With these free image editors, photo managers, and other utilities, you can take control of your photo collection.
Have a digital camera and plenty of photos? Want some help with editing and managing them all? We've rounded up ten downloads that will let you take control of your photos. Whether you're looking for a top-of-the-line photo editor, a great photo manager, or nifty utilities to handle tasks such as finding duplicates, we have just the thing. And every program is free--not only to download but also to use.
Photo Editors
Face it: Sometimes your pictures turn out less than perfect, and you have to adjust their color, remove red-eye, or alter the dimensions. Photo editors can do all of those things and more. Even if you're a professional photographer, your pictures still could use the occasional touch-up--and the following tools are certainly up to the task.
GIMP
The gold standard for photo editing software is Photoshop, but you have to lay out plenty of gold if you want to use it. Instead, try the free, open-source GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), an exceptionally powerful photo editing application with many Photoshop-like features, but without the Photoshop price.
You'll be surprised at all the power this program packs, including effects, filters, masks, and layers. Though many of its features are designed for advanced users, it has all of the basics as well, such as the much-needed red-eye removal tool. Be prepared for what may be a somewhat difficult learning curve--the high-end features require a fair amount of time to master, and the layout is a bit eccentric.
Once you get beyond that, though, you'll find a program that offers professional-level photo editing but doesn't cost a penny. And it isn't just for tweaking photos: You can use it for creating illustrations and other graphics from scratch, too.
Download GIMP | Price: Free
Photo Pos Pro
Name an editing tool, and Photo Pos Pro most likely has it. The program offers red-eye reduction, of course, as well as automated tools for sharpening or blurring images, making pictures warmer or cooler, and adding frames and special effects. You'll also find drawing tools, and if you're comfortable with working in layers, you can do that as well.
Note that when you install the program, it attempts to set your home page to mystart.com. If you don't want that to happen, make sure to uncheck the box next to that item. Also, the installation process takes quite some time.
Download Photo Pos Pro | Price: Free
Picasa 3
Google's Picasa is the single best free program for photo management, editing, and sharing. It has just about every function you can imagine. If you want a comprehensive photo application, this is the one to grab--it can manage your photos, display on Google Maps where they were taken, perform sophisticated editing tasks, and help you share your photos.
At its most basic level, Picasa is a photo manager and viewer. Run the program and then scroll through your folders, and you'll see thumbnails of all your images. You can also tell it to show photos only in a certain date range. If you want to see just photos of faces, choose the Faces filter toward the top of the screen, and Picasa will try to find only that type of photo in the folder; the feature doesn't always work properly, and it will likely bring up a few pictures without faces, but it's a good first cut.
Viewing photos is only the beginning. You'll also find solid editing tools for cropping, eliminating red-eye, changing the contrast, retouching, and more. The tools are exceedingly easy to use--far easier than the functions in competing programs. Picasa even has an "I'm feeling lucky" button that performs cleanup automatically.
In addition, Picasa lets you create CDs full of photos, as well as photo collages, screensavers, and posters. It can upload your files to Google's Web albums photo site, or publish your photos to your Blogger blog. It also can geotag photos, adding information to them for identifying where they were taken; afterward it can display on Google Maps where those geotagged photos were captured, and show such information right inside the program.
Picasa does have a few faults. First, it can take quite some time to scan your system for photos, so be prepared to wait until it finishes. Fortunately, it scans in the background, so you can get on with other work in the meantime. (Even so, unlike many other photo tools, upon launch it doesn't let you immediately work on your photos.) Second, the interface can be daunting and confusing, so you should expect to do a bit of learning. Once you put in the time, however, you'll find the program to be a spectacular photo editor and manager.
Note that when you install Picasa, it tries to make Google your default search engine. If you don't want it to do that, uncheck the box next to that option. Also during installation, Picasa will set your system to send anonymous information about your surfing habits to Google; uncheck the appropriate box if you don't want that to happen, either.
Download Picasa 3 | Price: Free
XnView
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XnView |
XnView is an excellent, free editing tool that performs double-duty as a superb image viewer. For starters, it has all of the basic editing functions you expect, including tools for resizing, cropping, correcting red-eye, flipping, and rotating. And that's just the beginning: You can also adjust brightness, contrast, and gamma, convert color photos to grayscale, and add watermarks.
Useful too is XnView's ability to convert file formats. You can convert files in a batch, and you can even perform automatic editing on photos--such as adding a watermark or cropping--as you convert them. Though this editor is not as powerful as GIMP, it is far simpler to use, and particularly convenient for quick photo tweaks.
Download XnView | Price: Free
FastStone Image Viewer
Browsing your photos can quickly become tedious if you use only the photo tools built into Windows. If you're looking for something much better, but you don't want to pay a penny, consider FastStone Image Viewer, which displays pictures lightning fast and lets you browse them in Windows Explorer-style fashion. Simply run the program and go to the folders you want to browse; the program displays all your photos immediately, showing thumbnails and a preview screen. To see any image full-screen, just double-click it.
If all the program did was display images, it would be well worth the download. But it does much more, too, as it allows you to crop, rotate, and resize pictures, as well as send them via e-mail. You can also create slideshows or convert images to other file formats.
One of the program's greatest strengths is the wide variety of file formats it supports--it can handle just about any graphic or photo file format you've heard of. And since it previews videos as well, you can use it as a full multimedia viewer.
Download FastStone Image Viewer | Price: Free
PhotoScape
If you take a fair number of photographs, you need this free piece of software. It has so many tools, we can't list all of them in a brief review. At its heart, it's an excellent program for viewing all of your photos. You can browse them folder by folder, viewing thumbnails as you go. You can create a slideshow, as well.
But PhotoScape is also a photo editor, with a complete suite of tools covering red-eye removal, brightness and color adjustment, backlighting correction, cropping, adding filters, and more. Another nifty feature lets you combine multiple photos or even create animated .gif files out of photos. The program also offers a way to batch-rename files. Many people will particularly welcome the application's ability to convert photos in the RAW format that some digital cameras use to the much more versatile .jpg format.
Download PhotoScape | Price: Free
Pictomio
Pictomio is a great, free, all-in-one tool for managing your photo collection and creating slideshows, including carousel-style shows similar to those in Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. The slideshow-creation feature alone is worth the download, but this program also has a lot more on offer, including automatic geotagging.
After you install Pictomio, it immediately displays all your photos as thumbnails in their folders--no need to wait. You can view your photos as thumbnails, in a filmstrip, individually, or in a carousel-style presentation. You can zoom in and out of photos, and add tags. You'll also see a great deal of information about each picture, including the file size, the date, and the shutter speed and aperture used. Photo techs will love it.
Although the program has many tools for organizing and displaying photos, it offers few photo editing functions, so don't count on it for making corrections or alterations. Also, before installing Pictomio, confirm that your PC can handle running the software; it requires a ShaderModel 2.0 graphics card with at least 128MB of graphics memory. If you're not sure whether your graphics card meets the requirements, check its documentation.
Download Pictomio | Price: Free
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