# Free Photoshop-like tool? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097 "2015-05-02T13:53:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/1 "2015-05-02T13:53:33Z")
(And boy am I going to be embarrassed if I find out that Photoshop itself is free.) I have a simple task that I’d like to perform, I’m only going to do it once, and it’s not important enough that purchasing a tool to do it makes sense. I am into four different sports, and for my Facebook page I’d like to build a single picture, each quadrant being an iconic image of one of those sports. (Say, bowling pins, golf clubs, etc.) I’m confident that I’ll have no problem collecting four individual images that I want - I just have no idea how to stitch them together. Ideally, I’m looking for a simple, free tool that I can use to do this. Help! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/2 "2015-05-02T14:02:30Z")
MS Paint can do it, it’ll be a tedious Cut and Paste job, but you probably have it on your (pc) computer already. If you have a Mac, I’m sure it comes with something free as well. Everyone I know with iPhones posts stuff like that all the time, so either the phone of the iPhone Facebook app comes with something to do that. Photoshop was about $600+ dollars last time I checked. GiMP is free, but you probably don’t want to learn how to use it just to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/3 "2015-05-02T14:11:47Z")
Paint is simple, GIMP is more full-featured like photoshop, but has a learning curve ([gimp.org](http://gimp.org)). ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/4 "2015-05-02T15:10:06Z")
Thanks, folks - I did not know that! (I used Paint to make the image.) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/5 "2015-05-02T15:16:10Z")
Picasa’s “collage” tool can do this easily. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/6 "2015-05-02T15:22:09Z")
If you want a medium-strength tool, I would recommend PhotoScape. It can’t do as much as GIMP, but it’s easier to use. I’ve used it for things very similar to what you want to do. > **[PhotoScape](http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php)** ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/7 "2015-05-02T15:47:34Z")
If you have MS Office, just use PowerPoint. Another tool would be LayOut. It’s part of SketchUp which is free. Used to be Google, but I think they sold it. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/8 "2015-05-02T15:59:47Z")
Pixlr has a pretty good online image editor. There are some quite funky filters to play with. ---
**Author:** ![Terry\_Kennedy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Terry\_Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terry_Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/9 "2015-05-02T16:44:40Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > (And boy am I going to be embarrassed if I find out that Photoshop itself is free.) Adobe offers limited-time trials (normally 30 days) for their software, including Photoshop. Now that they’ve gone to Creative Cloud, you’ll need to download the CC app first, which will then let you install a Photoshop trial. [Link](http://www.adobe.com/downloads.html) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/10 "2015-05-03T01:21:58Z")
I’m still at a loss as to why the OP thinks he or she needs PhotoShop (or anything like it) to do what he or she needs to do. You’re not editing the photos, you’re just trying to put them together on one page, right? You could do that with Excel. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/11 "2015-05-03T01:51:43Z")
I’ve been using [paint.net](http://www.getpaint.net/index.html) (which, despite the confusing name, is a regular piece of software, not a website) for basic Photoshop-style stuff. Seems to work pretty well. It’s free. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/12 "2015-05-03T12:15:26Z")
Another possibility for you: Imagemagick is free and works on Linux/Windows/Mac You can run a single command line to create a montage from a set of photos. > **[ImageMagick](https://imagemagick.org/index.php)** > > Create, Edit, Compose, or Convert Digital Images [http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/montage/](http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/montage/) ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/13 "2015-05-03T13:47:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’m still at a loss as to why the OP thinks he or she needs PhotoShop (or anything like it) to do what he or she needs to do. You’re not editing the photos, you’re just trying to put them together on one page, right? You could do that with Excel. I needed to crop and save the result as a photo so that I could upload the results as a photo to my Facebook page. There was a small amount of editing involved. ---
**Author:** ![dr\_zippermeyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dr\_zippermeyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dr_zippermeyer)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/14 "2015-05-03T14:33:17Z")
In theory, Photoshop CS2 is free for download. As far as I see, Adobe has neither confirmed or denied it. I guess you can quite safely download it from [here](http://www.techradar.com/downloads/adobe-photoshop-cs2) and take a screenshot of a page (which states it is freeware). In extremy unlikely case troubles arise you can show the screenshot and claim you just believed what was told there. Should work. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/15 "2015-05-03T15:26:34Z")
> [@sevenwood](#): > > I needed to crop and save the result as a photo so that I could upload the results as a photo to my Facebook page. There was a small amount of editing involved. You haven’t told us what computer you have. If you have a PC, then Paint can do that for you. If you have a a Mac, then Preview or iPhoto can do that. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/16 "2015-05-03T16:43:25Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I’ve been using [paint.net](http://www.getpaint.net/index.html) (which, despite the confusing name, is a regular piece of software, not a website) for basic Photoshop-style stuff. Seems to work pretty well. It’s free. Me too. As an aside, it annoys me that it’s harder to find (using Google in Chrome browser) than it oughtta be. If you google [paint.NET](http://paint.NET), Chrome takes you directly to [www.paint.net](http://www.paint.net), which is the site of a company that manufactures actual paint, rather than showing you the google search results for the term [paint.net](http://paint.net), which includes as a second hit, [getpaint.net](http://www.getpaint.net) (which is where to get the program). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/17 "2015-05-03T18:13:47Z")
If you are on Windows: Note that rather than using paint directly, irfanview has a paint dialog addon, so that you can do paint stuff inside irfanview. Irfanview does stuff like cropping, resizing and color adjustments all by itself, and with the paint addon, I find that I can do most things I want to do to images in it. If it gets complex, then I can use GIMP. I just experimented a bit, and found that I can make collages in irfanview: Open two instances, one of which you are going to create the collage in. Open the first image and expand the canvas in that one. Open the other images in the other irfanview instance, copy them and paste into selection boxes in the first instance, and use cut and paste to move them about. If you want to be precise about the sizing use the “custom crop selection” menu to size your selection boxes. If you do anything with images, and don’t have irfanview, do yourself a favor and download it: [http://www.irfanview.com/](http://www.irfanview.com/) ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/18 "2015-05-04T04:45:21Z")
↑ ↑ ↑ This… ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/19 "2015-05-04T06:01:40Z")
There’s a free and easy Android app called BeFunky that’s great for collages and general photo editing/manipulation. I’ve tried a bunch of app-type editors and I like this one the most, plus it’s both app-based so you can use it and upload from your phone, and web-based so you can log in from any browser and do the same. The ability to use it from a browser is what sold it for me. [Here’s a collage I made of my cats and posted on FB.](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=783380911697598&l=25138fc54a) [And another one of just goofy Chico.](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=782279365141086&l=7de26efc92) Each of these took about 5 minutes to put together. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097/20 "2015-05-04T06:25:45Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Me too. > > As an aside, it annoys me that it’s harder to find (using Google in Chrome browser) than it oughtta be. If you google [paint.NET](http://paint.NET), Chrome takes you directly to [www.paint.net](http://www.paint.net), which is the site of a company that manufactures actual paint, rather than showing you the google search results for the term [paint.net](http://paint.net), which includes as a second hit, [getpaint.net](http://www.getpaint.net) (which is where to get the program). Actually that’s correct according to the instruction given to the browser. Yet another charming effect of dumbing down browser UI by eliminating the search box of old ! Weirdly, all this minimalist crap will mean browsers ( or websites thanks to responsive flat design ) will never be as good as they were around 2012 or so… _Never glad confident morning again !_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photoshop-like-tool/719097.md?page=2)