Far more robust than Microsoft Paint, but nowhere near as loaded with features as Photoshop, Paint.NET occupies a niche perfect for users who want a free image editor that has more than resizing and inverting. Version 3.5 includes an enormous number of stability tweaks and menu adjustments, as well as a couple of new minor features and some Windows 7 love, too.
Paint.NET 3.5 includes better Aero-theme integration and a new Utilities menu.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)One of the biggest changes makes the program's installation far less obvious. The new version automatically downloads and installs the program's prerequisites, including the latest Microsoft .Net version and Windows Installer. It will update in the background now, too, so that you can continue to use the program until it's ready to restart. Longtime users should notice that the program starts up about 20 percent faster, according to the publisher.
The program has been visually tweaked to look better on Aero for both Vista and Windows 7. Mostly, this means that the menu bar appears offset from the Aero pane border, and it looks good. The Selection tool will no longer use the "dancing ants" that most other image editors use. Instead, a context-sensitive gray overlay appears as you make your selection. This works fine when using the lasso tool, but was hard to discern when used with the magic wand. According to the publisher, this change was made to reduce CPU consumption. There are three new effects, as well, for Surface blurs, Dents, and Crystalize.
The new Utilities option on the menu bar now hosts the Language submenu, Manage Fonts, which loads the Windows font control panel, and the manual Check for Updates tool. The full list of program changes can be found here.
There's undoubtedly something striking about the style of photography that draws attention to a focal object by making the rest of the scene black and white (here's a good example). This kind of selected colorization is within reach on your iPhone if you use ColorSplash for iPhone, a relatively new image-editing app from the developer of Juxtaposer and Juxtaposer Lite, two other image editors for iPhone photos.
After you load an image, ColorSplash will turn it into a black-and-white photo--but not permanently. Your full-color image will remain in your iPhone's camera roll. You use your finger as a paintbrush in ColorSplash, and with every swipe, more of the photo's original color is revealed. Keeping control over the brush strokes was our biggest challenge. While pinching and pulling the screen to zoom in is the recommended way to paint the object you want to emphasize, this was in many cases laborious, certainly more so than it would be to choose a smaller brush size.
Although you can't cut a slimmer swath with the brush, you can choose among four brush types that include hard and soft edges and varying transparency levels. An even better feature is the masking button, the red circle on the top navigation bar that lets you see the area you're coloring in bright red. The crimson hue is a sure way to catch your mistakes, especially if the area you're working in is light or the boundaries between areas is otherwise difficult to detect.
While we didn't encounter issues with photo size, the developer's notes warn that images exceeding 1,024 pixels will be shrunk down in the app. ColorSplash can save newly tinkered images in your Camera Roll alongside the originals, and can even let you reload sessions to edit your work. If you frequently share your mobile images with others or online, ColorSplash could be a creative way to add some zing to your photo, though it's not as practical on a daily basis as a classic photo-editing app like Picoli, that will sharpen and color-correct images.
If you have to ask yourself why out of the teems of top-notch freeware image editors at your disposal, folks consistently choose IrfanView, then you don't know IrfanView.
It may not be the slickest-looking app by a long shot, or even the most complex. But its combination of simplicity and strength make the classic image viewer and editor a middleweight favorite. It doesn't hurt that the feature set has some unique extras in addition to the regular touch-up tools. Check out IrfanView in this First Look video.
Other great image-editing applications
-FastStone Image Viewer
-GIMP
-Paint.NET
-Picasa
You must have treated somebody well this year, because you've got a new computer to start 2009 off right. In this edition of the Download.com Windows Starter Kit, we've expanded our collection to include both the recommended free programs you've come to expect from us, and suitable alternatives if our choice doesn't make your grade.
This year's categories include Web browsers, e-mail clients, office and productivity tools, parenting, image editors, music jukeboxes, video jukeboxes and players, file compressors, chatware, torrent clients, and seven five-star, must-have utilities.
Notice the lack of security programs? Check out the Security Starter Kit for our freeware choices to help keep you safe when you surf.
This image editor earns kudos for its impressive feature set. Before it launches, FxFoto offers to scan your PC for images and gives you the option to view a detailed tutorial. The cluttered interface might make you wary, but it's not as bad as it looks.
FxFoto has just about every image-editing tool most folks will need. You can automatically or manually improve shots, remove red-eye and blemishes, apply a number of effects, add frames and borders, correct colors, and alter white balance. FxFoto supplies a standard set of drawing tools and lets you add captions to any of your shots. The handy zoom tool provides a great deal of control over magnification. Once you've tweaked pictures to your liking, you can create a slide show with transitions, though you can't add your own music or narration unless you upgrade to the pay version.
You also can design a photo collage and share it via e-mail, burn it to CD, or upload it to one of several sharing sites. FxFoto is a fine tool for lightweight image-editing tasks.
A LOLdog I made using PicSay.
(Credit: CNET)PicSay's stated purpose is to e-mail or text annotated photo messages to friends, but there's nothing stopping you from using the free program as a makeshift photo editor.
PicSay is a simple application made especially for Google Android, but it's nevertheless the most customization-focused application I've reviewed today. You start by choosing a picture from your photo album or the image you most recently viewed (this won't work if your Android phone is in mass storage mode.) Then press the Menu key to start adding in the special effects: word balloons, colorful headings, cartoony images, and zany photo distortions.
There are more sober embellishments, too. You'll be able to stamp an image with a time and date, and can click into Effects to adjust hue, saturation, sepia tones, and color balance.
PicSay's biggest drawback is that it doesn't take photos from within the application, it only edits them. It also misses the opportunity to upload images to the social networking mainstays of Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, MySpace, and any other blog you own; however, it's early days and perhaps this is all yet to come.
Read more CNET news and reviews on Google Android, Android applications, and the T-Mobile G1 phone.
Several major changes have been implemented in the latest upgrade to the open-source freeware called The GNU Image Manipulation Program. Known as The GIMP, these changes include some midlevel user interface adjustments and improvements to several tools. Version 2.6.0 is also the first release that attempts to integrate GEGL, a graph-based image processing framework that allows for non-destructive image editing.
The GIMP 2.6 implements 32-bit color support via GEGL.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The GEGL integration is mostly a back-end change with a tentative implementation. In other words, the bugs are not necessarily all worked out. As such, it is not turned on as a default. You can use it in two places. Its color operations can be activated in the Colors menu by clicking Use GEGL. This will enact color changes in 32-bit floating point linear light RGBA, as opposed to the standard 8-bit.
The second option for exploring GEGL in GIMP 2.6 is the GEGL Operation tool. The technical explanation is that this applies GEGL operations to an image, with on-canvas previews of your edits. When you select the tool, it will give you a list of about two dozen global edits you can make to an image, including Gaussian blur, adding noise, and sharpening, all supported by the nondestructive GEGL code.
Although it worked fine when I tried adding noise, it crashed when I tried using the c2g grayscale tool.
Two tools have been improved. The Free Select tool now supports polygonal segments, as well as mixing those segments with freehand selections, and editing a selection area. The GIMP's changelog states that the free select tools is one of the most versatile in their toolbox, and I'm inclined to agree. Users can now map different brush parameters, such as size or opacity to pressure or velocity, using Brush Dynamics. This should result in better responsiveness to tablet input.
Interface changes include integrating the Toolbox menu bar with the Image Window menu bar, cutting down on clutter. You now can pan beyond an image border, too. There's also an option for quickly reopening recently closed docks--not a major change, but a useful one nonetheless.
The GIMP 2.6 has not yet been ported to the Mac. Full release notes can be read here.
Add another name to the roster of feature-rich freeware image editors: PhotoScape. Although it eats and leaks about as much memory as Firefox--no, really!--this editor is just about perfect for those making the jump between JPEG and am-pro digital SLR work.
The program loads fast and possesses an interface completely different from those familiar with Adobe's industry-leading tools. Users are greeted by a circular navigator complemented by a tabbed nav. on the top of the main screen. PhotoScape supports RAW, as well as all other major image formats from JPEG and PNG to animated GIFs. It comes with prebuilt templates for users to create photo collages, fumetti, and Web comics, and has a standard set of red-eye removal, light/shadow, and contrast-editing features.
One warning about the RAW processing: Although it looks like you can drag and drop, the converter doesn't change RAW to JPEG unless you load the RAW file from within the native file navigator. It's a minor bug, but one that can lead you to believe that there's no RAW support at all. You can also batch-edit images, combine them, and print them out one at a time or several at once. It might take some people time to get used to the unusual layout, but PhotoScape's only unusual for its genre. Otherwise, it's intuitive, fast, and lacks only the most advanced of image-editing features.
Because not everyone has a Nokia N95 or comparable luxurious 5-megapixel camera (including me,) most of us have to grudgingly accept our camera phones' variable output quality or take the time to fix photos of emotional value. (Or blackmail value, which is also extremely powerful.)
There are a ton of tips out there for improving mobile phone images, and most of them involve a proficiency in advanced image-editing tools and a working knowledge of the parameters required for a dizzying number of tools. That's surely a fun challenge for digital photography enthusiasts of all levels, but what about those with limited time on their hands who just want a quick, reliable fix?
Though subtle, the image on the right exhibits lighter corners and smoother, brighter tones. Compare the curtain noise, for instance.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Mobile media editors
Artifacts from JPEG compression are common problem spots. You've seen those choppy edges and gradients, and abundant digital noise. You've also no doubt noticed that contrast, sharpness, and color quality routinely suffer. There's always trying to eliminate them with an editing app built for mobile media, like Roxio Media Manager, which comes included in my BlackBerry desktop software. However, I found that neither the basic tools to manually or autocorrect photos adequately fixed exposure, saturation, and sharpness; nor did it reverse the glaring red-eye in individual or batch modes.
The freeware app Mobile Photo Enhancer performed much better. A sometimes laggy processor, the app nevertheless noticeably improved photo quality, especially the smoothness and brightness of skin tones. Its basic tools did allow for some sensitivity in reducing noise, sharpening the shot, adjusting levels, and optionally doubling the image resolution. While the overall photo quality improved, the app once again failed on red-eye removal.
Quick fixes with image editors
Before editing, the subjects resembled demonic zombies. Brightness, saturation, and a combination of automated and manual red-eye correction reinstated the glow of health.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Automated batch editing salvaged my photos enough to pass on to friends, but unsurprisingly, individual editing focused on problem areas of sharpness, contrast, and color saturation produces much better photos. Favorite free editors from CNET Download.com include IrfanView, FastStone, and Paint.NET.
The first step is getting levels and contrast in order. See if you like the looks of your program's auto-levels. If not, undo the change and start anew by tweaking brightness and contrast. I usually amp up each considerably. Next, I attack dullness by increasing the saturation, often by 5 to 10 units. This notably improves skin tones and banishes that drained, vampiric matting produced by dimly lit photos, but too much can make the subject looks candied.
Most of the portraits that file out of my BlackBerry are hard hit by red-eye, which only some image editors are skilled at fixing. The freebies, on average, are not. In those cases, zoom in on the eyes to hand-fix them with a pencil, brush, and color-picker tool. It admittedly adds a few minutes, but makes a big difference in the overall image by the time you zoom back out.
I follow up the whole procedure by lightly sharpening the image or the image edges if that's an option in the program I've opened. Oversharpening images can leave them grainy, especially if they're again saved as JPEGs.
Tips for intermediate-to-advanced users
The five-step process above is considerably more involved than a one-click batch conversion, but it will hardly satisfy photography enthusiasts or perfectionists. I'll leave you with an example of a more advanced technique that makes use of image layers and manual blurring, and invite you to share your own methods for improving camera phone photos in the comments below.
Freeware image editor the GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP to its friends, gets a bucketload of small tweaks and bug-fixes.
The freeware Photoshop analogue includes improvements for a wide range of features, but doesn't include anything new. Many of the changes fix tool errors. Curves, antialiasing, the Healing brush, TIFF loading and others received retouching. Several plug-ins and how the program handles them also got a boost, including Unsharp Mask, JPEG saving, Gaussian blur, and others. The full list of changes can be read here.
