Pixel-Pusher Round-up

Creating and/or editing images can be overwhelming at times. But progress has been made to help make that job a little easier for you. Granted, there are tons more out there, but here’s a few that I recommend you consider the next time you start pixel-pushing. Btw, all are free.

Downloadables

• IrfanView – this one has been around for a number of years, and it’s one I still return to for some quick changes. Personally, I use it for resizing or reformatting more than anything else, but it offers a lot more: batch processing, image enhancers, clipping frames from animated gifs, etc.
• FastStone Capture – I use this all the time to make my screenshots. It offers no enhancing capabilities, but that’s okay for me. You can take a screenshot of the window you’re in or drag the area you want either by using the rectangular or freehand tool. If you need to take a picture of a page that scrolls down a few pages, then no problem, this utility can grab the whole thing. It also has a few neat drawing effects. (This version is free, but they’ve started charging for later versions so hurry and get your copy now.)
• Picasa – One of Google’s babies, this is a combination photo editor/organizer. The “I’m feeling lucky” choice on the editing options really does a pretty good job — even takes out those red-eye shots. And organizing your images has never been easier. Simply add tags and descriptions for later referencing. And because it’s Google-owned, you can email your pictures right from this application.
• Paint.net – I’ve only recently played around with this one, but already I see myself heading toward using it more often when I need to do more than resizing or cropping. Like Adobe Photoshop, you can arrange layers of images to narrow your focus on a particular element and make it easier to edit later. But tools like cloning, eyedropper, blurring and so on are just a few of the powerful features this tool brings you.
• GimpShop – Another Adobe Photoshop wannabe, you have all the things you could expect from a high-priced image editing package, but for free. Before, this one was what I used for a while, but I think Paint.net is giving it some stiff competition, at least from my perspective.

Online solutions

• Snipshot – gives you basic editing and image enhancing capabilities. Just upload from your desktop and click away.
• Cellsea – What doesn’t this thing do? Again, your basics are here, but you can also turn your photos into paintings, remove noise, and distort/twist. Additionally, you can upload from your desktop or from a location on the Web — just give it the URL.
• pic resize – a one-trick pony, but sometimes you need just one pony. Upload your image and enlarge or reduce it.
• pixer.us – Another collection of basics: crop, rotate, color adjustment, etc.
• Phixr – basics (of course), but you also have other choices like adding speech bubbles, special drawing effects, converting to sepia tones, and others.

[tags]image editors,pixels,photos,software, web2.0[/tags]