Image Editors
Do you need to edit your images but can’t afford something like Adobe Photoshop? Are you on a tight budget? Do you just need basic functions and not all the bells and whistles Photoshop has to offer? If yes, there are a few options for you…. For many, Photoshop is the first thing that many people think of when it comes to photo editing, which I think is great and it’s been my favorite application since college, but for basic photo editing, do you really need to spend the money? Plus it has a high learning curve.
Alternatives? Window Paint is terrible so we won’t even go there and Photoshop Express is just too express. While Adobe Lightroom or Elements are less expensive, you still have to pay for them. Fortunately there are a few free editors and below are some that I know (I’m no expert on any of them but I tried doing basic stuff and they’re great).
- Gimp. Who does not know Gimp? Gimp is:
- Free
- Mac/Windows compliant
- Many high end tools
- Portable. You can run it through your USB drive. Or, get PortableApps and you can have a few apps running through a 1Gig drive. The bigger your USB drive the better (for storage and more apps) but a giger is good enough. Portable Apps is awesome. Read about it on their site but I’ll blog more about it later!
- Did I say Gimp is free?
- Pixlr: Another freebie but this is online. How nice is that? Pixlr has some “wicked” tools and a few nice filters. A bit more basic than downloading Gimp but you can get a lot done with this one application. Try making a nice announcement… or get ready for next Christmas holiday photo card early {SMILES}.
- Sumo Paint: I think this is my favorite online photo editor. Unlike the other online editors, Sumo was intended more for image creation than just editing. Which right there tells you… more features. After clicking here and there to me, Sumo does have a lot of features and it is more Photoshop-ish which made it easier for me to use. There’s a good overview of Sumo Paint which you can read. One day, after I play with it more, I’d love to write more about this and maybe offer a few tutorials.
- Splashup: This is the one I haven’t played much with compare to the three above. What I can see would be handy is the sharing option, share to FB, Flickr, and Picasa. After permission’s granted, I can grab images from my Flickr gallery and edit it in Splashup. Very nice, actually waaaaay nicer than Picnik.
- Paint.net: One I have not had the chance to actually use bit I have it (terrible me!). It’s Windows only (ahhh, that’s probably why I haven’t used it) and it is comparable to Gimp.
With Gimp I can edit images, use layers like in Photoshop and create some cool stuff… where in my case it would be a digital scrapbook page {::SMILES}. Now, don’t get me wrong. Just because it’s not Photoshop it doesn’t mean it’s easy to use. There is a high learning curve for Gimp so be prepared, give yourself some extra time to learn, and enjoy this FREE application. IF you happen to be a UCM student, faculty, or staff, please do visit Atomic Learning and you can have access to some nice FREE Gimp video tutorials. If you are a student, faculty, or staff who needs access to Atomic Learning outside of the university, please contact me and after verifying your status with the university I can give you the username and password.
A few options there for you. Whether or not you want the installed version or an online one, for a lot of the basic photo editing that I know some would like to use Photoshop for, one of the above will serve the purpose just fine.
Have a great week and if you want to share the money you save, send it our way. I’m sure our department would appreciate it {::GRIN}!!
Savitri
Posted: January 14th, 2009 under Mac, OpenSource, Web2.0, windows.
Comments: 2
