Got an image that needs a bit of touching-up? Perhaps some cropping? As our readers are well aware, there are a lot of choices when it comes to editing images and photographs using software and web-based solutions.
In today’s posting, we will share with our readers several of our favorites in the digital image editing realm, including both free and paid services which may or may not send our readers into a creative photo editing frenzy.
The Standard
Dating back to 1987 when Thomas Knoll, then a PhD student at the University of Michigan, developed “Display“, which was (in 1988) built upon by himself and his brother John to become the industry-standard today known as “Photoshop“.
[$199 – $999] [Mac + PC] Adobe Photoshop CS5
Adobe® Photoshop® CS5 software redefines digital imaging with a strong focus on photography; breakthrough capabilities for superior image selections, image retouching, and realistic painting; and a wide range of workflow and performance enhancements.
Brass Tacks: If our readers are professional photographers or graphic artists, there’s no question about it … this is the software for them! If our readers are afraid of huge price tags, learning curves or life-long software addictions, we urge them to preview one or more of the free software/services mentioned a bit later in the article.
What We Use
While Photoshop is the industry standard, our needs are not always that complex. For projects ranging in complexity from grade school to grad school, GIMP comes *highly recommended* from our staff.
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.
Brass Tacks: If our readers enjoy the features of Photoshop but dislike the price tag, GIMP is an excellent choice for many common image editing tasks. There is a bit of a learning curve, and the interface is definitely different than Photoshop, but all around this is a fantastic piece of (open source) software.
In The Cloud
While software-based solutions provide powerful features, cloud editing is becoming more and more popular in today’s world. Adobe is even jumping on the bandwagon with Photoshop Express. There are many choices, and we feel that GigaOM and 1stwebdesigner have compiled some fantastic lists worth checking out.
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