openFrameworks is an open source C++ toolkit designed to assist the creative process by providing a simple and intuitive framework for experimentation. The toolkit is designed to work as a general purpose glue, and wraps together several commonly used libraries, including:

OpenGL, GLEW, GLUT, libtess2 and cairo for graphics
rtAudio, PortAudio or FMOD and Kiss FFT for audio input, output and analysis
FreeType for fonts
FreeImage for image saving and loading
Quicktime and videoInput for video playback and grabbing
Poco for a variety of utilities

free book

NodeBox for OpenGL is a free, cross-platform library for generating 2D animations with Python programming code. It is built on Pyglet and adopts the drawing API from NodeBox for Mac OS X (http://nodebox.net). It has built-in support for paths, layers, motion tweening, hardware-accelerated image effects, simple physics and interactivity. 

The Python Imaging Library (PIL) adds image processing capabilities to your Python interpreter. This library supports many file formats, and provides powerful image processing and graphics capabilities.

Status

The current free version is PIL 1.1.7. This release supports Python 1.5.2 and newer, including 2.5 and 2.6. A version for 3.X will be released later.

pyglet provides an object-oriented programming interface for developing games and other visually-rich applications for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

A 3D game engine for livecoding worlds into existence.

Fluxus is a rapid prototyping, playing and learning environment for 3D graphics, sound and games. Extends the Racket language with graphical commands and can be used within it’s own livecoding environment or from within the DrRacket IDE.

Fluxus is crossplatform (Linux, Windows, OSX), and is released under the GPL licence.

SVG-edit is a fast, web-based, Javascript-driven SVG editor that works in any modern browser:

Graphviz is open source graph visualization software. Graph visualization is a way of representing structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks. It has important applications in networking, bioinformatics,  software engineering, database and web design, machine learning, and in visual interfaces for other technical domains.

Quartz Composer is an Xcode tool that allows for the creation of animations (and transitions) based off the Quartz Extreme rendering engine. "Programming" the animations is accomplished by "plugging in" various modules to various other modules to achieve a cumulative animation effect.

pyglet provides an object-oriented programming interface for developing games and other visually-rich applications for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Including Load images, sound, music and video in almost any format. pyglet can optionally use AVbin to play back audio formats such as MP3, OGG/Vorbis and WMA, and video formats such as DivX, MPEG-2, H.264, WMV and Xvid.

scientific graphing, data analysis, image processing and programming software tool for scientists and engineers.

The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.

Aviary is a free suite of powerful online creation tools

Photo-editing, logos, web templates, filters, color palettes, screen capture & more at Aviary.com

image editing for the rest of us

ted2011: In her book "Gamestorming," Sunni Brown shows how using art and games can empower serious problem-solving.

Tulip is an information visualization framework dedicated to the analysis and visualization of relational data. Tulip aims to provide the developer with a complete library, supporting the design of interactive information visualization applications for relational data that can be tailored to the problems he or she is addressing.

WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, exposed through the HTML5 Canvas element as Document Object Model interfaces.

WebGL is a context of the canvas HTML element that provides a 3D graphics API implemented in a web browser without the use of plug-ins.[1] The specification is currently a work in progress.[2] WebGL is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group.

Everyone needs to edit images at some point, but not everyone has the time to learn super pricey wizbang image editing programs. This is why we created Acorn. Add text and shapes to your digital pictures. Combine images together to create your own. Work with layers to touch up your favorites or make something new from scratch. Do all this and more with Acor

A Multidimensional dataflow processing library for PureData, designed for interactive multimedia

The logic of how things work in Cocoa is quite different from most other OO toolkits, especially when it comes to graphics. Here I will give a comparison to how one does some basic graphics operations in Cocoa as opposed to Qt

The project demonstrates progress being made to support high-performance graphics in Web applications.

MediaCollege.com is a free educational and resource website for all forms of electronic media. Topics include video & television production, audio work, photography, graphics, web design and more.

We have hundreds of exclusive tutorials with supporting illustrations, videos, sound bytes and interactive features. You'll also find reference material, utilities and other useful goodies, as well as a helpful forum.

Everything here is 100% free with no strings attached — we only ask that you respect our terms & conditions. We produce this website because we love it and we want you to love it too.

"Dancing Phalanges". A festival of fingers for livecoded piano.

Batik is a Java-based toolkit for applications or applets that want to use images in the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format for various purposes, such as display, generation or manipulation.

Structure Synth is a cross-platform application for generating 3D structures by specifying a design grammar. Even simple systems may generate surprising and complex structures.

Context Free is a program that generates images from written instructions called a grammar. The program follows the instructions in a few seconds to create images that can contain millions of shapes.

Ubuntu Studio is a multimedia editing/creation flavor of Ubuntu. It's built for the GNU/Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or professional.

Our aim is to make it more accessible for new users to get into the tools that GNU/Linux has to offer for multimedia creation and production. We also want to spotlight what's out there, and show users tools they might not know to exist.

MetaSynth is an award-winning electronic music and sound design studio for OS X. Its six "rooms" provide six unique environments for creating and manipulating sound.

updates, sketches, the life, the leisure

Domenique specializes in art direction and graphic design for creative ideas. From concept to execution, she has worked with startups and Fortune 500 companies to create identities and extensions of their brands through logos, Websites and print collateral.

Raphaël is a small JavaScript library that should simplify your work with vector graphics on the web. If you want to create your own specific chart or image crop and rotate widget, for example, you can achieve it simply and easily with this library.

Impromptu is a Mac OS X programming environment for composers, sound artists, VJs and graphic artists with an interest in live or interactive programming. Impromptu is a Scheme language environment, a member of the Lisp family of languages.

Graphic Design, Referenced is a visual and informational guide to the most commonly referenced terms, historical moments, landmark projects, and influential practitioners in the field of graphic design.

ref: john maeda; a list-apart related? creative commons