15 of the Best Free Photo and Graphics Software Programs
The Free Photo and Graphics Programs listed here are in no particular order. You be the judge on what one works best for you, as some users prefer to use one as opposed to another. This list is meant to inform you of what programs are available for free and is not a recommendation for you to use any particular product. I have listed only the ones that have gotten good reviews in the groups that I have been visiting when researching this topic and this, in no way, discredits other free photo and graphics software programs.
1. Serif Draw Plus 4 - I have used this free program software to create graphics for quite some time. It was very easy to learn as a beginner and over time I have learned to do much more with it than I thought possible from a free grahics program. You can also import photos and things to them such as text. There is another version of this software that costs only costs $9.99, but I have never really seen a need to get this version because the free one does everything that I need it to do. They also have Photoplus6 for free on their site for editing photos.
2. Gimp - Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a free program for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. To be honest, I have not used this one very much. The only time that I have used it is when I want to break apart an animation and save it in separate frames. I am sure that there is more that you can do with it, but I have not taken the time to find out.
3. Paint.NET - This one is a free photo and image editing software. It started out as a free replacement for Microsoft Paint, but has turned in to a great program with layers, unlimited undo, special effects and more. If you love to use MS Paint, you will really enjoy this alternative that adds to the things that MS Paint can do.
4. FotoSketcher - Do you want to turn your photo in to a painting, sketch or drawing? The this free photo program is for you. It is very easy to use and can change your picture in seconds. I just used this the other day and I ended up with what appeared to be a really good sketch.
5. Pixia - Free bitmap graphic editor program that was originally designed for anime. This program has multiple layers, transparency effects, standard file formats and a number of RGB file formats including .PSD. The main file extension used by this program is .PXA.
6. CutePDFwriter - I came across this program when I needed to send a flyer to a print shop in PDF format. I did not have a program capable of making a pdf file. The clerk at the print shop recommending getting CutePDFwriter and told me to make sure that I added Ghostscript which I could get on the same download page. She told me that both programs were free. I got the programs and I was able to send them the pdf file to create my flyer. Print shops say that working with a pdf file is much easier for them than a jpg or gif because there is less distortion when they try to print the file. When you need to convert a jpg or gif to pdf, this is the program that you need.
7. Infanview - I have not personally used this program, however I found some rave reviews for it when researching this topic. There are people saying that they use it as their main graphics program for editing graphics before they are inserted into Word and for editing pictures before they go on the web.
8. Products by Vicman Software - They appear to have many photo and graphics programs that are listed to download for free. I found that some people recommend their products and others do not, so it seems that it depends on what features the user is looking for. I would say that their programs are worth giving a try to see if they suit your personal needs. It seems that the VCW VicMan's Photo Editor 8.1 is the most recommended.
9. PhotoMeister - With this free program, you can convert your photos into web pages, emails or screensavers, create photo albums to print or export as PDF files, create VCDs for your DVD player to show your photos on your tv, and more. Looks like a keeper.
10. Rotoscope - You can take an image and make it look like a cartoon with this free software. It looks very interesting and has received high rating among users in discussion groups and they also say that it is very easy to use.
11. Photoscape - This program seems to be very popular. It can do resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming. You can even make one animation photo with multiple photos. There seem to be numerous benefits to this program that make it worth checking out since it is a free program.
12. ImageComposer - If you need something that makes it easy to combine images, this is the one that you are looking for. Combining images is the main focus of this free software. You will need to scroll down near the bottom of this page to download the program.
13. Split Image - If you need to split up an image for a web page, this is what you need. It's only focus is to split images for you to use on your webpage. I see no bells and whistles, just a straight forward image splitter.
14. 2 Pic - This is another program that you can merge two photos with. It merges images with each other, makes images fade into each other, spout s images into each other with an aerosol, gives images frames, applies cool effects to images, insert texts with several layers, and inserts gradient very easily. There are examples for you to see what it can do.
15. Frame Fun - This is a simple program to add frames to bitmap, jpg or png images. You can select an outer frame, a border around the image and a drop shadow for a 3D effect. You can modify the color and width of each Frame, Border and Shadow. You can also modify the direction of the drop shadow. A batch conversion option allows you to "frame" several pictures at one time.
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