Image editing software for bloggers.
Jan
18
Written by:
2010/01/18 01:19 PM
For bloggers content is definitely king. Without content, your blog is nothing. If content is king then images and multimedia are the magical fairy princess. Because it is images that make some blogs extra special and more attractive.
Image credit: Mikael Damkier
Image editing software has become vital in this digital age. It has become almost a necessity to have some form of image editing software in the bloggers toolbox. Whether you’re designing a web interface, or cropping your favourite family photos or altering pictures to fit in with your blog topic. You will need your favourite image editing software.
Below I have compiled a list that you might want to consider.
Free Image Editing Software.
1. Gimp – Probably the most popular open source free image editing software available. It is often claimed to be the Free Photoshop Alternative. It is feature packed and available for the most popular operating systems, Linux, Windows and Mac.
2. GimpShop – Gimpshop is a modified version of the popular free image editing software, Gimp.
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3. Paint.net – Paint.net, as you might have guessed is an open source free image editing software for Windows. It has some of the features you would expect in an image editing software. Like layers, painting and drawing tools, special effects. Its source code is also available for free.
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4. Inkscape – Inkscape is a vector graphics drawing program similar to Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. Brilliant for creating logos, icons and similar. Inkscapes default file format is Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Which is web standards compliant and conforms to W3C’s specifications. Inkscape is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
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5. Serif PhotoPlus – Serif PhotoPlus is not free, but the developers have, for a long time, given away previous versions to encourage people to buy their latest version. PhotoPlus supports some great features including Image enhancements, export optimizer, tools and brushes, image slicing and maps.
6. Pixia – Pixia is the English version of the famous Japanese editing software. It features custom brush tips, multiple layers, masking, vector- and bitmap-based drawing tools, colour, tone, and lighting adjustments, and multiple undo/redo. But, alas, like so many free image editing softwares it does not support gif file format.
7. Picasa – Picasa is Google's free image editing software. But more of an image manager than editor. It integrates very well with the online image storage farcicality hosted by the same, Google. It has some basic editing software but is more geared for organising, sharing.
Commercial Image Editing Software.
1. Photoshop. Need I say more. Photoshop is the cream of the crop when it comes to photo and image editing software. With it I am going to lump all Adobe’s Photo editing suites. Like Illustrator, Elements, InDesign, Fireworks, etc. If you can afford it I would recommend it. There are also thousands of Photoshop tutorials all over the internet.
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2. PaintShop Pro – Now this brings back memories. Remember the old free version of PaintShop Pro. Everyone had it. Now taken over by Corel, it is available as a commercially paid for product. Still very good though. What I like about it is that it has tons of features for little price. More bang for your buck.
3. Ulead PhotoImpact – One of the better cheaper alternatives in the image editing software suites. Ulead PhotoImpact X3 is a sophisticated photo editing and basic web page design program in one. Once again, a fantastic Image editing software bought out by Corel graphics.
4. CorelDraw – CorelDraw suite aimed at the professional designer. With it’s main focus at vector graphics. It’s suite also sports some sophisticated photo editing and tracing software. Used a lot by Print designers, but also has huge features for the web graphics designer.
5. ACDC Photo Editor – ACDC Photo Editor, like most commercial image editors has a ton of features. But what makes this software attractable is that it has a bunch of templates and projects for you to create that perfect project.
6. Photo Impression. Photo Impression from ArcSoft falls into the mid range Image editing software market. The beauty about this product is that it also manages your other media files, like your music and video. Also from ArcSoft is PhotoStudio. A more featured product for image editing. But I suggest you check out their site, as they have a bunch of other media packages for you to choose.
Web-Based Image Editors
1. PhotoShop Express – Once again the top company in the Image editing market comes to the forefront. Although Adobe is late into the online Image editing party, their product is no less impressive. Don’t expect all the features of the desktop version of Photoshop. This is not aimed at professionals. A perfect fit for bloggers, who spend most of their time online.
2. Picnik – A very popular online image editing program. Probably because of its integration with Flickr. It has many tools and features found in full-fledged image editing programs.
3. SplashUp – Splashup is one of the best online image editors. It is really easy to use and is full of features. It integrates with popular services like Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.
4. FotoFlexer – Another free online Image editor. Packed with tons of features as well as being easy to use. This makes it a firm favourite. It also integrates with popular web services such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Facebook, MySpace and more.
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5. Phoenix – Phoenix from Aviary is a simple online image editing software. Although it does not carry a large amount of functionality. It is perfect for bloggers. Bloggers often do not want to create extravagant images, but just want to manipulate and change the ones they have. This is perfect for that. Having said that, it is still a very powerful piece of software and rivals the capabilities of desktop image editing applications
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6. PixLr – PixLr is a basic simple online image editing software. Built for non-professionals which allows you to edit, adjust, filter and manipulate images online. One of the attractions to PixLr is that they do not require you to register. So you can start using the service immediately. Perfect for bloggers.
Conclusion.
I have only touched the surface. The are so many image editing tools available that I could not possible mention them all. Perhaps another post or two or three will do. But there is certainly a wide variety of choice for both the professional and the amateur. Even more so for bloggers who just want to get the job done.
Whether you're just resizing or retouching that picture for your blog, or you’re creating a new theme with banners and buttons. You will need to make use of some kind of image editing software.
Have I missed out on some important image editing tool that you use? What is your favourite image editing software? Why not list them in the comments below.
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