Dex Recommends: Free Image Editing Software

Do you find MS Paint's functions too basic and you need more image editing features when working with your photos? Are you a wannabe photographer like me who needs an easy-to-use but costless photo editing and manipulation software? If you don't have access to, or have very limited knowledge in Photoshop and other professional image manipulation software you can opt for more user-friendly but effective software you can download for free. Here are some image editing software I use:

Picasa - If you need an idiot-proof and very easy-to-use image editing software and photo organizer, Picasa is highly recommended. It is a freeware application now owned by Google which helps you clean up your digital photo collection by easily locating and organizing the photos in your computer. The best features Picasa offers are the basic photo editing tools such as color enhancement, red-eye reduction, cropping and many more. You can also add effects that can transform your photos from ordinary to exciting in just a click of a button.

Neat Image - Does your digital photo look grainy and rough? That's called image noise. Unless you intentionally want a grainy looking photo, these visible image noise can be quite annoying. Now, you can reduce image noise in your digital photos with the help of one application: Neat Image. This app makes your images look better by reducing the visible noise and grain. You can even use it to even out skin tone or smoothen your portraits for a picture-perfect finish. Just don't overdo it or you'll end up looking like a very smooth balloon.

Paint.NET - Do you want a less costly (Read: free) alternative to Photoshop with most of the functions you need right at your fingertips? Then you should definitely try Paint.NET. I have been using this app for two years now -- basically for minor editing tasks -- and it works like a charm.I have yet to unlock the full capability of Paint.NET, though, since I still have limited knowledge of most of its functions. But it's definitely a permanent fixture in my list of must-have applications.

The GIMP - Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP is another top-notch photo retouching and image manipulation software that offers almost all the functionality of Photoshop but none of the cost. GIMP can process digital graphics and photographs with excellent results. I have yet to fully use GIMP's features though. Anybody want to give me free lessons on how to use GIMP? Hehe

FastStone Photo Resizer 2.4 - Want to protect your photo from plagiarism? Add a text watermark to it using FastStone's Photo Resizer/image converter. It also lets you rename, resize, crop, rotate and change the color depth of your photos in a quick and easy batch mode.

Picture Resizer 2.0 - This is a no-fuss, easy to use Photo Resizer that takes up very little space in your computer. Simply download the file to your desktop, which appears as a simple icon, then drag and drop your image files on the application icon to resize. By default, the app resizes pictures to 400 pixels but you can change the size by renaming the icon -- for example, rename to Photoresize200.exe to produce 200-pixel images.

So there, all these applications are freeware and they're readily available on the net. Just click on the links I provided. If you have other image editing software in mind, don't forget to leave a comment. :-)