Serif PhotoPlus SE PhotoPlus is a quality piece of photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance your digital photos. It's feature set allows you to adjust colour balance, brightness and contrast, remove red-eye and make many other photo image editing adjustments
With PhotoPlus you can also create bitmap graphics and web animations. Serif is a company well known for providing older versions of their software to entice people to try out, with the hope that in future the user may upgrade to their newest version. At present you can get your hands on their standard digital photo editor, PhotoPlus SE, completely free. (for personal use only) download location Suitable for use with Windows XP/Vista
Digital camera photo tools
Photomeister (freeware) With PhotoMeister you can import the photos from most digital cameras directly into your PC. You can then sort, arrange, filter and crop your photos and also remove red eye. You can easily create Photo Albums to print or export as PDF files, and you can also convert your photos into web pages, emails or screensavers. If you want to create a CD to display your photos on TV, Photomeister allows you to do that too. All in all a very good program which will help you to handle, edit and publish photos from your digital camera in a variety of ways. Version 2.6 (11682 kb) download location Suitable for use with Windows 95/98/NT/XP/2000
Photo organising software
Picasa (freeware) Picasa is a powerful but easy to use suite of tools that enable you to manage and organize your digital images and photos. It also offers several basic photo editing functions, including colour enhancement, red eye reduction and cropping. Images can also be prepared for external use, such as for e-mailing or printing, by reducing file size and setting up page layouts. Installation is easy and once installed Picasa can automatically scan your hard drives for image files and sort them into photo albums, ready for you to customize and organize. This free photo organising software offers a variety of layouts and ways to view your pictures, including a unique timeline feature as well as in a slideshow presentation. Picasa supports import from twain devices, including digital cameras, photo emailing, printing and much more. It’s available as a free download and now, with Picasa Web Albums, you can upload and set up online your own image galleries, using Google’s free photo sharing service hosted by Google. Version 3.1 (9701 kb) download location Suitable for use with Windows XP/Vista or Linux
Graphic and photo image editing software
GIMP The GIMP (Image Manipulation Program) is a piece of software used for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. You can use GIMP as a paint program, (it has a full set of painting tools including brush, pencil, airbrush and clone options) or you can use GIMP for retouching digital photo images. It also has many other capabilities however, and includes an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, and can also be used as an image format converter. It works on many operating systems, and can be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything through it's advanced scripting interface. download location
Paint.NET Another popular program used for image and photo manipulation is Paint.NET. It's similar in features, but not quite as comprehensive as other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, however it completely free to download. It has a selection of useful drawing tools including tools for drawing shapes, plus a clone stamp tool, magic wand, a gradient tool and re-colour tool. It also has a simple text editor and includes support for layers, unlimited undos and redos, and some special effects, including blurring, sharpening, noise, distortion, red-eye removal and embossing. Version 3.36 (1.6 MB) download location Suitable for use with Windows XP/Vista
Photobie Photobie is a free image editing program that provides the user with a selection of useful features, particularly for the digital photographer, including resizing, rotating and flipping images, as well as adjusting brightness, gamma and transparency. You can also cut or copy and paste any shaped portion of the image, and the program provides multi-layer editing options for further creativity. For adding graphics such as drawing shapes with colours, you can do that too, as well as adding text if required. Photobie also enables you to convert the image format and quality. Ideal for web based applications. Add to that a nuimber of other useful features and the ability to capture any shaped area on the screen, means Photobie is a great piece of software that is free for artists and photographers alike, providing it is used for personal use only. download location Suitable for use with Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Screensaver maker (shareware)
2Flyer Screensaver Builder 2Flyer Screensaver Builder is the fastest and most powerful screensaver tools that allows you to make your own screen savers or slide show presentations quickly and easily. You can incorporate digital pictures, music, flash, video or even live web sites. Simply collect your images, JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, or TIF files etc, and 2flyer Screensaver Builder will merge them into a custom built screen saver. You can also add sound and music files in MP3, WMA, WAV, or MID format to accompany the images. To produce a polished presentation an amazing 290 image transition effects can be used between image changes and you can even customise the effects which gives you an unlimited range of transitions at your disposal. 2flyer also enables you to create a single .scr or .exe screensaver installation file so you can email or make available your screensaver as a download and share it with others. Highly recommended. Try it out today! download location |
