Free image editing programs.

[gbomb944]

I decided to start this to gather info and share ideas on different freeware image editors. Image editing is a blast and for those who've never tried it I advise you to get into it. It's creative and makes a nice break from gaming, benching, and reading posts. It's also a great skill you can use in the workplace or if you want to make a sig or a web page.

Another reason for this thread was simply as a service to other forum viewers who don't want to see 20 screenshots in full quality jpeg at 1200x1600 resolution. I have broadband but it still takes me like 20-30 seconds to open up some forum pages and the screen is jumping everywhere as each pic finally loads. It's also a pain in the arse to have to scroll sideways to see all of the info as my desktop is only 1024x768.

So you guys who post these behemoths please be considerate and downsize your jpegs to 800x600 or at least something smaller than 1024x768. Also saving as gif or png w/256 colors provides very good image quality at about 60% of the original file size. For a high res pic of a component or something a full quality pic is appropriate but for benches and what have you a small gif is way good.

I dl'd the image viewer from http://www.faststone.org/ and it doesn't appear to contain any virus or spyware but use at your own risk. It's only a couple of MB so it's not a behemoth like photoshop or whatever. ctrl c ctrl v works just like in paint, ctrl r is resize, get to know it. It works in full screen and you can also preview in splitscreen/fullscreen before you save in case you worried about seeing everything.

1024x768 jpeg @ 273KB size


800x577 50% quality jpeg @ 85 KB - 70% smaller file size


There are tons of progs if you go to download.com they have a image editing section then refine your search to look for "free" and you'll find hundreds of them. You'll need protection software, as any comp does, for spyware and virus. Be sure to read the EULA and look for anything suspicious. Most of them are written by fine programmers just demonstrating their skillz.

I'd like something with more editing for effects and custom fonts so if anyone has anything good that they use please post.