Anything but Photoshop - 10 Free Image Editors
This article is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of web design colleges. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.
Adobe Photoshop and Corel PhotoPaint are useful tools, no doubt, but there’s more to image editors than determined by the price tag alone. I know they say you get what you paid for, but there are times when the best things in life are free, like these web-based alternatives to Photoshop. Check them out if you need efficient editors on a low budget:
- The GIMP: It may rhyme with wimp, but it’s certainly far from one. The GNU Image Manipulation Program is one of the hottest free image editors you’ll find out there. It comes with almost all the features that pricey design packages have, and as for those that are missing, the open developing community for the GIMP will soon take care of that. This promising package is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and UNIX users.
- Piknik: Its integration with the popular photo sharing application Flickr has only added to the appeal of this image editor – Piknik allows you to edit and add special effects to your photos on Mac, Windows and Linux systems.
- Pixia: lets you add layers, insert text, apply filters, resize, draw, crop, adjust color and brightness, and do a few other things as well to your pictures. A good tool to work with images and email them to all your friends.
- PhotoPlus: This versatile photo editor opens Photoshop files, supports layers just like Photoshop, has a cool “undo” option that lets you take care of any number of blunders, and lets you add links to graphics through the Image Maps tool.
- Seashore: A fast photo editor specifically for Mac users, this program lets you gradients and textures for text and brush strokes and supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It uses the same file format as the GIMP.
- Paint.NET: This package which is based on the .NET framework and runs on computers that use the Windows operating systems and have Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed. It features filters to handle blurring and sharpening and color control among other options, and allows layers.
- Krita: Available for use on systems that run the UNIX or Linux operating systems, this image editor which is a part of the KOffice suite, offers support for 16-bit images. It supports various filters, color management, CMYK and high dynamic resolution images.
- Picasa 2: You could use this program just because it’s from Google even if you are not too sure of the features and tools. The integrated Hello account (which has unfortunately been disabled now) allowed you to send any number of photos through email in a very short time.
- FotoFlexr: A comprehensive image editor, this tool lets you edit photos from Flickr, myspace, facebook, and Picasa among other online album applications.
- Pixenate: This free online photo editing tool allows you to print, share or upload pictures to an online album. You can use standard editing tools and even apply fun effects.
Subscribe with RSSCategory: Design | 677 views | Posted: October 24th 2008 12:00 am
Comment by Mchilly
on 05 Nov 2008 at 8:23 pm #
I’ve tried using some of those editors
Comment by Larry @ Lutron Dimmers
on 12 Nov 2008 at 9:42 am #
Gimp is an awesome tool. I haven’t used any of the others yet.