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04-27-2016, 01:20 PM
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/M9eNKzQSyIB.XkJsY9iohw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9ODY7cT03NTt3PT EzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/digital_trends_973/b1b4895cacf9f9823a076336b2f7cc0a (http://news.yahoo.com/resort-ms-paint-piracy-free-170143434.html)There’s no argument about it-—-Adobe Photoshop remains, hands down, the best photo-editing software on the market. But unless you’ve undergone-formal-training, Photoshop proves a difficult program to master, and is expensive to use. Related: Adobe brings new Lightroom features to Android in version 2.0 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 MS 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. Desktop-options GIMP 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 – 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.When using a large display, 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. It may seem-like Photoshop, but GIMP has its own look and feel. Download it now for: Windows Mac OS X Linux PhotoScape 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. Download it now for: Windows Mac OS X The Nik Collection The Nik Collection is a full image-editing suite offered by Google… and it’s now totally free. This is one of the most powerful and complete online photo tools at the moment, and Google providing it all for free was pretty big news. The Collection includes seven total plugins, each with a different focus. Analog Efex Pro focuses on effects that produce vintage looks or make digital photos appear more natural, while Color Efex Pro provides a ton of filters. Silver Efex Pro, on the other hand, is tailored for black-and-white images, while Viveza allows you to alter specific colors in the photo without using filters. Sharpener Pro allows you to improve clarity and Dfine gives you noise reduction capabilities, and so on. This allows you to either download whatever tool you need at the time, or download them all and use them interchangeably. The tools may take a little time to learn, but by separating out the different functions, the software makes it easier for people to pick and choose what they need in any given moment. Related:- Google’s advanced desktop photo editing software are now free downloads The only downside here is that the Nik Collection is basically one-and-done. It doesn’t look like Google will be offering patches or updates to these tools, so they may not have much longevity. Get them while they still work! Download it now for: Windows Mac OS X Paint.NET 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 and 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 features an intuitive user interface that supports layers, an-“unlimited undo” to back out of any mistake no matter how disastrous, various 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.- Download it now for: Windows Serif PhotoPlus-Starter Edition Serif created Photo Plus Starter Edition as a free version of its paid software suite to give users elementary tools for-editing photos. The software has the basics covered, with tools that let you re-size, 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-enough that you’ll-upgrade — it-will only get you so far in your photo editing. It does however, provide tools in an easy-to-use format that allows-you to polish photos for your albums. Take note of-Cutout Studio,-in particular,-which is a toolset designed to help create collages and similar scrapbook-style products. Download it now for: Windows 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 Pixlr.com has a tiered offering that is entirely free. The site separates its photo editing into Pixlr Editor (advanced) and Pixlr Express (efficient). 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 more-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, on the other hand, 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. Note that Pixlr straddles the line between Web-based and desktop image editors: There are both mobile and desktop versions of the software that you can download. However, it’s usually easier to just pop open a browser tab and load up the online version. Try it now, courtesy of: Pixlr Sumopaint Sumopaint is one of those “Photoshop lite” image editors that has sprung up in recent years – but it stands out by being truly good at what it does. This web-based software (there’s a download option as well) has a layout very familiar for Adobe users, a tool set that’s easy enough-to understand and use, and a minimalistic feel that concentrates on getting the job done. This option is better suited to-more serious photographers who don’t want to give up any editing options…but also don’t want to pay for their editing software. Try it now, courtesy of: Sumopaint iPiccy If you use Microsoft Paint rather than Photoshop, iPiccy might be for you.-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 images, resize, crop, rotate, flip, change the exposure, and other settings. While iPiccy may sound like a simplified app, there is complexity in its wide offering 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, because-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. Try it now, courtesy of: iPiccy PicMonkey PicMonkey is a favorite editing tool for amateur photographers who want to quickly edit their images and turn them into mini-masterpieces. There are four primary tools in the PicMonkey holster: Editing, Touch Up, Design, and Collage. Editing probably provides-the most functionality, allowing you to apply-effects, advanced filters, spot correction, and so on. However, Touch Up is also a popular choice for selfies, profile pics, event photos, and so on. As you can see, this suite is designed more for the average person, or those who want the best picture possible for social media or sharing and aren’t-afraid to work on it with more advanced tools. There are ads in the free version, though, so get ready to ignore them. Try it now, courtesy of: PicMonkey This article was originally published on April 16, 2015, and updated on April 27, 2016, by Tyler Locoma to-include the Nik-Collection, PicMonkey, and other offerings.
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