Unleash you inner graphic designer with these free and effective downloadable photo-editing apps. Plus, we highlight a few Web-based alternatives.
There’s no argument about it: Adobe Photoshop is still, hands down, the best photo-editing software. Unless you’ve been formally trained, this computer application is also one of the most difficult to learn, frustrating to use, and expensive to buy. But for the home user, Photoshop isn’t necessary for basic and semi-advanced tasks, such as resizing, cropping, and exposure correction. Downloadable photo editing tools have advanced way past Microsoft Paint, and you really can do almost anything you could do in Photoshop, and sometimes more. The best part? Many of them are completely free.
We tested out a number of apps, highlighting the good and bad of each. Some programs offer powerful editing tools, while others help you organize and upload photos to your social networking profiles.
Often heralded as the best free alternative to Photoshop, GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is an open-source application that relies on a community of volunteer developers who maintain and improve the product. Available for Mac and PC, you get a lot of professional-level editing and retouching tools, and it is the closest to Photoshop among the free apps mentioned here – perfect for designers who can’t or won’t shell out hundreds of dollars to Adobe. Once you launch the program, you’ll find a dedicated window that displays the image, and separate windows to organize the toolbox and layers – it may look like Photoshop, but GIMP has its own look and feel. When using a large or two displays you have a nice, big workspace to play with your images. Icons in the toolbox represent actions such as the crop, lasso, paint and brush tools, and you can apply various effects to your photos.
Plus: Professional-level tools let you retouch your work to your heart’s content. Dedicated open-source community of developers.
Minus: Like Photoshop, there is a learning curve. (Users familiar with Photoshop may need to adapt themselves to the GIMP environment.)
Besides image editing, PhotoScape also lets you create slideshows and animated GIFs, capture screenshots, and combine and split images. You can customize your toolbar, so you can organize the features you use most, and then revert to the default toolbar when you want to dig deeper into the software’s offerings.
Free comes with a price, however. PhotoScape software is free to download. But it’s part of the Open Candy network, and runs ads for other “recommended” software. This is isolated to PhotoScape, and won’t infiltrate the rest of your computer with adware, but worth noting.
Plus: A mix of basic and advanced tools help edit photos. Converts RAW images to JPEG from DSLRs and other advanced cameras.
Minus: Adware recommends other software programs for you to download – the price you pay for “free.”
This is a case where the apprentice becomes the master. Paint.NET was originally developed as an college undergraduate senior design project mentored by Microsoft; it continues to be maintained by alumni of the program. It was originally developed as a free replacement for Microsoft Paint, which comes as part of Windows. Paint.NET has surpassed Microsoft Paint in functionality, and has some advanced features.
Paint.NET has an intuitive user interface that supports layers, undo, special effects, and other tools. Where Microsoft Paint was able to do little more than resize images, Paint.NET is able to handle more advanced photo editing that you’d expect from Photoshop and other paid programs.
Plus: Features far surpass Microsoft Paint, which the program was modeled after. Supports Windows 8.
Minus: The program isn’t as well maintained as other freeware, although development continues.
Picasa is less of a photo editor and more of a slideshow creator and photo organizer, but there are just enough basic editing tools for the layman designer. The Mac and PC program, which Google acquired in 2004, lets you share photos on your Google+ profile. Using Picasa you can easily scoop up all the photos on your computer or drive, and format them to share. You can select a standard upload size and the program will take care of prepping the photos. In addition to Google+, you can sync your albums from Picasa to web albums on other sites.
Plus: Easily picks up photos from your computer or other media to share on Google+ account. Google continually adds new features like geotagging and face recognition, and incorporated aspects of the now-defunct Picnik (another Google property).
Minus: Automatically grabs any file in your criteria, which might include unintended files such as graphics from games and other images on your computer.
Serif created Photo Plus Starter Edition as a free version of its paid software suite to give users elementary tools to edit photos. The software has the basics covered, with tools that let you resize, apply filters and effects, and reduce red eye, among other functions. Because it lacks certain features of the paid version (the goal is to entice you to pay to upgrade) and will only get you so far in your photo editing. It does however, provide tools in an easy-to-use format that lets you polish photos for your album.
Plus: Basic tools to clean up and edit photos.
Minus: A free version of a paid software package, so it lacks more robust features.
Online alternatives
Don’t want to download and install software on your computer? If you have a reliable connection, here are a few Web-based programs that will never see the spinning the disc of your hard drive.
Pixlr.com has a tiered offering that is entirely free. The site separates its photo editing into Pixlr Editor (advanced); Pixlr Express (efficient); and Pixlr-o-matic (playful). The site also offers a mobile suite so you can edit photos on a smartphone or tablet – both iOS and Android versions are available.
The Pixlr Editor is most like Photoshop. It’s a straightforward photo-editing tool that lets you crop, size, and tweak the image. It has a red eye tool that eliminates those devil eyes that appear when the flash goes off. Express lets you put creative overlays on your images – this is really for playing with your photos. You can put a stain on a picture to make it look like you rested a coffee mug on the photo, for example. Pixlr-o-matic is well-described as “playful.” This is where you create the Instagram-like, old-looking photos. You can apply borders on your images or give edges a faded or torn look. You can go old-school darkroom: While you’re playing with your photos they have the appearance that they’re in a solution or water bath during the development process.
Plus: Once you’re done editing in Editor you can go to Express or Pixlr-o-matic to add effects.
Minus: You have to jump from one application to the next.
If you use Microsoft Paint rather than Photoshop, iPiccy might be up to your speed. The site lets you edit photos with an automated process. Rather than using wands and tools to actively edit photos, the effects are applied to the whole photo in most cases.
Click a button to fix image, resize, crop, rotate and flip, or change the exposure, among other settings. While iPiccy may sound like a simplified app, there is complexity in that it offers a number of editing options. Many settings have a slide rule that let you adjust brightness, contrast, and other functions. The one complaint might be that there is no undo button. What we would like to see is a reset-to-zero button on the slide rule, as it’s difficult to get the bar back to the beginning if you decide you want to return to the starting point. Several tools including a blemish and wrinkle remover help clean up photos. Then you can do a few cosmetic fixes like apply a sun tan, blush, or mascara. Though it has some practical purposes, some fun can be had with iPiccy.
Plus: Several options help you clean up photos and make them more attractive to share.
Minus: It’s easy to get carried away with some adjustments, and difficult to get back to zero to restart the process.
For so long Adobe Photoshop has been the gold standard of image-editing software on the desktop, shouldn’t Adobe be the go-to for online photo editing? Don’t let the name fool you, as Photoshop.com has a different look and feel than the desktop program. But a full range of basic tools are available including the ability to resize images, fix red-eye, adjust saturation, and touch up photos. Adjustments include highlight, dodge, burn, sharpen, and soften images. There are a number of effects including a chrystalize, pixelate, pop color sketch and distort effect.
Adobe also gives you 2GB of cloud space to upload and share photos. In recent editions the focus may have shifted toward Photoshop.com becoming more of a photo sharing site, but the editing tools are still top-notch.
Plus: Sophisticated yet simple photo-editing tools.
Minus: Despite its name, more emphasis on photo sharing gets in the way of editing your pics.
Fotor simplifies the photo-editing process: Click through a few menus to crop, brighten, and tweak your photos. Once you’re done, you can add effects like borders, the look of the paper, or a scratchy pencil on the photo, for example. You can even customize the interface by changing the theme.
Plus: Easy-to-use menu to edit photos.
Minus: Sometimes difficult to find the “apply” button that saves the change and lets you move on to the next step. Want more advanced tools for detailed-level editing? Go elsewhere.
Source : digitaltrends[dot]com
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