Free Graphics Software
In this category, FreebieList.com takes a look at the Internet's best free graphics programs. If you happen to stumble across an outdated link, we'd very much appreciate it if you could report it.
Picasa
This free photo organising utility from Google allows users to quickly locate, organise and share digital photographs at the click of a button. The program also includes a number of tools that'll allow you to perform minor image modifications, so you can perfect them before sharing. Examples of the tools are: red eye reduction, crop image, add text, colour adjustments, lighting effects, etc. Picasa's album building function and name tagging feature makes creating a digital photograph library simple and efficient.
PhotoPlus
Here, you can register for a free download of Serif's fine "PhotoPlus" graphics editing software. The program includes many powerful features, such as an imported image optimiser and allows you to slice images, draw shapes and add editable text areas, just as if you were using a commercial graphics program. Note: this version does not support .gif or .tif file extensions.
FotoSketcher
A freeware graphics program that effortlessly enables you to apply over 20 artistic effects to existing photographs. Available in 18 languages, FotoSketcher lets you transform photos into works of art within seconds! The software functions on Microsoft Windows XP, Vista and 7.
FreeSizer
A simple freeware tool that lets you quickly resize photographs at the click of a button. The software has a drag and drop interface and is very user-friendly, so you can be up and running within minutes. Pre-installed resizing profiles are included but the program permits users to be more specific as needed. It is ideal for creating correctly sized photos for e-mail, social network profiles, eBay, Web pages, etc.
PixBuilder Studio
A free photograph editing program for Microsoft Windows. PixBuilder Studio has a number of professional quality functions, including colour channel manipulation, mask and gradient support, plus the ability to create layers (including text layers). Features common to other graphics packages are also included, such as blur, sharpen, rotate, resize, clone, etc. Overall, this is a simple but powerful freeware download and a must-have for anyone wishing to edit photographs.
Helicon Photo Safe
A powerful freeware photo management program, offering you the ability to manage your photograph collection with ease. The software includes the ability to geotag images on maps, integrates with social networking sites, and has a fast search function (ideal for identifying certain photos or duplicates). Unlike similar programs, Helicon can handle 100,000s of images without slowing down, so it's perfect for anyone with a large image library. Compatible with over 15 file formats.
PicPick
A user-friendly freeware graphics program that's similar to the latest Microsoft Paint, but far more powerful and packing a host of extra features. Features include: image editor, screen capture mode, colour picker and palette, pixel ruler, magnifier, screen protractor and crosshair, plus a "whiteboard" feature for coducting presentations or drawing on-screen.
iPhotoDraw
A handy freeware download that's only 5.7MB in size. iPhotoDraw enables you to add annotations to photographs, such as dimensions for measurements, speech bubbles, arrows, and other useful tags. It is simple to use and more effective than some popular commercial applications. Available for Windows XP (SP3) and above.
MjM Photo Recovery
This amazing freeware utility should be your first port of call if you need to recover deleted JPEG photographs from memory cards. The software is also able to recover images from corrupted cards, but this depends on the severity of the problem. Photos on formatted cards are also recoverable using MjM. Functions on Microsoft Windows.
RealWorld Paint
An excellent free paint package for users of Windows. This image editing program packs a wide range of featues and is especially useful for resizing photographs, touching up images, cropping graphics, and more. It can also be used to create high quality Web graphics and animated GIFs. In a similar fashion to high-end graphics software, layers and styles are available, plus the program supports most popular image formats, including JPEG, GIF, PNG, PSD and others.
Picturenaut
A freeware graphics tool suitable for creating High Dynamic Range (HDR) images (in simple terms, imagery that attempts to accurately represent the light and dark areas of photographs). Picturenaut's easy-to-use interface supports RAW image files and packs a number of useful features, especially aimed at photographers wanting the most striking and accurate pictures possible.
FotoMorph
A handy free graphics tool that lets you animate photographs and have them morph into each other, creating a changing effect. The software is great for showcasing a variety of images and gives a professional touch to proceedings. This site also features the excellent FotoMix, a free photo manipulator.
PhoXo
A high quality and free photo editing program. PhoXo manages to pack an impressive array of features for such a small download (only 4MB in size). In fact, this has earned it the reputation as the "mini PhotoShop". The software is user-friendly and suitable for retouching photographs, cropping images, reducing "red eye", adding text elements and implementing a variety of other effects. Like PhotoShop, PhoXo has the ability to use layers to organise elements.
Serif DrawPlus
A user friendly and free graphic design program from Serif. DrawPlus Starter Edition is suitable for vector drawing, logo design, creating paint effects and brush strokes, sketching, and more. A number of useful "how to" tutorials are included to help you get up to speed. Functions on Windows XP, Vista and 7. (UK Only)
Collage It
This free graphics package allows you to create impressive photo collages in minutes. Collage It is easy-to-use and compatible with popular image files, including JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG AND TGA. Use the settings to tweak your photos for full effect. Functions on modern versions of Windows and Mac.
PhotoFiltre
A popular free graphics program for private or educational use. PhotoFiltre is described as an "image retouching" tool, allowing you to perform amendments to images and apply a range of filters within a few mouse clicks. Over 100 image filters can be applied to your photos!
GIMP
A free and highly capable graphics program for Windows, Mac and various UNIX-like operating systems. GIMP is ideal for manipulating photos or for sprucing up existing images. It's one of the best programs of its kind.
FotoMix
Billed as "The Free Photo Manipulator", FotoMix is a highly capable (and completely free) image manipulation tool, designed to help you doctor photographs with a variety of effects. One of the more popular uses is to remove people from (or insert them into) existing photographs to create a whole new image.
Fotobounce
This free photo organiser software features something quite unique: face recognition. Fotobounce makes it easy for you to organise photographs by utilising tagging to catagorise images, and (by using the in-built facial recognition), it can save you a whole lot of time. It also easily integrates with Facebook and Flickr and features a simple "drag and drop" interface.
Digital Scrapbook Artist CompactAn interesting and easy to use digital scrapbooking program from DaisyTrail, which you can use to transform your photographs into a scrapbook of memories. A number of backgrounds, frames and embellishments are available.
Ashampoo ClipFinder HDThis handy tool from Ashampoo allows you find, view, save or convert Web videos in HD or standard format. If you have ever wanted to capture a video, or even download the audio track, ClipFinder should be able to handle it. In addition, the program is excellent at locating videos based on keyword searches, and once found, can also help in organising them. It searches a total of 15 popular video portals.
Thumb StudioArclab's Thumb Studio software is a free image gallery program, offering a variety of features, including thumbnail and slideshow viewer, and also an album creator. Note: the software is licenced for private use only. If you upgrade to their commercial version, you will be able to include your own personalised watermarks over the images.
Shrink PicIf you work in an office, you or your colleagues may be required to resize pictures ready for the Web. This handy program speeds up the process by lurking in the background, waiting until an image needs to be sent. Once you're ready, Shrink Pic springs into action and automatically resizes the image according to a pre set criteria.
SplashupThis free Web-based image editing service (previously known as Fauxto) allows you to edit images in your Web browser, without the need to download software. Splashup features an interface similar to most top graphics programs, and supports the use of layers, filters, brushes, and other standard tools you would expect to find. The service is also great if you wish to edit and share images using Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, etc.
WebShot FreeThis nifty little program could prove a real time-saver if you need to take numerous screenshots of Web pages. In the click of a few buttons, WebShot will take a screenshot of a Web page of your choice, then export this as either a full-sized image or smaller thumbnail. You may select how you'd like to save the file: GIF, JPG, PNG or BMP.
Gadwin PrintScreenThis handy (and free) print screen utility allows you to easily capture any portion of your computer screen and instantly save it as a file. You may also paste the image to the Windows clipboard, print it, or e-mail it to a recipient of your choice. If your work involves frequent screen captures, you may find Gadwin PrintScreen a real time-saver. Once on the site, scroll down to the appropriate download link.
Album BurgerA free, easy-to-use and useful program for organising and presenting digital photographs. Album Burger allows you to label albums and photos with comments, dates and various other details. What's more, since the program integrates directly with your digital camera, searching, viewing and exporting photographs can be done on the fly. The integrated image editor is ideal for making minor adjustments to images.
IrfanViewHere's a cool freeware image viewer (for personal usage) that supports a wide variety of popular image formats, including GIF, animated GIF, JPEG, BMP, FPX and many more. IrfanView features a "drag and drop" facility, thumbnail tool, directory view mode, cut and crop tools, special effect implementation and to top that off, comes ready to run in a single and very handy .exe file.
PIXresizerIf you use digital photos in e-mail attachments or on the Web, this freeware program comes in handy for quickly resizing them. It can instantly reduce the file sizes of your photographs, allowing them to download much quicker than usual. As well as this, this nifty program is able to convert the file format of any images you have and will output BMPs, GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs, etc.
Ultimate PaintHere's another excellent tool from the people that created the "Ultimate FX" program (featured above). The slightly older freeware version has plenty of features to satisfy even the most creative designers amongst you. For example, you'd be hard-pressed to find another non-commercial package that offers over 100 different functions and effects.
Paint.NETAn award-winning, free and popular image editing and manipulation utility. Paint.NET was originally designed as a replacement for MS Paint, but grew into a more powerful program whilst retaining its simple and intuitive interface. Paint.NET includes numerous features, including layer support and special effects. You may undo (revert back) your images an unlimited number of times. File size: 4.5MB.
PhotoViewAn easy-to-use and compact photo image viewer for Windows-based platforms. PhotoView allows you to view and organise digital photographs, so they're easier to access in the future. With such a small file size (approximately 500KB), PhotoView downloads within minutes on a dial-up modem and within seconds on a broadband connection. It's ideal for photo collectors.
Behemot Graphics EditorSergio Perani's Behemot Graphics Editor allows you to model, then render 3D objects. Scenes/objects that you have created can be exported as various file formats (DXF, VRML, etc.), including MPEG, BMP and 3DS. Other features to this program are the ability to change the way light shines on the object's surface, skeleton structure view and camera view.
A Smaller GifThis clever graphics tool allows you to compress .gif files so that they download quicker on the Web without lowering the actual quality of the image. Ultimately, it means your Internet pages appear on the screen faster as images are smaller in file size. Although A Smaller Gif is a great Net program, it has many other uses and is ideal for simply creating extra disk space.
FastStone Image ViewerHere's a speedy, safe, and user-friendly image browser, converter and editor program. FastStone assists users in organising digital photographs, but also performs many other functions, such as red eye removal, resizing, cropping and other colour adjustments. In addition, the program allows users to add drop shadow effects and features an excellent zoom mode. All major graphical file types are supported. File size: 2.5MB.