Image Editing Tools
To empower images, image editing is required which in itself requires appropriate tools. Top in this category is Adobe Photoshop, but it’s an expensive option and if you are looking for the best alternative, you are at right place. I have listed down; best of the category and the good thing is, they are all free. Just download, install and start using them right away.
1) Gimp
Developer - GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
Slym – According to Darren of problogger.net , “If you don’t want to spend money on image editing software though I’d highly recommend downloading The Gimp, which is available for PC, Mac and Linux. It’s a fully fledged Open Source (free) image software package that many claim is as powerful as Photoshop…”, this justifies the usability of the application. Tools available with Gimp can compete with any of the professional editing package. It’s easy to work yet extremely powerful, ideally designed for amateur, pro photographers and Web designers.
Support - GIMP comes with a built-in help system. Once you have started the program, press F1 for context-sensitive help. You may have to install the help pages from a separate package (gimp-help), depending on how your version of GIMP was packaged. Online tutorials and online support forums are also available.
2) IrfanView
Developer - IrfanView is a fast and compact image viewer/converter. It is trying to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.
Slym- IrfanView is simple, fast, and free for individual use although commercial version charges $10. It supports all major graphic formats and capable of saving image file as an icon file, feature not available in most of the editing software’s.
Support - Online forum is available to rescue at time of need.
3) Photoscape
Developer - Photoscape is the fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.
Slym - Photoscape is a freeware full of features for required photo editing. It is easy to use and inbuilt powerful edit function, thus overall experience will be enjoyable and results will be great.
The program loads pretty fast and interface is completely different from Adobe applications. It supports RAW, as well as all other major graphic formats from JPEG and PNG to animated GIFs.
Support – Online video tutorials are available
4) Picasa
Developer - Using Picasa and Picasa Web Albums together, you can now organize, edit, and upload your photos to the web from your computer in quick, simple steps. Arrange your photos into folders and albums and erase their blemishes using powerful editing tools in Picasa. Then use Picasa Web Albums to share those perfected photos online with family, friends, and the world.
Slym - Picasa is from the house of Google and stands to its reputation. It’s incredibly easy to work and fully loaded with features. Picasa Web Albums provides 1 gigabyte of free storage and that's enough space for approximately 4,000 wallpaper-size photos.
Support - Online tutorial, online user forum, and technical support by email are available to the users. For basic photo editing, Picasa is really useful and I know you will like it.
5) Paint.net
Developer - Paint.net is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
Slym – Paint.net can also be seen as an advanced version of MS paint and is different from Photoshop. Overall it’s a good tool.
Support - Users are supported by medium of online tutorials and growing online community, which can add some real extra strokes to your creativity.
Towards end, it would not be wise if I drop Microsoft Paint from the list, after all I started my image editing using Microsoft paint application. Microsoft Paint (formerly Paintbrush for Windows) is a simple graphics-painting program that has been included with almost all versions of Microsoft Windows since its first release. It’s simple and not very powerful yet appreciable, I hope if not all... at least some of you will agree with me.
You can find best of the images at Getty Images, Freefoto and Stock Exchange, but you must check copyright's before using any of the image.
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