Technics: Free foto-editing: 4 + 5 apps to make foto-editing cheaper and to retain quality
I gathered the offerings of two autorities in the field of altnerative foto-editing apps (alternative to the very expensive Photoshop). First, is Nancy Messieh (4 of her selections), and, second, is Taty (6 selections). I'm hoping to try some of these out, and you may hear of my results — if I like them!
— Technowlb, refWrite Backpage technics newspotter, analyst, columnist
MakeUseOf.com (Jan28,2k13)
Crop, Retouch, Fill, And Create New Images With These 4 Online Photo Editors
While there is simply no comparing robust photo editors like Photoshop or Gimp to online alternatives, sometimes a simple online tool is all you need to get the job done. Whether it’s content aware cropping and filling, applying filters and textures, or even doing a little bit more Photoshop-like tasks like using a cloning stamp, there’s a wide array of online tools that will get the job done, and for free.
We’ve put together a list of four online tools that should be in the arsenal of any photographer, designer, or blogger, making it easy to get basic photo editing tasks done on the fly, and in some cases, even on your mobile phone. In no particular order, here they are.
Croppola
Content Aware Cropping with Croppola
If you’re looking for the perfect way to crop your photos online, look no further than Croppola.
The free online service goes beyond giving users a way to simply crop images. Croppola provides users with content aware cropping, meaning that it will suggest, based on your image, how it should be cropped.
Upload your image to Croppola, and choose the dimensions of your new cropped image – the options include maintaining the image’s aspect ratio, square, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and more. It even has a setting to crop an image to the Facebook timeline’s cover photo.
After choosing the crop, you can download the cropped image to your computer.
With Croppola, you can crop multiple images on the website, and download them all as a zipped file. Find out more about Croppola here.
WebInPaint
Content Aware Filling with WebInPaint
While Photoshop offers users a great content-aware filling feature, not everyone can afford Photoshop. If you want to use the feature online, give WebInPaint a try. The free service allows users to upload images to the website. Simple swipe over the parts of the picture that you want removed, and WebInPaint will do the rest.
For a free, online service, WebInPaint works surprisingly well. We tested the service with busy photos filled with distractions that we wanted removed, we tried it with simple images, removing just one element, we tried it with black and white photos and color, and in all situations, it was able to successfully remove the parts of the image we didn’t want. An example can be seen below. Before putting the image in WebInPaint it looked like this:
And after removing one element from the photo, this is what it looked like:
[Notice the anti-Christian religious prejudice in removing a Sign of the Cross from what's probably a monastic encrypted to tomb! AG]
Pixlr
Robust Photoshop Features with Pixlr
If you’re looking for an all-in-one online photo editor, Pixlr is one of the most robust options out there. We’re also big fans of the fact that it looks and feels a lot like Photoshop, making it pretty easy to use. You can upload images directly to the site, or even just import an online image using the direct link to the JPEG. Another great feature that Pixlr offers users is the ability to create new images with transparent backgrounds, so you can create PNG logos without having to worry about having access to Photoshop.
Pixlr is packed with basic and advanced editing features – from cropping and resizing to a clone stamp, magic wand, layer,s and much more. Pixlr is also available as a mobile app.
PicMonkey
Apply Filters with PicMonkey
With an Instagram-led obsession with filters, no online photo editors list would be complete without at least one option which gives users access to lovely vintage filters. PicMonkeydefinitely fits the bill with a ton of filters to choose from. Not all of them are available for free however, with some features limited to paying members. A membership will set you back $4.99 a month.
Other than adding filters, PicMonkey also provides users with basic photo editing features, retouching, adding text, frames and textures to images, and more. Find out more about PicMonkey in our in-depth review here.
5 Free Alternatives to Photoshop You Should Try
With digital photography largely taking over traditional film photography’s place, it has become more and more important to have an image editing software. The king of kings is, of course, Photoshop, but with a price tag of $699 for the full version, many started to wonder if there aren’t free options around that could do the same things Photoshop does.
What program you need depends largely on what you will use it for. We’ve previously published a list of free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop which are under 2MB. Today, we’ll be looking at a couple more, very capable, great Photoshop alternatives.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is a program rich in features, tutorials and with a supportive community to help most new users through their learning curve and issues. Paint.NET started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft which was meant to substitute Microsoft Paint, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. It has a large number of buttons that are exactly like Photoshop and an equal number of Photoshop features, which makes it a very strong candidate as a substitute for those looking for a Photoshop like program. I dare say that most of what can be done in Photoshop can be duplicated using Paint.NET.
GIMP
GIMP is, without a doubt a very capable image editing software with many of the same features as Photoshop. And if you require a program that allows you to create several layers, manipulate individual parts of the picture, create filters and tools and work with a variety of formats, including most Photoshop native formats, such as PSD; then GIMP is the right program for you.
For those who have used Photoshop before, the interface will seem reasonably familiar, with many of the buttons having the same name and being in similar places on the interface. For those who have never used advanced image editing software before, GIMP has a very comprehensive list of tutorials, from beginner to advanced level which can be found atGIMP’s Documentation page. Or you could just take a look at these 5 Websites To Learn GIMP Online.
PhotoScape
PhotoScape is built to be user-friendly, with an intuitive choice of projects to select from, which vary from image editing and GIF creation to a wizard to combine pictures together or take screenshots. It certainly does not have as many features as Photoshop does, but can do, with a single click or two, many of the same things it would take a Photoshop user several clicks to do.
VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor
VCW comes bundled with optional web album software, but even without it, the VCW can be a very handy tool for image editing. The program has an old interface and doesn’t look visually attractive, but the tools work well and allow you to do most of what you’d need from a simple photo editor, such as cropping, drawing tools, contrast and color adjustments, effects and filters. The program also comes with a video tutorial to help you master it all.
Picnik – an online option
Picnik is a simple but helpful online photo editor which can help you with either basic adjustments such as sharpening and red eye or more advanced filters under the “create button”, which opens options for features such as text and color effects and many of the same filters you can find on Photoshop. It is not designed for layered editing or advanced manipulation of images, but it does a very good job with one click pre-set adjustments.
As with most programs, there are probably more options than you imagine, and th examples above are just a sample of what is available online to substitute commercial software. Finding the program that can do what you want or need it to do can sometimes mean finding a program with simpler features, but that does those things well. On the other hand, if you want flexibility and control over all the aspects of your image editing, you can also find options above that will give you tools to fulfill all of your needs.
Do you use any of the free alternatives to Adobe Photoshop listed above? Have you compared any of them to Photoshop for particular tasks? Tell us your thoughts.
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Labels: foto copping, foto fill, foto retouch, foto technologies, MakeUseOf, new images, technics
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interview with Russ Weakley
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