Just looking for a good basic editing software to crop or adjust tones, etc. I used to use a free Adobe version, but that seems to no longer be available and I lost the release I had due to a hard drive crash.
Needs to work on Win XP
Bring out the GIMP!
I use this and PShop for contests on Fark, but there are a lot of people who use GIMP exclusively.
Hope this helps…
Picasa is a good photo organizer and basic editor. Paint.net is a more advanced editor. Picnik and Photoshop Express are decent online editors.
Autodesk has an impressive free version of Sketchbook, Sketchbook Express, available on the Mac, but there doesn’t seem to be a Windows version.
Failing that, there’s The GIMP, as previously mentioned, but I think it needs X11. The download page says it runs on any NT-based version of Windows, which includes XP, so maybe it installs that too.
Here’s an interesting list that includes several I hadn’t heard of.
Thanks for the responses and recommendations.
Sunspace, great comparison info in the list you linked
For basics XNVIEW can’t be beat and it’s free
I second this. Great for cropping and has gamma correction. Excellent down and dirty program. It loads pictures very quickly.
I’ve never used Gimp, but I frequent a photography message board and lots of them use it exclusively as well. From what I understand it basically boils down to a free version of photoshop, just much more difficult and convoluted until you’ve had some experience with it.
Best little program bar none IMO. Free of course.
Yes it does. But, if you use it, you’d better like the multiple window interface. The next version is going to have a single window mode, but it is taking quite a long time, and not even the beta has it for Windows yet.
I’ve tried GIMP numerous times but I’ve never gotten the hang of it.
I think Picnik is great – naturally it doesn’t have curves and such like Photoshop, but it’s a pretty powerful online program.
Here’s a good list of free photo editors:
I’m bumping this slightly zombified thread because I’m about ready to put my fist through a wall due to photo editing issues. I’ve tried a lot of the freeware suggested in this thread and elsewhere. I’ve tried commercial software. It’s either far too powerful and complex, or it doesn’t perform simple tasks simply enough.
You know what I want? I want the goddam Microsoft Photo Editor or its equivalent. This old program, which of course is discontinued, can:
- Open in a nanosecond
- Easily define a selection within an image and move, copy, delete, or create a new image from it
- Easily re-size an image
- Do a number of other functions much more simply and easily than any other software I’ve used
Actually I’m fibbing a little - I have it on my computer, copied it from an older machine. But it was written before photo images were very large, and doesn’t work with most new, large files. However, when it works it is better for basic tasks than any of the dozen + other programs I’ve tried. Can someone PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE just re-code it exactly as it was, but able to work with larger images? That’s all I want for Christmas.
I’ve been happy with XnView as a replacement but I miss the ability to crop into an oval. But as you pointed out, it doesn’t like large files.
XnView is dead to me. When I installed it changed settings in both Firefox and Chrome. Death to any software that does that.
And it crashed every time I tried to use it. Great product. Just great.
Wow, I’ve used it on several platforms and I use firefox. never once had a problem.