Convenient graphic editors. Photoshop Online and others
When it comes to image editing, the first thing that comes to mind is Adobe Photoshop. However, the price of this tool is prohibitive for many, and in most cases such sophisticated functionality is not required at all.
There are plenty of free, high-quality analogues on the market for working with pictures, both for computers and mobile devices. There are also excellent online solutions.
Various analogues of “Photoshop” come out quite often. Some become popular, others disappear unnoticed. In recent years, several truly interesting solutions have emerged that continue to develop and require increased attention.
Krita – editor for artists
The free program, available on Windows, Mac and Linux, can surprise many with its simple but effective features. Did you crop and rotate the photo? Are you satisfied with the result? Fragment allows you to upload images to your Facebook profile in a couple of clicks. If you like Gif animation, that’s no problem either. The program supports PSD and HDRI formats and is not demanding on resources. There is also a portable version that you can carry with you on a flash drive.
Picture.st - the best online editor
The simplest and best online graphics editor. If you only occasionally edit images, does it make sense to install a full-fledged application on your computer? For a long time, online editors were not very convenient and often unstable. They also lacked functionality. Picture.st has solved this problem and can easily be considered as an online image editing solution.
Most of us associate computer graphics in general and editing in particular with Adobe Photoshop, which itself costs 700 bucks and requires significant hardware resources. And this is natural, because this is the most powerful graphic editor to date, created for the needs of design professionals. “Non-designers” more often use only a small fraction of its resources for basic image changes. Don't believe me? Remember why you opened Photoshop the last 5 times. I guarantee that if you are not a professional designer, then you have changed the size of some image, cropped it, or saved it in another format. As a last resort, we adjusted the brightness/contrast/color gamut. Agree, it is not at all necessary to have Photoshop installed for this.
1 Photoscape
Photoscape is an amazing free photo editor. This program contains so many filters, tools and special effects that it’s hard to believe that it’s free.
Photoscape has almost everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print, and have fun with your photos. It's so full-featured that many consider it a free alternative to Photoshop. Of course, Photoshop is still at a higher level, but the program really is an excellent alternative to Adobe's flagship and turns photo editing into a very fun experience.
2 Pixia
Pixia is a free raster graphics editor developed by Isao Maruoka. Initially, the graphic editor was intended for creating anime/manga, but later began to be used in other areas of art.
Pixia supports Wacom graphics tablets, three-dimensional layers, transparency effects, can work with the most popular image file formats (.bmp, .jpeg, .tiff, .ico, .pict, .png), supports the Adobe Photoshop format - .psd, and also has its own - .pxa.
3 Colourpaint
A simple drawing app for KDE. The most basic functionality such as a brush, eraser, pipette, primitive forms. As for editing, there is autocrop, balance adjustment, size and color changes. Designed for drawing diagrams and diagrams, as well as simple image editing. Another solution for those who are confused by the abundance of buttons and incomprehensible tools of more complex editors.
4Paint.NET
Paint.NET is a free raster graphics editor for drawings and photographs for Windows, developed on the .NET Framework. Paint.NET is an excellent replacement for the graphics editor that comes with standard programs in Windows operating systems.
With many powerful features found only in expensive graphics editors, Paint.NET is completely free.
5 Pinta
Pinta is a lightweight, open-source, cross-platform raster graphics editor inspired by the Paint.NET editor. The latter only works under Windows, and Miguel de Icaza's attempt to directly port this program to the Linux/Mono environment was not very successful.
6 Seashore
Opensource image editor for the Mac OSX Cocoa framework. Knows what gradients, textures, anti-aliasing are. Supports layers and alpha channel. It is based on GIMP technology, and, accordingly, is friendly with its native format.
7 Paint Star
The Paint star program is a graphic editor for high-quality editing, as well as creating drawings, digital photos and other images. This editor for Windows perfectly suits the basic needs of the user, and also allows you to work with layers, transparency, gradients, textures, scripts, patterns, paths, etc.
Paint star has a solid line of image editing and processing tools, similar to popular programs for highly professional business design. Basic functionality allows an ordinary user to realize their idea without a special training course or video.
8 My Paint
A simple and fast opensource application for digital artists for Windows and Linux. Essentially, it's just a dimensionless canvas onto which you can display interface elements only when you need them. The rest of the time, draw for your own pleasure, without being distracted by menus and tools. It fully supports graphics tablets, has a simple minimalist design, allows you to create brushes and customize existing ones, and supports layers.
9 5Dfly
Free Windows application for batch photo processing. In addition to the standard functions of a graphic editor, it can create slide shows for PowerPoint.
10 Visual Box
Free for non-commercial use application for creating web galleries. Available as a jQuery plugin or Prototype extension, there are versions for Windows and Mac. Flickr and Photobucket support, built-in ftp client, tons of themes, nice modern design.
11 Digikam
This is an OpenSource photo editor for Linux, Windows and Mac-OSX. Allows you to view, edit, enhance, catalog and tag your photos and do a lot of other nice things. However, you must be prepared to compile the application. For those who are new to this, the official website offers a detailed tutorial.
12 PEdit
A very simple free online photo editor. Contains all standard tools, even a child can use it. It requires installation of the Silverlight 3 plugin.
13 photos
A multifunctional and, at the same time, understandable program, which includes the functions of a photo editor, a graphic editor and an application for creating computer graphics. Provides many options for design, photo processing and enhancement, image editing and more.
14 Irfan View
One of the most popular image viewers on Windows systems. Fast, compact, free. Can open all kinds of graphics, convert them into the desired format, optimize them, and create slideshows. There are plugins, skins and localizations. Often opposes ACDSee. Although, to be honest, at home I replaced it with FastStone Image Viewer, which is also free for personal non-commercial use, but, in my opinion, is much more convenient and can work with NEF.
15 Krita
One of the finalists in the 2011 Packt Open Source Awards, along with Blender and GIMP. This is another KDE editor for creating sketches and drawings, as well as for manipulating graphics. The main direction is illustration, concept art and other creative work.
16 GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP for short) is a powerful and multi-purpose graphics editor. Thanks to a wide range of functions, you can make your photos more juicy, remove unnecessary elements from photographs, create collages and posters, prepare website designs and cut ready-made layouts, and much more. GIMP works on the most popular operating systems: Windows, Mac, Linux.
17 Artweaver
Artweaver is another graphic editor that claims to be a free analogue of Adobe Photoshop. The program can simulate painting with oil, acrylic paint, brush, crayon, pencil, charcoal, pastel, airbrush, etc. There are also various filters, working with transparency and layers, exporting and importing files into various graphic formats and much more.
18 Paint tool sai
Paint tool sai has both a Free and a paid version. First of all, it is necessary to note the editor interface, which is implemented as conveniently as possible for users. All the necessary buttons fit compactly on the panel on the left, allowing you to quickly find the necessary tool.
In addition, the interface allows you to keep several drawings open at once. The canvas itself with the image can be scaled and rotated using hotkeys and special buttons on the panel.
19 Hornil StylePix
Hornil StylePix is a powerful multifunctional free graphic editor in which programmers were able to combine such parameters as: compact size, user-friendly interface and a large number of functions. The program does not require mandatory installation, as it has a portable version that you can easily place on any flash drive and run the program directly from it. StylePix has a large number of functions and capabilities and is a worthy competitor to Paint.NET and Photoshop programs.
The program will serve you as an excellent assistant in photo editing. With this editor you can correct almost all the flaws in your photo. For creative people, StylePix provides a wide selection of brushes, cloning, selection, fill tools, as well as many options for working with text.
There is also a paid version of Hornil StylePix. Has more features such as quick mask, layer mask, brush image and layer styles for more advanced works than StylePix.
20 Photoshop Online and other online editors
There are many services on the Internet for editing photos online and without installing any programs. One of the main differences between online editors and installation programs is that the application requires the most minimal system requirements for your computer and just an installed browser to view web pages. 100% convenience from working in the online version of the graphic file editor.
Any PC user encounters computer image processing from time to time. Slightly correct a digital photo, cut out a fragment or save it in another format, make the photo better or simply add brightness... Or maybe just take a screenshot from the Internet page you like and save it to a graphic file. And here Windows users often come to the aid of a standard product Paint. I must note that this is a very, very limited editor ( and to be completely frank, you can’t call him anything other than wretched), which can be applied according to the principle - “open”, “select”, “edit”, “cut”, “paste”, “save” ... and other simple dull actions. Sometimes this is enough. But rarely. As a rule, the user requires more advanced and convenient programs.
Now let's look at more powerful graphic editors with a range of interesting and tasty features.
The most famous of them is Adobe Photoshop, which can do almost everything, but this is a paid product and is intended for professionals, and not for home “users”. And if we consider the possibility of using it “to the fullest,” then we will have to pay tens of thousands of rubles for a license or look for a broken version on the World Wide Web, risking catching some kind of infection along with it ( “hackers” love to insert various malicious crap into broken versions of Photoshop and into “medicines” for it).
This is understandable, in order to slightly correct the “red eyes” in the photo from the New Year’s party, our “user” needs Photoshop, and nothing else - he categorically does not agree to exchange for anything less. True, he has no idea that if he is “lucky enough” to get caught using his pirated version, then the fine for this offense will amount to several hundred thousand rubles - this is precisely the appetite of the “right holders” from Adobe today. These are the amounts they now estimate their damage from each pirated copy. There are already plenty of precedents in modern Russia.
In fact, monstrous professional products from Adobe or Corel There is absolutely no need for a home user. Small and lightweight graphic editors can easily cope with its tasks, many of which, moreover, are also absolutely free. Here we will get acquainted with some of them.
The first product on our list is GIMP(Gimp). Gimp is the most powerful and most famous of the free graphic editors, and it is also open source. Enthusiasts from all over the world take part in its development. It can run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD and many other operating systems. For GIMP There are a lot of different add-ons.
Tools GIMP very similar to the instruments of the well-known Adobe Photoshop, there is support for layers, animation, a large set of filters, gradient fills, etc., installed by default. It is worth noting the set of tools - it has everything you need even for complex graphic processing. When installing GIMP You can immediately select the Russian language - there is no need to install a localization feature. The program allows you to open images directly from the Internet - just provide a link to the picture, and then edit it as you wish.
The disadvantages of the program include the unusual interface ( all panels open in separate windows scattered across the desktop) and slightly unusual work with tools. True, the new version, which is currently being tested, already has a regular single-window interface, and the tools GIMP It's easy enough to get used to if you want.
The advantages, in addition to being free, are its small size and lightness and amazing extensibility using plug-ins.
They say that experienced users who have mastered working in GIMP, and hanging it with the extensions they need, create such miracles in the program that even professional Photoshop cannot do.
The next program that is quickly gaining popularity is Paint.NET. A simple, yet powerful and convenient graphic editor. License - Free.
They say that the program was developed by students from a university, commissioned and under the direct supervision of Microsoft, and was intended to replace the scanty Paint in new versions of Windows. And then it becomes unclear why it has not yet become a standard tool of the operating system, because the program turned out to be really very successful.
In addition to a good built-in set of tools, Paint.NET There are also add-ons that significantly expand the editor's potential.
Paint.NET uses .NET Framework (as is clear from its name), and when installing the program, you should clarify which version of the framework is installed on the system - different versions of Paint.NET use different versions of the .NET Framework.
Next in line is Picasa. Picasa is a free image manager from Google itself. And as always, with a pleasant difference - in web albums Picasa 1 GB of free space is provided for free. You can store your photos online, Picasa it allows (has a built-in convenient image downloader). Russian language is supported.
By and large, Picasa Most likely not just a graphic editor, but an organizer and cataloguer of images. The main function of the program is to organize a collection of digital graphics on your hard drive. And here she copes with a bang. And all the editing tools are already like a pleasant thing ( and quite impressive) addition.
Completes our review Photoscape- a program with rich capabilities. Russian language supported. Allows you to fully and easily work with images. Supports working with animation, and you can set the time for each frame separately. There is a good set of tools and a friendly interface. And plus a lot of other “tasty” things.
Well, in this short article we got acquainted with several fairly powerful and serious raster graphics editors. Although their range is not limited to the above - there are a huge number of similar programs. And many of them are free.
And besides them, there is a whole set of interesting narrowly focused and small programs for working with digital graphics that deserve a separate description.
We all draw as children. Then many people stop, but, fortunately, not all. Starting with scribbles, circles and sketchy men, people have been drawing since ancient times, creating real masterpieces. Being able to draw really well is definitely useful. The likelihood that it will make you a great and famous artist, to be honest, is not very high. For this you need something more. But it is more or less possible to earn decent money by combining work and what you love.
So, let’s say you are not an engineer, not a manager, not a janitor or a plumber. You are an artist. Or a designer. Or a future game designer.
If you are studying any technical specialty, the ability to draw will be an absolutely necessary skill for you in more than 90% of cases. But, fortunately, you are not a techie. “I don’t need to deal with all these CAD systems, I don’t even want to hear about them, I’m a humanist,” you say. Well, very good, but there is also software for you. In fact, the creativity in the work of a real engineer is no less than that of a real artist. It's just a little different. This means that the means of its implementation will also be different.
In this article we will talk about programs used to work with graphics. In such cases, when you do not need to create an exact drawing, but, for example, develop a product design concept or draw a drawing, you will also resort to the help of appropriate automation tools.
Let's look at the most common and popular graphic editors used by artists, designers and other “creative” people, so to speak. What kind of software is this and what does it do?
Graphic editors
Graphic editors are programs necessary for creating and editing images of a wide variety of nature. In nature, there are several methods for creating an image using a computer. There are vector graphics and there are raster graphics. They differ in the way they encode information.
To put it simply, the basis of vector images is a line, while raster images are based on a pixel. Vector images are made up of objects, and those are made up of outlines and fills. Each object is in its own layer.
Images in raster graphics are a collection of pixels. The main difference between vector images and raster images is the higher image quality of the former. Accordingly, graphic editors that work with vector and raster graphics are different. For vector, this is, for example, Corel Draw, known to everyone as Paint, Corel PhotoPaint. For raster - Adobe Illustrator.
The variety of graphic editors is very large. With all the breadth of the offer, it’s up to you to decide which graphics editor is best to draw in. In order for the work process to move easily, you need to clearly understand the end result. Knowing the concept, choosing tools to implement it will be much easier.
We told you about the popular graphic raster and vector editors used in our work. Now let’s imagine that the long-awaited inspiration has finally come to you and you sit down at your tablet to create a masterpiece. But as always, evil does not sleep - because of an unfulfilled test in mathematics, you need to put art on the back burner and sit down to boring numbers. It is at such moments that ours is ready to come to the rescue, and not allow the Artist inside you to die ingloriously. Do what you love and leave the routine work to us.
Always yours,
Zaochnik
It's no secret that the best graphic editor for editing raster graphics is the Photoshop software product from the well-known company Adobe. Probably, today this is the best program for working with images in the form of photographs, design solutions, Web design, and any other graphics. I personally also think and am confident that this is the best product in its industry. By the way, it is distributed not only for the Windows operating system, but the release is also known for computers based on MAC OS.
If you remember my history of acquaintance with the first graphics editor, it was the Paintbrush program in the Windows 3.11 operating system for personal computers. By the way, it has survived to this day and is even available in the latest version of Windows 8. However, now it is simply called Paint and has greater capabilities for editing graphic images. Although in general its functionality does not reach Adobe Photoshop.
Another no less interesting program for working with raster graphics, I would like to mention the GIMP program (GNU Image Manipulation Program). 
During my short acquaintance with the Linux-based operating system, I don’t remember exactly what kind of distribution I used for this, but, nevertheless, during this period of time I paid attention to the GIMP program. This free and open source program is a good alternative to Adobe Photoshop. This program has a lot of interesting functions and tools for working with raster graphics.
Perhaps there are many different interesting and good applications for working with raster graphics, but still, one way or another, I believe that the highest quality program for working with photography, some design elements and building some graphic templates for websites, etc. p. is the Adobe Photoshop program - whatever one may say. And the only negative that I find in this program is that it is paid and is not cheap.
But why is Adobe Photoshop considered the best?
It's simple - it is the standard of quality in the world of digital images, provides powerful graphics editing capabilities, and plus everything has an intuitive interface. This amazing product pushes the boundaries of digital image editing and helps you make your design dreams come true.
But the most important thing is the variety of working tools for image editing. For example, such as various ways to select an object, brushes with different types and sizes, the ability to create a gradient, that is, a transition from one color to another, darken, blur, create beautiful text, choose a different color palette and much more. It is also worth noting the ability to work with layers, that is, for example, to separately work on the text design and separately work on its background without affecting the overall picture. As a plus, you can note the almost complete history of your actions, which leads to the fact that you are not afraid of ruining something, since you can always return to the original state.
Another advantage is preparing the image for publication on the Internet. Ability to save images in almost any modern file format. Saving the image and template in your own PSD format - which is probably already a standard and saves all layers and current settings in it, which is convenient when returning to editing again, as well as the ability to leave marks directly on the image elements.
The ability to create and work with simple three-dimensional 3D objects. You can twist, twirl, increase, decrease and change color.
Another feature of Adobe Photoshop is the application of various filters to the image, which gives an interesting and striking special effect. There are about 50 of these filters and they all have a unique effect. Such, for example, effects as turning a picture into neon lights or frayed paper and many other equally interesting solutions.
We could go on and on about all the features and advantages of this amazing image editing program, but in general, the whole world and the whole planet uses it, and they know very well that it is the best editor in the computer world.
