Digital Photo Editor

Tools to manipulate your images and photos with ease

When it comes to digital photo editing and choosing a digital photo editor, one product usually comes to mind: Photoshop. There is no question that Photoshop is the industry standard for digital photographers and graphic designers. For the beginner, Photoshop’s $700 price tag is a bit steep. So how does one get their feet wet in the graphics world without breaking the bank?

I am going to recommend three different digital photo editors. One costs money, the other two are free. The latter are suitable for quick and easy editing (best for beginners), the former is for intermediate users.

Over the years, I have used Corel’s PaintShop Photo Pro. Price range is around $90 and Corel often runs sales for around $40.

PaintShop tends to be VERY photo based and less graphics based. You can still do graphic images with PSPP but the interface is built around manipulating photos. So if you are focused on a tool for photos, then PSPP is the tool for you.

All commercial photo imaging products have a few issues: the interface. I am not always sure that the interface is friendly enough for beginners. PSPP does have a far amount of wizards that lead beginners through some of the basic processes. However it seems the whole interface is “wizard-y” and can be a drag for more intermediate or advanced users.

The great thing about using a tool like PSPP is the ability, if one wanted/needed to, to do advanced kind of work. There are a gazillion features and you can pretty much accomplish most of what you would want with this tool. Definitely my tool of choice if I am going to pay money for a digital photo editor.

On the free side of the aisle there are two tools: one I prefer for photos and one for doing digital graphics.

Photoshop offers Photoshop Express, which is a very simple photo editing interface to accomplish all the basic tasks like: Cropping, Resizing, Auto Correct (color), Red Eye, Touchup and Saturation. The tool also allows users to control basic contrast and and brightness elements such as White Balance, Highlight, Full Light, Sharpen and Soft Focus. The tool offers a few advanced features as well as a decent selection of “decorative” elements such as adding Text, etc. The tool is absolutely ideal for basic editing of your photos.

My main go-to free online editing program has been Pixlr. The interface may not look all glossy like PhotoShop Express, but there is a lot of power in this free online app. I like it the most because I can use it for my photos AND for other digital graphics. I often create basic logos using Pixlr.

Pixlr offers a fairly typical photo/graphic editing interface, seems this kind of interface has become standard among all tools of this type. What I love about Pixlr is the great feature set that sits underneath each element. While it is not the power of PhotoShop, I have yet to find a feature I find “missing”. For beginners and intermediate users, Pixlr is a great choice. And heck, it is free!

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