Free Photo Editing Software

Free photo editing software can be found all over the web. Here are some of my favorite free programs.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) offers more features than any other free image editing software. You can use GIMP to do major and minor adjustments to your pictures. It is often compared to Photoshop and rightfully so. It is full of similar features, but the layout of the program is completely different. Even if you're accustomed to using Photoshop, it may take you a while to get orintated using this program.

The interface is far from intutitive with lots of windows and the need to scroll through multiple menus to find certain functions, but once you learn the program you'll be surprised by how much this free software offers. GIMP has an active community and you can easily find tutorials. There are also many plugins available to help you add various effects to your pictures.

I've only started using this software recently and the learning curve has been quite steep. I used to use Paint.net quite a lot, but I find that the results that I get using GIMP are a lot better. This free photo editing software still won't beat programs like Photoshop, but if you can't afford to buy an image editing software GIMP is a great free alternative.

Click here to download GIMP..

Picasa is a software made by Google to help you organize your photos in your computer, but the program also has some simple editing capabilities.

This program isn't what you'd want to use if you have some major editing to do, but you can use it to adjust minor things in a picture.

One of the features I use most on Picasa is the straightening feature because it's easy and when I don't use a tripod I tend to take crooked pictures. You can also add various effects to your picture, correct red eye and mess around with color and contrast.

You can use tags or keywords to organize photos. Put tags on you photos and if you want to see all the photos that apply to that tag just click that word and the photos will come up.

Click here to download Picasa.

In my opinion Paint.net is the best free photo editing software. It's not only good for editing photos, you can also use it to draw. I used it to design the header for this site and for my massage site.

If you've ever used Photoshop before, you'll be able to navigate Paint.net pretty easily. One of the best things about this program is the community that loves it. The software's homepage contains an active forum. Owners of the software are constantly creating new plugins you can download. These plugins allow use different effects on your pictures.

If you haven't used Photoshop before, you'll have a hard time figuring out Paint.net at first. I have to admit that I did. It was the first photo editing software I ever got and I just couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Then I started reading the instructions--I hate reading instructions--and I was able to figure it out. It might take some time to learn, but it's worth it. There are some tutorials you can watch on You Tube about how to use it too.

Click here to download Paint.net.

Photoscape is a really good free software. I've only downloaded it recently, but since then I've been using it quite a bit to edit my photos.

This free photo editing software allows you to edit your images and do minor corrections. You can also use it to make a collage, split pictures and convert files.

The software is quite easy to use. Though I haven't explored it completely yet, I have to say that I really like what I've seen so far.

Click here to download Photoscape.