Awesome Freeware Image Editor

I have been posting about this freeware image editor on several forums. It is quite amazing that when I posted about it on a photography forum, it was pretty much ignored; I guess they must feel that if it is free that it is not good enough for them (their loss).

MAGIX has recently released their Photo Clinic 4.5 as full freeware. This editor handles multiple file formats, does layers, takes Photoshop compatible plugins, and is capable of editing Photoshop PSD files (handy for anyone who has downloaded a free template but does not want to spend 100-600 to edit the dang thing). This is for Windows and is a 10MB download.

You can download the file here.


It never fails that when I post about freeware image editors, some jackass has to come along and try to sing the praises of GIMP. That is despite that GIMP cannot edit PSD files and does not have the plugin support that Photo Clinic has. They seem to coveniently forget to mention to would be users of GIMP that the GTK+ runtimes that you must install in order to use GIMP on a Windows machine requires that you rename two dlls. This is fine, until you have a program which requires those dlls; then you have to play the rename the dll game.

Well, there is an option for those who want to try GIMP without having to play the rename the dll game. It is called Portable GIMP and is the complete GIMP package, but in a portable executable which requires no runtimes to install, and it will run resident on your hard drive or you can run it off of a flash drive.

You can get Portable GIMP here.

Hey Menard,
Thanks for the heads up on the freeware.
I'll give it a go, I'm a photoshop user so I'll test it out and get back to you with in a few days.
Mark.

Hey menard ,
Photo Clinic 4.5
I used it for short while ,is good for screen dumps,cropping,some basic editing and special affects,Missing some extra tools like Ruber tool,I could not find an ability to resize objects in layers,could not find any shape tools,no paint bucket.

Is a good step up from paint in some ways.
Not very user friendly may need some time to work out what some tools do.

I'll use it for screen dumps with its croping ability and you can save in multiple file formats.

The Full pay version 5.5 may have the missing features.

I'll give it a 4 ok Freeware....


Mark.

Free image editors are always great for web designers. There is a need for those free photo editors which are better than the costly photoshop. Thinking that this image editor little bit makes the demands for the designers.

ivenms makes an excellent point. I will expand a little bit on this post to offer some other resources, and to frankly climb upon a soapbox and preach for a while.


There are always going to be some who will recommend nothing but Photoshop when someone inquires about a good image editing program. The problem with this is that Photoshop is a $600 program; which the cost alone makes it a prohibitive choice for many.

I have found that Photoshop users fall into the following categories:

1) They have been provided a copy as it is required for the work they do.

2) They have been provided a copy as it is available at work but is not really a requirement of their job.

3) They are associated with a company or other entity which has provided them a copy.

4) They have bought a copy as it is necessary for the work they do.

5) They can afford it and have bought a copy because they want the features that Photoshop offers.

6) They can afford it and only buy brand names.

7) They have a pirated copy.


When anyone from any of these groups is asked to recommend an image editor, they often recommend Photoshop. Unfortunately that recommendation comes about as a result of not really wanting to invest any thought process into a proper answer by considering the circumstances of said inquiry. The only groups who have any business recommending Photoshop to anybody are groups 4 and 5.


I am in group 3, and, even though I have Photoshop, I am constantly looking for freeware or low cost alternatives to recommend for others, and because I like these programs myself.

MAGIX Photo Clinic 4.5 and Portable GIMP can provide as much power as many users may ever need. MAGIX certainly provides an alternative for editing PSD templates for webmaster who cannot afford Photoshop.

A very low cost alternative for photo editing, and especially for those who want to create their own web graphics, is PhotoImpact 5 which can be had for $9.95 or less. This is a full featured program which comes with all kinds of graphics and web tools which Photoshop simply does not have.

Another low cost alternative to Photoshop is Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements 2 can be found here for $19.99 and you can get version 4 for $39.99. What? No curves or actions in Elements? Not a problem. You can get a free plugin called SmartCurve which will add curves to most any program which takes Photoshop compatible plugins. You can also check out Hidden Elements for an add-on for different versions of Photoshop Elements which will expand its usability.

Want more? Okay. You can get all kinds of free plugins for Photoshop compatible programs at these sites:

PluginsWorld - 126 free plugins and counting

Xero Graphics - 40 free plugins

Eye Candy 3 - Get a fully functional, and free, set of Alien Skin's plugin consisting of 21 different filters

Flaming Pear - Scroll down to page till you come to the listing for the freebies pack

Almathera Collection - Free for whatever creative process you have

UnPlugged - Though no longer available on the homepage, this is an alternative download for this classic collection of over 80 different filters; some of which you will not find anywhere else

Deep Paint 2.0 - Want to paint in your Photoshop compatible software? This former shareware program, now fully released as freeware, is a fully functional, and full featured paint program (it is a 58MB download) which also can be plugged in to Photoshop compatible programs allowing you to use paint functions right within your image editor.


And this is just scratching the surface. There are literally thousands of free pluggins, tools, filters, and programs available for not one red cent which will allow anyone the ability to edit and create to their heart's content.

For those who can only recommend Photoshop to anyone who asks for help when looking for an image editor, I have provided you with food for thought, but I cannot make you think.

This post was last modified: 07-11-2006 10:43 AM by Menard.

Ohh...

Those things are great points. Thanks for your great support. This will definitely help web designers.

I never gone through any freeware image editors. I am always working with Adobe Photoshop. That really works well for me.

Happy to hear that.

These tips and links, however, were intended for those looking for either alternatives to Photoshop and/or who just simply don't have $600 laying around in their cushy little lives to pay for any software they want; including those who don't pirate software.

Most of the photoshop users are using pirated softwares. Almost every softwares of Adobe are available on pirated versions. Some times companies also boosting the piracy to get their softwares market value. Most of the softwares with high market value got their success with the pirated ones. The company solves the problem of piracy by releasing newer versions of the softwares.

I never paid for my Photoshop software. I am using pirated one.

But now iam thinking of switching to some other open source software.

Menard, can you tell which is the best on the field?