Photo Editing Software for Free Online

There are many photo editing programs available besides Adobe Photoshop. Some of these programs are free and can be found online.

As beginning photographers we may find that the software that comes with our cameras is enough. But as or skills grow we will want to learn how to better edit our photography in post production. There are a few programs that you can buy for less than $100, like Photoshop Elements. However, there is a fairly wide selection of editors out there that are available for free as freeware or open source.  Here is a round up of a few of the better program that are available for free.

Freeware means the program is available for download and is free to use. But when a programmer makes the code for the program available for others to edit it is called Open Source.

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the most sophisticated of the free programs that are available. GIMP rivals Adobe’s Photoshop in editing power. Unlike a lot of freeware and shareware, GIMP does not have any spyware or advertising. Another great thing about GIMP is all the third party manuals and books that are available.

Paint.NET is the name of both the program and the web site. This program is more comparable to Photoshop Elements than it is to GIMP or the full Photoshop program. It uses layers and has many editing features and tools. It is a very nice program overall that is simple and intuitive.

Picasa is a free program offered by Google. Even though Picasa’s editing tools are not as extensive as GIMP or Paint.NET, it is a good editing program. It is very good at organizing your images and keeping albums.

Flickr also offers some editing features. The downside to Flickr is you have to be online and it does not have as many editing tools as the previous programs do. Still, if you are primarily shooting for the internet Flickr may be all you need.

There are a few more programs worth mentioning here:

Photoscape is an easy to use photo editing program.

Pixia started in the support of anime.

Picnik  is a bare bones online editor.