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Why design the

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open source way?

Open Source source is a form of licensing agreement that allows users to freely modify an existing project, generate a new projectone, or even derive a larger project from an existing one by enhancing the original work. Works that use these licenses are often made collaboratively. As Open Source open source has established itself, a culture of practices and norms have developed around the concept. At its best, 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  Open 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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1. Open Standards: Introduction and best practises pertaining open standards and file formats for best compatibility across the openIMIS community.

2. Software & Tools: Various software options for creating and converting design assets and documents while adhering Open Standards.open standards

3. Licensing: Introducing Creative Commons licenses to cover licensing guidelines for design assets and documents.

Additionally, at the end of this manual we will provide a set of resources for design asset templates that respect guidelines and best practises outlined in this manual

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As more documents go digital, we have to start thinking about how do we to maintain long-term access to that data. This is especially critical for documents that have lasting importance and significance, such as legal contracts and government documents. Choosing the file formats that can be read and supported by multiple software providers can help ensure long-term access to documents. Even if one provider disappears, changes strategy, or dramatically change their prices, the data remains accessible through other providers. The digital format in which information is stored can either be “open” or “closed”. An Open Standard open standard is one that 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 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 copyright, trademarks, or patents, and is therefore only usable by those who have obtained (purchased) the necessary rights – even if the specification has been made public. Using proprietary file formats 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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The openIMIS project will be primarily focused on image and text documentation processes. 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 Standard open standard that can easily be read and modified without vendor lock-in or being inaccessible due to license losses. As it is basically a subset of another Open Standard open standard called XML, it can be modified in a text editor, without a graphics user interface.

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There is no standardised process for converting proprietary formats to Open Standardsopen 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 lots of tools available to create visual assets (graphics) for any need. While the current industry standard is Adobe Creative Cloud, openIMIS tries to keep proprietary software and standards to a minimum. When this was not possible or difficult, the minimum we aim for are Open Standardsopen atandards. 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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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 Standards 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 diagrammes, organigrammes, UML, ER diagrammes, network diagrammes, and much more. You can create your own custom shape libraries or use their large collection of shape libraries. These offer hundreds of visual elements, making it simple and easy working with metadata to pack more useful information into your diagrammes. With numerous shape libraries offering hundreds of visual elements, Diagrams.net covers every use case you can think of for creating diagrammes by embedding them within Atlassian Confluence and Jira software.

Draw.io lets you import and export files into Open Standards 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 Standards standards are not exclusive to design. Text documents are a crucial part of openIMIS work processes and there are times when they have 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. In this guide, 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.

The key difference between LibreOffice and Microsoft is that LibreOffice is an Open Source open source and free suite of office products, while Microsoft Office is a proprietary office suite that requires users to purchase a license. Both will run on multiple platforms, and both offer similar functionality – with the exception that Microsoft Office will not run natively on Linux.

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Cryptpad is an online Open Source open source platform that helps you set up documents and that allow for collaboration. It offers a sheet pad and a presentation pad equivalent to LibreOffice Impress where you can export the file in an .md format.

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Scribus is free and open - source desktop publishing software available for most desktop operating systems. It is designed for layout, typesetting, and preparation of files for professional-quality image-setting equipment. Scribus can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters, and books. It is released under the GNU General Public License.

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There are many downloadable tools and online platforms that can help you to convert Open Standardsopen standards. In this section, we will present some ways to do that in desktop software, online platforms, as well as in a command line.

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Open Source Design is a community of designers and developers who improve open design processes as well as 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. This is an active and supportive community forum and is a great resource for learning more about Open Source.