser and store files on the cloud or your device. While designed as a flowchart and diagrams application, it can also replace the need for a vector editor as Inkscape, especially for basic communication design tasks.
Publishing Documents
Open formats Standards are not exclusive to design. Text documents are a crucial part of openIMIS work processes and are often required to be compatible with design tools. These formats often overlap, and we will go through the most important types of document formats, which can impact the design. While these formats are often overlapping, we will cover the primary types of documents that have an impact on design processes.
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LibreOffice Writer is part of the open source Open Source LibreOffice suite and can export files to HTML, XHTML, XML, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), and several versions of Microsoft Word files.
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Software Code | Open Source |
Platform | Linux, Windows, macOS |
Recommended Project Formats |
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Recommended Export Formats |
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Confluence is an online proprietary publishing platform, designed for collaborative projects work. It is also compatible with multiple software or open platforms, from writing a document in markdown language to organizing team meetings in the same cloud. Confluence can be also used to convert office documents including but not limited to .docx and .odt file formats. This is ideal if you need to edit Microsoft Office or LibreOffice documents without any installed software while still avoiding Google services.
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Software Code | Open Source |
Platform | Linux, Windows, macOS |
Recommended Project Formats | .md |
Recommended Export Formats | .md |
Cryptpad is an online open source Open Source platform that helps you create quick collaborative documents. Cryptpad provides writing software that enables you to import and export your paper notes in .html format or .doc format. It offers a sheet pad and a presentation pad equivalent to LibreOffice Impress where you can export the file in an .md format.
If your project is more advanced, you can also use their pad for creating code files, a smart board where you can design your ideas, polls or even a task manager that helps you keep track of your To Do list. Everything is compatible with open formats Open Standards if you want to export them and attach into different projects to share them with your team, or even using an embedded code by attaching it in your file.
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Font Squirrel is another general hosting site for fonts, all of which are free for commercial use. The site enables you to specifically filter for open source Open Source licensed fonts if you choose. It also comes with a Font Identifier where you can upload your image and the generator matches the font for you.
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Publicdomainvectors.org offers copyright-free vector images accessible in .eps, .svg, .ai and .cdr formats. 65,000 Public Domain vector images are available to choose from, and are free to edit, distribute and use for unlimited commercial purposes. You can also generate your own customized vectors in their own svg generator.
Synfig is a free and open source Open Source vector creation software. Synfig lets you transform any vector shape into another by giving you tools to have full control over your artwork. It also lets you generate 2D animation without having the need to animate frame by frame. Synfig is cross-platform, and works on Windows, OS X, Mac, and Linux. It is licensed under GNU GPL v3.
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Unsplash is one of the best hosting sites to get open source Open Source images. All images are free for any type of use. It provides an API for developers that allows them to access the uploaded images programmatically, which is well documented and maintained.
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Open Source Design is a community of designers and developers who improve open design processes, and improve the user experience of open source Open Source software. This community writes articles, lists jobs, runs events, and presents talks targeted at developers and designers interested in working on and designing in open sourceOpen Source. They have an active and supportive community forum.
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