# What is the easiest photo editing software? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504 "2003-12-22T19:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/1 "2003-12-22T19:37:59Z")
My boss is a veritable computer illiterate. The Image Mixer software that came with his digital camera is too difficult for him. I dare not try and teach him photoshop fundamentals. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![\_ceQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b9bd4f/32.png) [@\_ceQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_ceQueen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/2 "2003-12-22T19:53:36Z")
Adobe Photo Deluxe studio? ---
**Author:** ![P.Nym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@P.Nym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P.Nym)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/3 "2003-12-22T20:34:27Z")
How much does your boss need to do? Windows XP will do the very basic operations: rotate, print, resize (with a powertoy plugin). It’s actually got a nice wizard for printing photos–I moved one inlaw to XP just because of this feature. If you have a very basic user, who can survive without cropping or adjusting brightness/contrast, you could probably get away without any image software at all. ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/4 "2003-12-22T21:11:59Z")
he needs to do the following: open the huge 5 megapixel files and resize them crop if necessary email them (I don’t think he can handle email attachments, so something built into the program is a plus) thats it ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/5 "2003-12-22T21:45:32Z")
I’d go with [Paint Shop Pro](http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/). ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/6 "2003-12-22T21:56:28Z")
If you have Microsoft Office, a utility called Microsoft Photo Editor, will do just that, and more. I think it only comes with Office 2K and Office XP. ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/7 "2003-12-22T22:12:20Z")
Irfan View will do everything but the e-mail (I think) and, besides being excellent, it’s free. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/8 "2003-12-22T23:33:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ParentalAdvisory \* > \*\*If you have Microsoft Office, a utility called Microsoft Photo Editor, will do just that, and more. I think it only comes with Office 2K and Office XP. \*\* I have that here at work and found its cropping function a bit clunky. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/9 "2003-12-23T01:42:20Z")
Microsoft photo editor is the simplest and easiest to use unless you want an idiot wizzard for everything. You can clean up a picture and crop it to your liking very quickly. It use to come with MS Windows. Jeff, you click on the frame button draw a frame, right click on it and hit “crop”. you’re DONE. It remembers the last crop settings. If you need to change the crop settings then you go into Image Settings. **You don’t have to enter any values** , just click on “rectangle” or “oval”, it set itself based on the frame you make. If you have it set to “rectangle” then whatever is outside the frame will be cropped. FYI, if you use ovals, it won’t work above 300 dpi. It is the same flaw found in Dr Halo (which MS bought and parted out). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/10 "2003-12-23T02:48:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Magiver \* > \*\*Microsoft photo editor is the simplest and easiest to use unless you want an idiot wizzard for everything. You can clean up a picture and crop it to your liking very quickly. It use to come with MS Windows. > > Jeff, you click on the frame button draw a frame, right click on it and hit “crop”. you’re DONE.\*\* I’m used to Photoshop and PSP. Doing it that way never would have occurred to me. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-easiest-photo-editing-software/220504/11 "2003-12-23T03:05:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff Olsen \* > \*\*I’m used to Photoshop and PSP. Doing it that way never would have occurred to me. \*\* Know what you mean. I ran into the same problem with Dr. Halo (that’s how I recognized the setup). When I found out how easy it was I kicked myself. I use MS Photo Editor for all my initial scanning and then I use Adobe Elements. The other thing I like about MS Photo Editor is the gama correction. If you go into Image and then “balance” you get brightness, contrast and gamma. Gamma allows you to take a faded b&W and make the dark parts darker and the lights lighter. I’m still learing how to use Adobe Elements but stuff like the panoramic stitch function and the blending tools seem to work well. I’ve made some seemless 3 and 4 panel panoramics with it that make regular photography look silly in comparison.