Even though I’m not much of a photo person, I do manage my photos. Mostly just collecting-grouping-tagging-retouching (using iPhoto), and resizing (using now not free anymore ImageWell) to be able to easily send to my friend or use the image for my blog.
I also have a Flickr account but there was only 3 photos inside it. The reason: I personally thought that online photo management process was too troublesome for the happy-go-lucky-shoot-everything amateur photographer like me.
Then comes JetPhoto Studio, an all-in-one photo tool (available for Mac and Windows). This application is a bit unknown because developed by Chinese programmer. But unknown doesn’t mean bad because this app has tons of good features.
Here goes another MakeUseOf Poll. This time we are voting on image and photo editing tools.
Since everyone has different needs when it comes to working with photos, the idea behind today’s poll is not to get the best tool but rather see which image editing app is more popular among tech-savvy MakeUseOf users.
As usual, in case you’re aware of any good tools that were not included in the poll then please tell us about them in comments.
Please Vote!
I don’t think I can classify Wordle as a game but to a geek like me it can be lots of fun and bring you hours of enjoyment. I apologize in advance if I kill your productivity today.
Wordle is a unique web application that lets you specify a RSS feed or a specific block of text. Wordle then uses that information to create a word cloud. Don’t know what a word cloud is?
There is no dearth of online image editing tools and we have already covered some of the most powerful ones and some more free image editing programs. Each of the tools try to distinguish them from the herd by including some eye-popping features and effects and thus try everything to emulate the ultimate software which exists for the purpose - Photoshop.
Have you ever wanted to make it look like someone is speaking in a picture? Doesn’t that sound exciting? (No I am not joking. Why does everyone always think I’m joking?)
Is adding a cartoon like bubble with text in it somewhat outside of your technical grasp? Maybe you don’t like Photoshop and you don’t know what Gimp is?
Then Kyolo is for you. Kyolo lets you add simple speech bubbles to existing images and it is super easy. Just bypass their login and upload a image directly onto their homepage. Browse to it and click upload.
Pictures are visual memories and story tellers. Creating images, enhancing a photo, revealing details and adding effects is like changing the perspective, like telling a story with different words from different angles. The list of tools available is endless.
Here are three very simple ones.
LunaPic
Beware, the interface is pretty ugly and it’s lined with ads. BUT besides supporting basic editing, you can easily add some artsy effects and animations to your images. The gif animations are pretty cool.
While you’re busy editing your images with Photoshop, Gimp, or a photo-manager like Picasa, what kind of image viewer are you using? Most of the time when you are viewing an image you aren’t using an editor, especially bulky ones like those listed above. You’re using a lightweight program that primarily lets you view, zoom, flip, and save. Microsoft pre-installs Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, but like most pre-installed Windows apps, it leaves a lot to be desired.
This is in no way a new application. Skitch has been around for quite some time but we here at Make Use Of don’t only cover new applications. We share the most useful and interesting stuff with our readers. That includes bringing up older software or webpages which you might have missed out in the past or never got a chance to use.
iPhoto is an addition in Mac OS X which I prefer over the traditional method of viewing and collecting photos in Windows. I highly doubt that merely keeping all your pictures in folders justifies a proper photo “album”. Shucks, there goes the infamous “Mac-ego” again. I apologize for that. But still, my stand remains — iPhoto is a joy to use, it’s a great way of viewing pictures and showing off to your friends by encapsulating it within a gloriously beautiful interface.
It does however (sometimes), turn out to be a pain in the ass.
Do you constantly find yourself explaining how to complete a task on the computer? Is it sometimes hard to put those instructions into words? The Jing Project allows you to demonstrate a task by snapping a picture of your screen or recording a video (with audio) of what you do and see.
What makes the Jing different from other screen capturing software?
| So you’re an aspiring graphic designer but you don’t have the resources, or willingness, to spend hundreds of dollars on your needed software. Well, below is a list of five great alternatives to commercial software for graphic design. |
(1) Image Manipulation
GIMP – Alternative for Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint Shop Pro
GIMP, short for “GNU Image Manipulation Program”, has been written about several times before on this site. However, I felt it was worth another mention because of its versatility as a Photoshop alternative.
Pencil is a free drawing and animation application that supports Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Pencil is still only in beta but it’s worth installing and playing around with if you want to get into animation but you can’t afford applications such as Flash or ToonBoom.
1. Tools
The tools that Pencil currently has within the application are:
I have now made a switch - I am a full time Ubuntu user and I love every minute of it. Ubuntu is one of the best Linux releases in my opinion, although I’ve only tried 3-4 other Linux distros. I know that hardcore Linux people may argue, but Ubuntu is the only OS that enabled my sound card and my wireless internet connection without as much as a sweat.
One thing you hear often about Linux is that there’s no software for it. This is simply not true. There may not be much proprietary software for it, but there is some, and there are plenty of free alternatives to what most offices use every day.
This is just a quick overview of some of the programs out there, and it’s the first of two parts.This first posting focuses on applications for creating content. The next one will be more internet-based. I’ll go more in-depth into some of them at a later time. Many of these are also available on Windows and OSX, so you can experiment with them in the comfort of whatever OS you’re used to without making a commitment to switch. This listing is focused primarily on the types of things that are commonly needed for work- or school-related tasks, not necessarily for home desktop use.
Google’s Picasa is probably one of the best photo managers available as it makes organizing, managing and sharing photos a lot easier. Its ever growing popularity can be attributed to its simplicity and ease of use. Picasa 2 is currently available as a download for Windows and Linux but a Mac version is expected to be released soon.
Here are some tips for Picasa users to efficiently manage their photo collections:
1. Tag your Photos using Keywords
Select a few photos (Use CTRL + Click), and press CTRL + K to add keywords to your photos. This could help a lot in sorting through and finding a photo later.
How many people out there have hundreds, if not thousands, of digital pictures stored on their computers accumulated over years that no one has ever seen? Me! Thankfully, I try to upload most of my pictures to free online photo sharing sites like Picasa and Flickr to at least get some return on the time I spent actually taking all of those pictures.
However, I noticed that not too many of my friends nor my family really care to wade through hundreds of pictures, usually the same scene, just a different angle, because it’s boring. That’s where photo slideshows come in handy. You can make yourself look pretty suave by creating fancy slideshows with customized music, titles, and more using some very easy-to-use and free tools.
Photographs are little gems and just like with shaping a rough diamond it requires a lot of work as well as skill to reveal the true and full beauty of a simple snapshot. And there are a thousand different ways to get there. Here are ten image editing programs that may come in handy one way or the other.
1. GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a powerful and free piece of software that can handle all basic image editing tasks and much more beyond that. The fact that it’s open source and available for UNIX platforms, Mac and Windows makes it extremely flexible.
I love it when events are timed perfectly. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been contemplating how best to download my photos from my Flickr account before the pro membership expires in March. I kept putting off the task because it wasn’t very appealing to think of sitting at the computer for hours clicking individually on each photo and making multiple clicks to download it. I can think of better ways to utilise my time.
Then today, fate magically intervened and delivered to my RSS reader, FlickrDown. Using the free tool, I managed to download around 2000 original sized photos in about 30 minutes. All I needed to do was point and click.
Bloggers, there are lots of things you’ve to keep an eye on, and most of the time, you’ll need the help of different programs for different needs. Sure, there are more web tools for the job, but nothing can get to give you the convenience and speed that desktop applications offer. So, here goes a list of over 30 handpicked application, that can possibly increase a blogger’s productivity.
Desktop Blogging Clients
Post to your blog straigth from the desktop.
A bunch of really cool and dead-simple tools to add a “WOW” factor to your images. We have mentioned most of them already, here I wanted to put the better ones together.
beFunky - This is by far my favorite tool. With beFunky you can take any of your photos and turn it into a cartoon like drawing. You can either convert it into a black and white sketch drawing or into a colorful animated painting.
And that’s not all, it also lets you do the same for videos. Check out the video below.
There are lots of image editing applications out there, some focus on resizing, some on image editing, and others on photo enhancements. Here is a list of online image editors that incorporate most of the above mentioned functionalities in one application. In addition to nice interface and rich choice of image manipulation (and resizing) features some of them also give you an option to:
Well, I must admit although I don’t have a Mac, a main reason I’d like one is for Photobooth. However, luckily I have found 4 comparable FREE web based applications that are pretty much Photobooth. So, enjoy and if you find others, please let me know…
Options are:
a) Color
b) Morph
c) Scenes
Options are:
a) Colors
b) Effects
Options are:
a) Colors
b) Effects
Whether you’re looking for a free way to cut down on bandwidth costs or need an easy-to-use and powerful image hosting service to manage your pictures on (myspace, ebay, etc) than this is for you. Ranked by popularity, I’ve listed below some of the coolest free image hosts on the web along with their main features.
1. ImageShack
Features:
That’s not another list of lame landscape wallpapers but truly unique design pieces that you won’t see elsewhere. I have listed my top 10 picks and also provided info on where you can get more of similar stuff.
Source 1: Wallpapr - wallpaper search engine(built on top of flickr)
possible search terms: graffiti, technology, abstract…
Source 2: ATI Radeon, NVidia wallpapers and nvidia gelato
Here you’ll find around 50 high quality wallpapers
Source 3: BestGameWallpapers - animated wallpapers from 100s of popular video games
Technorati Tags: wallpapers, cool typing, video games, wallpapr
Here, I want to quickly illustrate how to create, huge(up to 20 meters), awesome looking, rasterized wall posters using previously mentioned Rasterbator. It’s free and easy to use piece of software and the whole procedure won’t take you more then 5-10 min(not incl. poster printing and putting it on your wall). Enjoy!
IMPORTANT: This procedure uses considerable amount of ink and if you don’t set printing setting to a moderate level it will kill your cartridge.
Steps:
1. Get Rasterbator: You can either download it from here or use its web version. Although, keep in mind that online version puts some restrictions on output size and resolution
Latest MakeUseOf discoveries …
And after 8 days break extra series back on track again …
Yesterday, I had one of my sudden urges to organize my bookmarks so while moving stuff around I noticed bunch of interesting links based around images. After putting them together it looked too good to be ignored so it ended up here.
1. Passport Photo - this website offers an alternative to photo booths, what you’ll need is average printer, photo-paper and a digital photo with a neutral expression, closed mouth and open eyes. More here
riya
I have been excited about riya long before it was even launched, and even more once it opened to the public and I started using it. There is so much to it that I have no idea what to start with, so let me look at it in terms of its usabiliity for me, 1)as a visual search engine and 2) as a photo storing and organizing tool.
1. Riya - Visual Search Engine
Here is something useful for people who need simple and convenient image resizing tool. Initially planned to review only ResizR but things got out of control after dicovering several good alternatives, so here you go. Normally any extensive image editing best done using desktop software like Photoshop, that can do lot more then mere resizing. But when all you need is simply to resize picture starting fat photoshop is not very convenient.
Fli