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We frequently find ourselves needing to convert or resize images to e-mail to friends, post on blogs, or share on social networking Web sites. All the full-featured images editing programs can take care of these tasks, but we're sure we're not the only ones who don't want to launch a huge program for such a simple job. Kigo Image Converter is a lightweight program that makes quick work of image conversion and resizing, and offers a few extra features to boot.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, and we had no trouble figuring out how … Read more

Not infrequently we see friends and family members sharing photos online that are sideways, often with the disclaimer, "Sorry, I don't know how to rotate it." If you're one of these orientation-challenged people--or if you're just looking for an easy way to rotate many photos at once--try Batch JPEG Rotator. This simple program doesn't do much, but it does make it extremely easy to rotate your digital images.

The program's interface is sleek and intuitive. A large open work area dominates the interface, with a menu down the side giving users access to … Read more

Modern-day digital cameras can record a wealth of information about the photos they take, everything from details about the camera itself to exposure and flash information. One other very useful type of information that can be stored within image files is location data. Although many newer cameras have GPS capabilities built-in, images taken with older cameras may lack this information. Panorado Flyer makes it easy to add location data to existing images using Google Earth, ensuring that you'll never again look at a photo and wonder, "Where was that taken?"

Panorado Flyer is incredibly easy to use. … Read more

As its name would suggest, Konverter does indeed give users the ability to convert their files to a wide variety of different file formats, and it does so with ease. But its other included features didn't quite measure up.

The program's simple, self-explanatory main interface features drop-down menus lining the top of the window, as well as frequently used commands. We started by testing the Convert option. The program offers an impressive list of file format options, including PNG, PTIFF, SGI, and more. We selected a JPEG file and, using the Convert menu, opted to convert it to … Read more

What can we say? BetterJPEG is certainly not the most attractive image editor we've seen, but it gets the job done. Novice users will especially like its no-nonsense approach to image editing.

The program's user interface is pretty plain, but it's intuitive. Drop-down menus run across the top of the interface, and their respective shortcut commands run underneath them. We jumped right into the program without having to consult its ample Help feature, but it's there if you need it. We started by selecting a saved JPEG image on our computer. Using the shortcut commands, we … Read more

Digital cameras owners know that resizing huge snapshots inevitably reduces the image quality, but simply rotating a JPEG file 90 degrees can compromise an image's quality and strip it of important file information, such as time and date. Nico Cuppen's Lossless JPEG Rotator can reorient digital images without loss of image quality or data so that they stay properly oriented whether they're viewed in applications that can read image-orienting data or not. It can reorient single pictures or whole folders of images automatically.

The program's interface is nothing more than a small dialog that's pretty … Read more

If you enjoy photography, don't make the mistake I did.

Using my then-new SLR in 2005 and 2006, I photographed everything from my new son to otherworldly canyons we visited in Utah. The only problem: the photos were taken only in JPEG format.

JPEG is fine as far as it goes, and indeed for most folks it will suffice. But having rediscovered my enjoyment of photography in the digital era, I wish I'd used the raw image format that comes with SLRs and higher-end compact cameras.

My initial regret was from the realization that raw photos, although taking up about three times the storage space as a JPEG and requiring manual processing, offer higher quality and more flexibility. But what I've come to understand since then is a second advantage of raw: because processing software improves over time, raw photos in effect can get better with age.

For that reason, I've begun recommending friends who show some enthusiasm for photography that they should think about shooting important events in raw format alongside JPEG. You don't have to mess with the raw files today, but if it's an important event like a wedding, you might want them for later.

I've included below some samples of a noisy image shot in near-darkness at ISO 25,600 from my SLR. They may not convince you that shooting raw is a miracle cure for photo quality, but they do illustrate some differences with the camera's JPEG and that the raw-processing software isn't standing still. … Read more

We had high hopes for AZ JPEG to PDF Converter. We liked the interface and felt that the program definitely had an edge over some similar programs we've seen. Unfortunately, the converter's error messages and crashes undermine what could otherwise be a very good program.

The application's interface is well designed and intuitive, with large graphical buttons that represent its major features. We liked that the program made it easy to select both individual images and entire directories for conversion, and we thought that the drag-and-drop feature was an especially nice touch. Unfortunately, as we were selecting … Read more

NewView Graphics' File Viewer is a basic image viewer and photo editor that allows users to make simple changes to their images. Although the program works fine, there are definitely more sophisticated options for doing this sort of work.

The program's interface is dated and plain, and it's not immediately clear how to get started. The fact that we couldn't actually open a file using the File menu threw us a little bit. It turns out that users must navigate to their desired location from the Directory pane within the program; a separate pane displays the contents … Read more