The Web Pack this week has us taking a good look at the top photo editing solutions you can get your mitts on for absolutely free. There’s some seriously good software to be had that doesn’t compromise on features you’d expect to see in paid software. So if you’re in the market for a photo editing application, save your spends and try some for these for size first!
Follow these links for our other ‘issue 270 web packs:
Cooler Stress Testing!
The Best Desktop Enhancements!
Photo Editing and Correction!
Issue 270 game demo roundup!
For free, nothing really comes close to superior power of GIMP. It’s often referred too as the free version of Photoshop. It not a bad comparison but rather closer to the pre-CS evolution of the product. GIMP offers the tools for very complex editing jobs which go far beyond the realms of simple photo enhancement. There’s the Clone and Heal tools for correcting image perfections, layers with masking support, and the Paths tool for precisely tracing objects. It’s a been a while since I’ve tried GIMP, and I’m ultimately impressed with the upgraded features and intuitive functionality.
Paint.NET is an excellent lightweight all-rounder for image editing jobs. Its not focused towards photo specific editing so you won’t find a clone tool or auto red eye correction, but does host all the common filter effects and essential adjustment tools you’ll need. The big win is its intuitive interface layout and tools. If you’ve used any other image editor, you’ll feel completely at home with Paint.NET.
After a bit of fiddling Honril StylePix proves to be a great little photo editing application for simple jobs and provides sliders for configuring individual tools to precise pixel measures. All edits are recorded in an Action List so you can reverse any changes rapidly making it a joy to experiment with the assortment of filters. StylePix packs a lot of function into small package, making it ideal for for desktop and netbooks alike.
What was once a great value paid-for photo-editing and image creation program is now freeware. The range of actions and abilities available in Photo Pos Pro rivals some of the most popular software in this category, allowing you to easily edit and enhance your photgraphs using layers, create graphics from scratch and manipulate images with selection tools, filters masks and more. Website
As the name would suggest, the main focus of this neat image retouching software is filters. PhotoFiltre contains over 100 different filter effects, ranging from very basic things like brightness adjustment to some more creative and complex artistic effects, like pastel and charcoal drawing. Alongside these are the obligatory photo enhancement tools and batch processing. Website
Photoscape puts the emphasis on fun, whilst still maintaining a good range of useful enhancement and editing functions. It features many creative filters and tools, from graphic borders to shaped cropping, stylised effects and photo merging/combining for fun results that are great to share with family and friends. It also contains the option to print predetermined settings, like calendar pages and lined paper, allowing you to create customised stationery. It is a nice way to casually edit pictures, and ideal for those who get put off by the intensity of more serious image manipulation suites. Website
The sheer number of different image file types can be very confusing, even for experienced users. Luckily, FastStone Image Viewer is an intuitive and powerful tool for not just viewing many different file types but also converting them to different formats. Add to this a range of fundamental editing and enhancement tools, EXIF information and JPEG comment handling and even dual-monitor support and you’ll find that FastStone proves to be an invaluable tool for organising your photographs. Website
Retouch Pilot Lite is more stand alone plug-in than fully-fledged photo editor. The software enables you to correct ugly image artefacts like scratches and dust, or completely remove objects from complex backgrounds. Detailed walkthrough tutorials for fixing different imperfections are included and show you just how quick and easy it is to manage effective results.
Hugin is a powerful tool for creating and editing scenic panoramas from your photographs. The creative scope of the program is quite staggering for what seems like a pretty straightforward task. From ‘stitching’ together two photos to create a traditional panoramic shot, to combining multiple photographs for amazing composite images, everything is covered. If you’re not sure why you’d want to use the program, check out the gallery link on the Hugin website to see just what can be done with it!
ALthough Lightbox is no longer updated, it is a fantastically useful enhancement tool for photographs. It has been written from scratch by a photo editing enthusiast/expert and features many of the more useful tools you would expect to see in something like Photoshop. Lightbox is focused mainly on simple yet effective enhancement of photos, as opposed to the complicated and challenging manipulation possible with other software. That said, it does feature some of the more creative tools such as a clone brush and filters.
Posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012 at 6:38 am under Web Packs. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: hot, issue 270, photo editing
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